1993 Mitsubishi Delica L300 on 2040-cars

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Watch Mitsubishi break the EV record at Pikes Peak

Take a listen folks - you're hearing the eventual future of motorsports. This is Greg Tracy and the Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution III as they assault the treacherous course at Pikes Peak in just 9:08.188.
This run is significant for a number of reasons. As we recapped in our Pikes Peak finale post, Tracy's run was a mere two seconds off the best overall time at this year's event, snagging him and Mitsubishi second place overall, as well as first in the Electric Modified class and the fourth fastest time ever recorded. Perhaps more importantly, though, Tracy thoroughly trounced the previous EV record at Pikes Peak, beating the legendary Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima's 2013 best of 9:46.530.
It's an impressive feat, and now you can experience the whole run from as near a first-person viewpoint as you're going to get. Scroll down and have a look.

No one wants to buy Mitsubishi's only US plant

Mitsubishi Motors will very likely close its factory in Normal, IL, later this year after failing to find another company in the auto market to take over its only manufacturing site in the US. "We have given up looking for an automaker to buy the plant, but we are looking for possible buyers from other industries," a Mitsubishi spokesperson told Reuters. Mitsubishi announced plans to leave the site in 2015 to shift its business strategy toward Asia. The factory started as a joint venture with Chrysler in 1988 and was the only plant from a Japanese automaker in the US with a UAW-represented workforce. This was allegedly a sticking point when finding a buyer because other companies in the industry didn't want to take on the union employees' contract. The Normal factory ended assembly of the Outlander Sport in November 2015 and laid off 1,000 workers at that time. The site will continue to make car parts until May, and then Mitsubishi will let go of the remaining 250 employees. The costs of shutting down the factory could be as high as 30 billion yen ($255 million), but a company spokesperson wouldn't confirm that figure to Reuters. Mitsubishi's fortunes seem on the upswing in the US as of late. The company's deliveries jumped 22.8 percent in 2015 to a total of 95,342 vehicles, and the last fiscal year brought the automaker's first operating profit in this region in seven years. Related Video:

This Mitsubishi Colt Galant is a GTO from Japan

The letters GTO have been used by several automakers – each from different countries. Depending on where your automotive enthusiasm is centered, you might associate the name with Pontiac or with Ferrari. But those weren't the only ones to use those letters. So did Mitsubishi. In fact, the 3000GT (also known as the Dodge Stealth) that competed with the likes of the Toyota Supra and Nissan 300ZX back in the 1990s was sold as the GTO back home in Japan. But Mitsu didn't pull that name out of nowhere. It was merely the revival of an old nameplate. Back in the 1970s, Mitsubishi used those letters on a version of the Colt, of all things. And that's what Petrolicious has profiled in this latest video. This Seventies-era Mitsubishi Colt Galant GTO GSR belongs to one Matt De Mangos, an enthusiast, collector, and consummate tinkerer out in California who fell in love with the vintage pocket rocket. Since the Colt Galant GTO was designed for the Japanese Domestic Market, few ever made it to other markets. So De Mangos imported one privately to the United States, and invested a lot of time into researching and restoring the vehicle. The result may not be the usual classic you'd expect to see an American hot-rodder restoring, but that's apparently just the way Matt likes it. Hear his story in the video above.