Road Trip: 2008 Targa Newfoundland – Part 1

Story and photos by John LeBlanc My road to this year's Targa Newfoundland road rally started on the last stage of the last day after completing the 2006 event. Arriving back where I had started five days earlier, near St. John's harbour, overwhelmed by simply surviving such a grueling event as a navigator, I swore to myself that if I ever had the opportunity to come back I'd snap it up quicker than you can say "cod lips!" Luckily enough, that chance happened this past March. That's when Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada invited both myself to navigate, and fellow journalist and Targa Newfoundland veteran Mark Hacking to drive one of the automaker's two cars they were going to enter in this year's Targa Newfoundland. The words "Yes!" took little time to blurt out.

If you don't already know, this year's Targa Newfoundland, the seventh annual, is on now until Sept. 20. It involves about 80 teams made up of drivers, navigators and support crews who will attempt to cover more than 2,200 kilometres on the twisty roads of the central and eastern portion of the island with more than 400 kilometres closed-road, flat-out Targa stages. Needless to say, it is the first and only event of its kind in North America. Mitsubishi Canada vice-president of sales and marketing, Tomoki Yanagawa, said motorsport is "part of the brand's DNA." "Participating in such events is treated like an extension of our research and design department," Yanagawa said. After previously participating in Targa with a Galant in 2004, and then with an Eclipse the following year, this will be Mitsubishi Canada's third time entering in Targa. "We're a very young brand in Canada," says Yanagawa, "and Targa Newfoundland is the perfect place to showcase our product."

With over three months left on the calendar, the first day in Newfoundland seemed like a long way away on the calendar. But my previous Targa adventure reminded me that "sooner" is usually better than "later" when it comes to crossing the 't's and dotting the 'i's in the early planning stages. By early June, our team's "what, who, where and when" was starting to shape up. The "what" to drive was all too obvious. Mitsubishi is this year introducing to Canada the long-awaited turbocharged all-wheel drive Lancer Evolution sports sedan, and the slightly less hyper Lancer Ralliart. Hacking and myself would get a Ralliart. Joining us in Newfoundland in an Evolution are driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and his navigator Jen Horsey. Comrie-Picard has been rallying Mitsubishis since 2002 in the Canadian Rally Championship. He simultaneously competes in the North American Rally championship.

Horsey is a two-time Targa Newfoundland and like Comrie-Picard, competes in the Canadian Rally Championship at the wheel of a Lancer. Both Comrie-Picard and Horsey race under the Musketeer Racing banner, the firm Mitsubishi handed two, brand new production Lancers with the task of making them capable of withstanding more than a week's worth of Targa Newfoundland. That fact that both the Ralliart and Evolution are making their worldwide competition debuts at Targa this year is both an honour and hindrance. Originally, the plan was to enter the Evolution in the Modern Modified, and the Ralliart in Modern Production classes. But because both cars are so new to the market and competition, Musketeer was limited to the available upgrade parts that Mitsubishi's Japan-based Ralliart performance division would normally supply.

Even with the limited changes to our Ralliart's production drivetrain, there was still a lot of work for Musketeer to do in regards to removing weight, adding safety components and suspension work. "The first thing we'll do is the most time consuming and backbreaking -- removing weight," said Comrie-Picard. This involved stripping our brand-new-from-the-factory Ralliart down to its bare metal, including removing the rust and sound proofing. And to get to that point, Musketeer had to first remove every component of the interior and the trunk. Next on the to-do list was the custom fabrication and installation of a full safety cage, then a respray to change our production red car into a white car for the appropriate paint scheme and sponsor decals.

Before a single screw or bolt could be changed on the Ralliart, in July Musketeer invited Hacking and myself to Shannonville Motorsport Park. The goal was to establish baseline performance numbers and log data like brake, engine and cooling temperatures on the production Ralliart. Then, after the car is prepped and modified for competition, we would return to the track to compare our data against the revised Targa version. With 235 hp from a detuned version of the same 2.0-litre turbo four found in the Evolution, the Ralliart -- which goes on sale in Canada this month -- sits between the 168 hp GTS and 291 hp Evolution.

Unlike Comrie-Picard/Horsey's Evolution GSR's five-speed manual transmission, the Ralliart comes exclusively with Mitsubishi's Twin Clutch-SST gearbox. Similar to other automaker's dual-clutch transmissions, TC-SST can pickup two gears at a time. The first gear is engaged by one clutch, and the other is pre-selected, waiting to be engaged by the second clutch. Changing gears can be done either manually or automatically from the console shifter or the paddle-shifters. Also like its big brother Evolution, the Ralliart's full time AWD features an active centre differential with front helical and rear mechanical limited slip differentials. Hacking -- a three-time Targa veteran and class winner -- was able to get a feel for the Ralliart quickly around Shannonville's shorter Nelson track, consistently setting down lap times in the 55-second range. With all the baseline data now in hand, Musketeer had about four weeks to make a Targa car out of our production Mitsubishi.

Even without the final paint scheme designed by Mitsubishi's California design studio, with its pure white exterior, lowered ride and race ready interior, Musketeer did a great job making our Ralliart look "Targa" ready. Except for the FIA-spec roll cage, Recaro race seats, rally computer and the removal of the rear seats and any unnecessary trim, the inside of the Ralliart in Targa form was relatively stock. Musketeer even retained the Ralliart's standard (and excellent) steering wheel.

Looking good is one thing. Going faster is another. So, once again, we strapped into our-formerly-red Ralliart and went out to post some lap times. From the navigator's seat, the removal of the soundproofing and less restrictive exhaust meant the Ralliart certainly felt faster. Less roll and dive in the suspension was also immediately obvious. Hacking posted lap times four- to five-seconds quicker than the production car a month earlier. Plus, measurements between lapping sessions in the pits indicated all of the Ralliart's cooling numbers where bang on. The car and driver were fast. Now it was just up to me to not get us lost during our excellent Newfoundland adventure.