MOTOR magazine Past Blast
Mitsubishi Ralliart Magna
Words: David Morley
Photos: John Cadogan
Mongrel Magna
I used to know this bloke: straight as a die, he never said or did nothing to no-one and thought nice things about the world. I lost contact with him for a year or two and then happened to meet up with him again around a campfire. But now, he had a Mohawk haircut, a full body tattoo and he was riding a cut-down Yamaha ex-race bike that looked like the after shot in an insurance advert. And he was swallowing drugs (don't tell Mum, kids) by the handful. And all I could think was: Jayzuz. Who was she and what did she do to him? It was, as transformations go, one of the more complete I'd seen.
In a four-wheeled sense, one of the biggest transformations of the last few years was the morphing of the, let's face it, humble Mitsubishi Magna into the Ralliart mongrel you see before you. Not only did Mitsu loose the dogs of crayon on the thing, there was also some serious under-bonnet fiddling with input from Ed Ordynski, who knows a thing or three about getting products of the triple diamond to really shift.
Okay, so a hot-rod Magna might have seemed (at the time at least) like an oxymoron, but think about the concept for a moment. What are some of the best-loved Aussie performance cars? The real collectibles these days are probably the V8s: the GT-HO and GTS Monaros, but don't ever forget that local performance has always offered a six-pack flavour. An E38 Charger ring your bell? What about a XU-1 Torana or even a four-door Valiant Pacer? What about more recent heroes like the VL Commodore Turbo or the XR6 Falcon? They were all great performance tools and they were all six-bangers, based on locally developed passenger car body shells. See the pattern emerging? I mean, with all that history to draw on -- not to mention its world-renowned Ralliart brand -- you could hardly blame Mitsubishi for having a dip, could you?
Given its experience with turbocharged Lancers and Galants as rally platforms, you wonder whether there was much of a temptation to bolt a blower on to the Magna's V6 and see just what was achievable. Then again, it's also fair to surmise that the cash-strapped Adelaide company would have had an impossible task building a business plan for same. So, the engineers got all traditional on us and went down some well trodden paths to making a motor really honk.
Classic tuning techniques like a camshaft with higher lift and cylinder heads modified for both more flow and higher compression were major elements of the plan. Add a stainless-steel exhaust system with a proper extractor setup, a remapped ECU and suddenly, the dyno was spitting out numbers like 180kW (up from 167) at 5500rpm and 333Nm at 4400.
The end result was a Magna with a much more responsive, up-and-at-'em feel, and a phat note to go with it. It was appreciably quicker in a straight line than lesser Magnas yet it still fulfilled all those Aussie hot-six requirements like being able to seat five and having a decent boot.
All that urge through the front hoops has for other manufacturers in the past been a major source of angst as the tyres dither over whether to steer or drive. True, there was still a bit of torque-steer in the Ralliart, but it wasn't as bad as it should have been, nor was it as keen to kick-back through the rack when encountering mid-corner bumps. A limited-slip differential helped, although it really had its work cut out with the five-speed manual.
The excellent auto was a viable option, but the manual was a better fit with the car's identity. That's despite the extra liveliness the manual inspires in the front end and also the fact that traction control was standard on the auto but not available on the manual.
Less bouncy springs and Koni shocks were bolted on and it was here that the Ralliart team had the biggest input. The first thing to disappear was the old chestnut that a car can't handle and ride well at the same time. As Ordynski put it: "Anybody who has ridden in a rally car will know you can have massive suspension control and still have a decent ride. It's all in the dampers".
The bottom line was that the Ralliart Magna felt composed and secure. In fact, there's so much grip that Mitsubishi had to develop a special, baffled fuel tank to prevent fuel starvation.
The hotter Magna got bigger brake rotors front and rear and pad material specifically matched to the car. Bigger news was a switch from single-piston front calipers to dual piston jobbies. ABS braking and Electronic Brake-Force Distribution were standard. Grippy high-spec Pirelli tyres were fitted, but expect them to have been replaced by now with who-knows-what.
The most inexplicable element of the Ralliart Magna was its out-there bodykit. The rear wing is plain dopey and the deep, deep front chin is a fair bet to get physical with driveways and gutters.
Things improved on the inside with heavily contoured sports seats that also featured the Ralliart logo. Nice. Even nicer was the leatherclad Momo steering wheel. Parts of the dashboard featured a ritzy metal-look finish and the gauges used red dials with white markings which I thought was pretty groovy at the time, but now I'm not so sure about. Standard equipment included full electrics, an in-dash six-CD stacker, climate-control, remote locking, a trip computer and fog lights. But you won't find side airbags or stability control.
The only real problem with the Ralliart we can see (the bodykit aside) is that Mitsubishi's own VRX model is almost as fast, handles acceptably, doesn't look as gauche and is a bit cheaper. And the way it's mapped and piped, it actually gets away with a meatier engine note than the Ralliart (the latter's noise peaks nearer the rev-point at which the government test is conducted, so had to be wound back a few decibels). Then again, the Ralliart has the right badge and, when all's said and done, will hose a good percentage of the competition.
As for my mate, I suspect that deep down he was partly still the same bloke. But just like the tricked up Magna, he was no longer Mr Nice Guy. He still answered to the name I'd been calling him for years but when you looked him in the eye, you just knew there was way more going on than you'd ever imagined. It can happen that way. Eh, Mitsubishi?
MAGNA RALLIART
FAST FACTS
BODY four-door sedan
DRIVE front-wheel
ENGINE front-mounted 3.5-litre 24-valve SOHC V6
POWER 180kW @ 5500rpm
TORQUE 332Nm @ 4000rpm
COMPRESSION RATIO 9.4:1
BORE X STROKE 91.1mm x 76.0mm
WEIGHT 1493kg
WEIGHT/POWER 8.29kg/kW
TRANSMISSION five-speed manual
SUSPENSION MacPherson struts, coil springs, Koni inserts, anti-roll bar (f); multi-link, upper & lower control arms, Koni inserts, coil springs, anti-roll bar (r)
LENGTH/WIDTH/HEIGHT
4877/1842/1400mm
WHEELBASE 2722mm
TRACK 1545mm (f); 1535mm (r)
BRAKES 294mm ventilated discs, two-piston calipers, uprated pads (f); 284mm ventilated discs, two-piston calipers, uprated pads (r), ABS, EBD
WHEELS 17 x 7.0-inch Enkei alloys (f & r)
TYRES Pirelli P6000 255/50 WR17 (f & r)
FUEL 71 litres, ULP
PRICE $48,990 (February 2002)
EMMACHIZZIT?
The Ralliart was built in fairly limited numbers but it was sold from mid-2002 until 2004 when it was ditched in anticipation of the arrival of the 380 last year. Although it cost nearly $50,000 when it was brand-new, these days that good old Magna depreciation has seen prices tumble to as little as $21,000 for an '02 model with about 75,000km on board. Mid-20s gets you into the bulk of the cars on offer right now and at that price, there's a fair bit to be said for it.
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU BUY?
The angry six-packing Magna just not hard enough? Are you after something a little more traditional? For Ralliart Magna money you could pick up a '99 HSV ClubSport VTII, with 250kW and 473Nm, or a '02 Ford Falcon XR8 AUIII. The XR8 belts out 220kW and 435Nm.
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