British car mag Autocar have published these low-res photos of the upcoming Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ-400, giving us our first glimpse at Mitsubishi’s special UK-only AWD monster.

Suffice to say, it looks great. The heavily vented bodywork stuffs more cold air into the engine bay and extracts more hot air out of it, while the carbonfibre front splitter and carbonfibre rear diffuser help glue the FQ-400 to the tarmac. An Evo IX-inspired vortex generator sits at the trailing edge of the roof and the whole lot is almost entirely carried over from the Evo X endurance racer that recently ran the Silverstone 24 hr.

Mitsubishi UK says power will be a heady 302kW (or 405bhp in the old money), while torque will be upped to a very impressive 542Nm - all from the same basic 2-litre 4B11 four-pot that powers the standard Evo X. Those hefty numbers are reportedly achieved with just a free-flowing exhaust and a heavily retuned ECU, but we suspect there’s a bit more to it than just that… big turbo, anyone?

Elsewhere on the car there’s a set of 18-inch racing rims with a monstrous set of Alcon race brakes hiding behind them. Mitsubishi is remaining silent on what kind of suspension the FQ-400 sits on, but we’d be very surprised indeed if it’s based on the stock hardware. The stick-shift-shy need not apply, as Mitsubishi have deemed the Evo X MR’s trick twin-clutch gearbox is not up to the task of channeling the FQ’s prodigious amount of torque. Five-speed manual it is, then.

Anywho, don’t get too excited just yet. The FQ-400 is expected to carry a pricetag that reflects its performance, and current estimates put the RRP between £45,000 and £50,000 - around £20,000 more than the base model FQ-300. That’s a lot of poundage, but considering the FQ-400 will boast a supercar-shaming level of performance it may well turn out to be the sportscar bargain of the decade.

We’ll keep an eye out for more info and yes, we’ll see what we can do about getting some bigger pics - these ones are woefully small.

[Autocar]