Project: Ralliart Sportback (10.09.11)

[Blaze]

Initial Impressions

I’ve owned many a car in my day ranging from BMWs to Hondas to something you couldn’t get a homeless guy to sleep in. Recently I acquired a 2010 Lancer Ralliart Sportback to evaluate, modify and market.

Mitsubishi is looking to gain a stronger foothold in Europe where wagon/hatch vehicles like the WRX, VW or Mazda wagons are already very popular. Enter the 2010 Ralliart Sportback there, and now stateside as well. The one I wound up with was an Octane Blue Pearl, with the Recaro and Tech packages.

A quick walk around and you notice it’s not your typical lancer. Exterior styling is greatly improved with the standard euro styling front fascia and a duel exhaust in the rear. It has stylish lines from the vented bonnet to aero side skirts to the sleek spoiler over the hatch. Over all, it was more then I expected. But a wagon….

I thought it might be a challenge to get into the whole “idea” behind the Sportback. For me, a wagon was for soccer moms or traveling vacuum cleaner salesmen. That stigma quickly flew out the rear hatch after climbing in. Once seated, I found a very familiar interior to that of my other Mitsu with regards to the controls, updated display, paddle shifters and snug Recaro seats.

Once on the road, the car has pep! It pulls just like my old Audi, but with with greater responsiveness and a greater sense of “substance,” leaving me quite happy to ignore the suggested speed signs on corners. You really feel like you got a lot more then what you paid for with the Ralliart.

So, I settled into the car on the way home, but it wasn’t until a few days later when I realized the diabolic nature of “wagon lifestyle.” You have room, and lots of it. The car comes with a huge trunk. (I mean, “duh, it’s a wagon, right?”) But then I quickly realized just how useful “space” can be. But then the space kept going. It went up…to the ceiling! No more wrapping twin around a trunk lid for me…. And the seats folded down….FLAT. The seats in my M3 won’t do that which makes it very hard to transport anything larger then a suitcase. I have room to take my whole family to the mountains, bags, people and skis (well the skis will wind up on a roof rack) but you get the idea.

Suddenly I found myself putting all sorts of stuff in the car, just to see if it would fit. Cooler? Check. Oddly shaped holiday packages from the post office? No problem. Extra set of wheel and tires? There’s room! Seriously….this is awesome! And suddenly I realized I have a car with performance, styling and usefulness for everyday life to boot.

So let the mod’ing begin.

[MikeW-RRE]

Should be a fun project! Seriously, what do the Foo-Foo EVO X guys do when they go to the store... any store and buy something. Walk out to their car and try to fit their just purchased junk in the trunk? I can just see them taking things out of the boxes, stuffing things sideways in the back seat :-P

With some cheap mods you can get stock EVO X HP for well under $1500. Go big and the sky is the limit. I know one Sportback running around So Cal with a GT-35 and SSP clutches so GO BIG or GO HOME newbie ;-)

You gonna make it a sleeper or a Bling Show 'Ho?

Mike W

[TheBlackBeast]

That's great to see you are running a project with this! I look forward to seeing what you have planned for it. I hope you will share the details and have plenty of detailed write-ups on how-to's and so forth. You are great at providing plenty of detail from other posts I've seen you make on socalevo...

[Blaze]

Originally Posted by MikeW-RRE

You gonna make it a sleeper or a Bling Show 'Ho?

I want to go a different route with this car. Since the car was initially designed for the Euro-Market, I thought about starting there. It's best to build from the ground up, so I spend the last 3 days working with Robi and Shaun to get the suspension set up. I'm just waiting for whiteline to sent out their rear sway bar and I'll be done with stage 1 of a 2 stage set up.

Rims are the next to go, then I'll be turning my attention toward the engine and aero next.

[2010 Rallihead Sportback]

love it!!!! we have the same color.

[TheBlackBeast]

Very nice! Keep us posted!

[Blaze]

If you build anything, it's best to start from the ground up. The highest building starts with a strong foundation. And the same goes for cars and suspension. You can make Godzilla power all day, but if you can't keep it on the pavement, what good is it?

Enter Robert Fuller of Robi-Spec:

Robert is heavily involved in my other Mitsubishi projects and was the logical choice for the Sportback as well. He's had his for nearly a year now and has a wrap sheet of all the ins/outs, tips/tricks that you need to make these cars stick.

I called Robi up on Monday the 23 with a tight schedule. He, not being a stranger to time constraints) scheduled me for Thursday. Yeah...Thanksgiving! So while everyone else is grubbing on turkey, we were shivering in the Hysperia based shop getting the pre-lims out of the way for the new suspension.

Currently, we're running a set of BBS 18x8.5 +28 BBS wheels off an Evolution X, MR. We'll be swapping these out for a nice set of RAYS wheels later, but for the mean time, they are a great upgrade over stock. Unfortunately, they rub...a lot....at stock height. Thus we needed to cut, roll and pull the fenders slightly to insure we wouldn't be feathering the sides of our tires on the track.

I do not recommend you try this at home, however, here are the steps we took:



1. The first thing you we did was cut away all the insulation at the base from the base of the fenders. We took a sharp blade and pretty much just scrapped it off. If you use a grinder, the insulation melts and makes a huge mess.



2. After this was done, we ground the rest of the fender to make a clean surface which we sealed with black primer after the fenders were rolled. This also prevents the paint from cracking unpredictably.



3. The fenders were then notched and we (he) began to slowly and carefully work the fender away from where it would have impacted the wheels/tires.



4. A quick touch of with black primer and the car is good to go!

[Blaze]

Friday rolled around and it was time to get get a set of lowering springs onto the car. Robi commissioned Progress Technology to create a spring with a rate best suited for the Ralliart. These, plus a few other tricks can push the potential parallel to the capabilities of most coil over set ups.

Robert was not available Friday, so it was off to SS Racing in Alta Loma. With a 12-pack of blue moon in one hand, new springs in the other and pizza in the other (not sure where the third arm came from) we set to work.









Over all, it was a lot of hard work cussing and a short knife fight with a spider named chuck who tried to bumb a smoke (big spider).

Once the spings were in and the ride height settled, everything looked great. The ride is very comfortable compared to stock and after a trip back to Robi-Spec the following day, the turn in and holding power is dramatically improved. The last part of "stage 1" will be the addition of a rear sway bar from white-line. Early next year, we'll move to a more aggressive stage 2 (stay tuned).

[Blaze]

[CarGuy]

Nice write-up Blaze! What other mods do you have planned?