Whole lotta weird.. I do see the contemporary Lancer in the headlights.. but also TT in the roofline, Boxster in the decklid. I really like the interior, it just looks like it's not quite finished.
The diesel renaissance may be waning nowadays, but back in the early 2000s, it was only just the beginning. Case in point, the Mitsubishi Concept-RA.
Unveiled at the 2008 North American International Auto Show, the RA was powered by a 2.2-liter turbodiesel engine with a turbocharger equipped with variable diffuser and variable geometry. All that added up to 201 horsepower and 310 lb.-ft. of torque for the concept. That power was then sent to all four wheels—thanks to Mitsubishi’s Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC) all-wheel-drive system—through an SST dual-clutch transmission.
There was room for two occupants inside the aluminum space frame chassis, with an interior that used “minimal visual instrumentation and optimize[ed] the switch and control layout.”
Outside, the RA’s body panels were built with a “green plastic” resin that was said to be able to be recycled.
Is there still a viable market for diesel-powered cars, or are modern turbocharged gasoline engines capable of fulfilling the appeal of those diesel powerplants?
Like what you're reading? We rely on your financial support. For as little as $3, you can support Grassroots Motorsports by becoming a Patron today.
Whole lotta weird.. I do see the contemporary Lancer in the headlights.. but also TT in the roofline, Boxster in the decklid. I really like the interior, it just looks like it's not quite finished.
Love the wheels
Kinda wish they had brought something like this to the table; it's a rare moment where the Spyder bubble butt looks great.
It might have gained some provenance in the late 2000s as a response to the TDI as a "performance" diesel, but I genuinely don't think they'll be performance engines and will really stay in the towing/work areas. Thanks to EV, huge torque numbers can be matched but accelerate far faster and handle better- a diesel engine will always be a big heavy lump of iron.
So this concept seemed familiar to me so i looked and Mitsubishi did a concept with a similar overall profile shape back in 2003 which basically previewed the 2006 Eclipse. The front end on that car was a flop in my opinion, and while the overall profile of the 4th gen Eclipse wasn't bad, the car was too bulky to be perceived visually the same way a Boxster or TT is. The same basic shape works better on a smaller car like this. The headlights and front end look like a more aggressive version of what was on the Lancer that launched the year before. I always liked those headlights, but felt like they were a bit of a tease because it was an aggressive looking front end stuck on a sedan that was actually roughly as tall and narrow as a Honda Fit but with a hood and trunk, so it got incongruous once you made it past the headlights.
I really love the interior on this thing, or at least what there is of it. The steering wheel looks pretty good, the color and seats look premium, the sweeping curves are nice and the simple center console controls recall very expensive automated-manual cars of the time like F430 and Gallardo.. but the vast expanse of nothing on the passenger side just looks unfinished. BUT.. I FRIGGIN LOVE THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER. It looks 'peak mitsubishi'. It's busy, but.. the orange is classic 80s-90s mitsu gauges and the driveline pictograms recall the cool ones in 90s Monteros. The Lancer Evo of this time period had a fancy AWD system but an extremely boring cluster to tell you about it, in comparison. The climate control imagery also recalls the 'fancy for the 90s' auto climate controls in the 3000GT and Diamante. As an 80s-90s Mitsu fan this cluster evokes what i like about those cars' dashboards and makes it dense, almost overwhelming but possibly appropriate if the car were fast and keeping up with it felt frantic in a good way. In 2020-vision the interior honestly looks like what would happen if Mitsubishi tried to build a Lexus LC500 interior in a $50k car. It's way more 'halo car' than any halo car Mitsu ever actually built. I like it.
But.. it's a front engine diesel. Who was supposed to like this? This same basic car with the period 3.8v6 in an MR configuration would have been somewhere between a 350z and Cayman S and been something that people who liked the previous halo cars could have latched onto. Going from a Starion to a 3000GT is one thing, but going from a 3000GT to a.. Lancer? Evo, sure, but still a Lancer. Oh well, chalk it up to the long list of coulda-woulda-shouldas of Mitsubishi in the 2000-2010 period aka 'the beginning of the end'.
Mitsubishi has put out some awesome wheels.... those don't disappoint
This should have been the 4th generation Eclipse if they could have got some pretense of a back seat in there without ruining the styling. And the interior is gorgeous. However, I think it should have had a gasoline option (presumably pulled from the Lancer Evolution).
Hummmmm I find it funny that they were touting recyclable body panels. Metal ones have always been recyclable. So are most plastics. It was a thing that was not new that they were touting as new. Advertising dumped down for the masses that don't actually think about what is being said to them. Sounds great if you don't actually think about it.
dean1484 said:Hummmmm I find it funny that they were touting recyclable body panels. Metal ones have always been recyclable. So are most plastics. It was a thing that was not new that they were touting as new. Advertising dumped down for the masses that don't actually think about what is being said to them. Sounds great if you don't actually think about it.
A lot of plastic thermoset panels are not. But yeah, metal ones are not only recyclable... they are biodegradable, unlike most plastic.
Saturns have thermoplastic panels that can be recycled. How many were actually recycled? It has to be approximately 0%.
Displaying 1-8 of 8 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
