Your chance to WIN a month in a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and NatWest 6 Nations tickets

Mitsubishi, England Rugby’s official performance partner, is offering a pair of tickets to the England-Ireland game at Twickenham, a potential series decider, and a one-month loan of an Eclipse Cross. A hotel room with £100 on account will also be included. The runner-up gets a pair of tickets to the same game on 17 March 2018, plus hotel room and £100 to spend on dinner/drinks.

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The competition closes on Monday 5 February 2018 at 17:00. This competition is only open to UK residents. Entrants must be aged 21 or over, for insurance purposes, and have a full, valid driving licence.

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NEW MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE CROSS SUV ADVENTURE

We drive from England's Kielder Forest to Galloway in Scotland, chasing this year's solar eclipse

Words: Ben Barry | Images: Charlie Magee

Sometimes the stars align, and all you need do is tag along for the ride. So when we heard that the arrival of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross coincided perfectly with a partial solar eclipse on 21 August, we hatched a plan to drive the new mid-size SUV to the west coast of Scotland. Once there, we’d let the solar system take the strain as we pointed a camera at two different kinds of eclipse. Easy.

But as we park up a couple of hours before the partial eclipse is due at sunset, rain thrashes against the windscreen and we can’t even pick out the sun, let alone worry about staring too intently at it; we sit tight, hoping to get a break in the weather, finger-drumming tedium drowned by the great gobs of rain hammering down on the Eclipse Cross’s panoramic roof. ‘Did it just go a bit darker?’ asks photographer Charlie. ‘I swear it just went a bit darker…’

Wind the sundial back two days and we’re in Kielder Forest, northern England, to kick off our final adventure drive between the countries participating in the NatWest 6 Nations. Not only does Mitsubishi have form in Kielder, notching up six consecutive victories on the Pirelli International Rally from 2006 to 2011, this neck of the woods also forms part of the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park, the perfect place to gaze up at the moon shortly before it insinuates itself between Earth and sun like a giant cosmic photobomb.

With a long schlep up to Northumberland from CAR headquarters, and sinuous roads that course north of the famous reservoir, a trip to Kielder would also give us ample chance to sample Mitsubishi’s new mid-size SUV.

THE 2018 ECLIPSE CROSS: SPEC DETAILS

Mitsubishi isn’t being shy about the Eclipse Cross. It describes it as ‘the first of a new generation of Mitsubishi cars – more capable and desirable thanks to their sharp designs; engaging driving characteristics and advanced technologies.’ It’s also keenly priced – starting at £21,275 – for a car packed with safety equipment and cutting-edge gadgets.

Measuring 4405mm long, it certainly looks convincing, with muscular creases, a tapering coupe-ish roofline and LED lights nicked from the XR PHEV II concept. There’s no doubting this interior is a big step on from previous Mitsubishis, with soft-touch plastics, eye-catching silver and black trim and a horizontally split dash, with info up top, controls below.

The leather front seats offer comfort, support and a good view over your neighbour’s hedge, and the rears can split 60/40, slide back and forth by 200mm, and recline in nine steps between 16 and 32 degrees. With a wheelbase of 2670mm, there’s good legroom in the back, and the twin-bubble roof design ensures ample headroom despite that tapering roofline – and, yes, it works with the panoramic roof.

TOUCHSCREEN WITH CLEVER SMARTPHONE LINK

There’s no in-built satellite navigation – a little inappropriate given our spacey theme – because Mitsubishi argues people habitually use their smartphones to get around. So a Smartphone Link Display Audio (SDA) system is standard kit, offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. Plug in your smartphone for pared-back access to its functions on the seven-inch touchscreen, including Maps.

You control the screen either directly by touch or via the touchpad located near the gearstick. This takes a little while to fathom, but spend a couple of minutes and it quickly becomes second nature: gentle swipes across the touchpad take you from highlighted box to highlighted box on the main screen, while you push at the slightly squidgy surface to select options.

We arrive at Kielder around 5pm, dropping down from the brilliant B6357 that wriggles its way over the landscape. After the steady cruise that revealed impressive refinement on the way up here, this is the first time I can sense that this Eclipse Cross is equipped with Mitsubishi’s Super All-Wheel Control four-wheel-drive system, not the front-wheel drive of entry-level specs.

FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE TO TACKLE GRAVEL AND SNOW

Mostly it still feels as front-wheel drive as you’d expect of any car with a transverse engine (the standard bias is 80/20 front-to-rear). But accelerate hard and early and you can sense the bias shifting rearwards to take some workload off the front tyres – in low-grip conditions, up to 45 per cent of torque can make its way to the rear. Like the Lancer Evolutions, you also get Active Yaw Control to accurately direct torque across the rear axle, and a choice of three settings: default Auto, Gravel or Snow.

That night we head up to the Elf Kirk lookout, LED headlights picking out startled rabbits as we crawl up the gravel road to the car park at the top. A location that seemed benign during our daylight recce now seems eerie, every sound making us twitch nervously. Then again, there is a solo traveller in a Let’s Off-Road Discovery rustling around in the bushes with a torch, and a pair of campers steaming up the windows in a VW California. It’s all very disquieting, but the sight of us with our cameras and spotlights seems to out-weird them all, and soon we have the idyllic blackness to ourselves.

It’s a breathtaking scene, the moonlight glinting off Kielder Water, and stars sparkling like diamonds on black velvet overhead: Orion, the Big Dipper, an aeroplane, and, oh, erm, billions and billions of stars.

ECLIPSE CROSS: THE ENGINE LINE-UP

The next day takes us over the border into Scotland, west past Gretna Green and on to the A75. Our destination is the Galloway Astronomy Centre, where we’ll arrive the evening before the eclipse. Fast and flowing, the A75 is the main route west and carries all the traffic to Stranraer and the boat to Belfast. It’s easy to get stuck in a line of cars behind a line of lorries, so you need some poke to make progress. The Eclipse Cross gets a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol in either front-wheel drive (with a manual gearbox) or four-wheel drive (with a CVT auto) or a 2.2-litre turbodiesel that comes mid-2018, with four-wheel drive and automatic gearbox.

Our car has the 1.5 with CVT, meaning 161bhp and 184lb ft, with 40.4mpg economy and 159g/km CO2 emissions. Clearly it’s no performance car, but the direct-injection unit is smooth and quiet at a cruise, and delivers a healthy slug of mid-range power when you need to make up a few places in traffic – the peak torque kicks in at 1800rpm and hangs about until 4500rpm. At Castle Douglas, we take a detour north through Galloway Forest Park. It’s another Dark Sky Park and a beautiful spot in daylight, blessed with some great roads too.

