Sneak Peek: Team R-Colt Time Attack Mitsubishi Ralliart Colt
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
A Mitsubishi Colt might not seem like your first choice for a time attack vehicle, but the existence of a spiced up Ralliart version makes it more mod friendly. It looks like a Honda Fit, but Mitsubishi didn’t suck like Honda. Instead of a naturally aspirated 1.5L engine Mitsubishi fitted the Colt with aturbocharged engine rated at 113kW and 210Nm of torque (that’s 151.5hp and 155 lb-ft for us folks in the USA). Weighing in at about 2340lbs, the Ralliart Colt had a brisk 0-100 kph run of 7.4 seconds. The Colt is still not what you would call a popular performance platform to modify, so Team R-Colt had to go about fabricating a lot of their modifications. Built, not bought!
This is Time Attack, so the engine in the Team R-Colt is pretty heavily fortified. Wiseco pistons, custom rods, ACL race bearings, ARP studs, and ARP rod bolts beef up the guts of the engine. The head received a mild port and polish job to improve air flow to take advantage of the custom 272 duration cams from Tighe. This engine even has MIVEC on the intake cam. Of course, you can see the built, not bought, ram horn style exhaust manifold that was ceramic coated to protect everything in the area from getting crispy from the heat from the exhaust gases. In another nod towards heat management, the stock plastic intake snorkel was retained to grab cold air for the turbo to ingest.
All you MotoIQ readers know that colder air is better for turbos and the guys at Team R-Colt are smart guys too. The K&N intake filter is isolated from the heat of the engine bay with this built air box formed of material that is both insulation against heat transfer by way of conduction and is also reflective to prevent heat transfer by radiation. The cold air grabbed by the stock intake snorkel is plumbed into the air box as you can see by the black tube making a hole in the air box right next to the air filter.
Here you can better see the mod-job done to use the stock snorkel to direct cold air to the turbo intake. You might also be asking why there’s a positive power terminal showing zip-tied to the silicone radiator hose.
A lightweight Odyssey PC545 battery is stuffed under the K&N air filter in the air box. Hey, batteries don’t particularly like a lot of heat either.
