Size isn't necessarily a make-or-break for me. I like most sporty cars, but I have a bit of a sport sedan fetish. A4/S4, LGT, Evo/new Ralliart, E92 M3/335xi/335i, etc. I'd say I'm in the market for a fast or at least quick turbo AWD four-door with some tunability and a pricetag around $30,000.

 

why would mitsu put an optional turbo kit on the gts? if you CAN get that option im sure it would cost as much as the new RA, and if not then the turbo kit would only give 50hp. i remember someone saying a long time ago that the 04-06 RAs were gonna get a factory turbo kit.............didnt happen and never will.

 

Why? To give people more options while also not voiding your warranty. Mitsubishi has been offering Ralliart performance enhancing products in Asia and Europe for years. And a base GTS with manual tranny costs around $18500, adding JUST the turbo option wouldn't cost $6500 (2009 Ralliart supposed starting price is $25K if not a bit more) it would probably cost half of that or maybe even less (new Rallitronic upgrade available for new Outlander in Europe that improves performance by about 15-20% costs less than $1500). So you would get a Mazda3 Speed competitor for less than $22000...

 

first off, mitsu would charge close to 6k for a factory kit, second a turbo gts is not a competitor to the speed3, you will not get to 265hp with a factory turbo kit from mitsu. the only ralliart performance parts ive seen are for evos, not gts, not es, oz or even the actual RA lancer itself.but hey, only time will tell.

 

base models will still have the 2.0, only the GTS will have a 2.4.....so that puts you at the price of a Ralliart

 

Ralliart offers performance parts for most of its vehicles in Europe including Pajero, Outlander, Colt just to name a few. How do you know Mitsu would charge $6K for a turbo kit? You should get acquainted with European Ralliart catalogs, while not cheap they definitely do not price their parts out of the market. And tell me what is the competition of MazdaSpeed 3?

 

well, i guess that we both agree that the only way to make this work is to make the 2.4 engine available on the base model lancers and a turbo kit at a reasonable price of 3-5K and then well have ourselves an affordable turbo-charged lancer thats priced below the upcoming RA, and one that MAKES SENSE.

 

I have $5 on "never gonna happen".

 

As I say in the other thread, I would be shocked if the kit was A. produced, B. cheap and C. warranty approved. Remember there are three circles in the automotive ven diagram, cheap, reliable and fast, pick two. If it's fast and reliable (as it should be if it's a dealer option), it won't be cheap. If this kit materializes, I would expect it to cost 5000$+ with install from the dealer being necessary. What they do in other countries is completely irrelevant, STI parts are offered in japan but according to SoA and SoC, STI parts are not warranteed here.

 

the mazdaspeed 3 goes 0-60 in under 6 seconds for 23K.....it has no competition.... price aside it is comparable to something between a wrx-sti in performance

 

The WRX still beats it to 60 .

 

I think Mazdaspeed 3 is more comparable to Caliber SRT cuz both of them lack AWD, WRX offers about the same performance as Mazdaspeed3 even though Mazda has like 30hp advantage plus WRX is a better handling car. I would sat any sedan/hatchvack priced at about $22-24K with a turbo 4 cylinder engine producing about 220hp-260hp is Mazdaspeed 3 competition.

 

I can't agree more...

 

Mitsu started (barely) the effort to start bringing Ralliart products to the US, but that fell on its face. Not sure why, though.

 

Absolutely. They even had a website with a "Coming Soon!" banner for ralliart upgrades. It was obviously a ploy to get people to buy the base lancers. Sometimes its a lot cheaper for a company to offer a glimpse of hope and get sales then to actually go through with it.

Let's think about it. Take a GTS, add a turbo charger at a dealership. This will cause excessive wear on the tranny, axles, everything! Let's not forget emissions and safety testing etc. Mitsu would never enter into this because its going to cost them tons and tons of warranty issues and stupid kids blowing trannies and overheating their unbelievably traction-less fwd lancers.

Also, have you ever spoken to mitsu techs before? Some have been wonderful, others will give you the wrong oil filter and not even know the correct intervals for maintenance! I would never want to a run of the mill mitsu tech installing a turbocharger on an NA vehicle without sufficient performance background. Neither would Mitsu.

Now, I am totally not against RRM or other aftermarket turbo upgrades. Why? Because everyone who goes this route USUALLY knows what they are getting themselves into. A turbo lancer could be great fun, but only if someone has researched the hell out of what they expect from their car and what needs to be done with car.

I would love to see Ralliart suspension upgrades though.