Star turn Sportback

It's been a while since Mitsubishi in Ireland had a compact family hatchback to offer in a market where maybe seven out of ten cars in the segment have that rear door.

Though when the distributors do get the Lancer Sportback into showrooms in September, they're not expecting to follow that ratio.



Indeed, the image of the Lancer in Ireland is so embedded in it being a saloon, they figure that only three out of ten buyers of the nameplate will go for the new variant.

That said, because the Lancer has become Mitsubishi Ireland's most important car in the shifting CO2 tides here, having the hatch version is going to bring a timely extra option to the brand's offerings.

The car will launch in Ireland with a 105hp 1.5 and a 143hp 1.8 in petrol and a 140hp 2.0 diesel which comes courtesy of Volkswagen. This diesel will also be introduced to the Sports Saloon which has been on sale here for some time.

Next year the 240hp Ralliart Lancer variant will be available in both Sportback and Saloon versions.



The Sportback is essentially a hatchback in form but is a little longer than the saloon, which itself rather straddles the compact family and medium family segments.

In sporting perception terms, the designers selected the Saab 900 Turbo Coupe as a model to aim for, and at a European level the Sportback will be marketed as a stylish and slightly offbeat car.

The style does have a certain distinctiveness, with a raked rear roofline and a roof level spoiler that will be standard on all versions of the Sportback. The front end has a variant of the 'jet fighter' grille that has been the theme of the new Lancer since its concept days. The company has a connection here, as parent Mitsubishi Heavy Industries makes jet fighters amongst its vast array of products.



The interior is essentially the same as the saloon, styled and finished with straightforward traditional analogue instrumentation. The steering wheel controls, and those on the dash and stack, are also familiar current Mitsubishi themes.

It's a nice driving position, and the overused 'driver's car' description is perfectly apt in this case.

The luggage capacity can be up to 1.39 cu m and there's some extra height available in the rearmost luggage area, by lowering the floor from its level position.

At the international introduction, I drove a pre-production version of the Ralliart first, and then the 1.8 petrol. Neither will be major sellers in Ireland, where the 1.5 petrol and the diesel will rule, especially in the new CO2 regime.

The Ralliart was interesting, though. It is not an 'Evo Lite', but rather a 'super Lancer', targeting the Subaru WRX and the Audi S3. It has both poke and panache enough to match these. In the hills at the back of Sitges it offered a driving experience of some verve, especially if using the standard dual-clutch automated gearbox in 'manual' mode.

The 1.8 offered had an ordinary autobox, which rather dulled the flair that I know this engine actually has.

From some date next year, Mitsubishi will be introducing its own 'clean diesel', a 1.8 which is being developed with the parent company.

Particularly with its new generation Lancer, a nameplate that was missing for several years from here, Mitsubishi is promoting its cars with a sporty ethos. The new Sportback is a good example of this strategy.

Brian Byrne.

Autumn/Winter driving tips

As autumn brings a change in the colour of leaves, motorists also need to be aware of the hazards brought about by changing road conditions, says Irish Advanced Motorists/IAM Fleet.

Fallen leaves tend to accumulate near roadside gutters and, when combined with heavier seasonal rainfall, can block roadside drains causing localised deep water and wet leaves on the road surface increase the danger of skidding for drivers and motorcyclists.

Darker mornings and early evenings also mean that it is harder to spot surface water. If the road surface is black, pockets of water are less easy to see and can cause a sharp, unexpected jolt on the steering wheel when hit.

The sun is also lower in the sky at sunrise and sunset at this time of year and motorists should be aware this can have a dangerous blinding effect, particularly around the time motorists are commuting to and from work.

The colder temperatures of autumn can also to give rise to fog. Fog is a particular problem on fast-moving roads, such as motorways but severely reduced visibility brings danger for drivers on all roads – particularly junctions and roundabouts.

