Shed Of The Week: Mitsubishi GTO

It's got two turbos and 280hp for £1K! The four-wheel steer? Er...

GTO. Three letters that, preceded by the right manufacturer's name, can mean the ultimate in performance and desirability. Names like Ferrari, Pontiac (though you could say the judge is out on that) and, er, Mitsubishi.

Ah yes, about that...

Yes, well you can't have everything. It was a bit cheeky of Mitsubishi to corral such a magical moniker for the JDM version of their heavy-breathing two plus two coopaye. They were a bit more thoughtful about nomenclature in the UK and the US, where it was called the 3000GT and the Dodge Stealth respectively.

Shed remembers spending a couple of days in the official Mitsubishi UK 3000GT test car. It may seem unlikely now, given that we're so used to supersized cars these days, but driving the beast back then was a pretty daunting prospect. Not only did it have a 3-litre twin turbo engine producing over 280hp - which was considered quite a lot at one time - it was also disconcertingly large and unwieldy for British streets. Again, that might seem odd now but Shed assures us that this was a car he approached for the first time with a healthy degree of respect.

This is certainly one of those cars that polarises opinion. Haters deride it for its oddly underwhelming performance (given the mechanical spec), but supporters are near-rabid in its defence. It's true that, even by today's engorged standards, 1,750kg is not exactly svelte, but you'd have thought that the motor would have been more than up to the job of shifting it along at a sprightly rate.

Well this bit of the interior seems alright

In reality, any pre-drive trepidation on Shed's part was unwarranted. To counter any rowdiness from the big blown six, the GT had all manner of mechanical (normal diff up front, viscous coupling in the middle and LSD at the rear), electronic and 'active aero' tackle designed to keep it pointing in the right direction. Or take all the fun out of it, depending on how you view it. The late lamented Richard Burns likened it to driving a whale.

Still, leaving the lardiness to one side, we lesser mortals should be able to get a buzz out of it - if the CPU holds out. There was once a healthy trade in black market 3000GT boards as they often collapsed in exhaustion what with all the jobs they were being asked to do by the car, and Mitsubishi wanted a king's ransom to replace them.

Shed is happy to accept that the dull bonnet is the result of incorrect paint, rather than the result of enormous underbonnet temperatures generated during enthusiastic drifting. Nor would he dream of suggesting that the recalcitrant first gear has come about as a result of enthusiastic drifting, or that the four-wheel steer has been bypassed to facilitate enthusiastic drifting. He wouldn't say any of that, because Mrs Shed hasn't placed any conjugal demands on him lately, so he's in a good mood.

The badge is legendary at least

And after all, as the vendor more or less says, who needs first gear anyway? Besides, having to change up from first to second would ruin your chances of hitting the claimed 4.2-second time for the 0-60. That is at least a second quicker than the official 'reality', depending on whether you are a member of the 5.2sec or the 5.6sec fraternity, and is presumably the vendor's estimation of the rocketlike additional thrust made possible by the intake and exhaust mods.

Shed never was all that good at maths or physics, but even he is fairly sure that you'd need quite a bit more power than 286hp to get down to 4.2 seconds. At the risk of exposing a degree of comprehensively-educated (in the wrong sense) ignorance, he's going to say that you'd need at least 300hp per tonne for that sort of acceleration, which in a 1,750kg car would equate to something in excess of 500hp. The happy reality is that you can pump these motors up to silly outputs: check out this dude (a PHer) dusting the bottom of a 700hp Scooby owner at Elvington with his 660hp/720lb ft 3000GT. That, according to the owner, was a bone-stock motor with 100K miles up, but doubtless fitted with a few more bits than K&N filters and a chromed-up turbo tube.

Mmm, Ripspeed

Let's not quibble about the finer details of the ad. Remember the price, the increasing rarity (if you believe the internet, of the 35,000 GTS/Stealths/GTOs made, there are just over 500 left) and the fact that they were £46,000 new. If you can keep it going for a year without serious expense, with a new ticket in place, you should at least get your grand back. Ideally of course you do want to be paying rather more than £1,000 for one of these, given the fragility of electronics that aren't going to improve with age, but the prospect of nearly 300hp for the price of a rusty Fiesta surely overrides all considerations of common sense and must be too tempting to resist.

Obviously, predictably, not to say inevitably, it's been slightly barried. But Shed reckons that makes it ideal fodder for one of those European scumbag rallies one sees advertised about the place these days. Travelling in the company of like-minded fools means you'll never be that far from someone who might be able to fix it.

Here's the ad.

Twin turbo,
6 speed,
Manual,
4 wheel drive,
4 wheel steer (currently not working due to a small crack in the rear power steering pipe so it's temporarily been blocked off, but had a new rear steering rack fitted so not much work needed to fix)
Valves are a bit tappy (which has no affect on performace or the running of the vehicle)
New gearbox fitted but first gear occasioanlly doesn't engage first time due to the gear linkage (again, not a major issue)

Otherwise mechanically the car drives absolutely fine and still flies through the MOT every time.
It's very fast and still turns so many heads, I will definitely miss it.

It needs a litle TLC as the bonnet needs respraying due to a previous owner using the wrong paint.
Also someone has noticbly dinged the rear quarter panel recently where the petrol flap is.
When I bought the car I had every intention to fix all these issues but I spent all my money sorting out the engine and gearbox first and unfortunaly haven't had time to fix the vanity side of the car and now the time has come to part due to a change of jobs I can no longer keep it.

Straight through twin performance exhaust (DECAT) (the CAT will be given to the buyer but it still goes through emissions)
Upgraded chrome turbo pipe (RRP £600+)
K&N induction kit
18" OZ racing alloys (2 front tyres will need changing soon, rear ones are new)
Rear lights have been tinted

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