Candidate: Legnum VR4

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Right, time for something of a wildcard. ;-)

For those not familiar with the name, a Legnum is the estate version of a Mitsubishi Galant. And the VR4 is the meanest Legnum going; a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 0-100km/h? 6.0secs. Or better. Actually, there’s another video on there of a Legnum out-dragging a BMW M3. No mean feat.

Blistering straight-line performance aside, what else can one of these beasts offer? Well, for starters, there’s its trump card: size. It is a massive estate car. Very B&Q friendly. In fact, it’s this combination of size, stealth and performance that gets it on the list of candidates in the first place. Throw in the fact that you can pick them up for between 4 and 6 grand, and we could be looking at a genuine contender. The thing even looks pretty good.

On the downside, its size is likely to also work against it. On track, I would be worried that the back end would throw me about all over the place, but without trying it, it’s impossible to say. It could be a barrel of laughs or it could be an unwanted handful. Then there’s the fuel economy. With twin-turbos blowing on a V6, it’s not surprising that it’s in the low 20’s for mpg. Not so great.

So, what are the scores, George Dawes?

  • Straight-line speed: 7 out of 10
  • Chuckability: 5 out of 10 (prediction)
  • Kerb appeal: 7 out of 10
  • Economy: 2 out of 10 – 23mpg average
  • Practicality: 9 out of 10

As I said, a wildcard. To be fair, I should probably at least take one for a test-drive. I might not get the chance to find out how pendulous the rear end is (at least, I hope not on a test-drive!), but it would be good to get a feel for them nonetheless.

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