We grab a few photographs, then head for the Galloway Astronomy Centre near Whithorn, meeting Mike Alexander. Alexander has been fascinated by astronomy since the 1969 moon landings captivated him as an 11-year-old; in 2003, his hobby became his life when he quit his job designing safety systems for the oil and gas industry to set up the star-gazing centre with wife Helen. The lack of light pollution was key to the decision to establish the observatory here.

Mike and Helen provide B&B accommodation with astronomy courses for beginners, and more advanced guidance on observing the night sky and buying telescopes for those who really get into the subject. During their time here, they’ve had guests from the UK, Singapore, South Africa, Australia and even the man from China Central Television.

WHAT TRIGGERS A SOLAR ECLIPSE

The small observatory at the bottom of the Alexanders’ garden could admittedly be mistaken for a three-metre-square shed, but the roll-off roof opens up to reveal the heavens and a 16-inch telescope inside, much like a rock sliding out of the way during the Thunderbird 2 launch sequence. We don’t need the observatory today, but we do need an expert.

With the patience of Father Ted helping Dougal visualise the difference between ‘small’ and ‘far away’, Alexander explains that the moon orbits Earth every 28 days. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but the sun 400 times further away, making the two appear the same size. Normally this all comes to nothing, as the moon’s elliptical orbit takes it either above or below the sun. But every now and again the moon passes directly in front of the sun. That’s what’s happening tomorrow, with the USA experiencing a total eclipse, as the moon completely obscures the sun to leave only a fizz of white around the sun’s perimeter (the corona) and an arc of red (the prominences). North-west Scotland will see the moon skirting past the bottom of the sun for a partial eclipse, the cold small orb taking a little chunk from the bottom of the hot big one like a bite from an apple.

That evening, we head down to the beach to snap the Eclipse Cross under a sunset of reds and pinks and blues, but early next morning it’s clear the weather has deteriorated, and a few hours before sunset there’s nothing to see but cloud. Then the rain starts.

THE WEATHER SETS IN

Ever optimistic, we file out of the Alexanders’ place, into the Eclipse Cross, loading a telescope (complete with necessary filter) into the boot. After wowing us with stories of the solar system, it’s our turn to impress Alexander with the Mitsubishi’s surround camera system – the optional system brings not only a reversing camera, but also an overhead view patched together with cameras at the front and rear of the car, and under its mirrors. With an overhead image of a car providing the perspective, it’s like having your own personal satellite watching over you.

Little more than 10 minutes’ drive from the Galloway Astronomy Centre, we park up on cliffs near the Isle of Whithorn, which should give us a perfect vista out over the Irish Sea as the partially eclipsed sun sets in the west. But the windows steam over and the rain continues to hammer down so hard that our video crew struggle with the audio quality. ‘Typical,’ jokes Alexander, ‘the story will reinforce the myth that Scotland gets terrible weather!’

And so we wait until the August light fades, lashed with torrential rain every time we step outside like we’ve inadvertently signed up for an ice-bucket challenge, the Mitsubishi’s windows misting over after we rush back to its cosy sanctuary. Somewhere out there, around now, the moon is partially obscuring the sun, but that astrological sleight of hand is entirely eclipsed by a thick blanket of cloud. Finally, we give up and retire to the pub.

Thankfully, eclipses are predictable things, and NASA lists the time, date, location and duration of every eclipse due until the year 3000 on its website – there’ll be another partial eclipse visible from the UK in 2021. But predicting the British weather? That’s another thing altogether.

SMARTPHONE COMPATIBILITY

The standard Smartphone Link Display Audio (SDA) infotainment system supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. We tested CarPlay. Plug in your iPhone to control functions directly via the Eclipse’s touchscreen, including phone calls, texts, music and maps.

TOUCHPAD CONTROLLER

Interact with the infotainment system via the touchscreen or Touchpad Controller. Swiping your finger across the pad highlights various options, while pressing down on the squishy surface confirms your choice. Swiping up or down with two fingers controls the volume.

HEAD-UP DISPLAY

Head-up display is standard on mid-spec Eclipse Cross 3 cars (from £22,575). It automatically appears from the dash top to project key info in the driver’s line of sight, such as speed, forward collision mitigation and shift indicator. The display angle and brightness can be adjusted for different drivers/light conditions.

360-DEGREE CAMERA

A rear-view camera is standard; top-spec cars get four cameras to provide a comprehensive view around the Eclipse on the central touchscreen. This composite bird’s-eye view should help you spot any obstacles lurking next to the car. Below 9mph, ultrasonic sensors also warn of objects close by.

DRIVER-ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

The base Eclipse Cross gets Forward Collision Mitigation to automatically brake the car, Lane-Departure Warning and an Automatic High-Beam Function. Top-spec cars add Blind-Spot Warning with Lane-Change Assist and Rear Cross Traffic Alert, plus Adaptive Cruise Control.

NEW MITSUBISHI L200 BARBARIAN SVP II ADVENTURE

Calcio Storico is Florence’s brutal, 16th-century precursor to rugby. We drive Mitsubishi's pick-up from France to Italy, to witness this spectacle

Words: Ben Barry I Images: Charlie Magee

Thirty burly men stand in confrontation, fists raised, eyes locked on their opposing forward. Then the chaos of battle begins. Swaying, grappling, punching: one player’s forehead splits wide open, blood mixes with sweat, and then sand excoriates the open gash as the wounded player is pummelled into the dust, his legs arcing upwards clothed in what appear to be lady undergarments from Pride and Prejudice. Welcome to Italy and the Calcio Storico.

This contest was dreamt up by aristocrats in Florence during the 16th century, and while the name translates as ‘historic football’, it looks more like a brutal hybrid of mixed martial arts and rugby. That’s why we’re here, the first of three road trips between the six nations that do battle in Europe’s powerhouse rugby union tournament. Mitsubishi is a partner of England Rugby and its Scottish equivalent, and we’re doing the 1800-mile trip from France to Italy in an L200 pick-up.

It’s a suitably rugged companion to cross the Alps on unpaved roads, before attending a game that sees grown men beat each other up in what appear to be Camelot costumes. The utility vehicle segment has been pivotal to Mitsubishi’s success, with a heritage dating back four decades, during which time well over four million have been manufactured.

