Llandysul’s Spencer Sport has held a highly successful two-day test event, where specially invited guests had a tour of the team’s purpose-built west Wales workshops and had the chance to experience the R5 specification Mitsubishi Mirage first hand on both asphalt and gravel surfaces.

First off was the asphalt test, held at a private venue near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire. Drivers who had expressed a keen interest to compete in the car had the opportunity to drive a brand new R5 specification Mirage that had only arrived in the UK and been added to the Spencer Sport fleet a few days before.

Osian Pryce conducted the initial installation laps and then accompanied all the drivers during the day, some travelling from as far afield as Scotland, the Isle of Man and Yorkshire to attend the event.

The early morning drizzle had left the asphalt surface extremely slippery – which was ideal to highlight the amazing mechanical traction of the Mirage – with all drivers impressed by the way the car handled and commenting on how incredibly driveable it is.

After an overnight stay, a special gravel test took place the following day at Spencer Sport’s own test facility in Penrhiwllan, Ceredigion. The drivers who had attended the asphalt test were joined by double world downhill mountain bike champion Gee Atherton and Richard Burns’ godson Tom Williams – both of whom had contested this year’s MSA British Rally Championship and Wales Rally GB.

After the drivers had driven the Mirage on gravel, Osian took them – and around another 25 VIP guests – out for a high speed run over the team’s extended forest gravel stage that meanders its way around Spencer Sport’s 20 acres of privately-owned forest.

“We’ve received so much interest in the Mitsubishi Mirage that the next logical step was to get these drivers into the car to experience the performance and handling for themselves. We therefore put on a full day for them on asphalt and another full day on gravel, together with a tour of our workshops,” said Spencer Sport team manager Charlie Jukes.

“We couldn’t have wished for two better days and the feedback we received about the Mirage was excellent. We had drivers there who compete in a wide variety of cars on a variety of events and they all commented how fantastic the Mirage is to drive; its power, how exceptionally well balanced it is and how well it changes direction.

“The car we used for the test was brand new and it never missed a beat, despite doing almost 200kms - with nothing more than an overnight set-up change from asphalt to gravel, fuel and tyres. Having competed in a Mirage previously and covering many miles of testing, Osian knows the car very well and it was great to have him sit in with everyone, give advice and answer questions.

“We had a dozen potential customers drive the car and a further 25 VIP passengers sit in for a high-speed passenger ride. Everything ran like clockwork and we look forward to seeing the Mirage out there competing in more and more UK rallies in 2018.”