Review of the new Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart

Evolution is a word that will be forever associated with the fastest versions of Mitsubishi's Lancer but the link between today's ordinary Lancer hatchback and its Evo X relative was never very clearly-defined. The Lancer Ralliart sets out to change all that with much of the technology and attitude found on the fearsome Evo at a more manageable price.

The North American Bigfoot, the Himalayan Yeti, Manchester's Gallagher brothers; popular folklore is littered with myths and legends concerning the elusive 'missing link'. The thought of surviving evidence that could fill the absent sections in the evolutionary chain between humans and apes has fired the imaginations of scientists, crackpots and the general public down the ages. Today, we're no nearer a breakthrough but at least Mitsubishi's theory of Evolution can offer us nailed-on proof of the connection between a civilised family hatchback and a high performance beast. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves: we give you the Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart.

That the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X is a bit of an animal is not in dispute. Packing up to 360bhp and a cutting edge all-wheel-drive transmission system to help it deploy that power, the snarling Evo is a car that one should approach with caution and poking it with a pointy stick is certainly not advisable. The common-or-garden Mitsubishi Lancer hatchback, however, is a much more sedate entity. You can just about make out the family resemblance between it and its distant cousin the Evo but with front wheel drive and only around 140bhp, the pair always looked a long way removed. That was until Mitsubishi announced the Lancer Ralliart.

Despite the two cars being founded on the same basic underpinnings and sharing numerous common parts, a gulf has always existed between the Mitsubishi Lancer and its Lancer Evolution relatives and it's in that gulf that the Lancer Ralliart operates. The car has a healthy 240bhp available from the same basic four-cylinder turbocharged engine found in the Evo and while it can't compete with the warp-speed acceleration of its bigger brother, a 136mph maximum velocity and 7.1s 0-60mph performance puts it in the same bracket as leading hot hatches like the Focus ST and the Renaultsport Megane. Crucially, the Lancer Ralliart also inherits the Evo's all-wheel-drive system, although in a slightly less advanced form. This gives it an edge over its predominantly front-wheel-drive hot hatch contemporaries.

"It offers much of the technology and attitude found on the fearsome Evo at a more manageable price.."

The Evo's Active Yaw Control is a significant omission on the Lancer Ralliart and other than the raw power of the engines, the single most telling factor in making the car a less capable proposition than its wonderfully unhinged sibling. This system distributes optimum amounts of power between the Evo's two rear wheels, helping it corner truer and grip more fiercely. Without it, the Ralliart is more tail happy on the limit. What the Ralliart does get is the excellent SST dual clutch gearbox that has gained rave reviews in the Evo for its slick paddle-controlled gearchanges. To most drivers, putting the power gap to one side, the experience at the wheel of the Ralliart will be all but indistinguishable to that in an Evo. The car displays the same lag-free pull off the line, albeit without quite the same vigour, and the fluidity of the suspension is also very much in evidence. The Ralliart lacks the Evo's high end Brembo braking system but still stops with relative assurance.

The Lancer Ralliart is a five-door hatchback - or a 'Sportback', as Mitsubishi would have us refer to it. Tradition dictates that the Lancer Evo has always been and will only ever be offered as a saloon, so that's another distinction between this 'Evo lite' derivative and the full fat, sugar rush of the real thing. Otherwise, the styling of the two cars has a lot in common. The same squinty headlights and bottom-heavy grille pervade the front end giving the car a suitably malevolent look as it approaches in your rear view mirror. The wheels are only 18" in diameter and aren't crammed into the wheelarches in the same way as the Evo's larger items while the skirts and spoilers are less extrovert.

A big draw on the latest Lancer is the improved interior quality. The plastics and design are still probably a notch below the best in this price bracket, but they're no longer leagues off the pace as they were in the old model. The cowled instruments are a particularly nice touch. Space inside is better than in the previous generation car thanks to the wheelbase and track increases but this Sportback version is no cavernous load lugger, the steeply raked rear end impinging on carrying capacity. Score one to the stylists.

Sitting alone atop the Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback range, the Ralliart model has the task of turning the Evo's glittering reputation amongst car enthusiasts into increased sales. While a £35,000 Evo is a car that red-blooded motorists dream about, a £20,000 Lancer Ralliart is a car more of them will have the scope to go out and buy. By forming a closer link in perception between the Evo and the ordinary Lancers, the Ralliart should also serve to increase awareness of models further down the range which start at an even more accessible level.

Key rivals for the Lancer Ralliart will be drawn from the ranks of the hot hatchback elite where the car's four-wheel-drive transmission and visual similarity to the Evo will carry plenty of weight. Of course, all of this would be to ignore the traditional nemesis of all fast Mitsubishi Lancers, Subaru's Impreza. It's the middleweight WRX version of the Impreza that the Lancer Ralliart squares up to and Subaru will be concerned. In the past, Mitsubishi had been content not to plug the gap in its Lancer range where the Ralliart now resides, leaving the Impreza WRX free to make hay. Now sales of £20,000 Japanese rally replicas will be more keenly contested than ever.

With the drop off in power from Evo levels comes a softening in ownership costs but only a little one. The Ralliart can only return 27.7mpg on the combined cycle which is fairly unspectacular in this day and age. The 243g/km emissions will also give some buyers cause to think twice but this is still better than an Impreza WRX. As a result, if you want four-wheel-drive traction and 240bhp performance, the Ralliart still looks a cost effective way of getting it.

With Mitsubishi's Lancer Evolution X comes big performance and costs in a similarly over-sized vein. The Lancer Ralliart sets out to scale things back on both fronts, capitalising on the Evo's reputation in the process and linking the hardcore rally-replica with the more mundane entry-level Lancer hatchbacks. For most drivers, the Ralliart's clever all-wheel-drive system, SST dual clutch gearbox and 240bhp power output will make it all the Lancer they'll ever need.

Mitsubishi has a powerful brand in its Lancer Evolution series and the current Lancer range looks well set-up to capitalise. There's now a logical progression from the basic family car right the way through to the bonkers Evo X and that's all thanks the inclusion of the Ralliart derivative in the middle. The search for our missing link will doubtless continue but Mitsubishi looks to have plugged its evolutionary black hole in some style.

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