Mitsubishi Motors has released a video showing the final days of Lancer Evolution production.
The short film opens with pallets of sheetmetal being delivered to the company’s Mizushima plant, located on the southern coast of western Japan. From there, workers forklift the steel and aluminum into the stamping shop, where presses turn them into doors, hoods and fenders. Next, at the body assembly shop, robots weld the stamped body panels together to form the unibody of the car. Once that’s done, the shells are painted before moving onto the final assembling shop.
The setting then shifts to the powertrain plant in Shiga, where a combination of workers and heavy machinery assemble the 2.0-liter turbocharged four. After assembly, the powertrains are tested and shipped to the Mizushima plant for final assembly. Once workers install interiors, suspensions, and remaining bits of trim, the cars are prepped for shipping.
The video will surely tug at the heartstrings of any performance car enthusiast, as it represents the end of an era for Mitsubishi’s street legal rally racer. The Japanese market will receive 1,000 Final Edition models, while the US will receive an additional 1,600. A host of visual upgrades will mark the Final Editions, along with a “small bump” in horsepower. Though Mitsubishi officials have not disclosed what that figure is, it could be the 308 horsepower rating of the Japanese version.
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