Until now, we’ve tried our best to share one or two new stories here every week. We’ve been trying to do the same on the other Gearbox Magazine sites, but we recently had an A-HA moment.

1. Instead of splitting 4-5 stories between 7+ sites every week, we should be running 4-5 stories on ONE site.
2. With everything on ONE site, we just opened the doors to ANY gearhead doing ANYTHING with his/her ride.
3. More variety means more opportunities to discover new ideas from gearheads around the world.

We might be moving, but this site – and all the stories we’ve run so far – will still be here and left in place. We hate broken links. The site will look different, though. Very bare bones. Check out what Rally Gearbox Magazine looks like for an idea.

We will still be very Mitsubishi-focused.
Remember, just about everyone on our team is a Mitsubishi owner. We won’t let you down.

Check out the Gearbox Magazine super-site.

You can browse stories by MAKE (Mitsubishi, Subaru, BMW, Porsche, Toyota, etc.)
You can browse stories by location (Phoenix, Boston, Hamburg, Adelaide, Tehran, etc.)
You can browse stories by USE (autox, drag, road race, ice racing, EV, collector, etc.)

There will be some bugs to work out during the transition, but we hope our Mitsubishi brothers and sisters will continue to be the heart and soul of Gearbox Magazine. Without you, none of this would have even come to be in the first place.

Go fast with class. Press on regardless.
Let’s take this gearhead thing to the next level.

Sincerely,

Brian Driggs
founder/managing editor

WHY is everyone so up in arms about the death of the Evo? Truly, the Evo died six years ago, when the last 4G63-powered Evo IX rolled off the assembly line at Mizushima. The Evo X, for all its rally-inspired finery, has more in common with a Galant VR4 (to the extent it’s been built on the Galant platform since 2005), and many of us only got those for a few years before they were deemed too fat/heavy to be competitive.

IS IT BECAUSE we’ve lost confidence in our ability to turn our own wrenches, keeping our cars on the road in the absence of a factory warranty (which, generally speaking, we voided as a matter of principle)? This author’s two GVR4s are 19 and 20 years old, respectively, and he’s not afraid. How many more Evo-inspired Mitsubishis are still up to their usual shenanigans, making owners of vehicles costing two and three times the price second guess their their decisions?

IS IT BECAUSE we identify with and believe in Mitsubishi, thinking they’re doomed (and we, in turn)? Maybe other manufacturers buy and sell subsidiaries left and right, but Mitsubishi plays their cards close. They still build cars, trucks (some of the best), trains, airplanes, air conditioners, televisions, lasers, and nuclear power plants. They have their own bank (which didn’t get bailed out, and actually contributed $9B toward the bailout of Morgan Stanley, by the way), as well as mining operations which support the automotive industry as a whole.

IS IT BECAUSE we don’t want to admit we’re all going to be driving hybrids/EVs or taking the bus in the not too distant future, turning a blind eye to the ridiculously-escalating price of gas? “Oh,” you say, “Another Toyota, Honda, or Nissan.” Aside from the Nissan Z, what sporty cars have any of them made recently? The R35 Skyline (MSRP $80K+)? The Lexus LFA (MSRP $375K+)?

Gone are the Type R, DC5, NSX, Silvia, and Supra. And how long since the Civic Si, Celica, or even RX-8 have been truly relevant? Seriously. Let’s rub a little salt in our wounds for a moment and consider the MX-5 Miata is probably the last uncompromising sports car within reach of those without trust funds. Oh sure, the Corvette, Camaro, and Mustang solider on, but at what cost? And how many badge-engineered fleet turds subsidize their very existence?

MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE we’re gearheads, and we’re sad to learn of yet another fun-to-drive model being relegated to the history books. In truth, the death of the Evo hurts because it reminds us we exist on the fringes of automotive irrelevance ourselves; it stands as the last bastion of unbridled performance available to the everyman.

