Mitsubishi is answering demand for ever higher specification pick-ups with this special edition L200 Walkinshaw Performance.
For those who didn’t follow motorsport in the early 1970s, Tom Walkinshaw was successful in the British touring car championship and as a result set up engineering firm Tom Walkinshaw Racing, specialising in hot versions of existing vehicles.
The result for Mitsubishi is an L200 wearing 20-inch alloy wheels, leather seats, a particularly whizzy stereo including CD auto-changer, satnav, Bluetooth hands-free phone connection, cruise control and stainless steel filler cap.
All this kit comes in at £21,499, but if you really want to go overboard you can also specify a power upgrade chip, which takes the 2.5 diesel from 134PS to 168PS for £500. And for a further £2595 you can also add a sports suspension and exhaust kit from TWR.
The extras don’t stop there. For those looking to make a visual statement you can also order a swooping Sports Back hard-top load bay cover for £1750, which gives the pick-up a striking appearance that will draw comments from passers-by as well as colleagues – great if you’re looking to promote a business.
Taking all these options brings the price to a not insignificant £26,344 (excluding VAT, and in the case of the hard-top, fitting charge).
For a large fleet this probably makes little sense, but for a small business that wants to gain a high profile in its local area then this L200 double-cab will do just that. BusinessCar had more comments about the L200 in one week from the public than everything else we’ve tested this year combined. And only a couple were negative about the looks.
Best of all, the suspension upgrade helps the L200’s on-road manners by cutting body roll, without completely ruining comfort levels.