Ode to Lancer 

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 10/19/2018 at 18:10 • Filed to: None

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I don’t wanna see any Mitsu hate in this post. I know America in particular are not a fan, and maybe Mitsu deserve it. But they’ve made some damn cool cars and this is a place of celebration and mourning. And so help me if I hear “DSM”...

I didn’t actually realize the Lancer was dead. I knew it had gone a long time without a replacement, I thought it still lingered. I hoped there would be another generation.

But alas, it was killed last year in all except a few Asian markets.

My mate’s Evo 6 TME

I have a history with the Lancer. I’ve never owned a Mitsubishi, but a childhood friend had one as his second car (his first being an 80s Colt). It was a CE Lancer with a 1.8L. Was a beaten up riced thing, but it did the job for years. He put in the cupholders and power windows from the fancy MR model from the wreckers. Eventually it went to his fiance. She reupholstered the seats and painted the dash, it sort of became an outlet for her and a car for the family to use.

I’m light on photos, but this is pretty much what his first Lancer looked like. Riced. We were young, it was 2009

Later he got an Evo 6 TME, it was used as a car for his wedding (with my Z32). After he got sick of daily driving it, he got a Colt Ralliart with that weirdly high seating position and a buzzy, peaky 1.5L 4G15 turbo. We took it on a 3000km road trip up the coast. It got crashed. He got another. He still has both the Lancers and the Colt.

The Evo was for endless beach trips, before I moved to the city and he moved to Queensland. Pictured, my second Z32, and the Colt

During the Lancer phase I was dating a girl, her first car was a Mirage, the hatch based on the CE Lancer coupe. The same car up to the rear of the doors. We did some work, fixed some things, and when she crashed it we replaced bonnet, bumper and fenders from the wreckers.

Another girl I dated got another CE coupe as her first car. That also got crashed and repaired from the wreckers, now she has an MR Lancer.

That’s the history. I like these cars. The CE was cheap, but to me it felt well made. It had a plastic dash, but plastic is cheap and solid. The cars weighed nothing (something like 900kg for the Mirage), which made them efficient and fun despite the gutlessness of that damned 4G15. It was truly cheap and cheerful. The idea of using the same foundation for hatch/coupe/sedan/Evo meant parts sharing was incredible - useful for me and all the crashed Lancers I’ve seen. Putting fresh junk yard parts from a Lancer/Mirage onto a Lancer/Mirage for like $80, that’s the dream.

Lancer also means a lot to me. Girls I’ve dated, growing up, etc. I was around these cars every day for near-as-makes-no-difference a decade.

And Mitubishi wasn’t just Lancers. The 3000GT, despite what Mr Regular might think, is a cool car and was very much a leader of that rad 90s period. The Starion is sick. The FTO was weird. The Eclipse had its moments. I don’t think we ever got the Eclipse in Australia. And the Magna was a big deal for us for a long time.

Paragon of late-80s styling

Pour one out, Oppo. For the Lancer and the company that birthed it.

vicali > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 18:17

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404 - User No Longer Available > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 18:19

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I always thought they were cooler than Subarus...

And they did something right with the engines. The Sirius engines were used in almost every freakin Chinese brand at one point.

Maxima Speed > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 18:21

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First gen Eagle Talon and it’s comparable eclipse  was an absolutely beautiful car in my opinion, even if it was a DSM car.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 18:23

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My brother’s roommate has a last gen one, new enough to still have the factory warranty for a little while longer. It’s perfectly fine for a DD. It’s not fast, but dependable. It’s that blue that’s popular on Evo X’s, but isn’t an Evo. It has red mud flaps, and a nice sounding exhaust, so people ask him if it’s an Evo all the time.

Nauraushaun > interstate366, now In The Industry 10/19/2018 at 18:29

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I think that’s often been a big, great tactic. As long as they’ve got the Evo halo model, the lesser sporty Lancers thrive off the pedigree. Akin to the WRX selling well because there’s an STi.

It’s a good tactic, and having that super hardcore model there makes the whole model line (and Mitsubishi themselves!) look cooler.

Nauraushaun > Maxima Speed 10/19/2018 at 18:31

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FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUU

Nah that’s cool. I do like the first and second gens. Not a fan of the FWD, but the AWD option made it worthwhile.

But I’m Australian so I’ve never seen an Eclipse or an Eagle or anything, it confuses me greatly.

Nauraushaun > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/19/2018 at 18:34

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Mmm that 4G63T. Everyone dreams of swapping that into a coupe/hatch. Engine bay is more or less the same see. It’s been done, complete with the AWD drivetrain.

