2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart - Click above for high-res image galleryThere has always been a glaringly obvious gap in Mitsubishi 's current Lancer lineup On the bottom is the Lancer, a biggish-for-its-class economy car that no one particularly likes - at least that's what the sales charts would indicate It's slow, filled with cheap plastics and dull It hasn't even proven to be all that reliable by Japanese small-car standards, but at least it looks good At the top of the heap and on a wholly different plane sits the Lancer Evolution It's the giant-slayer, David, the little car that humbles supercars It's also the hottest of the rally-inspired all-wheel-drive turbocharged pocket rockets The Evo's only real competition is the Subaru WRX STI and, let's be honest, the Evo has been the better car for years now (Subaru has just updated its warrior for 2011 , so a new comparison is in order) Its handling is more precise, yet at the same time more insane The Mitsu is rawer, rougher, tougher and most importantly faster, even though it's down half a liter on the WRX STI in terms of displacement Don't read this wrong, the STI is a fine backroad killer But the EVO is more homicidal It looks like a toned down Evo, which is exactly what Mitsubishi wants you to thinkBack to that gap In the middle of its arch rival's portfolio has long lived the WRX , Subaru 's Goldie Loxian sportster, which is very fast, very nimble, but very well priced (it still starts at under $25,000) The WRX has long threaded the needle between excellent all-around performance and the customer not being able to afford a higher monthly payment Subaru, therefore, has sold a ton of them, for not only does the WRX offer all that power and rally-bred oomph at a low price, it can be had as a wagon Mitsubishi had nothing until this year, when the Japanese industrial powerhouse brought over two new flavors of its hopped-up Lancer, the Ralliart and the Ralliart SportbackToday we're taking a look at the supposedly more practical of those two additions, the five-door Sportback When the pictures of the Lancer Sportback Ralliart started spilling onto this here internet, Yours Truly was especially excited The main reason being that for the past eight years, I've owned a WRX wagon in one form or another Biased? You could say that, but at that same time, I've been driving Evos against STIs and have remained aware (perhaps painfully aware) that the Evo is the sharper blade Perhaps, then, the Sportback Ralliart could be my next fast and furious wagon, or at least go wheel-to-wheel with its competition from Fuji Heavy Industries? Hop the jump to find out Gallery: Review: 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart Photos copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips / AOL Continue reading Review: 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart takes aim at the competition Review: 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart takes aim at the competition originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:58:00 EST Please see our terms for use of feeds Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments