Mitsubishi Lancer 2006 News

Cars are either being built worse -- or companies are getting better at detecting faults.a range of models made over the last 10 years replacing potentially deadly Takata airbags in 1.3 million cars in Australia. a second, airbag-related recall for the Priusreplacing potentially deadly Takata airbags in 1.3 million cars in Australia

Lancer and Evolution models are now being recalled as a precautionary measure by Mitsubishi because of Takata airbag shrapnel risk.

The Lancer has a 3.9 per cent slice of the sub-$40,000 small-car market, but faces off against a dominant Mazda3 with 18 per cent share, and the Toyota Corolla with 16.5 per cent. The small-car sector is virtually static in sales -- up just 0.9 per cent year-to-date -- but the buyer demand for compact, fuel-efficient cars means there are no signs of the sector weakening. Luring buyers with the value flag is the Mitsubishi ‘Special Action Model’ - or SAM - that gets a $19,990 drive-away price for a manual sedan based on the entry-level 2.0 litre ES model. SAM comes with metallic paint, choice of four colours, 16-inch five-spoke alloys, Ralliart front bumper and grille, VRX high-rise boot spoiler and extra bling. Mitsubishi has announced its “compact sedan” concept will become the next Lancer, but it could be three years away. The SAM is one of the special-edition models designed to maintain sales ahead of this next generation.  

LEWIS Hamilton is the early favourite for this year's Formula One   world championship, based on the early odds from www.tab.com.au. The   McLaren team leader heads the betting at $4, followed by new Ferrari   signing - and two-time world champion - Fernando Alonso at $4.50,   comeback king Michael Schumacher also at $4.50 and Sebastian Vettel at   $6.50. Australia's Mark Webber is ranked seventh at $10 for the title.SCOTT Pedder will renew his attack on the Australian Rally   Championship with the re-creation of the Pedders Rally Team for the   2010 season. The former Mitsubishi factory driver will pair-up with   his brother Mark in a two-car effort in the series, using a pair of   Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IXs. Scott Pedder's most recent start was the   2006 Rally of Melbourne, which he won.TWO of the marquee drivers in V8 Supercar racing have just stretched   their current deals by an extra three years. Mark Winterbottom of Ford   Performance Racing and Lee Holdsworth from Garry Rogers' Commodore   crew have both committed to race for their teams until the end of the   2012 season.KELLY Racing is expanding its base in Melbourne to include all the manufacturing capacity currently housed at Larry Perkins' shop in   Moorabbin. The expansion at Braeside will not be finished until 2011 but will eventually give the Kelly family crew 4000 square metres of   undercover work space.Queenslander Kyle Ensbey win the Rotax DD2 final to cap a dominant   performance at the opening round of the 2010 Rotax Pro Tour at   Geelong, Victoria last weekend. Max Johnston took Rotax Light, Pierce   Lehane won in Formula Rotax JMA Light and Frank Falla was the winner   in Rotax Over 35s. Rotax Over 35's were taken out by Geelong driver, Frank FallaAn international lineup led by Portugal's Joao Barbosa took a surprise victory in the Daytona 24-Hour race last weekend. The first big race   of the 2010 season was hit by rain, crashes and mechanical problems   but it was no drama for the auto Express team, with German Mike   Rockenfeller, Briton Ryan Dalziel and American Terry Borcheller   joining Barbosa on the victory dias for team owner Bob Johnson.SPECTATORS at this year's Phillip Island leg of the World Superbike   Championship will get a chance to meet the stars on the Friday of race   weekend. The paddock will be open from 8.30am to 1pm for an inside   look at the riders and crews leading up to the main event on Sunday,   February 28.A British-built Ascari sports car is the latest addition to the varied   lineup for the 2010 Australian GT Championship. The Ascari will appear   for the first time with Darren Berry driving at the Clipsal 500   meeting from March 11-14, although petfood mogul Tony Quinn is the   early favourite for the title after switching from an Aston Martin to a Mosler supercar.

