Mitsubishi Master Tech Finally Buys A Mirage For Research Purposes

[Fopeano]

Hello all,

You can call me Fope. I'm new to this forum, but not new to car enthusiast forums. I'm 41 and I've been into cars since 1999, especially German stuff. Right now I have a sorted out Jetta VR6 street/track car, a BMW E30 that I'm sorting out to be another streetable track car, and a project that's just sitting. The reason I'm here is because I just got into a first year Mirage for my daily driver.

I've been working at a Mitsu dealer in upstate NY since 2009, and I've been the shop foreman for years now. I've always loved small lightweight cars that are underpowered, so I've had a soft spot for the Mirage since I was pulling plastic wrappers from the first ones off the truck back in late 2013. We finally had a good one with the right things wrong traded in when I needed a new daily, so I went for it.

It's a stick shift with push button start, maintained at my dealership, and the engine is as quiet and "smooth" as a perfect one with 20k, but it remains to be seen if it will hold up to my driving habits. My service team thinks I'll destroy it and be putting a used engine in very soon, but I'm more optimistic. I've been working on it like crazy on the daily to get it whipped into shape in the last week


The following pics are from tonight after I've been driving it for a week in winter salt. The front wheels and snow tires are aftermarket sizes I had around. I need snow tires where I live (thank god I'm not in Buffalo) and this is what I could work out with what I already have.