Hey, everyone - I wanted to let you all in on my latest project, a '11 Lancer Ralliart Sportback! In case you don't already know, I have a time attack EVO X, but I needed a daily driver and cool project car, so I picked up the new Ralliart Sportback. Ever since I saw the pre-production version during Mitsubishi Owners Day 2009, I knew I wanted one, especially considering the EVO drivetrain it comes loaded with (4B11T, TC-SST, AWC and so on). Even stock, you can see the car has a ton of potential.
Project Sportback at the top of the Malibu canyons after some spirited driving runs.
Jump ahead to winter 2010 up here in Minnesota, and my EVO is at AMS Performance getting a new rollcage installed - transforming it from street car to full-on race car. At that point, I knew I needed a dedicated daily driver. After making a few phone calls, I was able to find a brand-new Lancer Ralliart Sportback in California, so I booked a flight and was on my way out to the West Coast; Project Sportback had officially begun. The flight turned into a major brainstorming session. I wrote down some ideas, plans, goals and I even did some drawings for Project Sportback. I was so pumped for this car! With a pretty wide range of ideas written down, Project Sportback could end up a million different ways. One thing I did know was that I wanted to stay true to the same philosophy I used for my EVO X: Keep it simple.
The Gates311 EVO X meets Project Sportback for the first time.
More than 2,000 miles later, I was on the ground in the Long Beach about to pick up my new ride, a loaded '11 Octane Blue Lancer Ralliart Sportback. Conveniently, it's the same color as my EVO, which is actually kind of cool. I got things sorted with the dealer and I was off on my long drive back home. I hadn't driven a car with Mitsu's new TC-SST dual-clutch transmission yet, and admittedly, I was pretty skeptical about the whole idea. But after just a few minutes of driving, I changed my mind. It's smooth, fast and fun in manual mode, but when you want to just drive along in auto it's perfectly seamless - a nice surprise. Before the drive home, I took the car to the Malibu canyons to get a quick base test. While ripping through the canyons, I immediately realized the car isn't an EVO wagon and doesn't handle at the same insane level as the EVO X, but it's far better than I had expected. That's actually a good thing, though; a huge part of this project for me is to transform the way the car handles, and a set of bad-ass JRZ dampers will help tremendously.
The Sportback awaits a set of TEIN S.Tech springs and 25mm Project KICS spacers.
After a little time in the canyons, I wanted to get on the road back home to get things started with the project. The drive itself only took 22 hours, but in that time I learned a lot about the new car (the TC-SST proved yet again to be amazing). The Ralliart Sportback is also a great cruiser (90 mph feels like 60 mph) and the NAV unit is sick - thank God for Sirius radio! The car also comes with the same Recaro seats as an EVO X, so that's awesome for the track and long road trips.
When I finally got home, I dug into the car right away. I wanted to set the Sportback up on an OEM+ mod path, meaning I'd try to maximize the potential of the car by using some simple upgrades and retaining mostly OEM parts. First things first, though - tuning was a must. Kris from AMS Performance emailed me a base flash to start with, along with a boost pill to help the turbo hold a bit more pressure throughout. Those two things alone completely changed the car! It was peppy stock, but after the tune, it's actually quick - like E46 M3 quick, as my boy Luis found out. I threw in a K&N panel filter for good measure later that week; the car was shaping up to be a great daily driver.