It would seem that rally and race car fans have absolutely gone haywire in their efforts to show Mitsubishi Motors just how much their discontinued retail rally cars are missed and how much we want them back. It all started when the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance announced the Japanese automaker as the first of the three to launch a new vehicle, somewhere in the C- or D-car segment. This got people asking about the once beloved Lancer Evolution, but what really lit the match was the recent auctioning of the last Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Tommi Makinen Edition in Europe and the release of never-before-seen concept art of the Mitsubishi Starion 4WD. This was a vehicle made by the one and only Ralliart, the high-performance team of Mitsubishi Motors recently taken out of retirement. People have been modifying the Mitsubishi Lancer and Lancer Evolution for more power in drag races, and a modified Lancer EVO IX in Europe is currently turning heads with its 706 horsepower.
Anything past 700 horsepower is a pretty crazy number for a standard vehicle, but the Lancer EVO IX is no passenger car, although it comes with four doors. This is a sports car, and it means business. We’ve talked about the Lancer EVO before, its high-performance and response that gives drivers a lot of control over a lot of power. Even at the sharpest of turns, the Lancer EVO could handle it no problem. Our last discussion was focused on the Lancer EVO VIII (eight-generation), with a video of TopGear with the Mitsubishi EVO racing a Lamborghini.