1997 Mitsubishi 3000gt Vr-4 Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart Sedan

Ever since I pined for a new Starion while I was driving a beige Toyota sedan in high school, I've had a great affection for sporty Mitsubishis. That means that I keep my eyes open for such cars while making my appointed junkyard rounds, especially the more obscure machines. Cordia Turbos, Tredia Turbos, Colt Turbos, Conquests, and — of course — interesting variations on the Lancer theme (no, not this kind of Lancer, nor this kind) make up my Mitsubishi junkyard-photography shopping list. Just recently, I spotted this 2005 Lancer Ralliart in a Denver yard, right next to a clean 2006 MINI Cooper S. The O-Z Rally Edition Lancers sold very well in Colorado, and so I find plenty of them (nearly all missing their original O-Z wheels) in the car graveyards in these parts. Most of the O-Z Lancers came in bright yellow paint. When I spotted a discarded yellow Lancer with special decklid badging, I thought I had run across yet another cool-looking-but-slow, appearance-package Lancer. A closer look (and a VIN check, because car owners "upgrade" with badge swaps all the time) revealed the truth: not a dime-a-dozen O-Z Rally but a genuine, numbers-matching Ralliart! As a matter of fact, I do find Lancer Evolutions (and Subaru WRXs) in Colorado U-Wrench-type yards, but they're always so thoroughly crashed and/or gutted that I don't bother photographing them. The 2005 Ralliart was no Evo, of course, but it came with a 162-horsepower 4G69 2.4-liter straight-four instead of the regular Lancer's 120-horse 4G94. Throw in the Ralliart's four-wheel-disc brakes plus its suspension upgrades, add the front seats out of the Japan-market Evolution GTA, and you had a reasonably quick car for just $18,499 (about $25,000 in 2019 dollars). That was a pretty good deal, at a time when the Dodge Neon SRT-4 cost $20,700, the Chevy Cobalt SS started at $21,995, the Volkswagen 1.8T GTI went for $19,510, and the Honda Civic Si cost $19,220 (though all but the Civic Si boasted more power than the Lancer Ralliart). A five-speed manual came as standard equipment on the Ralliart, though I fear many (probably most) American buyers chose the optional slushbox. This car has the five-speed. In theory, the powertrain from this car ought to be a not-too-difficult swap into any number of cheap-as-dirt 1980s Dodge/Plymouth Colts, and I hope some Colt-owning junkyard shopper grabs the guts from this car for that purpose.

Nissan's purchase of Mitsubishi is officially official

After the company's announcement in May, the Nissan's purchase of a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi is now official. The deal cost Nissan $2.3 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, and brings Mitsubishi into the Nissan-Renault Alliance. The company explained that this new partnership will manifest itself in shared vehicle platforms and technology, joint purchasing, and shared manufacturing. Nissan also said that this purchase will make the company one of the three largest companies by volume in the world. Nissan also emphasized that Mitsubishi will very much be a partner in the current alliance with Renault. In addition, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Nissan and Renault, has been nominated to be the new chairman of the Mitsubishi board. With Ghosn at the head of the board, current Mitsubishi president and CEO, Osamu Masuko, will remain in his positions but Nissan's current chief competitive officer will join Masuko as co-chief executive officer at Mitsubishi. With these companies now working together, we'll probably start seeing more commonality between Nissan and Mitsubishi products here in the States. It would also be a great opportunity to get some of Mitsubishi's cooler products here. Perhaps Mitsubishi and Nissan will take our hint about the Delica. This article has been revised to clarify that Nissan Motors purchased the stake in Mitsubishi, not the Nissan-Renault Alliance, and to add the value of the purchase. Related Video: News Source: Nissan, Wall Street JournalImage Credit: Issei Kato / Reuters Mitsubishi Nissan Renault renault-nissan alliance

Mitsubishi i-MiEV rallies in WAVE 2014 as support vehicle

Hey, we found somebody willing to drive a new Mitsubishi i-MiEV over 1,000 miles. The little-bitty four-seat electric vehicle will be used on the other side of the Pond as a support vehicle in the World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) road rally through the Swiss Alps this spring. Brian Orr from EV Matters Ltd. made the purchase, as he'll be providing the support vehicle for Green MotorSport Ltd.'s hand-built utility concept vehicle that's being built with an eye on deploying it in developing countries, the Auto Channel says. Another i-MiEV will be an official, 900 kilogram-plus entrant in the rally, which begins May 31 in Sindelfingen, Germany and finishes a week later in Rigi, Switzerland, with 20 towns or so in between. As many as 70 teams will be joining the party which, in 2013, set a world record for electric-vehicle parades by sending 305 of them very quietly through Zurich. Despite a tiny price tag, i-MiEV sales in the US (where it's simply known as the i) have come to a near halt as Mitsubishi gets ready to shift its plug-in focus to PHEVs. While US i sales jumped 75 percent last year to 1,029 units, the Japanese automaker has moved just four units (!) domestically during the first two months of 2014.