THIS IS MY '94 MITSI AS SHE WAS WHEN I BOUGHT HER IN DECEMBER 2005

This site is still very much a 'work in progress' and will be continually edited and photos updated as time permits. My apologies if it is a bit 'patchy' at present.

My FTO is a 1994 GPX model with Tiptronic gearshift in 'Passion Red'. It has 46,000 miles on the clock and has been in the U.K. less than a year. It is fairly standard at present but I'm working on that!
This is how she looks at present.......

There are plenty of sites where you can get all the technical specifications for this car so I do not intend to duplicate any of that here. This is merely my personal opinion and thoughts.

No one car could ever be all things to all men and this Mitsubishi is not going to be everyone's idea of motoring Nervana.
I am sure you will have heard the expression 'It would be a dull world if we all liked the same things'. But to me and many thousands of other enthusiastic owners this is an evocative 'drivers car'.
Example, my father had a drive out earlier this week and likened it to a 'Go -kart', he didn't like it at all. Me on the other hand, I'm loving every bit of it!

True there are nicer looking and better quality rides out there, but if you want a head-turning sports coupe' that has performance to match its looks, look no further. Especially if you don't have, or don't want to spend vast sums of money then this is a model that is hard to beat and one well worth considering.

I'd like to return to the incident that ignited my passion for this car................
As I recall my first 'sighting' of an FTO was on the London orbital (M25) in 1997. My wife and I had just returned to live in the United Kingdom after we had been abroad living in the former Yugoslavia and in India since early 1991. I had lost touch somewhat and had no idea what had been happening in the motoring world for several years. In my usual fashion I was driving at around 75-80mph in the middle lane, in my family Ford Mondeo hatchback diesel (yawn!) passing some slower traffic in the near-side lane. Suddenly a red flash shot past me on my off-side, followed equally rapidly by the sound of a rasping exhaust. "what the f*** was that" I asked myself and set off in pursuit to try to get a glimpse of the badge.

O.K. so the FTO is not that unique in its overall design but the back end was differant from any other I had seen on U.K. roads before. I wanted to know what it was that looked & sounded so great. I didn't catch it at first but as luck would have it 15 minutes later I saw it again, parked up on the hard shoulder, the driver changing a nearside wheel. I pulled over, to offer assistance of course!
It transpired he'd experienced a blow out at 95mph, how scary must that have been!

I got chatting to the owner, wanting to know more about his stunning looking car. I listened intently and somewhat in awe, I heard all about his fabulously modified little coupe'. Everything about it seemed just a little outrageous, from the curvaceous, raised dial binnacles in the center of the dashboard, to the high window cills. The 18" rims, rear spoiler, skirts and valances to the most eye catching gleaming red paintwork, that somehow had a slight orange-ness to it. Above all else were the curves, especially the front wings and bonnet curves over the wheels.
As we talked I discovered this car not only had all the toys but also, the driver claimed, a sub 8 second 0-60mph time as standard. For an automatic car that's quick I thought! He explained in layman's term's how the Mivec engine works on variable valve timing etc. and that it produces 100bhp per litre without a turbo-charger! This again was quite incredible in a '94 car. It even had climate control and electric everything, surely only esoteric cars like Mercs and Jaguars had these sort of 'extras' back then? in the U.K. market at least.

From that moment on I wanted to own one of these great little cars.
Regrettably lifes needs do not always align with our desires so until now more 'practical' cars have been a necessity. Circumstances change and now nine years after my first encounter with an FTO I've reached a stage in my life were the dream has been realised, albeit in a modest way with a '94 model and not a later version. One day though.......

My wife now drives the sensible 'family car' and I finally get to indulge myself a little. Some of my family, friends and colleagues tease me saying I am having a mid-life-crises buying such a car at 45 years of age. Maybe this is true, but I respond with "getting old is inevitable, growing up is optional". I smile to myself as I walk away.