Use fog lights sparingly; switch them on only when visibility is below 100 metres. Leaving them on after fog has disappeared is an offence and a danger to other motorists.

Fog can also cause moisture on the windscreen; use wipers to clear the exterior and keep the interior clean to help maintain visibility.

Motorists should set lighting and windscreen controls in their vehicle before setting off to avoid distraction while travelling.

Sharp braking can also be even more dangerous when visibility is poor. Motorists should be prepared to slow down to enable them to stop within the distance they can see to be clear and give following drivers more time to react.

Musee d'Orsay delights

Everybody knows about the Louvre; probably many also know about the Musee d’Orsay, but it doesn’t have the same international recognition, despite housing key works from some of the most important old and modern masters.

More, it is a wonderful example of how to turn an architectural masterpiece into a repositary for masterpieces of other kinds.



The actual site was formerly where a palace built before the French Revolution housed the functionaries and bosses of the royal Court of Accounts and the State Council. It was destroyed along with the whole block in the ‘Paris Commune’ in 1871.

Thirty years later the Orleans Railroad Company was given the site and built a new railway terminus that is famous for being the first in Paris with electricity. Designed by architect Victor Laloux, it was opened for the 1900 World Fair held in the French capital.

The station included 16 separate tracks, elevators for those using the multi-story building, and an integrated hotel on the grand style for customers who used the rails for long-distance travel on the south-western network.

Victor Laloux’s creation was also exactly what had been required in aesthetic terms, a building to the scale and style that fitted in with the grandeur of the section of Paris where it was located.

Paradoxically, while it was at the leading edge of the electricity revolution when it was built, less than four decades later the Gare d’Orsay lost its place as the main station of the network because the beginning electrification of the French railway system enouraged longer trains, which didn’t fit in the limitations of the platforms of the station’s Great Hall.

The station’s downgraded status as a suburban terminus didn’t even survive much beyond WW II. It was used for a variety of commercial purposes, but none of them properly reflected the scale or grand nature of the premises. Though its use as the set for part of the film of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, produced by Orson Welles, might have come close.

And the use of the grand Salle des Fetes in the hotel by Charles de Gaulle, to announce his return to political power, was an historic moment.

The hotel itself finally closed its doors in 1973, and plans were mooted to tear the building down and put up a large modern replacement. This plot was thwarted by the intervention of the French national museum authorities, who wanted to locate there a facility dedicated to the art of the second half of the nineteenth century. The matter was also helped by the listing of the building as an historical monument.

In late 1986 it was reopened as the museum that it is today. The development used the Great Hall as the main area, with galleries and terraces on either side and on several levels. The original glass end wall with its magnificent clock remains a centerpiece.

Turning the main rail station hall into a space with the kind of human proportions so different from that needed for large puffing steam locomotives wasn’t easy. But they did it quite briliantly, partly by providing different floor levels under the vast curved roof, as well as installing a coherent stone flooring surface with a matching surface on the walls.

The magnificent ceilings in the Dining Hall and Salle des Fetes were also retained, and provide a sense of splendour that truly recalls a France proud of itself at the height of its colonial state. The Dining Hall is now the museum’s Restaurant, and the Salle is an exhibition area.

With permanent collections of the works of artists like Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Whistler, and Degas, the Musee d’Orsay is a must-visit for anyone seriously interested in the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artistic eras. Other masters whose works are on display include Delacroix, Manet, Renoir, Rodin, Seurat, Sisley, Pissarro, Gauguin, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, and many, many others. In addition, there are many examples of modern artists’ works, a number of them showing homage to the old masters, and therefore in a fitting place to do so.

For this writer, the sculpture works were the most interesting, and displayed as they are in the centre section of the Great Hall, they have the light and the space to be viewed at their best.

It was a technical fault in a plane at Dublin Airport which caused us to miss our connection onwards to Singapore and therefore left a day to kill in Paris that proved to be a singular boon. If you look for it, there’s always another side to down.


Brian Byrne.