Mitsubishi plans high-performance, motorsport group

MITSUBISHI Australia has almost finalised plans to launch a new high-performance and motorsport division.

The announcement could come as soon as the Sydney Motor Show.

Mitsubishi is also expected to use the show to reveal a range of close to production-ready high-performance variants of its line-up, including a 180kW Magna.

"There will be a few different things we'll be showing," confirmed one senior Mitsubishi insider.

"Our intentions are to have dates and times for everything." But the timing of the announcement of the high-performance and motorsport division may have to wait until after the show media day on November 16.

A Mitsubishi Australia spokesman said the local car-maker was talking to Ralliart - the company's worldwide competition arm - about a potential tie-up.

"If we were to establish a performance car division and we had access to a respected brand like Ralliart, why wouldn't we want to use it?," the spokesman said.

"It's not something we have ready access to in Australia. And of course Ralliart in Australia is not well known here. We're looking at all our options." In Australia the rights to Ralliart are controlled independently by veteran rally competitor and team owner, Doug Stewart.

Ralliart will launch the Lancer Evolution 6 Tommi Makinen Edition at the Sydney motor show and subsequently sell 100 examples of the car as a toe-in-the-water exercise.

It is believed Mitsubishi's vision is of Ralliart becoming a similar set-up to Holden Special Vehicles and the Holden Racing Team.

Ralliart Australia's production car development and merchandising would help fund forays into motorsport.

The preferred location for a Ralliart production car development centre would be on-site at Mitsubishi's Adelaide assembly plant.

Since the launch of the original Magna Sport in 1997, Mitsubishi has steadily increased its sporting profile and desires, to the stage where it now offers the Sport and VR-X versions of the Magna with exclusive 163kW, 3.5-litre V6 engines and a five-speed semi-automatic gearbox.

The next step is a 180kW version with a limited slip differential to cope with the extra power and 17-inch wheels.

Mitsubishi also hopes to introduce a four-wheel drive Magna, using the 4WD system from the Diamante sister car built in Japan. A Diamante is in Australia at the moment as part of the evaluation program.

Already the option of simply adapting the Diamante to Australian conditions has been abandoned, while the preferred plan of dropping the Australian Magna platform onto the Diamante 4WD system is shaping as being too expensive for a small volume vehicle.

The drive to lift the Magna's image through a new performance leader has been partly driven by Mitsubishi's recently appointed managing director, Mr Tom Phillips.

High-performance variants of the Lancer and Mirage are also in the pipeline.