What’s your real name? (What’s your screen name?)
David Kammerich. I go by Davidmitsusrock and/or Davidlanceres

What do you do for a living and where do you live?
I am currently in wireless phone sales and am going to school for Business Administration. I live in Boonville Missouri.

What Mitsubishi(s) do you drive? How long have you had it/them?
I drive a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer ES that I have owned since November 2007.

Photo by David Kammerich

What’s your build philosophy/goals for your Mitsubishi? How do you use it?
I wanted to build a clean visually attractive daily driver with ambitions of going boost eventually.

What originally attracted you to the Mitsubishi? What keeps you going today?
I started my obsession with Mitsubishi when I was 11 years old, my neighbor had a 2nd gen turbo DSM and I fell in love anything Three Diamonds.

How do you use your Lancer? Daily driver?
My Lancer is a daily commuter to work and school.

Tell us about something really exciting you’ve done with other Mitsubishi owners.
I would say the meets and cruises are the absolute best reward of being in a Mitsubishi Community.

Photo bt David Kammerich

What’s the best part about being a Mitsubishi owner? The most challenging?
I would say the best part of being a Mitsubishi owner is the online community’s, everyone helps each other out and shares a similar passion for Mitsubishi. The most challenging would probably be dealing with the flaming for driving a “rice burner”.

What excites you about the coming year? (Your Mitsu and your community)
2011 is an exciting year for me for many reasons. As for my car it will be receiving a few new simple mods such as either a carbon fiber trunk or trunk lip, a front lip and factory OZ rally side skirts. As for Missouri Mitsubishi I have a few things in mind, Mainly being website reconstruction for a more attractive appearance.

How often do you get together with other Mitsubishi owners in person?
There are a handful of local Mitsubishi owners from my hometown and we try to get together at least once a month. As for the site we like to have at least 2 meets every year including the Annual Missouri Mitsubishi Meet and the site Anniversary Meet.

How do you want your community to benefit Mitsubishi owners? What steps are you taking to make sure that happens?
We want all members to feel welcome and included as well as valued. We have a variety of forums for various topics and an experienced staff/member base that can help with tech questions.

How do you feel building a Mitsubishi compares to building a Mitsubishi community?
In a way the two subjects are very similar, you have to take your time and make careful choices to create the right balance.

What’s next for your Lancer?
Besides a few cosmetic mods the Lancer will remain my daily driver for the coming years. Eventually I would like to do a 16g Evo turbo setup on 10 lbs for a little funner daily driving experience.

What’s next for MissouriMitsu.com?
I want to make some cosmetic changes/upgrades to make the website more attractive and to develop a new “fresh” look. I also would like to have more then 2 Meets a year.

Who has helped you the most along the way with the car? With the community?
As far as my car goes I would have to say my father has helped me the most, he taught me everything I know about proper maintenance and appreciating my first car. As for the community, I can’t pick any one person. I created Missouri Mitsu at age 15 with the help of Mike Cunningham who is the Co-Admin. I have had many great moderators over the years the current ones being Arron(DragonGSX) and Matt(Sleeper awd).

Photo by David Kammerich

Were you inspired by any other Mitsubishi community organizer? Who? Why?
I was greatly inspired by Curt Gendron, He owns and runs mn3s.org and organizes the All Mitsubishi Cookout every year. I got a chance to meet him at the 4th annual Missouri Mitsubishi meet back in 2009. He is a great guy and i hope to attend the Cookout in 2011.

Photo by David Kammerich

Who do you look up to in the Mitsubishi community?
I look up to figures such as Curt Gendron, he works really hard to ensure every meet he puts on is a success.

Is there a particular shop you’d like to recommend? Want to thank any sponsors?
I would like to recommend Midwest Autoworx(Copeland’s) in Boonville for any non-aftermarket work, they do quality work and include an excellent warranty.

Other than your own, do you spend time on any Mitsubishi sites? Which ones?
I frequent mitsu-media.com, evolutionm.net, and lancertuners.com as well as our local automotive enthusiast site midwestce.net.

