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This article was first published in 1999.
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It's the car with the split personality - grunting Aussie sedan or sophisticated Euro-style cruiser? Maybe a bit of both.... but is that what's really wanted?
Sometimes it's Gladys, voice shrieking accusingly, blue rinse head wagging threateningly from the back seat.
"Slow down laddie" she screeches, poking me with her umbrella, "you'll kill all of us!"
Other times it's Monique, a mild note of censure coming from the passenger seat.
"Take it easy", she says, "I reckon that you're getting a bit close to the limit."
Unfortunately, most of the times that the Magna Sport's TCL light flashes on the dash, it's Gladys hard at work, taking away the power half a dozen cylinders at a time. Just every now and again Monique subtlely knocks off a smidgin of throttle, stopping that imminent understeer,
that inside wheelspin that's about to erupt. Monique I can handle. Gladys gets the electronic chop.
And that's one of the puzzles of the Sport 3.5 auto. Is the Traction Control System meant to be an electronic cautionary Monique, or a kill-all-of-the-fun Gladys? Is the Magna modelled along the lines of a sophisticated Euro-style sports sedan, capable of putting the fast kilometres behind it rain or shine? Or is it an Australian muscle car, all torque and no action? After a week behind the wheel we couldn't decide.
The first Mitsubishi Magna sport was a toe-in-the-water exercise from the South Australian based Mitsubishi Motors Australia. Sick of being regarded as performance nonentities by the performance sedan buyers who headed straight for Commodore or Falcon, MMAL launched the 3 litre Sport. Boasting a rear sway bar and other subtle but very effective suspension mods, the car took a while to start selling well in the marketplace - something that
changed when the normal Magna discounts were applied to the new model.
But everyone wondered why the Sport wasn't offered with the larger 3.5 litre V6, an engine already fitted to the auto-only luxo Verada. The reason for its absence? - Mitsubishi didn't have a 5 speed manual that could handle the 3.5's torque - and they weren't going to offer an auto-only 3.5 Sport! Two years later, the TH has been released with a beefed-up manual 5 speed.
While the manual Magnas always feel more powerful and have better throttle control than the autos, on test this time was the $A37,270 Sports Mode (Tiptronic-style) 4 speed. The Traction Control (TCL) is available only on the auto, and one of our reasons for picking this model is that we wanted to see how Gladys performed.
And performance sure isn't lacking. With 147kW, the 3.5 develops only 5 percent more power than the 3 litre engine - the engines share the same cylinder heads - but torque is up by 18 per cent, with 300Nm available at 4000 rpm. And it feels like it too. The torque multiplication of the auto trans converter and a heavy right foot means that when Gladys is given the kick, the Sport will spin its front wheels for metres away from traffic lights. We didn't try it, but nipping on the handbrake we'd expect to create clouds of smoke....
One hundred kays comes up in an average G-Tech time of 8.1 seconds, while the standing quarter is punched through in 15.6. That's seriously competitive with Holden's V8, and lineball with a Falcon XR6 VCT. If you're into history, that's faster than an auto Commodore VL Turbo.... But given its urgency off the line, it's a pity that the engine doesn't go on with it further up the rev range. We put the car onto Awesome Automotive's chassis dyno and did a few power runs. The tractive effort curve tells the tale: from the midrange it starts to plummet, falling away rather than holding on with a good flat torque curve. The engine has been cammed to give that beloved Australian ignition-on instant torque, but don't expect high rpm performance to be strong... What the engine would do with a bit of head work, bigger exhaust and revised cam timing is anyone's guess; ours would be a flywheel figure of about 180kW! In fact, we understand that dropping off just the rear muffler is good for a whopping 15kW increase.....
Still doubtful about the Magna's grunt when compared with its traditional competitors? Awesome churned out another few dyno graphs while we were there, graphing the Sport against VR V6 and VP V8 Commodores. As you can see, the 3.5 sure ain't disgraced.
The Sport comes with 16 inch wheels wearing Bridgestone Turanza 215/60 tyres, white instrument faces (which turn black with red lighting at night), power windows, trip computer, cruise control, air and ABS. A driver's side airbag is fitted (passenger side is optional), while the new Magna Body Electronic Module incorporates an alarm and remote locking. The previous Sport's lower and stiffer suspension is untouched. Absent are small convenience touches like an electric aerial, and glovebox and map reading lights. While on lighting, the interior light can be difficult to switch on if you don't know the trick - you need to slide the whole body of the light to one side. But on the plus side, the Magna's high beam is the best that we have ever seen - it puts even a set of good spotlights to shame!
In the cut and thrust of urban traffic, the Sport acquits itself well. Holes in traffic are easily filled, the trans shifting down and the torque punching a hole in any obstructive wall of commuters. If you want to play boy racer, you can flick the transmission lever over to its left-hand side, tipping the lever forward to change up or pulling it back to drop some cogs. The Smart Shift works brilliantly; if you forget to change back to first when drawing to a stop, the trans will do it for you, and when you swap from fully auto mode to Smart Shift, the gear currently
being used is held as the changeover takes place. Trouble is, performance feels very nearly as strong changing at 4500 rpm as at the 6200 rpm redline - so you may as well let the trans do it all by itself...
