Officially Ours??

[lex1988]

in the buying guide it say

"With the Galant and Legnum VR-4s being brought into the UK on the grey market, the official UK Mitsubishi importers decided to get in on the act, too. Ralliart UK (an entirely separate concern to the Ralliart rally team) began to import cars, converted them for the UK/Euro regulations, and they were then sold through the official Mitsubishi dealer network and carried the extensive manufacturer’s warranty. These are effectively the same as any other grey imports, but have been fully converted to meet UK regulations — and these cars had additional work, such as extra anti-corrosion treatment. Galant VR-4 saloons and estates went on sale for £28,995 in March 1999, and were only available with Recaro sports trim levels and the automatic INVECS-ll five-speed ‘intelligent’ transmission. Not many of these Ralliart UK-converted cars were eventually sold through the official channels; probably no more than 200 in all. It was discontinued in 2002"


how do you tell if your vr4 is one of the fabled 200?

Cheers

[bradc]

If it is from March 99 to the end of production and has been in the uk for more than a year it almost certainly will be.

They aren't anything special though, they just have a foglight in the rear bumper!

[the_boy]

And have Galant rather than Legnum written on the boot section?

[chris g]

And UK speedo, no delimiter needed..

Set up for UK fuel...?

Interior warning stickers in english...

Some other differences maybe...

[bradc]

Absolutely NOT setup for uk fuel.

The speedo wasn't really a uk one either, just the jdm one with MPH over the kmph marking, with a converter to change it to show 60mph at 60 indicated, rather than 60kmh at the 60 marking.

[chris g]

I think you are wrong re speedo...

I have had a number of imported cars with jap speedo and converter, and had vr-4 import with converter, and had uk speedo fitted to an imported car and that uk speedo is same as my current speedo - 180mph

So you are prob wrong on that, unless my eyes deceive me...

[chris g]

And why do you say UK cars not set up for UK fuel...?

Ralliart prepared them for UK market, we do not have 100 ron

Didn't they do some jiggery pokery to prepare cars for our fuel...?

Maybe they just expected 97 ron to be always available...?

[bradc]

It is a jdm speedo with an mph sticker on it.


Ralliart didn't tune the ecu in any way for the fuel. They basically stuck a rear foglight on the car, an mph sticker on the speedo and thats about it really!

[Kieran]

And why do you say UK cars not set up for UK fuel...?

Ralliart prepared them for UK market, we do not have 100 ron

Didn't they do some jiggery pokery to prepare cars for our fuel...?

Maybe they just expected 97 ron to be always available...?

They didn't remap them as far as we can tell. They just list super unleaded as the minimum fuel requirement in the brochure.

Brad's method of ID saying that 99-on means it'll be an 'official' one. Don't forget that by late 2000/early 2001, the VR-4 had disappeared from the brochures, yet you still see later cars with ralliart badges (but no english stickers, etc). For a time, some ralliart dealers bought in VR-4s on an order by order basis (again, as far as we can tell).

[Nick Mann]

There were rumours about the ecu's being remapped for UK fuel, but I don't personally believe them.

The speedo is a JDM speedo with a converter and a sticker. Sorry Chris!

The UK cars were all cold spec, as far as I know, so you will have a heating element at the bottom of the windscreen, heated mirrors, uprated alternator and a bigger battery.

Ralliart most often stuck a foglight in the rear bumper, but they also added the mitsubishi badged Cobra alarm and undersealed them better than the factory did too.

There are facelift cars in the UK that aren't official imports. Mine is a 1999 registered facelift, UK from new, but isn't an official car.

[chris g]

Well I guess my eyes have been deceived - my age perhaps

Will be checking out the speedo later to spot the sticker thingy and other proof of JDM speedo...

[MPBVr4]

My old one. (2001) One of the so called "chosen few".
No light in bumber. Jap labels. Not much underseal. Cobra Alarm. No MPH sticker.
Oh boy:sigh: .............that was a proper car !!!:(

[ritch_w]

also....

Fog lights and there placement was not always the same (had 2 - both different)
Galant re badge was inconsistent too, mine said legnum. voth probably dependant on the year CCC imported them and what they did to them.

Service book should clearly state Colt Car Company and Ralliart - both mine were exactly the same!

[bradc]

AND YOU SOLD IT YOU MUPPET! Remember what I said way back when Malc, you should have converted the silver one to a real gearbox, I even remember having that discussion with your son when I met up with him.