Some cars earned their “throwaway car” status by being a crappy car. Others simply had that stigma attached from the word “go”. In the case of the car that originated as the Mitsubishi Colt, it might as well have been carved in stone on the wall of the assembly plant. Precious few examples of Colt from any generation have survived this long. The 1970s versions rusted out and crumbled, the 1980s versions weren’t much better, and the examples that showed up for the 1990s are all but forgotten. Didn’t matter if it was a Mitsubishi, Dodge, Plymouth, or Eagle, they just didn’t gain the kind of traction in the United States market that keeps a car in the memory of most gearheads.
But one look at the Colt’s list of aliases brings up an intersting point: “Lancer”. This meant that all-wheel drive and the ability to swallow up Mitsubishi’s Sirius engine, or the “4G6_” mills, was on the table. Which meant that anything you could do to an EVO or Eclipse, you can do to a third-generation Colt. Which leads up to this silver screamer here. You need numbers, so here you go: 1,220 horsepower at all four wheels, in a featherweight early 1990s hatchback, that’s capable of a seven-second timeslip when the car isn’t snacking on another clutch, breaking something in the driveline or blowing the tires off. Watch the first-second gear change and how the whole car moves. Colt is an appropriate name for a car that kicks both ends up in anger!
I had a 1985 Dodge Colt as my first car. Turbo with a 5 spd for $100. Everything was rusted out and you had to shift in the direction of 5th twice before it would actually go in to gear because the linkage was worn out. It was fun for a 16 year old but I would never spend that kind of money on one.
Pretty impressive ETs for a little engine. Understatement?