While us Aussies make do with the regular ol’ Mitsubishi Evo X, our former colonial masters over in Britain get to play with something a little different…

Our English cousins receive a range of slightly more powerful Evos, with even the base model Evolution X FQ-300 producing around six kilowatts more than the Aus-market Evo. Things get steadily more manic from there with the FQ-330 and FQ-360 churning out 246kW and 268kW respectively, however it won’t be long until there’s a new king of the hill. That’s right, the 302kW FQ-400 is just around the corner and we’ve got the pics to prove it.

Autocar has let loose a smattering of low-res images showing the UK-only FQ-400 onto the web, and, by golly, does it look mean. There’s a heavily vented front bumper, an ankle-slicing carbonfibre front splitter, bigger scoops for the bonnet vents and NACA intake, side skirts, a carbonfibre rear diffuser, more vents, 18-inch racing rims and massive brakes with six-piston Alcon calipers on the front axle.

Under all those vents lies the standard Evo’s 2.0 litre 4B11 inline four, albeit treated to a new exhaust and some very aggressive ECU tuning. Not only is power dramatically increased over the standard model, but peak torque has also gone skyward. Mitsubishi UK says the FQ-400 cranks out a massive 542Nm of twist -a phenomenal amount for a 2-litre four-pot.

Mitsubishi hasn’t let much slip regarding the FQ-400, but there’s clearly more to the story than just a free-flowing intake, a new tune, big brakes, and a fancy bodykit.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one, but interested parties should start saving their pennies: pricing is expected to hover somewhere between £45,000 and £50,000 ($104,600 - $116,200 AUD). The FQ-400’s production run is said to be limited to just 100 cars. Stay tuned.

 

[Autocar]

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