Drivetrain has to be shortened since the Evo drivetrain was never available on the shorter wheelbase hatch/coupe.

Nauraushaun > vicali 10/19/2018 at 18:35

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Yes. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Back when you could buy what was more or less a rally car for the street. That Evo 6 is brutal.

But those days are gone. They’ve stopped winning, they’ve stopped selling, the Lancer is dead.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 18:42

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Yep. The Focus RS and Civic Type R are a couple more in that vein. I recently drove a friend’s tuned RS and absolutely loved it. I’m still a Honda guy at heart, but if the RS depreciates and the CTR doesn’t I may well end up with an RS down the line.

Kanaric > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 18:50

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I don’t see Mitsubishi get must hate other than their being notoriously unreliable in the 90s and earlier. You don’t see very many of them on the road. The EVOs on t he other hand that were sold int he US are very common and see to hold up a lot better than t he 3000GT or Eclipse.

One car I would love to have would be a 2g Eclipse with EVO VIII or IX drivetrain and assorted upgrades. Nobody seems to build those cars anymore though.

Under_Score > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 19:02

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If Mitsubishi had a better brand outlook in the states and the car had more power, I’d probably be driving an Outlander right now. That generation of Outlander (2010-2013) is so hard to find that it would be kind of cool; meanwhile, there are at least five or six other RAV4's in the same unique color as mine around here.

and 100 more > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 19:16

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I have a soft spot for Mitsus. I had an ‘ 87 Galant as my second car. It was an oddball:

I have no idea what the trim level was, because even though brand-related internet forums were a thing, the main focus was always the current generation of that model/brand. Since mine was older, there wasn’t a ton of online documentation, and nobody really knew much about them. Besides which, late 80's Mitsus were pretty obscure anyway.

I think it much have been either a high trim level, or Mitsu was just making all options as standard, because it had some really cool features. It originally came with an adjustable pneumatic suspension, that you could use to change the ride height or adjust the firmness.. in theory. The previous owners had replaced the pneumatic struts with regular gas struts, losing the adjustability. It sat awkwardly high in the rear, because the stand a rd struts were longer than the pn eumatic ones. There was a press urized steel cylinder that bolted between the top of the rear strut and the body on each side, and while the standard strut bolted right up, it had about an extra 3 inches of height because of the steel cylinder.

Mine also came with this awesome dark, dark blue metallic paint, that was almost black, but would turn shocking blue under the right light. And limo tint.

The seats were cushy, and the front seats had a separate tilt function for the shoulder area. The driver seat also had this extendable lever that you could use to raise /lower the seat, and an adjustable lumbar support. Also, a cd-stereo head unit with a 7- or 8- band equalizer, and audio controls on the steering wheel.

It was a blast to drive. 

Nauraushaun > Kanaric 10/19/2018 at 19:28

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But what was reliable back then? The Z32 has a reputation for being unreliable. The Rx7 has a reputation for being unreliable. The Supra/NSX/SVX were sold in such niche small numbers, it makes sense they don’t share the same reputation, even if it were true.

Nauraushaun > interstate366, now In The Industry 10/19/2018 at 19:28

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Exactly! And the M5 etc. Enough manufacturers don’t bother making a proper sporty model. But when they do it’s fantastic.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 20:10

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Yea but DSM is awesome...

I do love me some Evo 8 too

Nauraushaun > and 100 more 10/19/2018 at 20:13

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That’s a funny gen. Before the popular 90s hit, 80s Japanese cars have so little information about them on the web.

Wow! My old Z31 was available with that fancy suspension in the 80s too. I think the Z32 had it in some parts of the world, particularly the 97+ JDM models.

The Galant sounds really dope. What happened to it?

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 20:17

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Yeah, Mazda and Toyota stick out in that regard (though Toyota does occasionally throw a full-on Lexus F model out there instead of just the F-sport...Mazda though... ). I know you don’t have Acura there, but their old Type S models were typically just slightly more powerful versions of the same engine as the lower trims. My TL is probably close to a full sport version: in addition to the bigger engine they added AWD with a torque vectoring system to improve handling, and a manual was only available on the AWD model. But it only has about 25 more HP/tq  than the base model.

not for canada - australian in disguise > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 20:50

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Mitsubishi made some great cars. In my mind, they stopped existing when the Evo was discontinued. Everyone goes on about how great MMC’s performance cars were, but let’s not forget their supremely underrated luxury and near-luxury cars, most notably the Debonair.

