mitsi GDI

[rollaholic]

mitsi should have stuck to putting 4G63's in everything they made

They did right up until 2007.

yeah but they got all fancy with heaps of other engines too

was tongue in cheek

[Leon]

That turbo Mirage was the fist mass produced turbocharged Japanese vehicle, it made its debut in 1978.

Because I'm old, I remember when the second shape Mirage turbo was a near new car. You know, that really slablike mid 80's shape.

They must have been something wicked for understeer on boost, because two weekends in a row, we drove past one of those Mirages stuck into a lamp post on Bowen Street (just up from the Beehive). So, same lamp post. Two different Mirage turbo's. Two weekends in a row. Bizarre, but also highly amusing.

[fuel]

Haha yeah they got chronic torque-steer, so did the Cordia Turbo. My old one would happily change lanes for you when you were briskly accelerating and changing gears.

[Leon]

The worst car I have driven for undirected lane changes was a V12 XJS.

On the wee skinny manky tyres that were temporarily fitted to this 'car', it would on a damp road try to change lanes on you when it shifted from first to second unless you lifted on the upchange (auto).

It is worth mentioning that the 1-2 gearchange on that car happens at about 100kph, so was well exciting.

[RAZA]

frost - the Pajero for a long time continually rates high in Off roading magazine road and off-road tests, it's one of the best Japanese off-road vehicles.

I'll second that. The bastards just keep on going! They are rated very highly amoung the 4x4 driving community in the Northern Terriotry, which is like a 4x4 mecca!

Surely the NT presents different conditions to most of NZ though? its basically a desert so the apparent aversion to water wouldn't present a problem....

[FXGTV]

frost - the Pajero for a long time continually rates high in Off roading magazine road and off-road tests, it's one of the best Japanese off-road vehicles.

I'll second that. The bastards just keep on going! They are rated very highly amoung the 4x4 driving community in the Northern Terriotry, which is like a 4x4 mecca!

Surely the NT presents different conditions to most of NZ though? its basically a desert so the apparent aversion to water wouldn't present a problem....

You would think that, but darwin is in the tropics dude. When it rains. it RAINS. 30 minutes of rain here would easy be equal to a couple of days worth in Wellington! In fact a huge storm blew in this morning, and i woke up to my car being in the middle of a lake I also just cheated death as the storm brought down a massive tree in my driveway. If i had been literally 5 seconds earlier I dont think i'd be here right now I had to laugh..just lucky I guess.

[RedMist]

Haha yeah they got chronic torque-steer, so did the Cordia Turbo. My old one would happily change lanes for you when you were briskly accelerating and changing gears.

Shyte, Cordia Turbo. MASSIVE turbo lag, HUGE torque steer, BLOODY light weight, STUPIDLY unreliable.
My old man bought the original 4 speed, seperate overdrive lever. Thought he was a race car driver with 8 gears, until the car stopped one day with no compression. The car was two years old.
Bought a brand new 5 speed car. Car lasted 18 months before you had to hold it in 4th and 5th. Dropped a rear link going into our driveway. Blew up the engine before it's second year of life.

[fuel]

The early 4 speed model would have been the 1600cc carb turbo while the 5 speed would have been the 1800cc ECI turbo - the 1600cc one managed to cook the turbo frequently but the 1800cc one was a bit more reliable. My '86 1800cc had 273k on the clock and went well apart from a bit of smokey engine on boost. The jap import 1800cc models had a smaller turbo and weren't so laggy.