1992 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR

[Jon_A]

Hi all,

Long time lurker on the PH forums but ive not posted until now, I wondered if any of you would be interested in my 1992 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR

A bit of back story

When I was 17 years old back in college in 1998, a friend of mine (also 17!) had a group N Mitsubishi Evo 1 RS as his first car, despite being quite interested in cars I had never really heard of a Mitsubishi Evolution, (this was before the Evo 4/5/6+ started to be imported into the country and id sort of missed it on Gran Turismo) I was pretty curious about this stripped out Mitsubishi he used to arrive in. One day after college, my friend offered me a lift home, he took it quite easy for a while and I just thought it was pretty cool to drive round in a rally car with Sparco seats and racing seatbelts, but then we came to a clear bit of road, he put his foot down and I was absolutely stunned by the performance! it felt savagely quick! the kick in the back from the turbo was something else! and certanly like nothing I had experienced before, the acceleration felt relentless! the brakes felt incredible and the way it gripped around corners just didnt feel real! coupled with the engine roar and the chirps from the turbo, it was a fantastic experience......Suddenly my 1.1 Ford Escort popular didnt cut it any more! I desperately wanted an Evo but being only 17 it wasnt very likely, so I promised myself that I would one day have a White Mitsubishi Evo 1. A few years passed by and despite owning some very nice cars, E46 M3, S2000, various hot hatches, a couple of later Evos and now currently a Golf R, Id always wanted a white Evo 1 but it never seemed to be the right time and years went on, finding one in good unmodified condition seemed pretty much impossible unless I wanted to import one from Japan (I was quoted 12k for this back in 2014) but then this one popped up on Pistonheads in September 2015

Here are the fantastic pictures from the previous owner on his advert

content_evo_i_front_three_quarter by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

content_evo_i by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

content_evo_i_rear by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

MLR2_zps2e31e1cf by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

content_evo_i_engine by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

MLR4_zps4bc631c3 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

content_evo_i_recaro_seats by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

content_evo_i_rear_spoiler by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

e1-2 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

I pretty much knew I was going to buy it as soon as I saw it, It is a GSR model, which includes Air con, Recaro seats and a couple of other things and is about 50/60kgs heavier than the RS version at 1250kg, it had around 46000 miles on it, It was standard apart from the Evo 2 wheels and some front Ohlins suspension, with quite a comprehensive history, including some of the Original Japanese booklets etc, A few days later and I was in Wales handing over the money, I bought it from a very nice guy who had actually purchashed an NSX but despite this he was still sorry to see the Evo go, Id imagine it was pretty much perfect for the welsh roads, I thought id better get away quick in case he changed his mind!

I had a great drive home through Wales, I remembered what I love about these cars, they are so nimble! easy to drive, easy to see out of, no one really knows what they are, and they can still hold their own in the performance stakes even to this day! .......although when you get on the motorway it really does feel like it needs a 6th gear, its really buzzing away at 70/80 mph, The Evo 1/2/3s have a very close ratio gearbox and the car is almost totally geared towards acceleration, but the recaro seats are very comfy and supportive so not too much of an issue

When I got home and had a much closer look at the car, It had obviously been looked after very well but it was now 23 years old at that point and needed some tlc in some areas, so with the help of my cousin, it has been undergoing a bit of a gentle restoration over the last couple of years, along with driving it of course! .....

[Jon_A]

MDMA . said:

Looks like a good one. How come it's on an 06 plate?

Thanks ah yes I forgot to mention the plate, The DVLA managed to mix up the build date with the import date and put it on an 06 plate, Mitsubishi had to write a letter to the DLVA with the build date of February 1992 and it is now on its correct J plate

[Jon_A]

Thanks for the kind words guys

I will update it soon with a few of the jobs and things ive done on it since owning it

To answer a couple of the questions, the Momo steering wheel is standard, All the Evos come with a Momo wheel and gearknob and Recaro seats which makes the interior a slightly nicer place to be

Yes the car was a used Japanese import, but it was imported before I owned the car