NEW L200 BARBARIAN SVP II: THE SPEC

This fifth-generation L200 is new from the ground-up, and continues to be the only pick-up with a switchable four-wheel-drive system; it’s also got a low-range transfer ’box, the option to lock the centre diff, 205mm of ground clearance, and a huge loadbed to cart about chainsaws, tow ropes and other stuff for bounding out into the wilderness. If the only dirt you get under your fingernails comes from some light rose-tending, the L200 is still pretty handy on the road, with Mitsubishi targeting the refinement and dynamism of an SUV with the hardiness that’s central to its award-winning pick-up’s appeal.

Our test car is the latest L200 from Mitsubishi Special Vehicle Projects, a high-spec limited-edition called the Barbarian SVP II which costs around £30,000 before VAT. On top of the standard spec, you get some eye-catching orange detailing on the grille, head and tail lights and door handle recesses, shark-fin side steps, beefed-up wheelarch extensions, satin-black rear roll bars and unique orange-and-black 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped in BF Goodrich All-Terrain tyres. For a kid who grew up coveting the Fall Guy truck, the Barbarian SVP II definitely strikes a chord.

Four of us rendezvous near Calais early on Thursday, loading all our camera and video gear and five days’ luggage in the generous, lined flatbed. The SVP II also gets a Mountain Rolltop retractable, lockable cover to keep all our kit hidden from prying eyes. You can get single-cab L200s, but the SVP II comes as a top-spec double-cab, giving acres of room for passengers to keep comfortable and have a snooze between stints at the wheel.

TURBODIESEL GIVES 40MPG AND 500-MILE RANGE

All models get a 2.4-litre turbodiesel good for 179bhp and 40mpg. As we head south on the autoroute, the L200 pulls keenly through the six manual gears, settles to a high cruising speed at low revs, and suffers only modest wind noise. Perhaps most unexpected is how little road noise seeps up from the chunky off-road rubber.

We fast-forward over the flat planes of northern France, skirting around Reims, Dijon and Lyon on our way south. We’ve got sat-nav, comfortable leather seats, dual-zone climate-control, Bluetooth and a USB charge point, plus hundreds of miles between fills – everything we need, in other words, for a stress-free run across an entire country. Around 6pm that evening, over 500 miles after we first set off, we find ourselves in Albertville, nestled on the south-eastern fringes of the Massif des Bauges national park, leaving just a 60-mile dash to the border the next day. We don’t need a wake-up call: with temperatures soaring to 35degC and no air-conditioning in our hotel, we’re raring to pay-up and get in the L200’s chilled cabin by 7am the next morning.

The scenery is BIG down here, with huge mountains filling the windscreen, vast rocky riverbeds and super-sized civil engineering unfurling ahead of us to teleport us over the border. We pause at the ski town of Oulx, leaving on a road that spirals aggressively upwards, gradually narrowing as it threads into the tree line, past the chalets and up towards the ski lifts. It’s not long before the sealed surface vanishes altogether.

The fine covering of sand swirls up behind us in a cloudy trail, deep wheel tracks run like railway lines, and abrupt hairpins twist into steep inclines, forcing a shift down to first gear – the manual is no sweat, but the optional paddleshift auto would certainly reduce the workload. There’s no need to switch into four-wheel drive just yet – the chunky BF Goodrich tyres and generous ground clearance are all we need. And, to be fair, the only oncoming car we see in the first mile seems to be a supermarket delivery truck.

PRIMING ALL-WHEEL DRIVE FOR SOME TOUGH TRACKS

Quickly the road becomes more challenging, though, with deep, muddy ruts filled with water under the shade of evergreen trees. I don’t want to risk giving it a go in rear-wheel drive, so I come to a stop, twist the rotary dial near the gearstick over to four-wheel drive, then push it down and twist it right again to lock the centre differential. You wouldn’t do it on the road because the front and rear wheels can’t turn at different speeds to account for corners, but on a very low-speed slippery surface, having all the wheels turn at exactly the same speed claws more traction. And if it gets tougher still, a further twist to the right will engage the low-range transfer case for lower gearing, so you can crawl across particularly tough ground.

You can feel the tyres squidge and suck out as much traction as possible as we rock through the ruts, and it’s here that the L200 really comes into its own, stoically powering over the toughest terrain without pause or complaint. Up and up we climb, the road dropping away dramatically to one side, the terrain too bumpy to be tackled at anything quicker than walking pace. Thankfully we meet only mountain bikes and motorbikes up here, and eventually we reach the summit and a breathtaking panorama, staring out over to a part of France that was once Italy, standing right where occupying Nazi forces battled the resistance in 1944, ending in a brutal defeat at the hands of the Germans.

We trace a different route down the southern side of the mountain range, the serpentine coil of road unfurling in progressively gentler twists until we again reach a sealed surface, sunburned from a day’s shooting, fine dust still falling from our starchy hair. That night we stay in Cesana Torinese, and strike out the next morning with five hours to Florence.

As we head along the coast, down from Turin towards Genoa on the E80, the temperature drops, a fine spray of rain begins to fall, and the scenery looks gloriously Mediterranean, with lush, towering mountainsides dotted with colourful houses just visible in the hanging mist above us.

SOAKING UP FLORENCE'S ATMOSPHERE

Finally we ease into Florence, picking up our guide Riccardo Cacace, who magics tickets and secures the choicest viewing spots. Many of the roads are already closed in preparation for the game, so we park up, grab our kit and lug it halfway across the city, through bustling crowds in temperatures that are now back into the 30s. We think we’ve got it tough, then we watch the pre-match parade strutting through Piazza Della Signoria. There are people dressed in full renaissance costume, some tossing huge flagpoles 10 or so feet in the air (and, more impressively, catching them), some wearing armour when, really, the police already seem to have everything under control.

But there is an undercurrent of tension. Four teams (the whites, blues, greens and reds) take part in the Calcio Storico, each one representing a different quarter of Florence. Played a couple of weeks previously, the semi-finals have already seen their fair share of incident: Riccardo tells us a blue player kicked a referee and the whites progressed to play the reds in the finals via an appeals process, despite the blues leading when the game was abandoned. Today, the defeated blues prowl the streets, all bulging muscles, sprawling tattoos and puffed chests; they chant that the whites need to win on the pitch, not off it, and right now it seems the most important thing in the world.

The procession leads down the network of cool, shady back streets, before filing into the bright sunlight of Piazza Santa Croce, where Calcio Storico has been played since the 16th century. Grandstands frame a stone surface specially covered in sand and divided in half with a goalmouth stretching the width of each end. Players need to chuck the ball over the padded lower section, but below the top of the net, taking care to miss the tent in the middle; that belongs to the captain and standard bearer – if Arsene Wenger were managing a team, you’d see him pop out of here and admonish the players periodically.