Are you on Twitter? Facebook? How can people find you online?
You can find me on facebook at the following link.
http://www.facebook.com/dkammerich

and Missouri Mitsu’s facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2224969430

And of course at www.missourimitsu.com

What’s your real name? (What’s your screen name?)
Andy Smedegard (known on most forums as “Dizmm”)

What do you do for a living and where do you live?
I live in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I do IT support for several local small and medium sized businesses.

What Mitsubishi(s) do you drive? How long have you had it/them?
I have an 03 Evolution VIII. I’ve had this specific Evo for a bit over a year now.

Photo by Justin Lacerte

What’s your build philosophy/goals for your Mitsubishi? How do you use it?
My philosophy for my builds is reliability. My stuff tends to be closer on the stock side. I do mostly road course, auto-x, and ice rally events and I hate when by car breaks leading to less/no seat time. Not to mention, coming from the DSM world I quickly became annoyed with wrenching on cars. It’s MUCH more fun to drive. I also like to put more focus into suspension and handling rather than peak power.

What originally attracted you to the Mitsubishi? What keeps you going today?
It all started with a 92 Talon TSI AWD. I’ve owned about 15 different DSM’s, and when Evo’s become more affordable, I had to get one.

What got you into racing your Evo on ice?
I started ice racing about 6 years ago with my little Honda civic. A friend talked me into going. At the first event, I quickly realized ice racing is a great way to improve driver skill. Loads of seat time with little to no cost and hardly any wear and tear on your vehicle. I encourage everyone to give it a try. You’ll learn how to drive right on the edge of the traction circle with little to no negative results when you exceed the limits and spin out.

Photo by Justin Lacerte

Tell us about something really exciting you’ve done with other Mitsubishi owners.
Several buddies around town have Evo’s, and we try to attend big track days together. It’s always fun to have a group of 7-9 Evo’s show up at the track all chasing each other down.

What’s the best part about being a Mitsubishi owner? The most challenging?
I love beating up on big American v8 muscle cars. The more challenging part is dealing with the fuz. These big wings and fart can looking exhausts seem to be a magnet.

Photo by Justin Lacerte

What excites you about the coming year? (Your Mitsu and your community)
Driving! And chasing a few of the other Evo buddies around the track. It’s kind of like the go karts when you were a kid, except faster.

How often do you get together with other Mitsubishi owners in person?
Our local car group extends beyond cars. From our Taco Tuesday’s at Taco Johns to some pickup basketball games.

How do you want your community to benefit Mitsubishi owners? What steps are you taking to make sure that happens?
Our Evo community is pretty close. We all help each other when we need it. If someone needs help taking out a tranny for a new clutch, there’s always someone there to help. It’s really neat to have such a dedicated group of guys to help you out when needed. We all kind of have our own area of expertise as well. I’ve been doing most of the suspension and alignment area as well as tire changes (I’ve got my own tire changer/balancer).

How do you feel building a Mitsubishi compares to building a Mitsubishi community?
The small details can make a big difference.

What’s next for your Evo?
I may switch up some suspension stuff, but otherwise just tires and brakes will be about it. Oh and a lot of seat time!

What’s next for WI-DSM.com?
WI-DSM.com is now more than just DSM’s, we have several Evo guys/gals on the forum. We hope to continue to build the Mitsubishi community and get more people involved. I hope to get more DSM/Evo guys behind the wheel instead of in the engine bay. A bit beyond WI-DSM.com, me and a few buddies started an official local car club (Central Wisconsin Sports Car Club Inc.) where we host several auto-x, lapping days, and ice rally events in the area.

Who has helped you the most along the way with the car? With the community?
There are several people I could thank, but most come from the WI-DSM.com forum as well as the CWSCC.com forum.

Photo by Justin Lacerte

Were you inspired by any other Mitsubishi community organizers? Who? Why?
There were a few on the DSMtuners board. That’s where I started and learned most of my car knowledge. I read countless stories and build threads and that motivated me the most.

Who do you look up to in the Mitsubishi community?
Not a specific person, but those that seem to have the full pit crew, big car trailers, fully gutted and modified race cars and unlimited stacks of tires. I’m more jealous but hopefully someday I can do that.

