Ralliart, the performance arm of Mitsubishi Motors gets jolted back to life!
Mitsubishi Motors just released its Full Year Financial Results for FY2020. Things were not so good for them last year (it wasn’t good for most carmakers, to be fair), but they’ve got some big plans for 2021. In one of the later slides, the company talks about redefining their vision and finding their “Mitsubishi-ness”. One of the tactics they proposed is to reintroduce the Ralliart brand.
That’s right, after 11 years of dormancy, the Ralliart name will be used once again. It’s unclear how far Mitsubishi Motors will take the brand this time around. Ralliart was literally the high-performance and motorsport division of the company. There is a chance that its revival will be just for the sake of creating new bodykits and decal packs for existing models with no performance enhancements whatsoever.
In the presentation, no details of the Ralliart revival plan were shared. It appears on slide number 25 with two accompanying photos. One shows a lowered Mitsubishi Triton with Ralliart decals and a bodykit powersliding through some dirt. The other shows the classic Ralliart decal and the “Spirit of Competition” slogan. It mentions “Ralliart parts”. Our guess is that Mitsubishi Motors will revive the brand to help upsell parts at a dealer level.
Are you excited for a Ralliart revival? Is it compatible with Mitsubishi Motors’ current trajectory towards electrification and SUV-ification? Let us know.
Here’s a brief history of Ralliart for the younger folk.
About Ralliart
Following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Mitsubishi Motors decided to close down its performance division of more than 25 years. This happened in March 2010. While Mitsubishi didn’t sell off any rights relating to the Ralliart name, it scaled the business down significantly.
Mitsubishi ended support of its motorsport customers, scrapped new planning, development and mechandise of Ralliart products and closed down its online information and news services. While the name was retained and used in very limited circumstances, the traditional business activities were essentially cut.
The Ralliart name was started in 1984 with Andrew Cowan, an experienced Mitsubishi team driver. The Ralliart Europe and Australia divisions were largely responsible for bringing the company its motorsport success, including the 4-year WRC winning streak of Tommi Mäkinen that inspired the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI Tommi Mäkinen Edition that sold for record figures last week.