We are the scrappy underdogs for whom the potential to build a world class giant killer with our own two hands has just been diminished. If we could spend upwards of $50K on a sport sedan, we’d all be driving M3s and S4s (and we know it). With the passing of the Evo, our options will be further limited.

THIS IS NOT a day to resign ourselves to cookie-cutter, hybrid-driving mediocrity, or to farty-sounding Subarus (just kidding, you know we love you guys), but to remember, fondly, the Evolution which symbolizes who we are and that for which we stand. We are gearheads. Form follows function; luxury and refinement should take a backseat to acceleration and lateral grip. Cars should be designed for drivers, mindless consumer cattle operators and their coddling, ancillary convenience features be damned.

THE EVO played a significant role in making many us who we are today, but we will not fade away with this model. We will not go quietly into that good night. We will continue to see the value in continuous incremental improvement over the status quo – to evolve – as Mitusbishi did – and will continue to do – no matter the platforms in our future. We are gearheads.

Go fast with class.

Kim Schuenman, who we interviewed in November 2009, and who ran GM Gearbox Magazine. We’re taking a page out of the GM playbook and shuttering that brand in favor of new, pursuit-oriented channels. Kim will be shifting gears to helm our new Diesel and Drag (racing) channels, both of which will be rolling out officially with the new year.

Dave Hymers, who runs EV Gearbox Magazine. Dave is introducing us to electric vehicle conversion projects around the world, which often feature some of the most amazing fabrication efforts. And, just like everyone on our team, Dave practices what he preaches. He’s built an EV gokart and is beginning his own EV conversion!

Our ad was answered by the following heroes.

Rob Douglas, who founded/owns/operates Mitsu-Media.com. Rob has been a sort of silent partner since the earliest days of Gearbox Magazine, helping us spread the word, generate interest, and brainstorm many of the ideas we’ve brought to market in the last year.

Stephen Burke is a member of the Rochester DSM One Lap of America team. He’s a seasoned gearhead with experience on the road, on the track, and on the web.

David “Nakazoto” Lovett answered the call from the far side of the world, stepping up to help us bring more stories from Japan! Dave also has a fantastic, 1967 Mitsubishi 360 van over there in Japan.

And then there’s me:

Brian Driggs, I’m the mad scientist who decided he wanted to hook up the jumper cables differently.

So there you have it! This is the Gearbox Magazine team going into 2011. We’re all looking forward to helping our gearhead friends around the world build high performance machines and high performance lives.

In more ways than one. 

Right off the bat, we’ll come right out and say it. We’re experiencing technical difficulties. Here at Gearbox HQ, we got tired of our old cable modem rebooting randomly on us and finally bought a new one this past Saturday afternoon. Simple enough, right? Apparently not! 36 hours later, we still don’t have internet connectivity. A technician will be out first thing Monday morning to disconnect/reconnect/reboot and scratch his head, but this makes it difficult to for us to get the new story together. It generally takes about 2-3hrs to get each story ready for the site, and that’s too much time to be taking over the in-laws’ computer.

We have a great story about a 50 year old Mitsubishi (in Japan) on deck, but since we won’t be able to have it ready for another day or so, I thought we’d share something equally cool a little early. As gearheads, we appreciate all things ridiculously fast, especially proper race cars, right? Well, we’d like to introduce you to Crazy Leo. Crazy Leo has a 500hp open-class Subaru WRX and is currently auctioning off rides for charity this coming weekend. Here’s the story from Rally Gearbox Magazine (which was done and scheduled prior to the internet being borked).

Sorry if we’ve disappointed you with our lack of Monday Mitsubishi Madness, but Crazy Leo is a friend of ours, he’s got a wicked fast car, and he’s using his love of motorsport to make a difference in local communities. We’ll be right back. Go fast with class.

