I do admittedly feel a little guilty, not for buying the car.... rather I can't even begin to try and recall how many adverts I've read recently for cars being sold purely for the reason of an expected child.
I've known for a while I wanted a project. I have bugged many a petrolhead friend, bouncing build ideas off them to try and help make my mind up. My ideas ranged from sleeper T5 Volvos, to classic restorations, to taking a new Beetle, doing a AWD swap from a 4motion Golf and the engine from who knows what to make a modern Frankenbeetle rat rod (I do admittedly still like that idea... maybe in the future...). My decision in the end realistically came down to two options. A classic with a wicked engine swap or something JDM. If I went the classic route I was mainly thinking a busa into a beetle or mini. I saw a couple of Beetles, but without the ability to weld that idea was a bit of a no-go because a clean one cost to much, so instead this was my choice.....
This is my 1991 Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo. When new it had 280bhp and lots of torques. It has AWD and AWS. It has some toys that help me unleash my inner child... every man loves a button for pop up headlights... don't they? It also has Active Aero front and rear and a button that makes my exhaust quiet (although I don't think that will get much use somehow...) I think the car was trying to be Mitsubishi's answer to other similar spec sports Coupes coming out of Japan at the time, however its toys left it heavy in comparison to its more basic rivals. Weight left it slightly slower, although 0-60 took around 5 seconds so it is still no slouch even by today's standards,
Over the next couple of months I aim to get to know the car. Learn what I love about the car and learn its flaws. Early next year I will start making changes and tweaks to it. I've had fast Japanese cars in the past, but never really had one to wrench on that wasn't a daily driver, so I will be starting small at first and working up to bigger jobs down the line. I'm not going to be preaching how to do things, more talking about how I've done things which undoubtedly will be how not to!
If you would like to laugh at my lack of progress in real time you can follow me on social sites by clicking the links below or search the @s :
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