Ralliart Scales Down Business
March 10, 2010 by Justin Karow
Filed under Latest Articles
After many years of successful business Ralliart Japan is now going through a streamlining process due to the economic downturn.
Ralliart will continue to sell its range of automotive parts and goods collections at various outlets in Japan for the time being at least, but support for motorsports customers (support for participants, technical assistance and Driver Of The Year award) will cease. Also on the domestic front, Ralliart Member’s Club (RMC), online shop, Ralliart sponsored driving events and email magazine will all be abolished from April 1st. The Ralliart online shop will continue receiving orders until March 28.
It’s much the same story outside Japan according Ralliart’s English press release:
Along with the scale down of our business activities this time, we would cease the following business and operation which we have done so far. We would like to express our sincere apology to all of customers though we would make you much inconveniences.
Meanwhile, we wish you a continuous support to Ralliart family and entrants driving Mitsubishi cars who play an active part all over the world.
Items which would cease our business and operation along with our business scale down;
- Support to motorsport customers(Support to the participation, Technical Support, and Awarding of Mitsubishi/Ralliart Driver of the Year)
- New Planning, Development and Merchandise of Ralliart products (Except FIA VO parts) :*1
- Information of new products and dispatching motorsport information(at web):*2
*1 FIA VO parts development and those application work shall be done by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation as it is. *2 FIA Group-N information shall be open at the web site of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. Date of the cease: 1st April, 2010
http://ralliart.com/10topics/100310.html
Image: Ralliart
Ouch! I hope they’re not planning the same thing for their Mitsubishi Racing program…
Sad, I guess that puts an end to the hopes of Mitsu coming back in to the WRC championship, that competition has become so boring with only Ford and Citroen fighting for the crown.
This is terrible news…
I remember fondly when Toyota, Subaru, Ford, Mitsubishi, Citroen and Peugeot were all a part of the game…
Sadly, it is all about the dollars now and the sport is a mere shadow of its former glory.
What are FIA VO parts?
Sad to see any manufacturers motorsport division close down really. I wonder how TRD and Nismo etc are doing?
so sad,
motor sports is a shadow of its former self these days, next we will be hearing that STi, Nismo and TRD will be scaling back operations
Ok, this is gonna be off topic, and kinda rude, but it looks like carscoop beats you guys again on offering the latest news and rumors from Japan, http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-rendered-speculation-on-honda.html . They also showed the rendering and some info, back in December, about the Honda Beat and about the next MR2 in the same period of time. Now,I don’t want to judge you or to tell you how to do your blog, I know that you have to translate those articles from Japanese and that’s not easy, and I know how hard it is to have an auto blog(I’ve tried to make my own back in 2008, failed miserably and abandoned it, http://www.freewebs.com/mysupercars/ here the address, in case you wanna have a laugh), and I do appreciate all your articles and the work you put in them. So this is just a suggestion, but try to bring those rumors and renderings back, because in a time where icons like Ralliart are falling, and fewer car makers are willing to put money in motorsports, rumors and renderings of admired and hot sports cars can bring that flare of hope that we, the car nuts, need in times like this. And maybe it will bring you guys new readers. Oh, here’s another tip.:-p http://futureauto.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-subaru-fr-coupe.html Sorry if I was to rude.
that’s depressing..
@Heath
Don’t worry TRD, Nismo and STI are safe. Because those companý’s are actualy seling cars! Look at mitsubishi, they hardly sell any cars in the US and europe.
Mitsu in general has taken a huge step back just as all the others have done in most medium sized forms of motor sports. Toyota dropped F1, Honda shrunk racing engine development in half, and Ralliart is just the next step. Think about how many more rally cars you saw with at least some Mitsubishi factory backing versus today.
I don’t to much about TRD but STi is safe for at least another year.
Stingray: All I can say is “we don’t have enough time”. With that in view, recently we’ve only concentrated on the scoops concerning cars that aren’t posted on Best Car’s website
Yes, those images in those links you posted are taken straight from the Best Car website with precious little information attached. It’s easy for someone to go to the BC website, right click and save tiny low-res image, Babelfish what little information is there and beat 7Tune to the punch. That’s fine with us, we’re not in a race with anyone. We like to publish articles other than scoops so for the time being, at least until we get more time to do everything (or more staff!), we’ll try our best to bring more scoops (and more info) but some will always miss out because of the other features and articles.
Oh, I got that, sorry for being bitchy and thanks again for the dedication to the industry.
I think they will be back. This is probably just for a while!