RE: Shed Of The Week: Mitsubishi FTO
Discussion
I remember always being intrigued by these due to the original Grand Turrissimo game, where it was one of the best early cars. By the time my MX5 was supercharged (2001) I got to know the owner of a MIVEC FTO. I remmber being excited when he took me for a drive, but the experience was not pleasant as the noise from the engine was rough and the tipronic gearbox left the car feeling like it was a kangaroo acceleration wise. Now it might have been a bad version of the car for all I know - the owner sold it and bought a MX-5 BBR stage 1, which caused him no end of problems, so perhaps he was just unlucky. It did, however, cloud my view on these cars.
S10GTA said:
Had a GS back in 2004ish. FT-Slow it was christened. Enjoyed it tho.
Used to have a mate around that same time that had one of the Tiptronic ones and he told me he got out-accelerated by one of those MG hatches (MG ZR?), and he was quite peed off about it. Never understood it at the time and assumed he either wasn't driving it properly or his FTO was knackered, as on paper it <should> have been the faster car. But probably that 'box that lost that battle.I really fancied them in the early noughties but they all started to get the Fast and Furious treatment and I've not seen a genuinely nice one in many a year. The Mivec ones did sound nice, but a few times I heard one approaching sounding like it was being given death and then it would go past at a snail's pace!
Oddly, they are apparently as fast as an R33 GTR according to Jackie Chan's 'Thunderbolt'!
I had always wanted one of these, since playing Gran Turismo and then, when I turned 25 and could afford the insurance, bought a GPX - 11 years ago now, as my first "proper" car. I kept it for a couple of years and during that time spent far too much money on it- the most costly of which was having the gearbox converted from a 4-speed auto to a 5-speed manual (from a GPvR so had an LSD) with lightened flywheel and then having to have the engine replaced after the bottom-end went (likely not helped by the oil-leakyness as mentioned in the original article!).
Personally, I still think it was a nice looking car though:
Personally, I still think it was a nice looking car though:
I had one of these - lovely car to drive and people seemed to like it.
This was about 10 or so years ago when they were a rare thing in the UK, and before the Barryboys got hold of them and ruined the image. The owners club went from being mature and sensible to an influx of idiots fitting stupid wings and carbon fibre bonnets.
Sadly mine got written of in a nasty rear end shunt.
This was about 10 or so years ago when they were a rare thing in the UK, and before the Barryboys got hold of them and ruined the image. The owners club went from being mature and sensible to an influx of idiots fitting stupid wings and carbon fibre bonnets.
Sadly mine got written of in a nasty rear end shunt.
The tiptronic gearbox was horrible when left in 'auto'. I always drove it in 'tip' mode so I could control it rather than auto as in auto it had no concept of changing down the gears properly. It would go 4-3-1 missing out 2nd entirely and would remain in 3rd until coming to an absolute stop. This meant that if you rolled up to a junction and wanted to pull out quickly while still moving it would still be in 3rd and you'd have to wait for the kickdown to realise you actually needed 1st.
It wasn't unique to my car either - it was a common complaint on the owners club and appeared to be a 'software' issue, as it was possible to overcome it when driving using the tiptronic. I'm not sure if the 5-speed tiptronic that was fitted to the later facelift cars had this same annoying behavior or not. Anyone know?
It wasn't unique to my car either - it was a common complaint on the owners club and appeared to be a 'software' issue, as it was possible to overcome it when driving using the tiptronic. I'm not sure if the 5-speed tiptronic that was fitted to the later facelift cars had this same annoying behavior or not. Anyone know?
PoopahScoopah said:
S10GTA said:
Had a GS back in 2004ish. FT-Slow it was christened. Enjoyed it tho.
Used to have a mate around that same time that had one of the Tiptronic ones and he told me he got out-accelerated by one of those MG hatches (MG ZR?), and he was quite peed off about it. Never understood it at the time and assumed he either wasn't driving it properly or his FTO was knackered, as on paper it <should> have been the faster car. But probably that 'box that lost that battle.In the MR2 community they were nicknamed the FTSlow. Great sounding engines though.
The 90's wouldn't have been the same without them making up the huge number of Japanese sports car choices, but like the MX3, MX6 and Paseo they were also-rans that are mostly forgotten because they disappointed.
The 90's wouldn't have been the same without them making up the huge number of Japanese sports car choices, but like the MX3, MX6 and Paseo they were also-rans that are mostly forgotten because they disappointed.
BigMacDaddy said:
Err, me 
Just picked this up last weekend, it's a GP version R with the LSD, manual box etc (and no rust!!!). Four-hour drive home in it was enjoyable enough, seems well-screwed together and the engine has a nice note to it. Road-holding is very good even in the wet, the diff certainly seems to help here as you can really throw it into/out of the corners and it just keeps gripping. There are a lot of ropy ones out there though, definitely worth checking the MOT history as even the ones that look good externally seem to be hiding all sorts of corrosion underneath and around the suspension mounts/turrets.
That looks Ace!Just picked this up last weekend, it's a GP version R with the LSD, manual box etc (and no rust!!!). Four-hour drive home in it was enjoyable enough, seems well-screwed together and the engine has a nice note to it. Road-holding is very good even in the wet, the diff certainly seems to help here as you can really throw it into/out of the corners and it just keeps gripping. There are a lot of ropy ones out there though, definitely worth checking the MOT history as even the ones that look good externally seem to be hiding all sorts of corrosion underneath and around the suspension mounts/turrets.
S10GTA said:
PoopahScoopah said:
S10GTA said:
Had a GS back in 2004ish. FT-Slow it was christened. Enjoyed it tho.
Used to have a mate around that same time that had one of the Tiptronic ones and he told me he got out-accelerated by one of those MG hatches (MG ZR?), and he was quite peed off about it. Never understood it at the time and assumed he either wasn't driving it properly or his FTO was knackered, as on paper it <should> have been the faster car. But probably that 'box that lost that battle.
My sister had a GPX MIVEC Tip in the day (I think I had an MKII XR2). The FTO was very quick and once coming up to a fly over roundabout the coast was clear and I floored it, the car had already dropped to first gear and the car catapulted me around the roundabout (I thought I was going to go down the fly over). lol
I've got an FTO GS 1.8 4 cylinder tiptronic that's bone stock. It's not superbly fast and it's not perfectly pristine (doesn't look too bad though) but it's definitely good fun and I just like owning such a distinctive and rare car. I do 2,000 miles a month in it, have no issues and there's nothing that I could even be tempted to swap it for.
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