The World Rally Championship is a tough challenge.  Ask anyone who's taken part in it, and he'll tell you, that zooming through tight, unpaved mountain roads at high speeds is not a walk in the park.  And that's from the perspective of the driver/co-driver.  What about the manufacturer?  You can just imagine the amount of research and development poured into each vehicle to transform their run-of-the-mill sedan into gravel busting rockets, and there's little guarantee of continued success here.  Imagine Toyota: a dominant force in automobiles and one of the highest funded teams in Formula One pulled out of the WRC.  A major surprise though is Mitsubishi.  For a company continuously plagued with quality issues and bankruptcy, they have settled pretty well in the WRC.  Although they've taken a sabbatical (because of financial reasons), they've always been on the forefront of the sport since the late 1980's.  The Galant VR-4, Lancer Evolution series and even the Pajero Evolution (for the Dakar Rally) were all very successful in their time, and it was only a matter of time when their prowess on the ice stages of Finland would rub onto the rest of their automobile line-up.

The time is now, and the vehicle is the Outlander--a compact SUV that's always lived under the shadow of its rivals, but greatly deserves a long second look.  Since its market introduction in 2001, the Outlander has gained critical success because it combined a car-like driving experience with high ground clearance and decent off-roading capabilities.  The first-generation Outlander was pretty special: it used a Lancer Evolution derived chassis with open front and rear differentials as well as a viscous coupling unit for the center differential.  Combine that with outrageous robot-like looks, the Outlander was poised for success.  Well, sort of at least.  In total, 229,000 Outlanders have been sold.  That's surely peanuts next to Honda's 2.6 million figure for the CR-V (since its launch in 1996), but hey, Mitsubishi's getting there.  Enter the second generation model.

There's little doubt that Mitsubishi will take a second stab at the compact SUV market with their all-new Outlander scheduled for a debut sometime this year.  Running on an all-new platform dubbed Project Global Platform (GS), the new Outlander will share its underpinnings with the upcoming Lancer as well as several Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles.  Aside from the new chassis system, the Outlander will debut Mitsubishi's all-new inline-4 engine family--the first ones not based on the venerable (but aging) 4G63 engine.  Called 4B12, the aluminum block double overhead cam system 2.4-liter engine is rated at 170 horsepower and 226 Nm of torque thanks to the MIVEC variable valve timing system.  For the North American market, the Outlander also debuts an all-new 6-cylinder family called 6B.  The 6B31 underneath the US market Outlander is rated at 220 horsepower thanks to its 3.0-liter displacement.

Pairing itself with both all-new powerplants is a new CVT transmission that has 6 virtual forward gears like the current generation Lancer.  Unlike the Lancer though, the Outlander boasts an all-wheel drive system with ASTC (Active Skid and Traction Control) for better handling.  A paddle shift is also available along with the usual +/- on the shiftgate.

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