Is there a particular shop you’d like to recommend? Want to thank any sponsors?
I tend to do most of my own work. I’ve had good experiences with ExtremePSI and MAPerformance. I’d like a sponsor.

Other than your own, do you spend time on any Mitsubishi sites? Which ones?
The EvoM forum, mitsu-media, and a few other local forums.

Are you on Twitter? Facebook? How can people find you online?
Facebook: Andy Smedegard or my website: www.smedegard.com

Am 11 September, 2009, trafen sich vier Mitsubishi Fahrer zum ersten mal.
Die Mitsubishi Freunde Baden-Würtemberg wurden geboren. In den folgenden zwölf Monaten versammelten sich die Mitsubishi Freunde regelmäßig und am 11 September 2010 kamen fast dreißig Mitglieder zum Geburtstagstreffen (Birthday Meet).
Wir waren dort.

Grab a drink. This is an epic story. (Translation by Ingmar Micheel, aka: Viking)
My wife and I saved our nickels and dimes for months to finally buy our plane tickets to Germany back in April or May. I’m an army brat and used to live over there. The idea was to show my wife where I used to live, went to high school, and see the place I consider home.

Nehmt euch einen Drink. Dies ist eine epische Geschichte.
Meine Frau und ich sparten, für Monate, all unser Geld und endlich konnten wir unsere Flugtickets für September nach Deutschland kaufen. Ich bin ein Army-Balg und lebte dort drüben. Die Idee war, meiner Frau zu zeigen, wo ich früher gelebt habe, wo ich auf das Gymnasium ging und natürlich den Ort den ich als zu Hause ansah.

I had come across Mitsubishi Fan Forum (MFF) earlier in the year when we did our interview with Bodo Engemann and thought I would pop back in to say hi and mention that we would be in-country in September, if Mitsubishi owners in the area wanted to get together. Between various online translation services and help from MFF member ‘Tschippi,’ I learned there might be a meet during that time. I told them we would be there.

Ich stöberte im Frühjahr durch das Mitsubishi Fan Forum (MFR), als wir unser Interview mit Bodo Engemann hatten und ich dachte ich sage mal wieder „HI“ und erwähnte dass wir im September im Land sein werden, und uns freuen würden mit Mitsubishi Fahrern in der Umgebung zusammen zu kommen. Zwischen verschiedenen Online-Übersetzungsdiensten und mit der Hilfe des MFR Mitglieds Tschippi, erfuhr ich dass zur der Zeit ein Treffen statt finden sollte. Ich sagte ihnen, wir werden da sein!

Sidebar: How I have to do forums these days.
In trying to find people to interview for both Mitsubishi and Rally Gearbox Magazines, I’m probably registered on 100 forums at this point. The only way I can keep track of which threads I need to get back to is by subscribing to instant email notification on replies. Some forums send an email for each reply, but others only send one until you re-visit the site. Turns out, I misplaced the email from MFF at some point and thought the thread where I told them I was coming had gone silent.

Sidebar: Was ich in den Foren zu tun habe.
Bei dem Versuch, Welt weit für beide Bereiche „Mitsubishi Gearbox und Rally Gearbox Magazin“ Leute zu interviewen, bin ich wahrscheinlich in 100 Foren registriert. Der einzige Weg, auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben, ist das Erhalten von Instant Mails  die mich benachrichtigen wenn eine Antwort im Thread gepostet wird. Einige Foren melden sich nach jeder Antwort, aber andere senden nur bis man die Seite wieder besucht. Es stellte sich heraus, dass ich die E-Mail von MFR irgendwann verlegt hatte und dachte, dass der Thread, in dem ich ihnen sagte, dass ich kommen würde, zum schweigen kam.

So I head over to the forum to confirm the dates we’ll be in the area and to see if anyone wants to get together. Turns out, I’ve missed about four pages of discussion planning Geburtstagtreffen (Geburtstag = Birthday, Treffen = Meet). I’ve dropped the ball completely! FAIL!

Also habe ich das Forum nach Terminen, an denen wir in Deutschland sind, durchsucht.
So fand ich heraus, dass ich etwa vier Seiten über die  Diskussion zur Planung des Geburtstagstreffen verpasst hatte. Ich ließ alles fallen! Verdammt!

