I first became aware of the potential of Mitsubishis after reading an article in Car and Car Conversions about Lancer Turbos (Dec. 1990). This whetted my appetite and I bought a used car guide to check out the prices. It was here that I discovered the Lancer Turbo engine also powered cars called "Galant", Starion" and "Sapporo"

This was the beginning of what has become an obsession with Mitsubishi cars.   My first was a 1983 Starion which I smashed up within 3 weeks!   This left me poor and in need of the turbo rush so I bought a very sad looking/running Galant Turbo for £180.  I soon discovered a piece of one of the exhaust valves was missing and that the timing belt was one tooth out.  This was soon remedied and I was happy for a while.

The silver Galant was advertised as "spares or repair" due to a blown gearbox.  On closer inspection it was far less rusty than the brown one so on Friday 7th May 1993 I paid £250 for it.

The gearbox from the brown Galant was removed the following day along with anything else of value before being scrapped.  The silver car was then treated to this "new" gearbox and then given a road test.  It was then that I realised how knackered the brown car had been.

The Lancer was bought from a breakers yard for £160 mainly for the Riverside Racing chip that was fitted. Unfortunately the car had been seriously crashed at some time and the only option was to re-shell it.  I had too many other projects on the go so I sold it to a friend who has completed the job.

Now that the silver Galant is my only Mitsubishi it has come in for some modifications.  I wanted to lower it but no-one made any lowered springs so I contacted Leda who made some for me.  When the springs had settled I measured the total drop to be 3 inches which was twice what I had asked for.  Never mind, it handled superbly (compared to standard) especially with the thicker anti-roll bars I fitted from a late model Starion.  You can see how low from the here.

I fitted the seats from my written-off Starion, the 15" wheels and the LSD .  I was then offered an engine, gearbox and chipped ECU from a Starion for £200.  I had to buy them!  The engine was supposedly a low mileage unit from one of these engine reconditioners and fitted with a reprofiled cam.  I was skeptical but I fitted it anyway because it was remarkably clean inside the cam cover.

The performance from the new engine was marginally better.  I had previously had the car rolling roaded at 168bhp but the power was now showing 175bhp!   A small improvement but you have to remember that I was running standard boost.   You can see the power plot from here.