THE sixth-generation Mitsubishi Triton was revealed in Bangkok just lately, forward of its February arrival, however behind the scenes the model’s native division has been tweaking the ute for harsh Australian situations.
Mitsubishi Motors Australia Restricted (MMAL) has been working alongside the model’s international analysis and growth workforce to hone the Triton for native use on a mixture of distinctive highway surfaces, resulting in a bespoke suspension setup.
The goal, Mitsubishi explains, was to develop a “new-age” ute that gives a journey and dealing with much like that of an SUV – a tall order for a utility with a leaf-sprung rear-end.
Main the Australian validation course of was MMAL undertaking supervisor, Tony Dorrington, a mechanical engineer with a protracted historical past of car growth Down Underneath.
“Historically utes have been designed with a singular objective in thoughts, as a workhorse,” stated Mr Dorrington.
“Nonetheless, within the final 5 years, clients count on their ute to do the household duties and the weekend actions, in addition to working and towing.
“With new-gen Triton we focused the same drive expertise to an excellent SUV, with improved agility, responsiveness, and journey consolation, however retaining Triton’s conventional off-road and workhorse capabilities.
“We’ve improved all dynamic parts of the car to make sure new-gen Triton’s efficiency is a match for Australia’s powerful situations and buyer expectations.”
Native growth, a lot of which was undertaken on the former Holden proving floor in Lang Lang, Victoria, led to the testing of greater than 100 suspension mixtures because the workforce tweaked campers, springs and steering calibrations.
“Accessing someplace like Lang Lang accelerates the method immensely,” stated Mr Dorrington.
“We might consider adjustments on a number of highway situations back-to-back to set correct benchmarks.
“The result of our collaboration is a big discount in impression harshness, improved physique management, enhanced on-centre really feel and extra linear steering with good suggestions.”
4 completely different entrance and rear suspension configurations had been established at Lang Lang, earlier than senior Mitsubishi executives from Japan evaluated the choices touchdown on a remaining setup for the Australian fashions.
Alongside a novel suspension setup, the digital energy steering (EPS) tune is alleged to enhance low-speed manoeuvrability and Mitsubishi even stated the Japan-Australia collaboration impacted the worldwide EPS tune.
“As with all new Mitsubishi Motors product, the R&D workforce first labored with every Triton market to grasp their necessities, by way of a collaborative dialogue,” stated Mitsubishi Motors Company chief car engineer for Triton, Tetsuya Tobe.
“Australia is a vital marketplace for us, notably within the mild business section, so from our preliminary discussions we created a plan to check the Triton in Australian situations.
“We additionally examined extensively in different markets and at Tokachi and Okazaki Japanese R&D centres, however for Australia’s distinctive highway situations we had been capable of name on the MMAL workforce’s native experience and help to make sure the Triton’s dynamics would examine favourably to the section benchmarks.”
Whereas pricing is but to be revealed, MMAL has confirmed the brand new Triton can be dearer than the outgoing mannequin, considerably justified because it catches as much as competitor choices throughout key areas like expertise, security, efficiency and carrying capability.
