1989 Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo

As long as Mitsubishi has been selling its own cars in the United States, turbocharging has been an important part of its performance image. Back in the '70s, when Mitsu-built Colts and Champs were rolling out of Dodge and Plymouth stores seemingly faster than Aspens and Furys, turbos weren't on the menu. But once the Three Diamonds established themselves on American shores in late 1981, their availability was scattered throughout the line: The rear-drive Starion 2+2 was most prominent, but even the Accord-competitive Tredia sedan and Cordia hatchback had available blown fours under the hood. The early '90s brought us the Diamond-Star-built Eclipse and the mondo twin-turbo 3000GT VR-4, as well as the sadly short-lived Galant VR4. More recently, the Lancer Evolution has carried the turbo torch. Little wonder, then, that the company manufactures their own turbochargers.

But there's something missing from the impressive and under-appreciated roster listed above. Starting in the mid-'80s, Mitsubishi offered turbo power in its smallest, lightest U.S.-bound car: the Mirage, as well as the identical "captive import" Dodge (and Plymouth) Colt. Sales didn't reflect the media's mostly positive reviews, as enthusiasts preferred VW GTIs and Toyota Corolla FX16s, but the Turbo Mirage/Colt was interesting--and it kept up the company's reputation for turbo power.

Starting in 1989, a new generation of Colt was also sold through Mitsubishi outlets as the Mirage (its Japan home-market name, Lancer, was ironically owned by Dodge for a K-car-based family ride of their own). In 1989, $13,000 bought you a newly designed subcompact with a 93.9-inch wheelbase, a sub-2,500-pound curb weight and, most importantly, a twin-cam, 16-valve, turbocharged, 1,595cc four with 135hp and 141-lbs.ft. of torque on tap.

This engine, designated 4G61T, was tweaked to generate 30 percent more power than the previous year's model, is a junior version of the two-liter turbo terror that ended up in the first-generation Eclipse (and is grandfather to the mighty 4G63 that powered all but the newest Lancer Evolution models). The body offered few, if any, clues: Only the chubby wheels and tires, and maybe a discreet TURBO badge somewhere on the rump, distinguished it from lesser Mirages. Automobile magazine characterized the juxtaposition of mild style and wild power as both "pleasantly schizophrenic" (though, admittedly, they were driving a Plymouth Colt). The Colt version also made Car and Driver's annual "10 Best" list for 1989.

Allen Froschauer of Long Beach, California, now supervisor for Mitsubishi's engineering center and within months of his 20th anniversary with the company, recalls those first Turbo Mirages from his earliest days there. "I remembered those Mirages, and in late 1993 I started looking for one. I found this one in mid-1994." Why'd it take so long? For one thing, roughly 900 Mirage Turbos were sold in the States before Mitsubishi pulled the plug--there just weren't that many around to be found. "There were also some turbo Colts sold through the Dodge dealers at that time, but they're even more rare than the Mirage. The only difference [besides badging] was that the Colt had power windows."

When he bought it, the paint was red and shiny, the clear coat was intact, the window tint hadn't started to bubble, and it had less than 50,000 miles on the clock. It is ostensibly his daily driver--"I was doing 65 miles one way for a few years, but now I'm less than 15 miles from work," he says--but extenuating circumstances, and his job, explain why there are just an additional 40,000 miles in 15 years of ownership. "Really, how often I drive it is variable. I'm in a unique position--I take care of press vehicles and product-support vehicles, and also investigate engineering concerns. Maybe I'll drive it to work one day, and I'll have a company car for a weekend to diagnose something. Or maybe I'll drive it two days a week, and have another car for three days."

Now, in so many pockets of the old-car hobby, newer cars are slighted by collectors as being irreparable, thanks in part to the Byzantine electronics that they tend to be saddled with. Not so: You just need to know what to look for. "Like all things electrical, over time the components break down. We had heard that customers sometimes struggle with getting control units on their older cars replaced or fixed; we'd also heard that capacitors had been popping on the ECUs.

"I went to drive it one morning about three years ago, and the injector was just running and running...it was just a guess on my part, but we put a 'noid light on the injector, to see whether it was pulsing or not. If it's just on, with no pulsing, then you've lost the ground on the control side of the circuit. Well, the injector was short-circuiting to ground and staying on. I pulled out the ECU, and the capacitor had bled its cooling fluid out onto the circuit board and shorted the injector controller."

For most, it might sound like disaster--or at the very least, an expensive repair bill. Not for Allen. "I got lucky pulling the popped capacitor off the circuit board--you can damage things if you apply too much heat--and I replaced several others that looked suspect. All I did was compare the microferrets with what was there originally, and swapped them with what came off. They're available through Radio Shack or a good electronics supply place." The cash outlay for this high-tech fix? "Forty-four cents for the capacitors," Allen recalled. That's right, for the cost of tipping your barista when you get your morning coffee, you too can fix your Mitsubishi. Further concerns about frying the circuit board while resoldering everything into place were unfounded.

Over the years, a couple of small changes have made their way onto the Mirage. "The wheels are 15 x 6.5 Team Dynamic Revos. The tires on there now, the Yokohama A008s, are actually OE spec and are in a size [205/60] that aren't made anymore. I changed the exhaust tip in 1998 just because I wanted a different sound. Inside, I installed a Japan-spec white-face tach. It's got the same font as my original gauges, and I like the black-and-white look. And the shift knob is from a Lancer Evo MR...I thought it looked cool, even though my Mirage isn't a six-speed."

Other changes have come without Allen lifting a finger: Among others, the clear coat has flaked away under the relentless California sun, and the once-red paint is fading to pink. "I'd like to paint it...I'm really not happy now with the color." Beyond that, he harbors no plans to change anything: "I'm just going to enjoy it as much as I can." That enjoyment, however, must come alone. "It's not a great family car--if you have bigger kids, it doesn't work well. I have two adult-sized kids--aged 16 and 14--and they're too big. The passive belt worked fine in its day, and it's fine for me, but without airbags, I don't want to put anyone I love in it."

Other than the paint and the wheels, this is surely one of the few remaining stock Mirage Turbos around. Swapping an Eclipse two-liter under the hood, popular among those who owned and modified these cars, has never been a part of the plan. Besides, we all know how originality counts on the collector-car market...right?

"You know, right now the list of collectible Japanese cars is really pretty short," Allen said. "The Mitsubishi Mirage turbo isn't like a 510, Datsun Z, or even a Datsun 1600 or 2000 roadster. Mitsubishi, in this country, doesn't seem to have a following for collectibility. Maybe someday, with the first-generation Eclipse...." And maybe someday, when electronics-generation machines achieve the collector cachet of their forefathers, and when the Japanese collector-car market more fully matures, low-production machines like the Mirage Turbo that helped pave the way for other more blatantly sporting models will take their rightful spot in the pantheon of collector-interest cars. Until then, Allen Froschauer will be driving his, enjoying every mile.