I very nearly wrote about the CZT on the basis of a short drive several months ago, but I'm glad I didn't. My passenger was columnist, friend and world-renowned motor racing coach John Stevens, and the privilege of receiving valuable driving tips from the Man Who Knows was tempered by the feeling that we were in the wrong car. It was only when I got a CZT to myself for a week that it started to make a decent case for itself.In hot hatch terms, the CZT is pretty quick. Maximum power of around 150bhp isn't class-leading, but the fact that it's produced by a turbocharged engine means that not-quite-maximum power is being produced across a wide range of engine speeds. This is no screamer, but a flexible unit which provides strong acceleration without the need to find exactly the right gear for the job.Having just re-read Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, I'm struck by the paradox that when you're not pushing the CZT hard it feels quick, and when you are it doesn't. The transformation between dawdling along on a trailing throttle and suddenly giving it full gas is dramatic, but if you're already up to speed the car seems to reach a performance plateau and stay there. It's almost as if you would get the same effect by changing up at 4000rpm as you would if you did so at 6000rpm, even though this can't possibly be the case.The engine's behaviour in this respect means that the CZT feels much quicker when you are, say, putting on a brief spurt to overtake a lorry on a country road than when you have the country road to yourself. But there's another reason for this too - when you're using the performance in short measure you're unlikely to be giving the brakes and suspension much to do.With more opportunity to let rip, it doesn't take long to establish that the CZT is considerably lacking in these areas; the brakes are only just able to wipe out the speed that the engine has allowed you to develop, while the apparently half-hearted attempt at chassis set-up means that the car is far less happy going round corners than accelerating in a straight line.At present, this is the top-spec Colt, the equivalent of the mechanically similar smart forfour Brabus. But the smart is more powerful, has much more effective brakes and - as long as there isn't so much as a ripple in the road surface - outstandingly better through corners. Of the two, it is the serious hot hatch, and strictly speaking it should be compared not with the CZT but with the new, high-performance Colt which Mitsubishi has been talking about building for most of 2005. The CZT is for drivers who want the potential offered by the engine but are unlikely to make much use of it.The usual concerns about three-door Colts apply here too; the windscreen pillars do a magnificent job of obscuring the front diagonal views, while the rear side windows are so small and so deeply set that it's almost impossible to see through them from the driver's seat. This is an issue with all the cars in the range, but more especially with the CZT, since it's the one in which you're most likely to need to check whether anything else is trying to overtake you. Engine 1468cc, 4 cylinders Power 147bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 41.5mpg / 161g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 7.2 seconds Top speed 131mph Price £12,999 Details correct at publication date
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