Not All Ripoffs Come From China….
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Mitsubishi Evo… or not. What we’re actually looking at here is a Proton Jebat, Malaysia’s (copied) answer to the Evo X. And though Proton got the Evo X’s looks down to a T, they weren’t quite able to replicate the rally-bred Mitsu’s secret sauce performance-wise. Proton’s two-liter turbo four makes a mere 237 HP and 253 lb-ft compared to the Evo’s 291 HP and 300 lb-ft. Still, because the Inspira on which the Jebat is based is essentially a rebadged Lancer, there’s a chance that the Jebat has a Mitsu-developed AWD system under the skin… but Proton’s not saying. And the Lancer-alike Jebat isn’t the only rebadged Proton the Malaysian OEM has put out of late. A rebadged Lotus Europa was also shown at the recent Malaysian Auto Show as the Proton Lekir, powered by a 1.6 liter Proton engine. Yes, Virginia, countries other than China are dependent on rebadges and knock-offs for new product…
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Ugh...its not a "rip off" or a "copy". Mitsubishi has sold their older toolings to Proton for years. And Proton have successfully rallied the Evolution under the Proton name as the Wira (Evo-III) and the Pert (Evo V,VI, and VII) in the Asia Pacific and Malaysian Rally Championships. This is simply a reskinned Ralli-Art Lancer. Calling this a "copy" is a bit of an insult to Proton and Mitsubishi.
If you took away the black crap and painted the car a nice colour the coupe would be a significant step up from the Eclipse sold her, at least in appearance.