The white (Santo Spirito) and red (Santa Maria Novella) fans are separated at opposing ends, the grandstands either side a more impartial crowd. It’s an incredible setting, especially as the huge doors of Basilica di Santa Croce – the main Franciscan church in Florence, and resting place of Michelangelo – seem to be consumed by the incoming red shirts like a rising sea, your mind struggling to compute the juxtaposition. There are chants and colourful flares and an edgy undercurrent that’s part wrestling showmanship, part out-of-control testosterone; some players seem genuinely keen to meet opposition fans for a quick catch-up after. The white fans are noisier, but we decide we’d least like to be beaten up by the red players; they look far harder, and we decide they’ll win.

CALCIO STORICO: THE RULES OF HISTORIC FOOTBALL

The game provides a lot to get your head round. Each team consists of 27 players and includes three goalkeepers, but at first the ball isn’t even in play. Instead, the 15 forwards fight in pairs until one manages to pin the other to the floor, at which point he must submit to humiliation while the victor swigs a drink or waves at friends.

From what I can glean, it seems the ball comes into play once every battle has a victor, and is thrown between players much as you’d expect in rugby. There’s no sign of an offside rule like in football, no forbidding of the forward-pass like rugby, while tripping and punching are allowed. Some players do get red cards though.

Each time there’s a score, a cannon fires, the teams switch ends, and the process repeats for 50 long minutes: fight, sit on someone, throw ball, score, cannon, switch. The players never seem to tire, they just get bloodier, their sweaty bodies coated in sand like greasy drumsticks rolled in breadcrumbs.

The whites just keep ahead throughout, and while a half-point is awarded to the reds when a white attempt misses its target, they never quite claw back the deficit. It finishes 6 to the whites, 5.5 to the reds. The crowd erupts, the whites bound up to the fences that separate them from their fans like famished tigers with a whiff of flesh, fists clenched, flags waving, blood still dripping. It certainly makes for a more dramatic photo opportunity than pulling your shirt over your head.

That night fireworks explode above the Arno River from Piazzale Michelangelo, colourfully lighting up the crowds in spectacularly relentless volleys. The next morning, we’re granted special permission to drive the Mitsubishi L200 into the Calcio Storico arena, before the hard-partying city wakes, Piazza Santa Croce now eerily quiet after the previous day’s intensity. Looking even harder coated in dirt, it’s a fitting closing shot for a pick-up that’s taken every kick and punch we could throw at it. Now all that remains is the small matter of 900 or so miles back to Calais.

Barbarian SVP II

Price £30,000 + VAT (est)
On sale Early 2018
Engine 2442cc 16v turbodiesel 4-cyl, 179bhp @ 3500rpm, 317lb ft @ 2500rpm
Transmission 6-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Performance (est) 10.4sec 0-62mph, 111mph, 39.8mpg, 186g/km CO2
Suspension Double wishbone front, leaf springs rear
Weight 1860kg (est)
Length/width/height 5285/1815/1780mm

The Engine
The L200’s diesel displaces 2442cc – big for a four-cylinder engine. With 317lb ft of torque, it’s tuned for low-down response, good for hauling loads, off-roading and easy running on-road. It’s the only pick-up with an all-aluminium engine.

Switchable 4wd
You can choose to drive the L200 in either rear- or four-wheel drive thanks to the Super Select 4x4 system – just turn the rotary controller next to the gearstick. Push it down and twist it further and you can first lock the centre diff and, if you twist it again, engage low-range gearing for particularly tough off-road work.

L is for luxury
This L200 Barbarian SVP II has Bluetooth, DAB radio, dual-zone air-con, auto headlights, heated/folding mirrors, keyless go, USB input, multi-function steering wheel and SD-card sat-nav. Driver aids include cruise control, rear-view camera, lane-departure warning, hill-start assist and trailer-stability assist.

And load-lugging
The L200’s loadbed is 1470mm wide, 475mm tall and 1520mm long. You’ll get a lot of stuff in there, and the retractable load cover keeps it safe. The bed can carry 1060kg, and you can safely load a further 3000kg in a braked trailer.

SVP II upgrades
The latest from Mitsubishi Special Vehicle Projects, this Barbarian SVP II gets orange exterior detailing, shark-fin side steps, beefed-up wheelarch extensions, satin-black rear roll bars and unique orange-and-black 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped in BF Goodrich All-Terrain tyres.

CALCIO STORICO RULES

Invented by aristocrats, Calcio Storico translates as ‘historic football’ and dates back to at least the 16th century in Florence. Today, four teams represent four quarters of Florence: Santa Croce (blue), Santa Spirito (white), Santa Maria Novella (red) and San Giovanni (green).

The teams consist of 27 players each, including 15 forwards and three goalkeepers. After a fight between the forwards, the ball comes into play, and the players throw it between themselves, trying to get it in the goalmouths that stretch the width of each end.

A goal is worth one point. A missed goal gives the rival team half a point. Two semi-finals are held, then the winners face off in a 50-minute final.

‘In 2015, England were happy to be a good team. We want to be a great team’

Success starts with a single-minded focus on winning, says coach Eddie Jones

Words: Phil McNamara I Images: James Cheadle

England rugby’s revival under Eddie Jones is an extraordinary turnaround. You know the story: in 2015, the team become the first World Cup host to fail to qualify for the knockout stages. In the two years since, Jones has steered England to successive RBS 6 Nations titles, and whitewashed Australia 3-0 Down Under.

How, with largely the same group of players, has Jones extracted such a profound improvement in performance? ‘There are three areas. Mentally it was about changing the mindset. I think they were happy to be a good team and we want to be a great team. Physically we’ve got much fitter than they were. And tactically we wanted them to become England, not a copy of another country.’ For other country read New Zealand; England won’t obsess about side-to-side attacking play, but on being hard to beat.

We meet Jones in the epicentre of English rugby, perched on green plastic beside the extraordinarily thick shagpile of the Twickenham grass, an intimate conversation under steep banks of seats more typically host to 82,000 braying supporters. The 57-year-old coach thinks like a CEO and talks like a CEO: it’s all about the leadership and strategy to achieve a clear goal – winning the 2019 World Cup. He swats away my opening question about the upcoming autumn internationals against Argentina, Australia and Samoa with this statement of intent: ‘Everything we do is about preparing for the World Cup – it’s not about these games but the World Cup.’

