Talk The Torque: Mitsubishi ASX XLS Diesel
Around a decade or so ago, Mitsubishi released, in Australia, the Lancer based Outlander. It very quickly morphed into a bigger, more stylish vehicle than the compact and edgy original, leaving Mitsubishi without a smallish SUV styled vehicle. Some years later, the Lancer based ASX was released (and shared with Citroen and Peugeot). It started off as a semi harpish angled, petrol engined only machine and in 2015 is a softened slightly, diesel optioned chariot. A Wheel Thing talks to the torquey diesel ASX AWD.
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Oddly, that diesel is a 2.2L, rather than a possibly more logical 1.8L. 
The caveat here is simple: it’s only available with the selectable AWD (in Mitsubishi speak, AWC or All Wheel Control) system, in the LS and XLS variant (the XLS does come in 2WD petrol as well). The petrol engines spin 110kW at 6000 revs, the diesel has the same power but 2500 revs lower. Naturally, it talks the torque with a more than handy 360 Newton metres between 1500 to 2750 rpm, shading the petrol’s twist of 197Nm at 4200 rpm. Mitsubishi quotes a combined consumption figure of 5.8L per 100 kilometres driven, from a 60 litre tank. I’d call that a range of 1000 kilometres (under the ideal driving circumstances, of course…). Perhaps Mitsubishi were looking at the economy vs weight, as the ASX XLS is 1530 kilos dry.
Where The Rubber Literally Hits The Road
Take a look at your average sized postcard. Not very big, is it? Now imagine four of them at the corners of something measuring about 3 × 2 metres or so. They don’t take up much of that space. However, in the typical car, this is the sort of area your tyres take up when they actually contact the road: roughly the size of a postcard. Of course, a fatter tyre will have more surface area contacting the ground – they don’t just look good.
Those of you who fell asleep in high school science class when they talked about friction had better wake up and pay attention now. Everything to do with staying safe on the road is to do with friction. Inside an engine or a car, friction is bad news. It makes an engine less efficient and wears things out more quickly – which is why you need to keep up the fluids and why you should check your oil regularly. However, you need friction and lots of it with your wheels to help your tyres grip the road and to help your brakes stop the wheels spinning.
BTCC Profiles from the Past: Patrick 'Perseverance' Watts
Patrick Watts and the Peugeot. Image Credit: btccrazy.co.uk
Perseverance – Noun
Seven Year Itch: Mitsubishi Lancer XLS Sedan.
The Lancer nameplate has been around, under both Chrysler’s and Mitsubishi’s wardship, for over forty years; the current model was released in Australia in late 2007 and judging by Mitsubishi’s cycle for the car, it’s looking like an update isn’t (hopefully) far off. A Wheel Thing goes one on one with the (current) top of the range XLS sedan with CVT and petrol engine.
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Take a 2.4L normally aspirated four cylinder, petrol powered engine, bolt it to a constantly variable
transmission (CVT), make it spin out 125 kW and 226 metres of Mr Newton’s best, lob it behind the bluff and upright nose of the 2015 Lancer and there’s your basic mechanical package for the Lancer XLS. There’s the now common Sports mode, with flappy paddles attached to the steering column. It’ll quite happily swallow standard 91RON unleaded and is rated at a slightly high 8.5L consumed per one hundred kilometres travelled from its 59L tank.
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