By 1989 the Dodge Colt had pretty much dropped any aspirations of being a sporty subcompact and had instead shifted to a front-wheel-drive econobox platform. Shame, really, because some of the earlier FWD Colts could make 100hp hustle quite well, and being based off of Mitsubishi’s Lancer/Mirage platform, there was plenty of factory parts that could make the Colt into a 150hp AWD hustler, something that would be a performance riot in the U.S. that year. Instead we got hosed.
Real Street Performance, a tuning shop and parts distributor in Florida, has a dyno mule Colt that is much, much more than it’s weathered and beaten look hints to. Inside the engine bay is a well-boosted Mitsubishi 4G63 that, with the right turbo, pushes 829AWHP. In stock form, the Colt would weigh in at about 2500 lbs, and this one looks more than a little gutted, so you can do the math on your chances of ever beating this little red breadbox in a race. The car looks like a riot to wheel around and it’s acceleration looks absolutely unholy. Hey, guys, when can we get a turn behind the wheel?
That little bastard must be an absolute riot to drive!
I want a turn!
Almost did something very similar. Found a guy selling an Eagle Summit with a blown motor, plus a Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo FWD that had been rearended, for $800. Was going to buy them and jam the 4G63T out of the Eclipse into the Summit. Something came up, I backed out. Guy I knew bought it, scrapped the Summit, grabbed the 4G63T and scrapped the Eclipse and then put the 4G63T into a base model Eclipse. Not nearly as interesting.