Mitsubishi’s DNA: revisited

The first post on this site was short, sweet, and to the point. Gearbox Magazine was born and moving under its own power. The first important post on the site was akin to our manifesto – how Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine would be applying “Mitsubishi’s DNA” to its actions. Today, I’d like to revisit those core principles and share how I think we’ve done to that end.

Shoki Hoko | Corporate responsibility to society.

“Strive to enrich society, both materially and spiritually, while contributing toward the preservation of the global environment.”

Look back at your time in the Mitsubishi community. Certainly, you’ve learned a lot about working on your own vehicle, but consider the value of the friendships you’ve made along the way. Think about how meeting these people has made your life better. Introducing you to new Mitsubishi owners and communities is one our core priorities.

Shoji Komei | Integrity and fairness.

“Maintain principles of transparency and openess, conducting business with integrity and fairness.”

How’s this for transparency?

That’s a picture taken straight off the Google Analytics dashboard for just the Mitsubishi site. (We also have Rally, EV, and GM Gearbox Magazines, if you didn’t already know that.) On average, just over 3,000 Mitsubishi owners a month visit this site to check out the interviews. Maybe you find you have something in common with other people. Maybe you find a new forum to visit. Maybe you get a great idea. We hope it’s all of the above.

To date, I have not made a dime with this site. There are no ads, no merchandise for sale, none of that. Gearbox Magazine exists solely to help the Mitsubishi community. That said, I will be trying to get some Gearbox merch available for sale and maybe find a limited number of partners to help us unite and serve the global Mitsubishi community in the coming year. You have my word, as a fellow Mitsubishi owner, we will not sell out.

Ritsugyo Boeki | Global understanding through business.

“Expand business, based on an all-encompassing global perspective.”

It’s so much more fun to get together with our brothers and sisters under the diamonds. We hang out online in the forums, we get together at the local meets, and we cross borders to attend the big meets. In the last year, I have personally gotten to know fellow Mitsubishi owners from around the world. My life has truly changed as a result. You know that feeling of pride you get when you roll with your Mitsu friends to the local hang out or race track? Do you ever think of yourself as part of a GLOBAL community? You really should, because you really are.

Odds are, whichever community you consider home, there are members from multiple countries there. Another one of our core values here at Gearbox is trying to expand our shared business – the business of going fast with class – by ensuring that we all have access to the best ideas and can build personal networks around the world. A new Mitsubishi friend of mine in Australia sent me a small part I needed for my Galant earlier this year. This week, I’ll be helping him arrange shipping on some suspension parts from the States. Just last week, my wife and I spent a day with Mitsubishi owners in Stuttgart, Germany, helping them celebrate their own one year anniversary. (More on this later in the month, but that’s me in the back row sporting the Ralliart hat.)

We might be separated by thousands of miles, living on opposite sides of the planet, we might drive Mitsubishis sold nowhere else in the world, and we might all speak different languages, but I’m telling you right now, if you are willing to look beyond your current platform, your local forum, and stretch yourself just a little bit, you will find there is a whole world of awesome people out there who love their Mitsubishis just as much as you do.

International Perspectives

Here’s just a small sampling of some of the interviews we’ve been fortunate to get in the last year.

From Canada: Ari’s Delica 4X4 – Ari has converted his Delica to run on bio-diesel he makes himself from used vegetable oil. He’s driven from Canada to Mexico with it!

From Iran: Vahid’s Galant VR4 – Forget what you’ve heard about Iran in the news. Meet a fellow Mitsubishi owner from Tehran and get a glimpse into his life.

From Germany: Bodo’s Galants – Our first (and currently only) bi-lingual interview, we got to know Bodo, who we’ve heard has recently picked up a Starion. Does this bring his Mitsubishi count to five?

From England: Ron’s Evo I – Pictured at the very beginning of this article, Ron was our first Lancer Evolutions interview, as we’ve tried to interview a new generation of Evo each month this year. We’re still looking for VII and X, by the way, and have a couple tricks up our sleeves for the last two months of the year.

