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MITSUBISHI MOTORS RPM 7000 HAS DEEP ROOTS IN RALLY RACING
As he puts it, "…this is a company with a sporty image and competitive spirit. A company with a racing heritage. And I want the RPM 7000 concept car to say that so loud that it sets off car alarms. Mitsubishi is known internationally for its wins in rally racing – and frankly, I want my car to brag about it."
The Mitsubishi Lancer EVO model has four World Rally Championship driver’s titles and two Asia Pacific titles. Mitsubishi has a World Cup Cross Country manufacturer’s title and has won the Paris-Dakar Rally four times. In the rally world, this is the big time.
Of course the Montero SUV has a whole closet full of trophies from the most challenging high-speed transcontinental blasts in history, the Paris-Dakar rally. As Desmond explained, "I wanted the RPM 7000 to come from something real, and for Mitsubishi, rally racing is very real." A lot of people are talking about "cross-over" vehicles, where an SUV and sports car meet, tango, marry and produce exotic offspring. Unfortunately, the offspring is usually just a pickup truck or minivan in drag, and the "cross-over" can't dance. In the case of the RPM 7000, this is an off-road rally car that slipped into some Hugo Boss and "crossed over" from the wrong side of the tracks. "Call it a hybrid, call it a cross-over, call it what ever you want. To me this could be the future of sports cars," Desmond said. "The term used to refer to cars that were designed primarily for competition. But let's face it, there's a new reality in the market place and people want a car that does everything. So we took competition running gear and added day-to-day utility – without turning it into a tank. The rear window slides down into the body and the rear deck-lid disappears like the cover on a roll-top desk. Fold down the back seat and you can fit a jet ski or a couple of full-suspension downhill bikes in the back – which gives a cool little twist to the term 'sports' car." Desmond goes on to point out what cross-over means to him. "As for the whole cross-over thing, look at the passenger's side of the concept car. You've got center opening doors that make it easier to get into the back seat, and the interior door-frames are exposed because they're part of the roll cage. On the driver's side there's a clean coupe profile, one long door and a big side pipe. Now that's cross over. " There's clearly some outrageous cross-pollination going on here. Part GT, part SUV. Part rally racer, part F1 racer. "I wanted the nose on this car to be a visual gut punch, but the back end has to be high and square so you can haul your toys around. I got around the traditional high-back wagon look with a wedge belt line and a geo-mechanical break at the hip point." As Desmond points out, huge, voluptuous fenders are offset by a sliver of side glass and a recoiled profile. The complex curves and geometric surfaces are visually fascinating, and yet it's still the front end that sets off the stylistic swagger.
"You want 'cross over', we crossed over from rally racing to F1", Desmond said. At the same time, the recessed surfaces in the hood create 3-dimensional rally stripes, set off by contrasting satin-finish paint. According to Desmond, these embossed stripes are all about attitude. "Lots of cars have tried to work the rally image by using big stripes on the hood. This is a rally car at its core, so we literally branded the hood and created a unique automotive face. Some people paint on the rally stripes. We carved them in steel. It pretty much tells you what kind of car this is."
Riding on 245/60VR19 tires with F1 rain tread, and sporting enough torque and traction to turn the earth on its axis, the RPM 7000 concept car is a strange brew of rally car and reality. "Concept cars let you play with the future," Desmond said. "And this is what I want the future to look like, sound like and drive like." Photos: Mitsubishi
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