Should I trade my Fiesta for a Mirage? (and mod for more power?)

Hello I currently own a 2014 1.0l ecoboost ford fiesta. I have done quite a bit of mods to it and I have grown to enjoy it. The thing I love the most is the car loves to be thrown into tight corners at high speeds, it handles so well and it loves to rev high. However at the autocross events everyone just sighs as they see another fiesta and knows what they are capable of which is sort of depressing.

Last week I got to drive a mirage for the first time and fell in love with it, the noisy chain driven 3 cylinder engine, the sleek styling. It is not something anyone would expect to make power from.. But I see potential as it is a mitsubishi and it should respond well to tuning and modding. I know there is no hand-held remap tool but I would say bye-bye warranty and put a standalone EMS in it. How easy is it to take the head off one of these engines? Do you need a special tool to hold things in place like the newer ford engines? I would like to do an engine build. Buy a spare engine, see if this could be bored, port and polish the head, better pistons, rods, valve springs. Now I know lowering compression in such a small car would be drastic and possibly kill you from the launch so I was thinking why not go for a stage 2 supercharger running 11:1 compression with mater+meth?

Could anyone tell me how these cars perform once lowered with strut bars? I noticed the steering is kind of sloppy too, lots of play in the wheel, would an aftermarket steering wheel fix this? I have a spare momo wheel laying around I could use. Also do you think this car is worth the task of reverting my fiesta back to stock (may take a while) and trading it in for one of these? I just want it to turn heads when they see a 800kg 3 banger mirage laying rubber screaming out of the straight pipes as the BOV goes off.

I avoided the Fiesta due to automatic transmission issues.
Take it from a long time Ford owner, buy a Mitsubishi.
Ford's biggest problem, in my opinion, is rust. But they also have a habit of cutting costs and using inferior parts along with really good parts and nice designs.
It costs them in the long run. I am not buying another Ford, at least no time soon.

My ford is a standard and the "automatic" is now called powershift, yes it has a lot of problems. It is a great idea but they haven't smoothed out the design. Essentially it is a 6 gear manual transmission with 2 clutches and no clutch pedal, it loads your next gear ahead of time on the second clutch depending on current RPM so it can seamlessly switch over without hesitation. When I drive them I used it for the select shift and was still able to hold it close to redline before shifting.

I agree fords are bad with rust but then again where I live the roads are salted very very heavily so you rarely ever see any car make it past 15 years of age. When I worked at dealerships I seen brand new cars on the lot with rust on them, the control arm welds, disks, rear axle. I find that ford has come a long way with their new lineup, they look very austin martan like a luxury vechile.. i hate the space-age dash though. But the ecoboost and even the n/a engines are very responsive and very well designed, the soft touch rubbery plastics on the interrior is nice too and the fuel milage isn't bad. I have always loved mitsubishi and felt as if they do not get enough attention in my community which is why I would love to own this car, but I would also like to know if it is worth building this engine or not. I do have the money and time to do it, and other cars to drive while this one is off the road.

Yes, I like the looks of the Fiesta also.
Oh, and I apologize as I really didn't address your question about performance mods. I don't know about any of that, but I think the Mitsubishi is a well built car.
Not to be Ford bashing, I just have lost patience with their products when I see people with old Toyotas and Hondas driving for years and having no problems. My own experience with Mitsubishi is from a 1981 Dodge Colt, which is a Mirage (still a great car), and I remember the 80's MCA Jet and other Mitsu's were just very reliable.
Best of luck with whatever you choose. I think you'd enjoy a Mitsubishi. The Lancer is more often the 'hot rodded' car, though. But a souped up 3 cyl would be cool.

I agree with long term reliability, most of the older cars I still see on the road are honda civics and toyota corollas, infact I know a few owners with over 700,00km on both of those models and they still run strong with basic maintenance. I have never owned a mitsubishi but I always admired them. I know that the lancer / evo is the selected choice to be modified but I want a very light weight car with a small engine just to be different. I have turned a 750kg mk2 vw golf into a 350whp monster (but it has a V6 in it).

I have never liked mustangs or corvettes or camaros, I would rather be the underdog with something unexpected. My idea of a muscle car would be a chevette with a 350 crammed into it, or an AMC gremlin with a V8 haha. I don't know, to me it feels like anyone can go buy a performance vehicle off the lot and drive it; but it takes some creativity and dedication to make a performance vechile from an everyday car.

Yeah, used to see stuff like that in the 70's & 80's, small cars with big motors wedged in. Had to use v8's, the domestic 4's were lousy. 6 cyl's could be peppy (Ford 2.8's with headers ran well but noisy valve train). Ford and GM were shoving small 8's wherever they could for a while. I may be wrong, but seems to me there were some small AMC's with v8's.
The new motors are really awesome. 4 cyl's run like v8's of thirty years ago.
Do you remember the 1984 Dodge Colt Turbo? They were the same as Mitsubishi Mirage. Really fast.

Ah yes I remember the dodge colt turbo and also the dodge stealth which was a 3000 GT if im not mistaken.. Doing engine swaps in a modern car is too complex now, it is very possible but you lose most if not all electronics along the way. still good for drag racing but stability control and traction control and power steering have their uses if you want to cruise around. It seems everything is fed the the ECU and unless you rewire the whole car to fool the computer you will never have an OEM quality ride.

I wish they still made cars like they used to.

Seems all we worried about in the old days was: 1 - getting motor mounts to line up...2 - a radiator to fit...3 - drive shaft to fit. :)
Everything was carbureted so no issues.
I really like new cars, but the old ones (pre 1980's) were easier to work on and heavily built. They didn't handle all that great usually. 70's cars are so maligned, and really most were not as bad as you read about today. Some were really good cars. At least we had radial tires and rack & pinion, 60's cars had bias ply tires and steering was usually a guessing game.
I would not want to attempt a motor swap in a newer car.

I don't know...but if I had the time, money, and know how to make my mirage scream, I would do it! Stock, it is a fun little car to drive. The motor sounds good as is, but I do believe with some mods it could really scream. Good luck if you should decide to do this, we will be looking forward to your posts as it all comes together!

If you want to be different, it won't get much odder than a Mirage burning rubber, haha. You'll stand out for sure and turn a lot of heads.

BTW, welcome to the site!