The Mitsubishi GTO is one of those cars that at the time was a halo of the JDM 1990’s era - but largely has been forgotten, and that is a shame. Because it is a very cool car.




It also came under several guises, the ‘3000GT’ in some markets and the ‘Dodge Stealth’ in America. But we don’t talk about that last one, because they were front wheel drive only and somehow, they managed to really uggo-fy it, the way American's of the 1990's seemed to do with cars at the time.






Yeech…

But seeing the (quite rate) odd GTO around, when I was younger, I don’t think quite appreciated how powerful and advanced they were for their time. 280+ horsepower V6 engine, twin turbos, constant all wheel drive, four wheel steering, variable exhaust, active aerodynamic aids, active damping and six gears.

And of course, pop up headlights….

And pop down front aero….

And pop up rear spoiler…





Seriously, this is some real F1 car downforce shit, available on a production car.

The look of this car was somewhat decisive at the time, and though I appreciate it now, I think it’s a little too busy for what it was.

But of course, since they kept this car around for 10 years, it went through a number of facelifts, looking (in my opinion) progressively worse each time as it tried to chase the trends of that era.



1993 facelift


1998 facelift


But all in all, a seriously cool car, which according to its advertising, is at least as fast, if not faster, than a horse.