Mitsubishi GTO 3 litre Twin Turbo - Is it any good?

[WEHGuy]

I was having a look at the classifieds and stumbled across one so, decided to look more into them. I'm surprised you can get them sub 2k, Are they any good? Could they be the cheapest way to get nearly 300BHP? Any views appreciated.

[Boosted LS1]

I've heard that they can be very good but an absolute money pit when things go wrong and they do go wrong.

[300bhp/ton]

WEHGuy said:

I was having a look at the classifieds and stumbled across one so, decided to look more into them. I'm surprised you can get them sub 2k, Are they any good? Could they be the cheapest way to get nearly 300BHP? Any views appreciated.

I actually like the look of them.

But they are big, heavy and complex. Potentially very expensive to maintain, not all that quick and from most reviews not a great drive either.


If you want big HP then a Jag is a better bet. V12 XJS or as cheap as £1200-1500 a 6.0 litre V12 XJ12 (XJ40 shape). £3-3.5k will get you a V8 Camaro which weighs less and is easier to run. 5.0 V8 Mustangs can be had for £2k on occasion, less HP but only weigh about 1400kg.

[Fidgits]

in a word.

no.

[pits]

Boosted LS1 said:

I've heard that they can be very good butat being an absolute money pit when things go wrong and they do go wrong.

EFA

[wombat172a]

I did look at these at one point, but the first one I looked at had a dodgy starter motor. Not normally a major problem to overcome on most cars.

But upon opening the bonnet I was pretty overwhelmed by the huge amount of unidentifiable trickery in the engine bay, and the starter motor was hidden somewhere very very deep. Getting to it would be quite a challenge

I walked away and I've never looked back.

[TEKNOPUG]

Buy a Soarer.

The GTO's were technological tour-de-forces in their day and therefore still cost lots to maintain and run properly.

[Dr.Doofenshmirtz]

Lovely cars...but if they go wrong you'd better be good with a spanner set!!

[soad]

TEKNOPUG said:

Buy a Soarer.

Good call.

[WEHGuy]

300bhp/ton said:

WEHGuy said:

I was having a look at the classifieds and stumbled across one so, decided to look more into them. I'm surprised you can get them sub 2k, Are they any good? Could they be the cheapest way to get nearly 300BHP? Any views appreciated.

I actually like the look of them.

But they are big, heavy and complex. Potentially very expensive to maintain, not all that quick and from most reviews not a great drive either.


If you want big HP then a Jag is a better bet. V12 XJS or as cheap as £1200-1500 a 6.0 litre V12 XJ12 (XJ40 shape). £3-3.5k will get you a V8 Camaro which weighs less and is easier to run. 5.0 V8 Mustangs can be had for £2k on occasion, less HP but only weigh about 1400kg.

I have a BMW E39 535 for wafting. I thought the 3000GT was Mitsubishi's flagship model and would be a hoot to drive?

[Gad-Westy]

WEHGuy said:

300bhp/ton said:

WEHGuy said:

I was having a look at the classifieds and stumbled across one so, decided to look more into them. I'm surprised you can get them sub 2k, Are they any good? Could they be the cheapest way to get nearly 300BHP? Any views appreciated.

I actually like the look of them.

But they are big, heavy and complex. Potentially very expensive to maintain, not all that quick and from most reviews not a great drive either.


If you want big HP then a Jag is a better bet. V12 XJS or as cheap as £1200-1500 a 6.0 litre V12 XJ12 (XJ40 shape). £3-3.5k will get you a V8 Camaro which weighs less and is easier to run. 5.0 V8 Mustangs can be had for £2k on occasion, less HP but only weigh about 1400kg.

I have a BMW E39 535 for wafting. I thought the 3000GT was Mitsubishi's flagship model and would be a hoot to drive?

Never driven but none of the magazine reviews at the time seemed to rate them as a driver's car. Seemed to be all grip and no involvement. Worth seeing for yourself though.

