WORKS Lancer Ralliart Rally Car
By Richard Gantry, Photography by Joey Leh
It’s strange being inside one of the first tuned Lancer Ralliarts in the US. The noise is, to put it simply, unfamiliar. Mitsubishi’s WRX killer is available only with a dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission and right now it’s doing all the shifting. Behind the wheel is WORKS’ Joey Hille and sitting in the co-driver seat is yours truly.
We’re not blazing hot laps on track, far from it. We’re digging up the back hills at Infineon Raceway looking for photo locations and yet the car still seems a little different.
The Ralliart has all the typical racecar sounds – blaring exhaust, gravel spraying into open wheel wells, dangling interior items clinking against roll cage metal and the whine of an unmuffled drivetrain. But that same drivetrain is shifting softly at points that any human driver would otherwise leave in gear. The dual clutch transmission programming truly does work like an automatic. The paddle-shifted gearbox makes for zero miss-shifts and an incredibly easy cruise but will it survive through rough rally competition?
WORKS obtained this Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart shortly before the BFGoodrich KDW Challenge. Their intent was clear from the beginning – to build a rallycar for the Rally America series. WORKS shop foreman Lars Wolfe, who has experience in both road racing and rally racing in such cars as the Volkswagen Jetta and Lancer Evolution, would be the driver for this turbocharged machine.
The first task to tackle was to lighten and strip the car. The interior, sound deadening, airbags and seats were pulled from the Mitsubishi. Anything inside that wasn’t of any use for rallying was removed and tossed from the car. Wolfe himself then fabricated and welded in a complete WORKS Motorsports roll cage to meet rally specifications.
The Sparco Evo racing seats also saw some fabrication time with custom mounts holding them in place. The passenger/co-driver seat has been pushed back a full 9-inches and put as low to the ground as possible to aid with the center of gravity as well as the polar moment of inertia.
The requisite Terratrip intercom system and rally navigation computer were installed for rally racing, as were the Willans six-point harnesses, hydraulic handbrake (to lock the rear end for slides), custom co-driver footplate, first aid kit (you never know) and Tilton brake bias knob. WORKS’ own Grab shift knob and Autometer boost, oil, water temperature and oil pressure gauges finish off the interior treatment.
Pioneering development of the Lancer Ralliart platform, the WORKS team discovered many of the car’s particular details through testing and inspection. The engine, which is very lightly modified, is so far pushing only about 260hp and 308 lb/ft of torque. A straight-through open exhaust, WORKS P2 Brain Flash ECU, 34mm air inlet restrictor (required by Rally America) and Samco silicone hoses are about the extent of the power modifications. Although there are no resonators or mufflers on board this Lancer Ralliart, the turbocharger itself provides a bit of sound suppression. This Mitsu has a loud racecar scream but it’s not quite as ear splitting as an uncorked ALMS Corvette on ‘roids.
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