EDDIE JONES ON BUILDING A WORLD CUP-WINNING TEAM

If that’s the clear goal, what’s the strategy to achieve it? ‘Like [engineering] a car, you’ve got to build the foundations first. That’s your strategy, your social cohesion, team selection. Then you add the things to give you a competitive edge. For us, we want to be the best in the world in set-piece and defence, they’re the things we’re prioritising at the moment. Then you add the optional bits and pieces – the attack.’

Pundits including Sir Clive Woodward, the one man to lead England to World Cup glory, believe Jones hasn’t put a foot wrong in his team selections: trusting playmakers George Ford and Owen Farrell as a combination not an either/or, unleashing the young, tenacious ball-winner Maro Itoje, repositioning former captain Chris Robshaw to play to his strengths. But controversy raged over his selection of Dylan Hartley, a scrapper notorious for his suspensions, as England captain.

EDDIE JONES ON WHY HE MADE DYLAN HARTLEY HIS CAPTAIN

‘I was looking for someone bold,’ explains Jones. ‘We needed to say: “Right, we’re going to be great, and we’re going to work hard to be great.” We needed someone who was going to take a different route and that was Dylan.’

Jones is proud that his Australian outlook makes him blind to the English class system; he won’t let a player’s background influence selection. ‘I don’t assume, I assess players’ is his mantra. And that’s what gave him the confidence to anoint Hartley – a player omitted from the 2015 World Cup squad for disciplinary reasons – who has subsequently led England with distinction.

Hartley will call the on-field plays, but Jones is determined to condition every player’s thinking, to help with decision-making in a high-stakes match. ‘We train under more pressure than a game, by either training faster or [harder] physically, one or the other. You’ll never see a training session that looks good – it’s messy, it’s uncomfortable, it’s putting stress on the players.’

EDDIE JONES ON WHAT MAKES THE RBS 6 NATIONS SPECIAL

Jones has coached the Australian and Japanese national sides, participating in the Tri Nations and its Asia Pacific equivalent. How do they differ from the RBS 6 Nations? 'The level of rugby varies, it can be very good or very poor. The big difference is the social context, you’ve got these six countries that all live very close together, but within it there’s this enormous rivalry and all the other countries hate England! They see England as the country with the most power, the most money, so you’ve got this quite intense competition with this real dislike of each other. You’ve got a travelling group of fans that add this fantastic environment to the games. You go to Scotland and you can have 20,000 Englishmen there, both sets of spectators want to win, they enjoy the game and have beer or tea afterwards.'

He continues: 'It's one of the unique games in rugby in that you’ve got such competitiveness but then there’s this cohesion between the fans because everyone loves the sport. That’s one of the reasons why the 6 Nations is such a loved tournament: it has intense rivalry but with great cohesion.'

So what will be Jones' strategy for the 2018 6 Nations tournament – is the coach already plotting his detailed approach, or is it each game as it comes? 'We want to win the tournament but our focus is on winning the World Cup. We’ll make selections, we’ll make tactical decisions in the 6 Nations [geared towards] winning the World Cup. But that’s not to say we don’t respect each game.'

The conversation has, inevitably, led back to the 2019 World Cup. So, with just two years to go, how's the progress: if today’s England team was a car, which would it be? ‘Definitely a hybrid!’ says the coach. Typical Jones: an additional power source to boost performance. Anything to get an edge.

EVOLUTION MEETS REVOLUTION: THE MITSUBISHI UK STORY

Six significant road cars – the first import, legendary Shogun 4x4, two explosive Evos, a quirky muscle car and a hybrid – assemble at Anglesey circuit, for the Welsh leg of our tour. They're here to tell the story of Mitsubishi in the UK

Words: Ben Barry I Images: Charlie Magee

High-performance coupes, rugged turbodiesel SUVs, world-beating homologation specials, plug-in hybrids… in the 43 years since Mitsubishi first imported cars to the UK, the Japanese maker has sold them all. But this year actually marks a more significant milestone: it’s 100 years since Mitsubishi’s first car, the Model A of 1917. The Model A was Japan’s first series-production car, and even then wore the distinctive three-diamond motif on its nose. You’ll know Mitsubishi translates as ‘three diamonds’ in Japanese, right?

 Japan’s first diesel engine and first four-wheel-drive vehicle followed in the 1930s, and in 1963 the Colt name was used for the first time. Then when Mitsubishi established a UK subsidiary in 1974, it became the Colt Car Company and, later, the Colt became a staple of the Mitsubishi range. The first Mitsubishi sold by the Colt Car Company would introduce another now well established name: Lancer. Mitsubishi still owns the original press car, a two-door coupe in near-perfect condition.

DRIVING MITSUBISHI'S 1974 LANCER COUPE

The Lancer looks both alien and can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it familiar, with shades of Hillman Avenger, Mk1 Escort and Morris Marina to its elegant, unadorned lines. Not necessarily the sexiest of names to drop, but all huge sellers – so as a kind of Trojan horse to give an unfamiliar marque a solid footing overseas, the logic was sound.

Open the driver’s door and you sit down low in black, flat vinyl seats stamped with what appear to be tribal tattoos, and you grip a thin bakelite steering wheel that frames three deeply recessed dials. This car feels on-point for the period: the 1.4-litre engine is peppy and sings tunefully, the variable-ratio steering is light, nicely weighted and feeds back faithfully the loading going through the front axle, and the four-speed gearbox slots through its ratios with a delicate little clink, even if does feel like it needs an overdrive. The leaf-sprung rear gets a little bumpy on a B-road, but generally it rides quite comfortably. If I were one of the early-adopting UK buyers, I’d have probably felt pretty smug.

The Lancer made a convincing case for its performance and reliability with top honours at 1974’s takes-no-prisoners Safari Rally. And when the second-generation Lancer arrived in 1979, the bloodline for what would become the Lancer Evolution had already begun, with the Lancer EX Turbo debuting soon after. That car has a cult following today, but it was a different kind of car that put Mitsubishi on the map for performance enthusiasts: the Starion.

DRIVING MITSUBISHI'S 1989 STARION 2.0

Introduced in 1982, at a time when Japanese manufacturers hadn’t established the distinctive breadth of design language we know today, the Starion looks like Mitsubishi’s twist on the American muscle car, and that makes it indecently desirable.

There are five-spoke 16-inch alloys with a deeper dish on the rear, a Trans-Am T-Top-like chunkiness to the B-pillar and wraparound rear screen, and those pop-up headlights gift the front some sleek lines. Above all, it’s the blistered arches that bulge from the bodywork like Cato’s trying to karate chop his way out that really define the Starion – though a narrow-body version without the blistered arches was also available.