[dudleybloke]

i love then but i would never buy a 2 grand one!
they are very complicated and certain parts can be very expensive.
just look under the bonnet and see how much pipework there is and such little room to work.
they can be very expensive to get lots of power out of as I'v heard the pistons and conrods will need changing if you want to go over 350bhp (i think).

Edited by dudleybloke on Thursday 12th August 16:53

[300bhp/ton]

WEHGuy said:

300bhp/ton said:

WEHGuy said:

I was having a look at the classifieds and stumbled across one so, decided to look more into them. I'm surprised you can get them sub 2k, Are they any good? Could they be the cheapest way to get nearly 300BHP? Any views appreciated.

I actually like the look of them.

But they are big, heavy and complex. Potentially very expensive to maintain, not all that quick and from most reviews not a great drive either.


If you want big HP then a Jag is a better bet. V12 XJS or as cheap as £1200-1500 a 6.0 litre V12 XJ12 (XJ40 shape). £3-3.5k will get you a V8 Camaro which weighs less and is easier to run. 5.0 V8 Mustangs can be had for £2k on occasion, less HP but only weigh about 1400kg.

I have a BMW E39 535 for wafting. I thought the 3000GT was Mitsubishi's flagship model and would be a hoot to drive?

As I say, I actually love the way they look. And on paper they should be great. But even with AWD they struggle to better 6 sec to 60mph, so their rolling performance can't be great.

They were a technical showcase, active aerodynamics on early cars. Although much of this stuff was absent on latter examples.

Many a year back Jeremy Clarkson did a best drivers car video (pre DVD), it was his 2nd solo vid. It had Tim Harvey (BTCC driver) and Richard Burns (superb WRC driver and champion). I think the GTO was rated last and by some margin from a fair size selection of cars.

I think it grips ok, so point and squirt driving, it's just not the most fun or best drivers tool. This is only from what I've read mind, not first hand experience.

Also I think some weigh in near 1850kg's! Which considering it's age was really really heavy.

As a side note, they where also sold in the US as Dodge Stealth's for a number of years.

[MX7]

A friend had one, and I thought it was fairly impressive, but open the bonnet, and it looks a nightmare to do anything on it. Unless you are very competent, most jobs would have to be done by a garage.

He spent a very long time trying to find a nice one. There are a lot of poorly maintained/crash repaired/undesirable spec. ones about.

[RobCrezz]

Not nearly as fast as you would expect.

[WEHGuy]

Okay thread over, I won't be going down this route.

[Chris71]

300bhp/ton said:

Many a year back Jeremy Clarkson did a best drivers car video (pre DVD), it was his 2nd solo vid. It had Tim Harvey (BTCC driver) and Richard Burns (superb WRC driver and champion). I think the GTO was rated last and by some margin from a fair size selection of cars.

That's my only real recollection of the GTO. I'd always take Clarkson with a pinch of salt, but it got absolutely, categorically slated if I remember correctly.

[cptsideways]

Try fixing anything on one Makes modern VW repairs look like childs play in comparison.

No dont do it, buy a Soarer instead

[300bhp/ton]

Chris71 said:

300bhp/ton said:

Many a year back Jeremy Clarkson did a best drivers car video (pre DVD), it was his 2nd solo vid. It had Tim Harvey (BTCC driver) and Richard Burns (superb WRC driver and champion). I think the GTO was rated last and by some margin from a fair size selection of cars.

That's my only real recollection of the GTO. I'd always take Clarkson with a pinch of salt, but it got absolutely, categorically slated if I remember correctly.

I recall it was Richard Burns who had the most to say about it. I'll have to dig the vid out.

[Kindersley]

I remember a friend importing 10 of these years ago. We went to Dublin to pick them up. ALL had had one of the computer boards nicked from them. So the cars would not run part of the active steering etc ?

Guy had to buy the boards back at £600 each from a "local dealer" !!!