cisco
21-01-2007, 12:39 AM
If you haven't already, check out Autospeed's freshly published review on the RColt. Autospeed is worth subscribing to if you haven't already.
http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_108017/article.html
Some highlights from the article:
Subtitle: "The best small sporting car you can buy"
"Brilliant small car package"
"Excellent engine although takes a while to boost"
"Fantastic suspension and brakes"
"Practical body"
"From its upgraded brakes (not just discs but master cylinder as well) to its radically revised suspension (dampers, rebound springs, new main spring rate, improved lower arm rigidity, different bushes, bigger sway bar with Teflon-lined bushes – and that’s just the front!), to its turbo 1.5 litre MIVEC motor, this car shows thorough factory development that’s resulted in the best sporting small car we’ve ever driven."
"You want to carry four adults in comfort? You can. You want to slide the rear seat forward and then tumble it to give you an incredible 594 litres of cargo capacity? You can. You want to peel down your favourite stretch of twisting tight black-top, standard ex-Evo Recaros holding you tight as you use the small size of the car, the meaty mid-range torque and the quick and accurate steering to despatch the kilometres in a time that would leave your average Commodore or Falcon owner simply incredulous? Well, you can do that too.
And all at an ADR 81/01 fuel consumption of 6.7 litres/100km or even, as we achieved on test, 8 litres/100km."
"The Ralliart Colt is a car that we’ve been long waiting for. We loved the Daihatsu Charade turbo and bemoaned the missing GTTi. The fast Familia and the incredible Kei class Japanese were more cars we never saw in decent numbers. But now we have just such a pocket rocket – and if it costs a bit more than we’d really like; well, it also has more capability than we ever expected."
"And if the driveline is a bit of an eye-opener in terms of development, the chassis is an absolute class act. Together with the 9-inch booster, the big front ventilated discs and solid rear discs give braking performance which at first feels unremarkable. It’s only when you start punishing the stoppers with repeated real-world stops down a demanding road that you marvel at the consistent, strong stopping power. Mitsubishi claim the brakes have the same fade resistance as the Evo Lancer and we can believe it."
"On a twisting road the Colt feels absolutely planted. The precision and weight of the steering, the millimetre-accurate placement that is easily achieved, and the grip provide by the 205/45 ZR Pirelli Dragons being worn on 16 x 6.5 inch wheels all mean that it’s easy to be embarrassed by your driving. Embarrassed? Yep, because at the end of the what you thought was a demanding section being taken fast, you wonder why the hell you hadn’t been entering every corner 10 or 15 or even 20 km/h faster... such was the ease with which the Ralliart Colt had been doing it."
"Partly responsible for that handling is the much stiffer than standard body. Incredibly, the Colt body has been given a real engineering work-over – and not just with bolt-ons. There are 50 per cent more spot welds than normal; reinforcement has been added to the D pillar; some body panels are thicker than standard; and additional reinforcements are strategically placed. This adds 60kg to body mass (total is 1130kg) but body rigidity is up by 30 per cent. In fact, Mitsubishi state (and they should know!) that in terms of torsional rigidity, the Ralliart Colt is the stiffest Mitsubishi made – better, even, than the Evo Lancer."
Julian Edgar is one of the most unbiased, up front motoring journalists, and he's actually a smart engineering mind type of guy.
This is good news for the RColt scene.
The things they don't like:
- the price
- lack of trip computer (I also said that)
- only two airbags (I also said that)
- their test car's interior has a strong plastic smell (eek)
- NVH and loud starter motor.
Good all round unbiased review highlighting the good and the bad. If they sell a few, there will most likely be an upgrade sometime to include side airbags and perhaps a trip computer you'd have to think..
http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_108017/article.html
Some highlights from the article:
Subtitle: "The best small sporting car you can buy"
"Brilliant small car package"
"Excellent engine although takes a while to boost"
"Fantastic suspension and brakes"
"Practical body"
"From its upgraded brakes (not just discs but master cylinder as well) to its radically revised suspension (dampers, rebound springs, new main spring rate, improved lower arm rigidity, different bushes, bigger sway bar with Teflon-lined bushes – and that’s just the front!), to its turbo 1.5 litre MIVEC motor, this car shows thorough factory development that’s resulted in the best sporting small car we’ve ever driven."
"You want to carry four adults in comfort? You can. You want to slide the rear seat forward and then tumble it to give you an incredible 594 litres of cargo capacity? You can. You want to peel down your favourite stretch of twisting tight black-top, standard ex-Evo Recaros holding you tight as you use the small size of the car, the meaty mid-range torque and the quick and accurate steering to despatch the kilometres in a time that would leave your average Commodore or Falcon owner simply incredulous? Well, you can do that too.
And all at an ADR 81/01 fuel consumption of 6.7 litres/100km or even, as we achieved on test, 8 litres/100km."
"The Ralliart Colt is a car that we’ve been long waiting for. We loved the Daihatsu Charade turbo and bemoaned the missing GTTi. The fast Familia and the incredible Kei class Japanese were more cars we never saw in decent numbers. But now we have just such a pocket rocket – and if it costs a bit more than we’d really like; well, it also has more capability than we ever expected."
"And if the driveline is a bit of an eye-opener in terms of development, the chassis is an absolute class act. Together with the 9-inch booster, the big front ventilated discs and solid rear discs give braking performance which at first feels unremarkable. It’s only when you start punishing the stoppers with repeated real-world stops down a demanding road that you marvel at the consistent, strong stopping power. Mitsubishi claim the brakes have the same fade resistance as the Evo Lancer and we can believe it."
"On a twisting road the Colt feels absolutely planted. The precision and weight of the steering, the millimetre-accurate placement that is easily achieved, and the grip provide by the 205/45 ZR Pirelli Dragons being worn on 16 x 6.5 inch wheels all mean that it’s easy to be embarrassed by your driving. Embarrassed? Yep, because at the end of the what you thought was a demanding section being taken fast, you wonder why the hell you hadn’t been entering every corner 10 or 15 or even 20 km/h faster... such was the ease with which the Ralliart Colt had been doing it."
"Partly responsible for that handling is the much stiffer than standard body. Incredibly, the Colt body has been given a real engineering work-over – and not just with bolt-ons. There are 50 per cent more spot welds than normal; reinforcement has been added to the D pillar; some body panels are thicker than standard; and additional reinforcements are strategically placed. This adds 60kg to body mass (total is 1130kg) but body rigidity is up by 30 per cent. In fact, Mitsubishi state (and they should know!) that in terms of torsional rigidity, the Ralliart Colt is the stiffest Mitsubishi made – better, even, than the Evo Lancer."
Julian Edgar is one of the most unbiased, up front motoring journalists, and he's actually a smart engineering mind type of guy.
This is good news for the RColt scene.
The things they don't like:
- the price
- lack of trip computer (I also said that)
- only two airbags (I also said that)
- their test car's interior has a strong plastic smell (eek)
- NVH and loud starter motor.
Good all round unbiased review highlighting the good and the bad. If they sell a few, there will most likely be an upgrade sometime to include side airbags and perhaps a trip computer you'd have to think..