CC Lancer

Bigger, faster, roomier and more modern, the CC series lost the three-door hatch but gained a two-door coupe, four-door station wagon and a whole new audience of small car buyers.

The range also featured a four-door sedan, while the five-door hatchback was in fact the CB series carried over.

But the big news was the arrival of the 145kW 1.8L turbocharged 4WD GSR high-performance sedan, which preceded the iconic Subaru Impreza WRX by two years.

All other Lancers shared a 65kW 1.5L engine (GL), 77kW 1.6L EFI engine (GLXi hatch) or 86kW 1.8L EFI engine (GLXi sedan and coupe, EL and GLi/Executive wagon, and luxury SEi sedan).

The 1.5L unit offered a three-speed auto option to the standard five-speed manual gearbox, while a four-speed auto was available on the larger engines.

In May ’95 power steering became standard across the range, ahead of a minor facelift.

Interestingly, although the CC range was replaced in Mitsubishi’s line-up by the redesigned CE series from July ’96, it has lived on as the Malaysian-built Proton Wira/Persona in four-door sedan and unique CC five-door hatchback guise, and as the three-door Satria hatchback.

The latter is the three-door Mitsubishi CC Mirage series from 1991-’95, not sold here.

Meanwhile, the CC wagon carried on virtually unchanged as the CE wagon.