This thread is mainly geared towards those that will drive their cars in a spirited manner, or race them. However, it is good information to know even if you don't ever plan to push the car at all.
As we all know, our Mirage's have very soft, comfy, and compliant suspension. This makes for a good ride, but it can be VERY dangerous if you push the car hard, or have to suddenly maneuver to avoid something in the road. The reason it can be dangerous is because of how much body roll this car has. Mitsubishi has done a wonderful job at trying to prevent snap over steer by adding stability control to the car. But if it is disabled, it can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Here's why;
Body roll is the tendency for the car to lean to the outside in corners instead of staying level. This leaning unloads the tires closest to the inside of the corner and loads the tires closest to the outside of the corner. There's not any problems with this if you are just going around a corner. So what happens if you go around an S curve at a high rate of speed or have to dodge something in the road? Well, the first corner is pretty uneventful as the car leans to one side, loading one pair of tires while unloading the tires on the other side of the car. But now you suddenly turn the steering wheel the other way to go around the other part of the S corner(or item in the road), and now the car goes from leaning really far one way to quickly moving in the opposite direction. This causes a very fast weight transfer from one side of the car to the other. It occurs so fast that momentum builds up and actually unloads the inside rear tire(the tire closest to the inside of the corner) more than in the beginning of the S corner. It unloads the tire so much that the tire looses traction with the road. So now, it is like going around a corner, quickly, on 3 wheels (2 in the front and 1 in the back). Because of this, the back of the car will now want to quickly go into over steer, or otherwise known as snap over steer since that 1 rear tire that does have traction, doesn't have enough traction to keep the car pointed in the direction you want to go.
Ok, so we now know what causes snap over steer, but why is it dangerous?
It is dangerous because the back of the car rotates so quickly that no amount of steering changes can correct it. You pretty much just have to ride it out till the car slides to a stop, if you are lucky enough to have the car slide to a stop and not hit anything or flip over. Snap over steer is not like drifting a rear wheel drive car, or just messing around and sliding the back of a car out while going around a slow corner. In normal over steer conditions, over steer occurs relatively slowly and is easily controlled with proper driver inputs. In snap over steer, the over steer occurs so quickly and so violently that there is no controlling it, especially in an under powered front wheel drive car.
I have experienced snap over steer first hand. Luckily for me, I was on a race track, but I was in the passenger seat of my car, and there was plenty of room for the car to come to a stop without hitting anything. The car was a 2002 Hyundai Accent, a VERY similar car, suspension wise, to our Mirage's. A driving instructor friend of mine(Porsche club driving instructor, Nissan club driving instructor) was telling me that I was taking a series of corners at Hallett Raceway wrong, and that he could shave 5 seconds off of my time. So I offered to let him show me which he accepted. The series of corners was basically an S turn (a left hand corner right after a right hand corner). So, we entered the first corner at about 60 mph, accelerated through the corner and started to enter the second corner at about 65 mph. This is where things went bad. My buddy was not used to front wheel drive cars, and he had never experienced snap over steer. The car had leaned really far through the 1st turn because of the large amount of body roll. When we approached the 2nd corner, my buddy threw the car the other way with never letting the car settle from the last corner. What happened next was terrifying. The rear of the car shot around and before my driving instructor friend had time to do anything, we were completely sideways heading off the track, while still doing 65 mph. Going 65 mph, sideways, across a grassy field, and the one thing that keeps going through your head is you are waiting for a tire to dig in to the dirt which would cause the car to start rolling.
This is why Mitsubishi installed the stability control on the Mirage's. This is why if you are out and about, PLEASE keep your traction control/stability control active. There is a time to disable it, but driving around on the streets on dry and wet roads is not one of them.