Enthusiasts, rejoice—Mitsubishi waives a green flag on the return of its sports performance division, Ralliart, which stopped operating around a decade back.
According to Mitsubishi’s planning, it will introduce a new range of sporty accessories for its existing lineup under the branding of Ralliart. The add-ons will most certainly include new body kits, big spoilers, and a set of decals.
“For customers who wish to experience our Mitsubishi-ness, we will launch custom-made accessories for our model lineup as well as re-entering motorsport events around the world,” said the brand’s CEO Takao Kato while giving an overview about the return of the sports division.
Apart from this, Mitsubishi plans to return to the Dakar Rally with a specially modified version of its SUVs. Before the hiatus of its sporting division, Mitsubishi used the Pajero to win Dakar Rally from 2004-2007. The team developed a new car before the 2009 season—Mitsubishi Racing Lancer. Unfortunately, though, it lost the cup that year to Volkswagen and stopped operations by 2010. Mitsubishi states financial instability as the critical cause for the withdrawal of Ralliart.
History has witnessed the outstanding performance of Mitsubishi’s industry-leading four-wheel-drive powertrains. Hence, when Ralliart returns to the track, we expect it to make a big boom all over again.
However, given that the brand is putting millions into developing EVs and plug-in hybrids, the next Mitsubishi rally car might be all-electric.
An interesting fact is that Ralliart was initially established as a European base for Mitsubishi’s motorsports activities by Andrew Cowan, a former Mitsubishi rally driver. The base was named Andrew Cowan Motorsports, which later turned into Ralliart Europe with Mitsubishi’s support.
The racing division developed the Lancer Evolution in 1993, the car behind the consecutive success of Mitsubishi in the World Rally Championship. Notably, Ralliart achieved four successive titles with the Lancer Evolution III, IV, V, and VI in the late 90s.
