Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart: the first pictures

By Dimitri Pesin

First Official Pictures

11 June 2008 14:39

Mitsubishi has unveiled its new Sportback today, in both Ralliart and hum-drum regular form. The former, the Ralliart version, is a cut-price hot-hatch with Evo looks, but a more mainstream price. It will also be available in four-door saloon form, but not in the UK.

Combined with the regular models, Mitsubishi reckons that the Sportback range will account for 80 percent of Lancer sales in Europe, and that Europe will also take 70 percent of global Sportback production.

The Sportback is the five-door version of the Lancer and closely follows the blueprint of the Prototype-S. The rear lamps are elongated and wrap around the rear to give the car a wider-looking stance; at the front, it gets Mitsubishi’s trademark black grille with a chrome surround.

There’s no Evo X version of the Sportback yet – but there is a £21k Ralliart version that’s essentially a baby Evo. The Ralliart features a detuned version of the 2.0-litre turbo from its bigger brother, delivering 247bhp and 260lb ft torque through a permanent four-wheel drive system.

The Ralliart’s four-wheel drive system is less sophisticated than the Evo X’s, with no Active Yaw Control, but the brakes are upgraded over regular models' with twin-pot ventilated front discs. The Evo’s dual-clutch gearbox will also be available on the Ralliart version, but it won’t have the Super Sport mode which speeds up the gearchanges.

Click 'Next' below to read about the regular Sportback models

By Dimitri Pesin