Inside, optional black leather seats with adjustable side bolsters are positioned low to the floor and embrace you snugly, and the period charm is ratcheted up by seatbelts attached to the doors (not the B-pillar), switches labelled ‘power windows’ and a turbo boost gauge that gets top billing at the centre of the dash.

Two different engines were offered, a 2.0-litre turbo four with 178bhp fitted to both body styles, and a later iteration that expanded the engine to an unusually large (for four cylinders) 2.6 and came only with the wide body. The 2.6 offered extra power as emissions regulations increasingly choked performance, but the 2.0-litre is widely regarded as the sweeter, more eager unit; in 1987, Mitsubishi billed it as the fastest 2.0-litre production car on the road.

JUST 178BHP, BUT THE WORLD'S FASTEST 2.0 LITRE

That’s the engine in our wide-body model, another peach plucked from Mitsubishi’s heritage fleet. Coded 4G63, the single-cam, eight-valve engine is the predecessor to the dohc 16-valve motor that powers all Lancer Evolution models through to the IX. Change the oil every 3000 miles warns the sticker on the door casing; let the car idle for 60 seconds or more after a hard drive. Those were the days.

The Starion’s engine fires with a gruff, clearly turbocharged note, and hangs onto revs when you release the throttle, like the rev needle’s in zero gravity. Unfortunately this car isn’t quite on song, so the turbo kick that should take hold at around 2500rpm doesn’t arrive until 4500rpm. Perhaps that’s why the Starion feels much more GT than sports car, perhaps the sluggishness exacerbates the feeling of relatively soft suspension and a tendency to understeer; there’s certainly no chance of kicking out the tail on the power today. But evocative and of its era, a car to cherish and enjoy? I’d love one.

Was the name really a mispronunciation of Stallion, as legend suggests? It’s a plausible assumption, given the Starion’s positioning as a Japanese Ford Mustang, other Mitsubishi names with an equine bent, and the horse’s head that appears at the end of the period advert you’ll find on YouTube. But it’s notable that insiders put the emphasis on the second syllable, and the official word has it that Starion is a contraction of Star of Orion.

DRIVING MITSUBISHI'S 1989 SHOGUN

Certainly Mitsubishi UK took no chances with its next big hit: the Shogun. The small SUV was renamed in some markets, when someone noticed the original Pajero badge would cause offence or laughter in the Spanish language. The UK settled on a name that meant Japanese military dictator: Shogun.

It’s hard to understate the impact the Shogun made when it launched in the early 1980s. Reliable, well equipped and strong value, the first Mitsubishi SUV to reach the UK proved an instant success. Years before the Land Rover Discovery arrived, the Shogun combined rugged off-road staples like body-on-frame construction and a live rear axle with a comparatively luxurious cabin, power steering, double-wishbone front suspension and a four-cylinder turbodiesel engine.

Though far from pioneering, the sawn-off shotgun proportions and a glasshouse that’s almost as deep as the bodywork of this short-wheelbase Shogun – long-wheelbase models came later – are immediately recognisable. You step up into a cabin and settle down into the sprung seat, the X of the mechanism compressing under your weight, adjustable in its cushiness.

You notice the altimeter in the centre of the dash, a gimmick to illustrate the tilt angle of the Shogun like a bubble in a spirit level, and the huge grab handle on the passenger side that hints at wild off-road excursions. But it’s the two gear levers that are really suggestive of off-road prowess: the taller wand controlling the five-speed gearbox, its smaller sibling allowing you to flick between two- and four-wheel drive, and high and low ratios, just as you can in the L200 pick-up today.

ON TRACK? ITS NATURAL HABIT WAS THE DAKAR RALLY

With cushy suspension and relaxed power steering, the Shogun isn’t in its natural habitat door-handling around the Anglesey race circuit, but the turbodiesel pulls keenly at the kind of low revs where a Lancer Evolution snoozes soundly, and as a daily driver to check on cattle, navigate a bumpy farm track and lug shopping back from town, it must’ve seemed a comfortable, versatile all-rounder at the time. And as a retro off-roader today, it has bags of appeal.

Mitsubishi embellished the Shogun’s reputation with victory in the Dakar desert race in 1985, when French driver Patrick Zaniroli claimed victory in Senegal by the margin of 26 minutes from his team-mate Andrew Cowan. Mitsubishi is Dakar’s most successful car maker ever, but the Lancer was also a rally favourite, synonymous with Mitsubishi motorsport campaigns.

DRIVING MITSUBISHI'S LANCER EVOLUTION VI MAKINEN

Despite stretching to 10 evolutions (all denoted by Roman numerals, almost always referred to as simply Evo), there are four key generations of Lancer Evolution. The Evo I, II and III were all based on the same platform, and took the 2.0-litre 16-valve turbocharged four-cylinder engine and all-wheel-drive system – a formula that would define every Evo – from the larger Galant, which also found success of its own in rallying.

You’ll see early Evos advertised in the UK, but they weren’t officially imported. Rival Subaru was already bringing in the Impreza Turbo, though, making its name in the World Rally Championship, famously with Colin McRae clinching the 1995 title. But the late 1990s was to be Mitsubishi’s turn to dominate the WRC, in an era when Group A rules insisted that 2500 closely related production cars had to be built before a car could compete.

CELEBRATING FOUR CONSECUTIVE WRC DRIVER'S TITLES

Tommi Mäkinen kick-started the success when he drove an Evo III to the 1996 championship. The Evolution switched platforms for the IV, V and VI from 1996, and later began to come to the UK through the Ralliart dealer network. These cars turned the transverse engine through 180 degrees and offered Active Yaw Control, which juggled torque across the rear axle in accord with steering input, yaw angle and throttle position.

Mäkinen drove these models to three more consecutive championships in ’97, ’98 and ’99. To honour his success, Mitsubishi produced the Tommi Mäkinen Edition. Detail changes were subtle and mainly cosmetic, though Mäkinen models did also get lower suspension, faster steering and a titanium turbocharger turbine for swifter response. Often referred to as the 6.5, today these cars are incredibly sought after.

Even at low speeds, the Mäkinen feels like a serious machine, with weighty steering, a meaty clutch, restless ride, terrible plastics and seats that perch you far too high but grip like velcro. But this is also a car full of character and feel with an addictively rowdy edge: there’s gritty detail to the steering as it shrugs off its weight with speed, and a sense of unencumbered lightness as the Evo stops, accelerates and turns.