From Australia: Bill’s Lancer Sportback Ralliart – If Darth Vader drove a Mitsubishi, let me tell you. Sinister!

And there were so many, many more. Take a spin through the archives or click through some tags on the right to take a look around!

Community Leaders

Gearbox Magazine is dedicated to uniting the global Mitsubishi community, but we hope to do that by introducing you to people who are doing things right. In addition to interviews with individual owners, we’ve also interviewed some of the people who make our online community possible. People like…

Darin Frow – Founder of the Mitsubishi Lancer Register.

Chris Raymond – DSMtuners main admin.

Ryan Hertz – “Customer Service Manager” at GalantVR4.org.

and MidwestEvos head honcho – Scott Pinkerton.

Thank you for making our first year most excellent!

Gearbox Magazine will always be devoted to serving you, the people who make up the global Mitsubishi community. We want to share your stories with the world, to introduce you to new people, and get us all talking about what works, how it works, and why it works, so that we can all get more enjoyment out of our vehicles.

We’ve recently started running two posts each week – one new interview and a discussion question based on the previous week’s interview. We hope you’ll join the global Mitsubishi conversation and share your ideas with us. We’re also going to start running some highly technical articles in the next year to provide you with the most in-depth technical theory we can find, so feel free to let us know what questions you’d really like to have answered (you can contact us privately via the contact page).

On a final note, if you’d like to help us find and interview people all over the world, we’d really like to hear from you.

Here’s to the next year being even better than the one that just passed. As we’ve said from Day One, Gearbox Magazine only matters because YOU matter.

Go fast with class, friends.

We were introduced to this event back in 2004 by our friends over on 2GNT. 2010 was only the second time we’ve missed the Shootout since. We’ve got a good excuse – really – but we’ll get to that in a minute. Since we couldn’t go, we asked our buddy Andrew Kemp out of Indianapolis if we could link to his pictures after the fact and he gladly obliged.

Andrew uploaded all his pictures from this most epic of DSM weekends to his gallery on IndyStars.org. ‘Drew’s been doing this for years. You can also visit this link to check out pictures he and friends have taken at Shootouts going back as far as 2003! There are even albums from local IndyStars meets, and the infamous 2GNT Hammars get-togethers. It’s good times.

If you went to the Shootout this year, we’d really like to hear your stories in the comments below. What surprised you? Did you try the chili-cheese fries at Summit Raceway? Delish! We want to live vicariously through you! Please share!

We’re really bummed that we couldn’t go this year. It would have been nice to see our friends again and shake hands with some of the folks we’ve interviewed this year like Scott Glassbrook, Kevin Jewer, and Kiggly. These guys all know what’s up, and they were on hand to show off their DSMs. If you’ve never been, you owe it to yourself to go at least once.

To keep up with DSM/EVO Shootout planning, sign up on Buschur’s High Boost Forum and get to know the die hards.

Still wondering why we missed this most important of annual Mitsubishi get togethers this year? Living in Phoenix, it’s hard for us to do a Shootout weekend for much less than a grand, and we’re headed to Germany on September 1st. On September 11th, we will be attending the first anniversary of the Baden-Württemberg chapter of the Mitsubishi Fan Forum. On the agenda, a meet-n-greet, karting, and dinner.

We’ll have our cameras rolling the whole time and will be bringing YOU the story when we return. Who knows… maybe Bodo might show up too (all the way from Hamburg)!

Thanks for reading Gearbox Magazine! Keep going fast with class!

We are not average automotive consumers. We are not vehicle operators. We are drivers. We are mechanics. We are automotive purists who understand the almost spiritual connection between man and machine. We know the hard times we endure with our Mitsubishis lead to exponentially better good times. Our Mitsubishis are extensions of who we are and what we stand for. We have friends around the corner and around the world. Our lives are better because we bought the Mitsubishi. This is our interpretation of M-Gen.