"In the current economic climate everybody is looking for better value for money without compromise," Mitsubishi Australia president and CEO Robert McEniry says. "The new Lancer line-up lets our customers have this without breaking the bank." The Lancer range, which accounted for almost half of all sales for the triple-diamond brand last month, has been freshened with some minor exterior style changes, more extensive interior freshening and a limited edition RX model (from $21,990) with unique badging and wheel designs to sit beside the entry ES cars. Across-the-range changes include a new-look instrument cluster, improved ETACS (Electronic Total Automobile Control), synchronised windscreen washers, and premium VRX-style tail lamps as standard on all variants. The ES also gets extra storage with a floor console box and the availability of optional side and curtain airbags. Exterior changes to the mid-range VR model include a new chrome upper grille, and alloy wheel design while NVH has been improved with the inclusion of an insulated front windscreen to cut down on road noise. The high-end Rockford Fosgate audio system is also available as an option. The VRX and Aspire also win the sound-deadening windscreen and the premium audi system as standard. ES, RX, VR, VRX and Ralliart models are available with a sedan or Sportback body, with the premium Aspire offered solely as a sedan.

SIMON and Sue Evans won back the Australian Rally Championship crown with a double success in Adelaide last weekend. The former Toyota team members lost out to Corolla driver Neal Bates in 2008, but turned the tables this year driving a privately-entered Mitsubishi Lancer which they used to dominate the title decider in Adelaide and claim a third national crown.TEAM Red is opening the doors at its Clayton race base for the first time with the inaugural Toll Holden Racing Team family day on September 20. The event, from 10am to 3pm, will give fans access to the four race cars from Walkinshaw Racing, as well as displays of Holden concept cars, interactive displays and autograph sessions with Garth Tander, Will Davison, Paul Dumbrell and David Reynolds.RYAN Briscoe began his push towards the Indy Racing League championship with a nail-biting victory under lights at Kentucky on the weekend. He beat Ed Carpenter by only 0.016s to score his second victory of the season for Team Penske as the championship moves into its final half-dozen races, with Briscoe holding a narrow points lead.Jay Marmont repeated as Australian motocross champion when he took the final round of the Pro Open class championship on the Sunshine Coast last weekend on his Yamaha YZ450F. Luke Styke also took the under-19 championship, Tori Dare dominated in the women's championship and Darryll King completed a clean sweep of the veteran's series. KIM Jane celebrated his 150th start as a V8 Ute racer in the best possible way, winning at Sandown on Sunday in the third of three starts for the Aussie fan favourites. Jane is now fifth in the ute championship, as Jack Elsegood leads from defending champion Layton Crambrook and Gary Baxter.MIKKO Hirvonen was the predictable winner of his home event, Rally Finland, with a victory which extends his points lead over five-time champion Sebastian Loeb in the race to the 2009 World Rally Championship. Hirvonen drove his Ford Focus to first place with a solid margin over Loeb's Citroen, with his Finnish team mate Jari- Matti Latvala third in another Ford.AUDI swept the latest leg of the German Touring Car Championship with a 1-2-3 result headed by defending champion Timo Scheider. The best of the Mercedes runners was Paul di Resta.BLAKE 'Bilko' Williams took a gold and silver from the freestyle motocross events at X-Games 15 in Los Angeles. After taking the runner- up spot in the Best Trick competition with a '360 Indian air' and no- hands landing he got to the top in the Moto-X Freestyle competition, taking a one-point win after three runs.CITROEN has extended its involvement in the World Rally Championship until at least the end of 2011, even though its lead driver Sebastian Loeb could soon be headed to Formula One with the Toro Rosso team.There is no news yet on the technical regulations beyond 2010, with a major change planned but rival camps pressing either for simpler and cheaper S2000 cars or a switched to turbocharged 1.6-litre engines in existing World Rally Cars.A re-run of the 1970 Repco Reliability Trial begins today (Aug 8) when 40 rally cars built before 1980 leave the Melbourne Showgrounds on the way to Kingoonya. Several of the special stages from '79 will be used on an eight-day course set by the Historic Rally Association. 