THE MAKINEN: LIKE PULLING THE PIN ON A GRENADE

There’s little performance below 3500rpm, but continuing beyond that is like pulling the pin from a hand grenade, and you ride a visceral kick of turbo boost to 6000rpm. On track, you instinctively keep the Evo in that window, flicking up and down through the gearbox with its short ratios but stiff engagement, blipping the throttle as you stand hard on the excellent Brembo brakes.

All-wheel drive means there’s no fuss in getting power to the ground, and yet the Evo is still an incredibly playful machine, turning in keenly, with its well-controlled but noticeable body roll giving you options to play with the weight transfer and oversteer through turns. It’s such a unique driving experience, no wonder these cars are so coveted.

The Evo switched platforms again for the VII, VIII and IX that followed from 2001 to 2007, and this era’s slightly longer wheelbase, updated design and relatively upmarket interior set these cars clearly apart; the advent of new WRC rules also removed the direct link between road and stage, explaining how we saw Marcus Grönholm rallying a Peugeot coupe convertible of sorts. The Evo continued to compete, but the success of the Group A days couldn’t be replicated. Shame, because the road cars still feel phenomenal.

DRIVING MITSUBISHI'S EVO IX MR FQ-360

New technology included an active centre diff, and the increased dimensions and extra equipment inevitably added weight, if only a little: at 1400kg, the Evo IX FQ-360 carries just 40kg more than the Mäkinen, but punches 90bhp harder. That extra power – along with a more grown-up feel that retains much of the earlier cars’ raw personality – makes it even more thrilling to exploit the handling balance on track and, for me, the IX is the better of the two cars.

In FQ-360 guise, the IX was the last Lancer Evolution before a new, more rounded version arrived on an all-new platform. Sadly, the new X was the last of the breed, as Mitsubishi steered away from high performance and combined its expertise in SUVs with plug-in hybrid drivetrains. But the new focus also paved the way for a remarkable resurgence in recent years, and there’s a fair chance you’ll know someone who owns an Outlander PHEV. Introduced in 2014, it quickly became Britain’s best-selling plug-in hybrid in 2015, with 11,000 units shifted. It’s still doing the business today.

DRIVING TODAY'S ICON, THE PLUG-IN OUTLANDER

The PHEV uses a 2.0-litre to drive the front wheels, with an undernourished-sounding 119bhp, but it also adds a 60kW electric motor on each axle to boost performance and bring four-wheel-drive capability without a propshaft connecting front and rear axles. The 11sec 0-62mph time might disappoint, but there’s certainly a strong shove in your back through the mid-range and plenty of poke for overtaking.

Given a full charge, the PHEV can manage up to 32 miles in pure EV mode, and travel at over 70mph without burning a drop of fuel. But it’s with the business maths that the PHEV really scores, especially its 7% Benefit-in-Kind rating, which saves some company car drivers thousands. A more recent update has seen combined mpg climb from 148 to 156mpg; yes, a stretch target in real-world driving, but keep it charged, do short trips and you’ll see the benefits.

As a family car, the Outlander PHEV makes a lot of sense, with acres of space, great comfort, and interior quality and refinement that’s a giant leap on from earlier products. And while it inevitably can’t make your nerve-endings fizz like an Evo, the Outlander targets a very different kind of driving experience, one that’s likeable in its own way and better suited to stress-free longer journeys with its supple suspension and easy acceleration.

The brakes – key to harvesting wasted energy, remember – feel too fierce at first, the steering a little wooden, but there’s something very satisfying about wafting away silently in a large SUV powered by nothing but electricity.

WHICH LEGEND TO TAKE TO IRELAND?

But as we wrap up our day at Anglesey, it’s Mitsubishi’s high-performance history that tugs harder on my heart strings. And when I’m asked to pick one to take over to Ireland to continue our Six Nations tour, there’s an obvious choice. Read on for the next leg: an adventure in the brilliant Lancer Evolution MR FQ-360.

1974 LANCER COUPE

The Lancer kickstarted exports to Europe

Engine 1400cc 8-valve 4-cyl, 92bhp @ 6300rpm, 90lb ft @ 4000rpm
Transmission 4-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Suspension MacPherson strut front, leaf-sprung rear
Performance 8.7sec 0-50mph, 97mph, 39.1mpg
Weight 815kg
Length/width/height 3980/1525/1360mm

1989 SHOGUN

The SUV that dominated Dakar and built the brand’s 4x4 legend

Engine 2346cc 8v turbodiesel 4-cyl, 80bhp @ 4000rpm, 125lb ft @ 2000rpm
Transmission 5-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Suspension MacPherson strut front, live rear axle, coil springs
Performance 15.3sec 0-60mph, 87mph, 28mpg
Weight 1568kg
Length/width/height 3995/1679/1839mm

1989 STARION

Mitsubishi’s take on the US muscle car, a rear-drive coupe that upped the stakes

Engine 1997cc 8v turbo 4-cyl, 178bhp @ 6000rpm, 213lb ft @ 3500rpm
Transmission 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Suspension MacPherson strut front, independent rear
Performance 7.1sec 0-60mph, 142mph, 24mpg
Weight 1220kg
Length/width/height 4400/1745/1275mm

2000 EVO VI MAKINEN

Built to mark Mitsubishi’s fourth WRC drivers’ title

Engine 1997cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 276bhp @ 6500rpm, 275lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission 5-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Suspension MacPherson strut front, multi-link rear
Performance 4.4sec 0-60mph, 150mph, 23.5mpg,
Weight 1360kg
Length/width/height 4350/1770/1405mm

2006 EVO IX

Devastating performance, and the finest example of the Evo bloodline

Engine 1997cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 366bhp @ 6887rpm, 363lb ft @ 3200rpm
Transmission 6-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Suspension MacPherson strut front, multi-link rear
Performance 3.9sec 0-62mph, 160mph, 21.6mpg (est), 344g/km
CO2 (est)
Weight 1400kg
Length/width/height 4490/1770/1450mm

2017 OUTLANDER PHEV

Europe’s – and the UK’s – best-selling plug-in hybrid

Engine 1998cc 16v 4-cyl with one 60kW electric motor per axle. Total output: 200bhp
Transmission 5-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Suspension MacPherson strut front, multi-link rear
Performance 11.0sec 0-62mph, 106mph, 166.2mpg, 41g/km CO2
Weight 1860kg
Length/width/height 4695/1800/1710mm

MITSUBISHI EVO IX ADVENTURE

The rally-bred Evo IX gets the chance to do what it does best on some fabulous but unforgiving roads in rallying's heartland, Ireland

Words: Ben Barry I Images: Charlie Magee

Almost 10 years ago, Mitsubishi UK put aside a Lancer Evolution IX MR FQ-360 by HKS, one of just 200 made. Preserved as new at its headquarters, covering minimal mileage, today it stands as the most original example of the last of the true Evos. So it’s surprising that we find ourselves gunning this precious piece of automotive history up a deserted Irish mountain road an hour south of Dublin, a little over 600 miles on the odo, rediscovering the roadgoing link to Mitsubishi’s world rally success in a country still famed for rallies run on closed public roads.

