Why should you care about a Mitsubishi Lancer and a Nissan 180SX that both had been ran ragged and left for dead? The Nissan has fans in the drifting community, sure, but the Lancer, known better in the U.S. market as a Mitsubishi Mirage, simply doesn’t…it’s not an Evolution, it’s a 1990s turd that was built into a car destined to be an extra on the set of the first Fast and Furious movie. And the Nissan’s story here is even more tragic…left for dead, built, sold, found near death (and somehow much worse off), the 180SX represents seller’s remorse in it’s top form.
For the past year, Marty and Moog have been messing with the Mitsubishi. Marty originally bought it as a car to compete with a Saab 900 Turbo as part of a $3,000 turbo car challenge, where it got beat. But while the Lancer stuck around and got stripped down of all it’s gingerbread in the hopes of making it something respectable, Moog sold the Saab off and reappeared a bit later with a black and green disaster piece. The 180SX was originally an early Mighty Car Mods project car that had to be sold in order to fund the next project for the show, and from then until now, the Nissan had been beat into oblivion and back. Yet Moog has a deep-seated attachment to the thing because one of his first project cars ever was a 180SX, so while the Internet told him to crush it, he couldn’t and got to work on refurbishing the Nissan.
So why should you care about these cars? The cars themselves…eh, that’s your taste, though the Nissan is at least a pretty drift car and the Mitsubishi is now a hot commuter car that can corner well. It’s the work that went into them, turning them from trash into something respectable. With a lot of repair, a lot of de-pimping, and some work, both cars are now something worth owning, something you could drive without requiring a bag over your head. It’s a lesson in how to properly work out a project: get rid of the bad, repair the good, then add in what’s needed until it all comes together.
