Re: Shed Of The Week: Mitsubishi GTO

[daytona365]

A competent, high tech 14 SECOND sportster for less than a grand ? Shows you, image is everything !!

[daveofedinburgh]

J4CKO said:

These always remind me of a Technic Lego supercar and in the Lexicon of 90's Jap metal, these were a bit like your mum getting you a pair of trainers when she went shopping,

Let me explain, you had designs on getting Nike (a Supra), Adidas (300 ZX), Kappa (Skyline) or even some Le Coq Sportif (Impreza) but she comes back with bloody Hi-Tec (3000 GT) and you cannot hide your disappointment, looks the part, is really "Jazzy" (mum word there) and was probably on offer, but it isn't the real deal, its an imposter and completely misses the point and your mates will laugh, even the spod in the Tesco Tearaway trainers.

^Genius analogy!^

Well done that man.

I would liken the 300ZX to Diadora rather than Adidas, otherwise it's perfect.

[fatboy18]

Same wing mirrors as fitted to a Dodge Viper GTS

[Blib]

With the addition of wheel nut spacers, you can use the GTO's spare wheel as a cheap alternative to that of a Maserati QPV

Not many people know that.

[driverrob]

Paul O said:

Always loved the look of these - they looked like Supercars in their day.

A bright red one pulled up behind me in the petrol station a few weeks ago. I still thought "Wow".

Red is best for these!



Complete and utter financial danger aside, a thousand quid for this type of car is just fantastic!

My car!
Damn you, you've reminded me how much I miss it.

[tali1]

J4CKO said:

SWTH said:

3795mpower said:

My point was simply that it was incorrectly geared.

My remaining comments are my preferences, ie I don't like it.

Each to their own..it's what makes the automotive world a better place.

It won't pull 170 unless you drop it off a cliff.

With a tail wind.

Bragging about 'wasting one' seems an odd way to make a point about gearing, especially without referring to it at all in your first post.

You prefer your M5 - thats fine, and the E34 is a great car (although it was somewhat eclipsed by the Lotus Carlton), but to say you hated the GTO just because your girlfriend liked them? That's a bit pre-pubescent isn't it?

Personal best for one of mine was a GPS reading of 167mph. Admittedly this was during a 21mile Vmax run at 3am, possibly even with a bit of downhill grade factored in. However, 21 miles in 8 minutes certainly doesn't mean the car is slow.

A 0-60 in around five and a half seconds, and a top speed (regardless of what actual figure anyone quotes) significantly above 150, Is anyone seriously trying to say those figures are slow? Of course there are quicker cars, there are better handling cars. Anyone who expects a GTO/3000GT to be some sort of track car/hypercar/GTR rival/etc doesn't have a clue as to what the car is about. It's a GT - a long distance coupe that has a decent turn of speed. Nothing more, nothing less.

I think it is that the looks and specification perhaps promise more than it delivers, but then, it is 20 odd years ago, also, it is quite a big car which always makes progress seem less frantic. I would imagine quite a few are not that fit these days and not making factory figures. it wont be slow but I wouldn't go picking on higher end diesels or the new hatches with one.

The 300 ZX wasn't that much quicker, going by the figures and even the Supra TT isn't as quick as we perhaps imagine based on reputation, which is usually based on tuned examples.

A friend has a 300Zx that is bog standard and reckons that it would destroy my 350Z, looking at it, on paper it wouldn't.

Even the hallowed NSX took 13 - 14 seconds to get to 100 when it came out, quick in its day but no great shakes nowadays.

R34 GTR's were spoke of in reverential terms, but as standard would be on par with a 135i nowadays, the R35 is substantially quicker, its just called progress, more power, electronic improvements, fancy gear boxes cutting change times down.

The Supra in stock form actually cracked 100 in 12.3 secs.

SWTH said:

Exactly.

Let's go back to 1990 - the year the GTO went on sale. Back then the big Japanese GT's were:

Toyota - the Mk.3 Supra, already a bit outdated.
Nissan - the 300ZX. Similar performance, but without the 4WD. Skyline not really a rival.
Honda - the NSX was a supercar, not a GT. No quicker in a straight line either.

Non Japanese:
Mercedes - 450SLC, a class above the jap stuff and by then an old model (if it was even still on sale?).
BMW - 8-Series was either fresh in the showrooms or not far away, but either way a class above.
Jaguar - XJS. A 20 year old design, very long in tooth.
Nothing from Ford/Rover/Vauxhall/Renault/PSA/etc.

By 1994 the Mk.4 Supra moved the game on in Japan. European GT buyers wanted (and still do want) a prestige European badge - in the mid-90's the Jaguar XK, Mercedes S-class coupe and the Bentley Continental R served the needs of the fairly well-heeled (in the case of the Bentley the very well-heeled), so the Jap coupes had no market. The NSX suffered similarly, because people wanted a Ferrari rival to have an equivalent badge.

Also, the price new here was just silly - £45,000-odd for a car that in Japan sold for less than £30k. £45k was just too much, which is why Mitsubishi only sold 670 or so in 9 years in the UK. In Japan and the States where they were far cheaper, they were considerably more popular.

Both the 300ZX and GTO made little to no sense here, which is why they still don't, 20 years on. Nissan never bothered with official Skyline GTR imports (I know Middlehurst Nissan did UK-spec a few).

Horses for courses and all that.

Edited by SWTH on Monday 18th August 16:40

Merc 450slc not on sale - would be 500sec.
Nissan i think sold more Z32s than cheaper Z31s.I remember at time seeing more Z32s in 1 year than i did Z31s in the 7 yrs they were on sale
Most of these cars were heading for USA ,so Uk sales were destined to be small anyway -hence the big prices.Mitsubshi weren't really going to sell many more GTOs at 35k than 45k
Middlehurst was the only official Nissan dealer -they were 100 and are classed as official UK cars

Edited by tali1 on Saturday 6th September 22:48

[neutral 3]

In August 2010, there was a red UK registered one abandoned complete with a parking ticket, in the car park behind the Hotel in Castelaine on the Route Napoleon, often wonder what became of it. Also a red one in a scrappy in Essex.