RETIRED V8 Supercar racer Paul Weel is going back to his motorsport roots with an all-out attack on the 2009 Australasian Safari.Weel began as an off-road racer and is heading back into the bush for the Safari, driving a V8-engined Holden Colorado.But there is a twist.He is doing the outback enduro in Western Australia with his father, Kees, as his co-driver. And their car is one that Weel Snr crashed in last year's Safari.Weel is so committed to success he even ran a 500-kilometre test last week, the first time he drove a competition car since a massive crash at Bathurst last year which could easily have been fatal. He was T-boned in his PWR Commodore at the top of Mount Panorama."I'm pretty excited. It's been quite a while since my Bathurst accident, so it's great to finally be back behind the wheel of a racing car again," Weel says."I'm learning how to drive on dirt again after so long racing V8 Supercars. You feel like you're going pretty quick, racing through the bush at 200km/h with trees flashing past on either side of you."The Safari begins a week from tomorrow, August 1, and covers 3600 kilometres from Perth to Kalgoorlie, with overnight stops in Geraldton, Mt Magnet, Leonora and Laverton.DAVID Wall continued his romp towards the Australian GT championship title when he swept two of three sports car races at Eastern Creek last weekend with his Porsche GT3 Cup S. The other star on the packed Shannons Nationals program was Mat Sofi, who broke through for his first win in Formula 3 while Tim Macrow reduced overseas raider Joey Foster's lead in the championship battle.CHAD Reed continues to lead the chase for the 450cc title in the AMA Pro Motocross championship following a 1-2 result at Millville last weekend. He is now 37 points clear on his Rockstar Suzuki with five rounds to run.NEAL Bates is looking for more speed this week from his Toyota Corolla as he prepares for the winner-take-all showdown with his former team-mate, and championship leader, Simon Evans at Rally SA next weekend. Bates knows Evans has a top-speed advantage with his Mitsubishi Lancer and has several tweaks to test in Canberra before packing for the trip to Adelaide and the last event of this year's national championship series.Off-road superstars Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki will tune up for next year's Dakar Rally by competing in the 2009 Australasian Safari with their Isuzu D-MAX ute in Western Australia. The five-time Safari winner was third last year and expects better in his latest beast thanks to engine upgrading, which he also believes will allow him to improve on his 11th overall in this year's Dakar in South America.FRENCHMAN Jamie Alguersuari will become the youngest driver to race in Formula One, at 19 years and 125 days, when he replaces Sebastian Bourdais in the Toro Rosso team at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alguersuari is a former British Formula 3 champion who was groomed through the Red Bull young driver academy.CHRIS Atkinson is back in Monaco to try and revive his stalled career in the World Rally Championship, including a start in his home event, Repco Rally Australia, in September. His trip to Europe included a stopover in the USA to visit Ken Block, a Subaru driver who also stars in the X-Games, perhaps pointing to more American action for the speedy Australia.DANIEL Ricciardo continues to lead the race for the British Formula 3 championship despite finishing slightly off the pace in both races at Donington Park last weekend. The young Aussie was quickest in qualifying but fell back to seventh in the first race before recovering for third, but in the second heat could do no better than fifth with the Carlin Motorsport team.THE son of John Surtees, the only racer to win world championships on both two and four wheels, was killed last weekend in a Formula 2 crash in Britain. Henry Surtees had taken his first F2 podium at Brands Hatch in the first of two heats, but died after being hit in the head by a wheel from another car that crashed in the second race. 

   GLENN and Matt Raymond scored a breakthrough first overall win in the Australian Rally Championship when they took the Forest Rally in Perth last weekend in a Toyota Corolla. Defending champions Neal Bates and Coral Taylor won one of the two heats with their Corolla and now lead the series from their former Toyota team mates Simon and Sue Evans, who broke the engine in their Mitsubishi Lancer.JAMES Davison made a lacklustre start to his Indy Lights season in the USA, only managing to run home 17th of 27 runners in the race at St.Petersburg in Florida. The third-generation racer, cousin to V8 Supercar stars Alex and Will, is hoping to eventually graduate to the Indy Racing League in America. HONDA rider Todd Waters is the early leader in this year's Australian Motocross Championship after taking top points from the opening event at Albury-Wodonga. Waters took one of the three heats, sharing success with Yamaha riders Jay Marmont and Andrew McFarlane, but scooped more points with second places in the other races. 20-year-old F1 hopeful Chris Wootton made the podium again in the Formula BMW support races at the Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend.The youngster was second in the first F-BMW race on Saturday and led early in the second on Sunday, before sliding off the road in a downpour and recovering for the runner-up spot. The Asian series continues at Sepang in Malaysia in late May with four more races. CHAMPIONSHIP drag racing has found a new home, and more exposure, with a deal for the new ONE HD sports network. There will be 32 one-hour shows on ANDRA events in the coming year, growing to 40 hours over the next three years. MARCOS Ambrose showed his improving status in Nascar racing with 14th in the latest round at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. He has now become a regular in the top 20 with his Toyota Camry but gets no time to relax as he fronts to Ford Worth in Texas this weekend to continue his Sprint Cup campaign. MOVING to Britain has paid an immediate dividend for Molly Taylor, who won the first round of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup in Wales. After claiming titles in Australia the 20-year-old rally rocket is committed to a full year in Britain driving a Suzuki with support from the Australian Motorsport Foundation, moving next to the Pirelli International Rally on April 17-18. 

