The three-door Colt, styled in Europe, looks much different from the semi-MPV five-door, despite sharing the same wheelbase. Just the bonnet and front bumper are shared among exterior panels. The tail is chopped off and the waistline rises steeply as it heads rearwards. Instantly identifying a CZT from a regular CZ3 is not easy. The subtle makeover includes sill skirts and a more obvious rear spoiler, designed to keep the drag coefficient of 0.32 unaltered over the CZ3's despite the greater frontal area caused by the wider wheels and their 205/45 R16 tyres.

Suspension - struts up front, a simple torsion-beam axle at the back, enhanced by extensive shell stiffening - will be tauter, but the settings have yet to be finalised.

The CZT was once thought to be in line for the Evo tag, but Mitsubishi says that name must be reserved for the hottest Lancer models, a new generation of which will arrive, as a full range, in the next couple of years. There could yet be a hotter CZT, though, and four-wheel drive has already been developed for a small SUV version of its Smart sister car.