Mitsubishi -- headquartered in Japan but with an American production plant in Illinois and design studios and technical center in California -- puts five different cars in the North American market for 2005 plus three sport-utility vehicles. The Lancer Evolution, a street-legal version of Mitsubishi's rally racer, leads this fleet with the new Evo VIII MR edition packing a larger turbo-charger and six-speed manual shifter.

Mitsubishi's mid-size sedan series scored a glitzy new design in 2004 with a larger five-seat cabin and stronger powertrains pumping more usable torque. These issues continue into the 2005 line but with seat-mounted side air bags as standard equipment on all versions -- from the DX price leader and a mass-market ES to the luxury-laced LS and top-of-the-line GTS. Cabin decor varies from trim to trim, beginning with a treatment in black for DX but adding metallic silver highlights for the ES. The top-end GTS gets fine leather upholstery.

Mitsubishi puts muscle aboard from four-cylinder and V6 powertrains. A base four displaces 2.4 liters and rocks with 160 hp. A 3.8-liter V6 makes 230 hp and works with a Sportronic automatic. The Galant DE has the four-cylinder plant and a four-speed automatic transaxle with disc brakes, while the Galant ES upgrades with anti-lock brake system (ABS). The Galant LS V6 uses a Sportronic automatic with traction control system (TCS), while the GTS V6 earns sporty suspension tweaking plus projector headlamps up front.

Conformed as a sporty notchback sedan for the compact class, the Lancer looks forceful with wheels pinned at corners to balance the stance. Body parts extend only briefly over front and back edges in the manner of racers as the two-step face and windshield tip backward to suggest swift movement. Mitsubishi casts Lancer in three editions this year including the Ralliart issue with additional power. Two trims pull from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that nets 120 hp and connects to a five-speed manual or optional four-speed automatic.

The Lancer ES is the base issue, with the Lancer O-Z Rally wearing sporty body additions inspired by rally racers. The Lancer Ralliart draws on the Lancer Evolution for styling cues and also carries more hardware, such as a taut-tuned suspension, sport bucket seats and larger disc brakes, and it gets more power points too -- 162 hp -- from the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine of the Outlander. A new package dubbed Sun & Sound for the OZ and Ralliart adds a power glass sunroof, 315-watt Infinity audio system and seat-mounted side air bags.

Consider the Lancer Evolution the sum of all performance technologies developed by Mitsubishi's trophy-grabbing World Rally Championship (WRC) racing campaign. It's a high-performance version of the Lancer compact sedan but motivated by a souped-up turbo engine and equipped with all-wheel-drive (AWD) traction. Nicknamed 'Evo' in rally racing circles, the sport sedan wears a bulging air scoop on the hood, pontoon-style fenders, high-strength alloy wheels, a carbon-fiber spoiler on the tail and the cockpit fitted with bolstered Recaro sport bucket seats, leather-wrapped Momo steering wheel and rally-style gauges.

Big Brembo brand ventilated disc brakes at all wheels tie to four-channel ABS. But the heart of Evo is its power-pumping engine. The 2.0-liter four-in-line -- turbo-charged and inter-cooled -- serves up 276 hp this year due to a larger diameter for the turbo nozzle. A front limited-slip and electronic center differential are new for all trims -- RS, VIII and MR. The latter dons a larger turbo for more power, a six-speed close-ratio manual transmission, BBS forged alloy wheels, fast-response Bilstein shocks and an aluminum roof that lowers the center of gravity.

The racy hatchback coupe from Mitsubishi seems substantial and strong, but also gracefully sleek like a compressed bullet with sides squared and prow honed to a hard point. The Eclipse for 2005 appears in trims of GS and GT plus GTS. Mitsubishi's 2.4-liter four-pack works for the GS, reaching 147 hp with a manual five-speed transmission, or 140 hp with the optional four-speed automatic.

The Eclipse GT stocks a single-cam 3.0-liter V6.
For GTS the plant runs up ten more points to 210 hp due to the addition of variable induction. A shifter stick on the console connects to either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic. Exclusive for the GS in 2005 is a new REMIX package with top-stitched charcoal leather front seat surfaces, a 210-watt Infinity audio system with six-disc CD changer, 16-inch SXC alloy wheels, chrome exhaust tip and color-keyed door mirrors. It appears in six colors including Liquid Silver and UV Blue.

The convertible edition of the Eclipse was engineered from the outset to work as a car without a coupe's superstructure -- it's rigid and stiff, which sets up sporty road manners. Spyder's power-operated folding soft top lowers in seconds, with all movements controlled by dual electric motors sent into action by a single dashboard button. The exterior looks daring and aggressive like the coupe in geo-mechanical style. A 3.0-liter V6 with variable induction drops into GT and GTS models and generates 210 hp. The Spyder GS continues with the single-cam 2.4-liter four-cylinder plant and manual or automatic transmission. As with the coupe, Spyder GS spins off a new REMIX package with fresh body paint choices like Platinum.