New Mirage a real little beauty

Press, 7 December 1978, Page 22

New Mirage a real little beauty

Motoring

By

JOHN FRIDD,

motoring editor

A new twist was added to the fiercely competitive small-car market in New Zealand with the launching last week of the innovative Mitsubishi Mirage. Although it looks similar to the other threedoor hatch-backs on the market, the Mirage has some exciting new features and a higher level of appointments, and is sure to be a big-seller. Todd Motors in Porirua will be the first factory outside Japan to assemble the Mirage, and the first cars are expected to roll off the line in February. The new car certainly catches the eye, particularly with the bold “Mirage” side-stripe, which will come out on half the cars. The lines are crisp and clean, and the concealed guttering — to eliminate wind-whistle — gives the car a futuristic look, as the large doors extend well up into the roof. Undoubtedly the car’s most interesting feature is its two-ratio gearbox, which Mitsubishi has called “Supershift.” Because the car is driven by the front wheels an extra idler gear was needed in the gearbox, and the Mitsubishi engineers decided to use this to provide some extra gears.

The result is that the driver has the choice of “power” or “economy” ratios, the former to use in town and hill-country

driving and the latter for highway cruising, with resulting better fuel economy.

The new system proves a little confusing to use at first, but most drivers will probably soon work out which ratios best suit their driving requirements. Most will probably use the power setting around town and also for country driving, but shifting from low top to high top once at cruising speed, virtually using the gearbox as a five-speeder. Certainly, with eight forward gears to choose from it is impossible to experience the bone-jar-ring lugging of some small four-ratio cars at low revs.

Maximum speeds through the gears are.— Power: First, 35 km/h (22 m.p.h.); second, 64 (40); third, 104 (65); top, 139 (87). Economy; First 46 (29); second 83 (52); third, 136 (85); top, 160 plus (100 plus). The Mirage’s 1244 cu cm over-head camshaft engine, which was specially developed for the new car, has a gross rating of 70 bhp and gives the car lively acceleration, especially when using low ratio. It is also economical, and Todds claim that on a recent, spirited longdistance drive a test Mirage returned a figure of 6.3 1/100km (44.9 mpg).

They claim it should give an average figure of

around 7 l/100km (40 mpg).

Another important feature of the Mirage is the fine sound insulation. The firewall between the engine compartment and the interior is filled with foam rubber and this, coupled with the concealed guttering, dramatically cuts noise, although there was some road noise from the radials fitted to the test models. Mitsubishi claims that the Mirage returned a noise figure of 69 decibels at 100 km/h, 11 below the norm.

The free-revving engine’s cogged camshaft belt further reduces noise.

The Mirage’s jnterior is well laid out, and the digital clock, which gives a continual read-out when the ignition is switched on, is a bonus. The seats are comfortable, but do not fold forward far enough to allow easy access to the rear seat, which will carry two adults comfortably on short trips but would give leg-ache to the averagesized adult on longer journeys. As with most hatch* backs, the rear seat folds down to create a large carrying space, but the luggage space with the seat up is quite small, smaller than that in, say, Mazda’s 323 hatch-back.

The rear door has a washer-wiper unit. Visibility is one of the Mirage’s strong points. The window surrounds are formed integrally with the door pressing, and this

allows for slim but very strong pillars.' And because these integral surrounds are stiffer, they seal better, reducing wind noise.

The slim pillars and the car’s low waist-line allow for a large glass area, and the driver has an almost unobstructed view both forward and backwards. The Mirage has the suspension and steering to take advantage of its lively acceleration. Its wide track (front 1370 mm, rear 1340 mm) makes it sit solidly on the road and its low over-all height (1345 mm ensures a low centre of gravity, which helps keep the Mirage upright under extreme cornering forces. Front suspension is handled by a strut-coil spring-type unit, with negative offset geometry for added saftey in the event of a front-wheel puncture. Rear suspension is independent, with coil springs, but its mounting on to the car’s body is unusual. The trailing links are attached to tubular cross-members which are connected by nylon bushes, and this system gives good insulation from road noise and also provides good rear-end stability when cornering.

This new suspension bangs against the bottom of the car under extreme acceleration, but certainly makes for quick cornering. With its rack and pinion steering, independent suspension and front-wheel drive the Mirage is a

quick little car on twisty, sealed roads and would probably outperform all its competitors. The front-wheel drive makes things a little more interesting on gravel, but fwd cars were never made for rallying. A short comparative drive in three of the Mirage’s competitors, the Honda Civic, Mazda 323 and Chevette, indicated that the new Mitsubishi has all the best features of these cars without any of their faults. The Civic ($6954) seemed noisy and the gearbox very sloppy, the 323 ($7150) a bit heavy and unresponsive — although this one seemed to need a tune-up — and the Chevette ($6790) was sluggihs and the seats uncomfortable, although it was the besr. to drive of the three.

The Mirage will be dearer than all three, at between $7400 and $7600, but many hatch-back buyers will probably be quite willing to pay out the extra few hundreds for the high quality of finish and features of the Mirage.