DAVID Reynolds is finally confirmed with Walkinshaw Racing in  the team's fourth Commodore for this year's V8 Supercar championship. The car for the Carrera Cup graduate is predominantly red, with a giant Bundy bear on the side and a grey tail with support from Holden Special Vehicles.After seven straight second places Chad Reed finally broke through for a win in the latest round of the AMA-World Supercross championship in the USA. Reed finally got a good start in Indiana on his Suzuki and beat home James Stewart, putting the pair equal on points heading to the 10th of 18 rounds in Florida this weekend.THE Indianapolis 500 will have a major Australian connection this year, but not just because Ryan Briscoe and Will Power will be racing for the crack Penske team. The race will be paced by the all-new Chevrolet Camaro coupe, which will be sold in the USA but has been developed in Australia using the mechanical package of the VE Commodore.Jason Bargwanna is gone, back to the V8 Supercar championship with Sprint Gas Racing, but his Mini Challenge team will continue in 2009. Bargwanna Motorsport will continue to field his cousin Scott in this year's one-make series with backing from Rock Energy Drinks and with Brendon 'BJ' Cook joining him as team mate.VETERAN motorsport commentator Barry Oliver will be back at the microphone this year after being dumped last season as the official V8 Supercar track announcer. Oliver, who is also a winning co-driver with Jim Richards in a range of road rallies in Australia, will be calling the Biante Touring Car Masters as the official on-track commentator from the start of the series at the Clipsal 500 meeting in Adelaide.CHRIS Wootton has won a $100,000 scholarship to compete in the 2009 Formula BMW Pacific series, including starts in supporting races at the Malaysian and Singapore F1 grands prix. The young Queenslander was a kart start before moving into Formula BMW and hopes to follow earlier graduates from the series who have made it to Formula One, including Timo Glock, Adrian Sutil and Sebastian Buemi.TWO-time Australian rally champions Simon and Sue Evans have switched to Mitsubishi following the closure of the factory Toyota team which took them to their titles. The pair had originally expected to switch to a Subaru Impreza after taking second at their final Toyota start, Rally Tasmania, but will drive a Lancer Evo IX in a family team alongside Eli Evans, who will continue in a Subaru.

Making his MarcosMarcos Ambrose had a good weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway in Nascar Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events. He finished ninth in Saturday's Nationwide race and backed it up with 21st in Sunday's Cup event.Ford boss moves onFord Racing boss Ray Price will move on at the end of the V8 Supercar season. He will become service engineering director for Ford Asia-Pacific and Africa. A replacement has yet to be named, so Price will remain until a handover is made. Price has overseen the introduction of the FG Falcon racer and three Bathurst 1000 wins in his time in charge.Seton back in a FordGlenn Seton returned to racing last weekend in a Ford. The longtime Blue Oval racer, and dual V8 Supercar champion, has spent the past two years as an endurance driver for the Holden Racing Team. But he got behind the wheel of his Ford Capri to win the South Australian Historic Touring Car Cup at Mallala. It was Seton's first visit to the track in 10 years, but he won three races to take the honours.Stoner surgery successFormer MotoGP champion Casey Stoner has had successful surgery on his injured wrist. The Australian has troubled by the injury since mid-way through the season, but held off the operation until now to carry out testing on the 2009 Ducati at Valencia last week.Rossi to test FerrariFerrari has confirmed MotoGP star Valentino Rossi will test its Formula One car. The Italian world champion expressed a desire to sample the F1 racer at the season-ending MotoGP race. Ferrari has revealed that Rossi will test before the end of the year, but hasn't revealed where. Rossi and Ferrari have said the test is just for fun.Adelaide changesOrganisers of Adelaide's popular Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar street race have revealed a number of changes for next year's event. New temporary pit facilities will be erected for 2009 and every grandstand will be covered. Section of the track will also be resurfaced.Meidecke's mountainGeorge Meidecke and navigator Daniel Wilson have won this year's Mt Buller Sprint. Meidecke raced his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX to the win in 10 stages up the famous mountain. Former Bathurst 1000 winner Tony Longhurst was second in his Subaru Impreza WRX, just ahead of the Lamborghini Gallardo of Kevin Weeks.