Mitsubishi wants to meet you. Visit whatareyouinto.net to find out when and where Mitsubishi will be in your area. There are many events planned across the United States and more will probably be added. Get your friends together and check ‘em out. Mitsubishi is actively reaching out to us now. They’ve been listening and they want to provide us with their very best. As a true Mitsubishi enthusiast, wouldn’t you like to get to know Mitsubishi a little bit better?

Our lives are better because we are part of the Mitsubishi community. Now Mitsubishi is coming to the party. Let’s get out there and meet them, discover how much we have in common with them, and show the rest of the world what we’re into. And after you’ve spent a day hanging out with Mitsubishi, drop us a line and tell us about it. If there’s anything we love to hear more than Mitsubishi owners getting together and helping each other out, it’s owners getting together with Mitsubishi and representing their communities.

The last year or so has been pretty rough on most of the auto makers around the world.  Mitsubishi is no different.  Today, word hit the wire that Mitsubishi is looking to bounce back by bringing a new SUV and small car to the North American market. They also plan on reviewing their dealerships, cutting ties with poor performers and maybe even adding some new dealers from the surplus of dealerships left in the cold by GM and Chrysler recently.  Mitsubishi intends to reaffirm their commitment to remain in the North American auto market.

The revitalization of the American business is very important … we’re reviewing many things. – Osamu Masuko, Mitsubishi Motors President

Let’s speculate about these new models!

The Mitsubishi Outlander has been recently updated and it’s not hard to spot their affinity for the larger, grille in that bullish front end design.  We already see this theme playing out in the new Lancer, but the new Outlander takes it’s design queues from the Concept cX.  Once upon a time, Mitsubishi considered the cX to be a common rail, direct-injected turbo diesel.  Instead, look for the North American market to see conventional gasoline 2.0L mated to a FWD or AWD transmission by fall of next year.  Probably a safe bet to expect some kind of sport shift, flappy paddle slushbox either way, but we can hope, right?  What do you think?  Would this be a Mitsubishi you’d want to check out in person?  Would you prefer the turbo diesel with all wheel drive and a stick shift?

Mitsu also says they’re working on a new small car.  It’s going to be a global model, meaning they intend to sell it all over the world.  This new model is said to be smaller than the Colt, which is interesting.  There’s a wave of super compacts coming to the North American market in the next couple of years.  Right now, the Mini Cooper is king of the sandbox, but it will soon have to stand up to new rivals from Ford (Fiesta, Kuga) and Fiat-Chrysler (500, MiTo?).  Could Mitsubishi, who has done well in the past with smaller cars, step into the ring with a real contender?  All they said so far is “small car…  smaller than the Colt.”

Enter the 2006 Mitsubishi Concept cT.
That’s right.  2006. Unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show back in early 2006, the Concept cT really reflects Mitsubishi’s “wake up and drive” mindset.  Sure, it’s a sub-compact hybrid with a puny, 1.0L inline three cranking out slightly more power than a Corvette starter motor (67hp), but this hybrid makes use of MiEV (Mitsubishi in-wheel Electric Vehicle) technology.  This is an all wheel drive hybrid meant to deliver exciting driving to the environmentally responsible.

What do you think about this concept car?  Hybrid, MiEV technology aside, considering it’s size, could it be a hint at the next small Mitsubishi we’re going to get in 2012? Being from 2006, the cT doesn’t feature the aggressive new grille being integrated into all the new models, but it’s not a stretch to imagine it!

The cT has the style to roll with the other micro cars coming over from Europe in the near future.  There’s no mistaking this car for anything other than a Mitsubishi.  They’ve got the technology to build a unique hybrid and they’ve got the experience to build a real street weapon too.  To us, this sounds like it might just be the perfect opportunity for Mitsubishi to remind the world that building “pocket rockets” is what they do best.

Does this look like a Mini Cooper hunter or what?