We get to Wicklow Gap at dusk, golden sun diffused through clouds like light through a cinema projector, the road snaking from the valley floor. I thought I’d mentally moved on from the Evo, but from the snug embrace of the driver’s seat this thing’s a revelation.

For all its reputation as a PlayStation rendering of real life, there’s surprisingly gritty detail to the Evo driving experience: fast-paced steering that feeds back every nuance of the road surface with startling clarity, a chassis that’ll pivot into oversteer with a lift of throttle and flick of the wheel, and six close-stacked gears that add a layer of intensity missing from paddleshift transmissions.

REMEMBER WHAT THE FQ STOOD FOR? FLIPPING QUICK

But what really jumps out after its near-10-year hibernation is the speed: boosting ferociously, gripping hard, the Evo reels in the road like a vacuum cleaner latching on to a pair of lace curtains. Phlum! The road seems to be sucked through the huge front air intakes, then spews out of your rear-view mirror like roadkill. Even if you’ve no idea what the FQ in FQ-360 stands for, there’s a fair chance you’ll blurt it out the first time you’re asked how this car feels; it really is expletive-inducingly quick.


The Evo IX first went on sale in the UK in June 2005 in three forms: FQ-300, FQ-320, FQ-340, all of them specific to the UK market, all weighing 1400kg, the numbers in the name rounding out the claimed bhp figure. Based on the humdrum Lancer four-door bodyshell, these high-performance halos added a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, aggressive body styling and an all-wheel-drive system. Fairy dust included Recaro seats, Brembo brakes, Yokohama Advan tyres, Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs. Serious stuff.

Improvements over the VIII were as incremental as the Evolution badge suggests, with a new front bumper and rear diffuser, shorter rear springs and – more significantly – the debut of MIVEC variable valve timing, which boosted performance at high revs, smoothed the torque curve and curbed the Evo’s legendary thirst for super unleaded, if only a fraction.

THE LAST OF THE TRULY GREAT EVOS

In 2005 Mitsubishi had described the IX as the final instalment in a Lancer series dating back to 1992, and promised that a radically different new Lancer Evolution would be launched in 2007. The FQ-360 snuck into the gap in between, first appearing at the 2006 British Motor Show.

Developed by Mitsubishi UK’s motorsport and performance division, Ralliart, it used a high-pressure fuel pump, high-flow catalytic converter and remapped ECU. This final evolution of the 4G63 engine made 366bhp at 6887rpm and 363lb ft at 3200rpm. The price bumped up to £35,504, a £2.5k premium over the FQ-340.

Things went a step further with the MR FQ-360 by HKS (HKS being a Japanese maker of performance parts). It gained a larger induction pipe, intercooler piping and Super Drager exhaust. There was also a titanium-alloy turbocharger turbine and smaller compressor wheel, lower Eibach springs and Speedline Turini alloys. That’s the car we’re driving.

As we thread up and out of Dublin on the Military Road that runs across the spine of the Wicklow mountains, the Evo immediately feels special, even if some stretches of the road are too narrow to get in a groove.

Particularly impressive is the suspension’s ability to balance a firm, tied-down feel with sophisticated compliance, and that the fist-sized HKS exhaust stops just short of uncouth rowdiness. There are also some early indications of the Evo’s playfulness; like all the best performance cars, it bristles with tactility, agility and eager performance even when driven sedately.

EVO IX vs THE WICKLOW MOUNTAINS

Descending towards Glendalough and back uphill towards Wicklow Gap, the wider road brings the Evo’s ability into sharper focus. There’s very little performance low down, but you can feel the storm brewing, a tension building in the drivetrain that deters you from backing out of it (there can be a pretty violent shunt as the boost shuts down if you do). Then, around 3500rpm, there’s an explosion of boost, and a richness as you pummel round towards 6000rpm that contrasts with lower-powered models that feel shorter of breath.

The gearlever throw is short, and the ratios snap by under the onslaught of acceleration: second slams against the limiter by 60mph, third before 80mph, and suddenly I find myself flicking between fifth and sixth gear, occasionally standing hard on the four-piston Brembo front brakes. The Evo feels totally under control, like it could go much faster.

THERE'S WITCHCRAFT IN THAT ALL-WHEEL DRIVE SYSTEM

The all-wheel-drive system is key to the brilliance. Dubbed Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC), it splits torque 50:50 between the front and rear wheels, and teams up with Active Yaw Control (which tailors the flow of torque across the rear axle) and Active Centre Differential (which takes account of tarmac, gravel and snow) when the driver flicks a switch.

Traction feels as composed and neutral as the 50:50 figure suggests, understeer barely registers in the dry, and when you accelerate hard the Evo really bites into the surface. But it’s the off-power adjustability that adds an extra dimension, an interactivity that puts the driver at the heart of the action.

Keep it neat and tidy if you like, but the playfulness is always there; even in fast fourth-gear turns the rear will readily move around, and there’s no stability control to fall back on. Thankfully, the chassis is exceptionally well balanced: induce a bit of roll and the Evo slides, you ride it out on the power as the nose tucks in and the speed ebbs away a little, and then the rear end steps back in line. It all seems so natural you’re unaware of any artificial intervention.

As the sun sinks behind the mountains, we make our way back to Dublin, ready for the trip home. A few minutes on a road as good as the R756 to Wicklow Gap quickly demonstrates what a performance weapon the Evo IX still is. I won’t say it’s perfect: it feels far cheaper than the German performance cars it’d destroy, the seats are set too high, and there’s wind noise at higher speed like you wouldn’t believe.

The Evo X that followed it tackled some of these shortcomings. It too is a good car, but in appealing to a broader market the X inevitably lost some of the edge that made the IX so special. It’s been a privilege to experience one just as Mitsubishi intended, on roads that bring out its best.