I

t’s a damn shame Mitsubishi never launched a luxury brand like Nissan or Toyota, because it could’ve been a great success. Instead they basically just half-assed it with the Diamante (or Sigma in Europe and Magna in Australia and New Zealand) , which was a pretty damn good car, but had barely any marketing devoted to it and people just thought it was a Galant. The Diamante is especially rare up here in Canada, as they only sold it for about a year before axing it completely . Not a complete surprise, as full size cars have never really done well at all here since the 80s.

Also, the Debonair had the distinction along with it’s smaller Galant brother of being one of the only AMGs to not wear a three-pointed-star up front.

and 100 more > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 21:33

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To be honest, I’m not sure what happened to it. I was driving home (I still lived with my folks) from work one day, and it started to lose power about halfway home, then continued to get   worse the closer I got to home.

My dad was all about tearing into it and fixing the problem, but I was young and dumb and had saved up enough money to buy another car, so off I went, and the Galant   was parked in the back yard for years. My dad wasn’t interested in working on it without me (I regret this wasted opportunity   now), so finally he decided to scrap it. He put out an ad to have someone take it for $100, and two guys showed up, barely spoke English (one was named Tecolote), and within about an hour one of them   drove that fucker out the gate. I don’t know what magic he did, but I was blown away. No idea where it went from there.

Here’s some pics ( not mine) of what it looked like - so damn 80s.

Nauraushaun > not for canada - australian in disguise 10/19/2018 at 22:06

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That early AMG is such an oddball.

The Magna did well in Aus. They were built here and did a pretty good job of fighting the Commodore and Falcon for many years.

Nauraushaun > and 100 more 10/19/2018 at 22:17

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Haha, wow. Very cool. Looks a lot like our Magna, which I believe was a Galant they cut down the middle and made wider.

I wonder if it survived this long

f86sabre > Nauraushaun 10/19/2018 at 23:03

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Nice write up. My 03 Evo VIII is sitting about 25 ft from me. I still remember driving it home when I bought it new 15 years ago. It brought both my kids home from the hospital when they were born. It got me and my wife safely to the hospital for the second kid during an ice storm.

Before the Evo was an Eclipse GS-T. It was a pretty green car.  Needed a bit more power, but it was fun.

Nauraushaun > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 00:47

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Nice! Mitsu fan over here!

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun 10/20/2018 at 05:46

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my CH Lancer is still going strong, mind you the  driveshafts have finally given up the ghost. now making loud knocking noise upon acceleration in a straight line

Nauraushaun > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/21/2018 at 07:48

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Haha excellent. If I remember it right it’s got a billion and a half kms on it.

I went to Sandown today and have some cool pics incoming :)

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun 10/21/2018 at 07:50

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awesome.

what was on at Sa ndown?

Nauraushaun > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/21/2018 at 08:36

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Just a friend with his dad, racing their prepped HQ

Kanaric > Nauraushaun 10/23/2018 at 15:21

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Z32 has a reputation for being hard to work on. Same with the RX7. Z32 was reliable if you didn’t mod it.

A Starion for example uses TBI injection and people have had all kinds of issues. Also the heads on those cars would crack. Also the 3000GT was known for transmission failures.

RX7 was reliable up until 100k. The entire car was reliable aside the engine, which didn’t have good longevity. 3000GT transmissions were breaking at less than 20k and they had electronic issues. You could also rebuild the rotary in the RX7 for a fairly inexpensive price. I knew one guy who would do it for $2000. A new trans for 3000GT was expensive af and building it to handle the car with proper gears was ridiculous.

It’s like the pre-2008 Cayman with IMS bearings. It cost a friend of mine almost $10k to rebuild that car and it was random. The RX7 was predictable when it would fail and if it did it wasn’t expensive.

Aside that, talking US market, the Toyota Celica Alltrac was WAY more reliable than a Mitsubishi Eclipse. The problem with the Alltrac though was it was expensive.

With the Lancer though you can’t fault them. They are stout reliable cars. It’s just in the US we didn’t get them until 2002. By then Mitsubishi already had a bad reputation since the 80s. I see WAY more early USDM lancers on the road than I saw Eclipse 10 years now. Starions are pratically extinct. I haven’t seen one in YEARS and I see RX7s all the time, though mostly at amateur motorsport events.

Nauraushaun > Kanaric 10/24/2018 at 04:19

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I sounds like you know what you’re talking about. Shame you didn’t get those Lancers, Australians lapped them up as a small, cheap, and even cool car.

I haven’t seen a Starion in forever either :(