Quite frankly it was and still is a stunning looking car, even without any added on bodykits or the like. For some inexplicable reason it seems most owners find it impossible to resist 'tarting it up' even if only a little. Not to put your own personal touches to this car is very difficult, it's part of the fun of ownership I guess. Three months in and I've been bitten by the customizing bug already, flashy new dials, stereo, wheels/tyres and personal plates to name a few.

I just know it isn't going to end there either! I will keep you posted of new developments as they happen.

Launched in 1994 the FTO is a car that was only ever intended for the Japanese domestic market and remained a well hidden secret until older cars started to be exported out of the land of the rising sun in the late 1990's some finding there way to Australia and New Zealand, others to Europe and predominantly to the United Kingdom, where we are still seeing plenty of 'new' imports. Japanese cars have to undergo a very stringent vehicle test once they reach a certain age, I think six years. This test known as the 'Shaken' is very difficult to get an older car through, particularly on emmissions. Therefore many owners dispose of the 'old' cars in favour of a newer model. These older cars are then disposed of through auction houses for very low prices (largely due to the weak Yen in recent times).
So here we have a great car with not only low prices but also the added appeal of the low mileages most of these imported cars arrive with. It is not uncommon for FTO's to come off the ship into the UK with well under 50,000 miles on the clock, even on the earliest 1994 models. Very appealing indeed for buyers wanting a high performance car capable of very high mileages. As with all Japanese vehicles, if they are well maintaned, 200,000 miles or more is not an un-reasonable expectation before any major overhaul/engine work is required.
Here is a car that was, and still is, affordable to buy and run. It is possibly one of the most gorgeously styled cars of the modern era. It offers versatile daily transport for 2+2 in reasonable comfort and yet has ripping performance and handling whenever you fancy letting your hair down.

Now over a decade on since the first Mitsubishi FTO rolled off the production lines it still offers all of the above and competes well with todays average cars. There are downsides to FTO ownership in Britain, getting a good mechanic who knows what he is doing with it can be difficult. As can obtaining parts, the cost of Insurance cover for some drivers is crippling. All potentially problems. However in my short period of ownership I have found that with a bit of will, and a bit of determination to help oneself these problems are not insurmountable. There are two incredibly valuable sources of help available.
1. The Internet, within which there is no shortage of helpful information and contacts to be searched and found.
2. The Owners Clubs, there are several around the world and the enthusiasm and helpfulness of their volunteer members is second to none. There also seems to be a great commradery among FTO owners and regular meets, convoys, shows and road trips are organised to further the 'community spirit'.
I'd recommend them to anyone who either owns or is considering owning an FTO.

There was a choice of a manual gearbox or a very advanced Tiptronic, auto/pseudo manual box that gave real driver choice. Also on offer were three engine variants offering between 160 - 200BHP and a list of factory options the length of your arm. This choice enabled the individual new car buyer to choose only the 'extras' he/she wanted and of course they paid accordingly.
Further to this is the variety of customisation and after-market modifications that owners can now carry out to the FTO. This means that todays buyer is unlikely to encounter any two cars that are truly identical and I think that this is part of the overall appeal of the car.

INDIVIDUALITY, not many cars offer that these days!

Literally translated the model name FTO means Fresh Touring Origination. It reveals Mitsubishis design intentions when they came up with the concept of an affordable car that would offer a fresh approach to the touring car. Both in the body styling, mechanicals and in an original approach to driver 'involvement'. The interiors were designed very much with driver ergonomics in mind. Bolstered seats with a range of adjustments and a dashboard with switches positioned so that everything was at the drivers finger-tips.
Just drop into the drivers seat of the FTO and it almost asks you to turn that key and drive. Certainly that's what I felt the first time I got into one.
Self indulgant motoring? yes, without a doubt. But what it lacks in practicallity it makes up for in sheer drivability. Certainly for me, and I'm not alone, FTO has a list of virtues that outweigh any bad points by 10-1 and make it an irresistable choice if the sports Coupe' is your particular fancy.