Smooth, quiet and effortless, the power delivery of the Sport feels very much like the Supercharged VT Commodore - except the Mitsubishi's engine is 20 years more advanced in technology and the Magna is near-silent. In fact is there a car at this price on the Australian market more refined in its NVH levels than the Magna? We can't think of one. Passing performance is very good - in squirts from 100 to 140 km/h, little time is spent on the wrong side of the road. And at high speeds the car tracks well, the sophisticated aerodynamics being clearly perceptible. The fuel consumption over the test period varied from 10 - 12 litres/100km.
The four-wheel discs haul down the road speed - they might look a little small when you eyeball them behind the 16-inch wheels, but they work darn well in practice. The ABS allows some wheel lock-up but stops the car well, with the pedal also boasting excellent feel.
But the Achilles Heel of the Magna is its steering. As with the previous models, the Magna has an alarming lack of response to initial steering inputs. It's not a slackness in the system - the front wheels do turn as the large steering wheel is moved - but the steering is simply too low-geared near to straight ahead. Large constant-radius sweepers become two arcs - one the initial turn-in, and the second when it's realised that the first amount of steering lock isn't enough! On sweeping corners it's not understeer - the car actually handles impeccably for a large and powerful FWD - but a gigantic sneeze factor. If you have previously driven only vaguely-steered large sedans, you'll think the steering's fine. But if you are used to turning the wheel the exact amount of lock required, the Magna will seem imprecise in the extreme.
And Gladys comes to life even on high speed country corners, flashing the TCL light and dropping power when there seems no need at all for the intervention. Despite being billed by Mitsubishi as a world-first in its design and operation, the TCL system is pretty dumb - it has inputs only from the steering wheel angle, throttle position and wheel speed. One of the problems is the so-called Trace Control function of the TCL. This looks at the inputs and decides if you're trying to corner too fast. If the internal map suggests that you are, a fuel cut and the electronic throttle kill power. But there isn't a lateral or longitudinal G-sensor to tell the computer what the car is really doing, perhaps explaining the split personality. Fitting grippier tyres, hot or cold days affecting engine power, the presence of wet or dry roads - Gladys doesn't want to know anything about these.
Inside, the car is comfortable and well-appointed. The specific Sports trim on the seats and doors is sophisticated and modern; the seats themselves are competent. The white-faced gauges work well except at dusk, where the red backlighting and the red numerals 'resonate', making them hard to read at a glance. With direct over-the-shoulder sunlight, the auto trans dash indicator also disappears from view - not fun when you're in Smart Shift mode! The multi-function trip computer is useful and simple to use, but the old rotating drum odometer and trip meter look a little anachronistic just next door along. Another anachronism is the tacho that has markings that extend to no less than 9000 rpm! Someone's a dreamer, and in pure practicality terms, what's the point of having nearly one-third of the gauge never used? In the otherwise well-finished interior another jarring element is the cloth-covered centre console lid - it looks cheap and amateurish; the stitching looking like Mum's run it up on the sewing machine. As with other Magnas, the console lid also jams if opened to its vertical position.
The AM/FM radio is easy to operate without taking your eyes from the road but the sound quality is poor. The bass is muddy and the lack of treble obvious. Swapping in four new speakers and a couple of sail-mounted tweeters would probably solve the problem for a few hundred bucks. The radio also has a CD input jack for those that want to have a Discman sliding around on the floor or passenger seat....
In its ride/handling compromise the suspension of the Sport is extremely good. Damping is beautifully matched to the springing, although the suspension is probably a little too firm for someone not specifically after the handling advantages. While Deputy Editor Michael Knowling thought that the car has a little too much understeer, given the power available and the car's 1457kg mass, I think it handles very well. However, if you overstep the mark into plough understeer, there's not a lot you can then do about it. Slow in - fast out, is the rule.
But it seems to us that the Magna Sport tries to cover too many bases. Is it a family car for the enthusiast stepping out of a Commodore? Maybe - they'd like the off-the-line grunt and refinement, but we can't see them liking the FWD aspects. Or is it for someone upgrading from a car like an older Subaru Liberty? Maybe - they'd like the space and tech tricks, but they'd surely complain about the vague steering. Or is it just a safe, practical family car? Sure it is - but why bother then with the Sport's firmer suspension and Smart Shift?
Sharpen the steering, fit the LSD that Mitsubishi engineer Robert Chadwick runs in his GTP race Magna, give the car an exhaust and a pair of cams better suited to a sports sedan than a tractor, run some serious 17 inch rubber and forget the Trace Control, and oh boy, would you ever have a car!
But that's dreamtime stuff; how does the TH Magna Sports 3.5 Sports Mode rate right now? More than ever, it depends on where you're coming from. For us, the clear focus of the original Sport seems to have been lost.
Footnote: a phone call from Mitsubishi received after we had returned the car suggested that it had been fitted with the wrong ROM data.... So we are getting the car again. What changes we find will be reported in an upcoming issue!
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