As for my plans for the car, Ive only ever intended to keep the car standard, despite the fact that the car would respond really well to modifications, and I have been tempted a couple of times! but I really just like it as it is I find that it is really nicely sprung for our UK roads, the ride isn't harsh, fairly supple to be honest, Its pretty comfortable when youre just cruising round. The engine is rated at about 250 bhp and coupled with the low weight and very close ratio gearbox, it makes it quick enough for all id ever want on the road, Id say really there isn't much in it performance wise (acceleration at least) between the Evo and my Golf R, although the Golf is a lot more effortless! has better brakes and definitely has more torque, but in a way it makes the Evo more fun because you do have to work for it a bit more

[Jon_A]

Thanks for all the comments guys

I drove the car around for a few months after I got it and all was fine, It performed very well, no reliability issues, you do miss some of the modern day creature comforts when driving these cars but in a way I find that quite nice, you can just concentrate on the driving, there's no infotainment (other than a radio!) to distract you, just basically, steering wheel, pedals and gearstick....and not much else! However, after a few months I decided to carry out some maintenance and put my Golf R back into daily use, nothing major really needed doing but as the car was about 25 years old at this point there were a few jobs to do,

The car was firstly serviced, new oil, filter, air filter, fuel filter etc including belts

The next thing to do was give it a good old clean! although it actually does look good when its got a bit of dirt on it to give it the rally look!

IMG_2168 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_2171 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_7084 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_7085 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr


I also gave it a machine polish, I'm not sure if the picture shows it very well but hopefully you can see the difference, left hand side has been polished, it really made the paintwork much shinier

IMG_7846 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr


Then the next thing I really wanted to do was replace the suspension all round, the car had only done around 48000 miles at this point but you could feel the suspension was quite worn, probably due to the age of the shocks etc and there were a few creaking noises coming from it here and there, I dont actually have many pictures of this, but here are the shocks when they arrived

IMG_5518 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

My cousin and I fitting them -

IMG_8511 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

and fitted

IMG_2296 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures but we replaced everything suspension related, the shocks, the top mounts, the drop links , all the bushes, all replaced with brand new OEM ones which made the car feel a lot better, the ride was massively improved, no longer crashing over bumps and no more creaks coming from it

The next thing I wanted to do was clean up the front end of the car.....the intercooler in particular was looking very much like it had seen better days!

IMG_8860 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_9909 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

So a new one was ordered from Viamoto, a company who specialise in Japanese car parts

IMG_8861 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

and fitted

IMG_8866 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

While the bumper was off I I decided to clean it up a bit too, we took out all the old rusty screws, and replaced them with new ones, and gave it a proper clean

you can just about see the intercooler spray in the middle of the picture above the mini rachet
IMG_9680 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

Really did need a clean!

IMG_9780 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr


bit of a 50/50
IMG_9793 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

and all put back together again

IMG_9858 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

Even a new Mitsubishi badge to go with it

IMG_9871 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_9872 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

and back on the car
IMG_9878 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_9881 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

I cant say I really noticed any difference in the way the car drove with the new intercooler, but I did have piece of mind that it wasn't going to fall apart at least! and the front end was a lot fresher looking

IMG_2024 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

One other small thing was that for some reason the car was missing of its factory stickers, I'm not sure if they were an option in the first place but my car didn't have them, so I managed to get some GSR Evolution stickers made up from a company in Canada along with the "full time 4WD" sticker for the rear window

IMG_2344 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_2343 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

IMG_2324 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

bfc0cc2d-2c40-4896-a379-6425339609c7 by Jonathan ADAMS, on Flickr

The car was still running really well at this point, costing me nothing other than the parts that I wanted to replace/refurbish and I was enjoying driving it but around this time I started to notice some funny behaviour with the clutch pedal, It would go all the way to the floor, but then not come back up, I had to hook my foot underneath it to bring it back.....and then it seemed to work as normal again for a bit....very strange! I thought that it must of been some sort of issue with the master cylinder, but looking at it, there were no leaks or anything so I decided to send the car off to Fusion Motorsport in Surrey to investigate