Of course, I reply to the thread, saying my wife and I will be there and trying to get details like where we’re meeting at what time and how much cash to bring along. Since Germany is nine hours ahead of Phoenix, there was usually a delay in responding back and forth, but there were a few times when I was up late enough to get that email notice first thing in the morning over there or vice versa.

Natürlich habe ich im Thread geantwortet, Ich erzählte es meiner  Frau und versuchte Details wie: „Wo treffen wir uns?,  Wann treffen wir uns und wie viel Geld brauchen wir? zu klären. Da Deutschland  Phoenix neun Stunden voraus ist, kam es in der Regel zu einer Verzögerung bei den Antworten, aber ein paar mal war ich lang genug auf  um dort drüben als erster in der Früh zu antworten.

And so it begins…
As Vanessa and I were sitting at the gate, waiting to board the first plane on our way to Frankfurt, I got an email from Tschippi letting me know the meet was officially set for 11 September and they had a sign-up sheet going in the thread. Since I was getting ready to board (and didn’t have time to browse to the site, login, find the thread, and do a copy>paste job on the Blackberry), I asked him to add us to the list. Just before I turned off the ‘Berry in my seat on the plane, I got an email notification that the thread had been updated, followed by another email from Tschippi wishing us a good trip.

Und so begann es …
Als Vanessa und ich am Gate saßen und darauf warteten das erste Flugzeug auf dem Weg nach Frankfurt zu besteigen, bekam ich eine Email von Tschippi. Er ließ mich wissen, dass  das Treffen offiziell für den 11. September festgelegt wurde und das es eine Anmeldeliste im Thread gab. Da wir kurz vor dem einchecken waren, hatte ich keine Zeit, die Website zu durchsuchen, mich einzulogen, den Thread zu suchen und mir alles auf mein Blackberry zu kopieren. Ich bat ihn, uns auf die  Liste zusetzen. Kurz bevor ich das „Berry“ ausgeschaltet habe, denn ich war bereits im Flugzeug an meinem Platz, bekam ich eine Mail, dass der Thread aktualisiert worden war und kurz gefolgt von einer weiteren Mail von Tschippi der uns eine gute Reise wünschte.

Vanessa and I were in Germany from September 2nd to 13th, so Geburtstagtreffen would be our next to last day in Germany. Almost daily, in the days leading up to the meet, I would find myself thinking about the meet. Would the language barrier be a problem? What models would they be driving? Would it be awkward? Would we have to leave early? Whatever. We were going.

Vanessa und ich waren vom 02. bis 13. September in Deutschland, so war das Geburtstagtreffen an unserem vorletzten Tag in Deutschland. Fast täglich in den Tagen vor dem Treffen dachte ich darüber nach ob es unsere gegenseitigen Erwartungen erfüllen wird. Wird die Sprachbarriere ein Problem? Welche Modelle werden sie wohl fahren? Wäre es peinlich? Würden wir den Abend zu früh verlassen? Wie auch immer. Wir gingen hin!

Geburtstagtreffen
Vanessa and I arrived at the location where everyone was meeting up that afternoon. Since we weren’t driving a Mitsubishi (we had a sweet little BMW 118d Combi), we parked off to the side. As we walked up to the group, I started noticing people turning to look towards us. I waved.

Geburtstagtreffen
Vanessa und ich erreichten den Platz, wo an diesem Nachmittag das Treffen statt fand.
Da wir keinen Mitsubishi fuhren (wir hatten ein süßen kleinen BMW 118d Kombi), parkten wir an der Seite. Als wir zu der Gruppe gingen, bemerkte ich, dass sich die Leute zu uns umdrehten. Ich winkte.

Most of them had team shirts on. Upon saying hello and introducing ourselves, pretty much everyone in the group came up to us, introduced themselves by name and shook our hands. Tschippi made a joke, suggesting I should now recite everyone’s names. Haha. Suuuuuuure.

Die meisten von ihnen hatten ein Team-Shirts an. Nach dem wir “Hallo” sagten  und uns vorstellten, kam so ziemlich jeder in der Gruppe zu uns, alle stellten sich mit Namen vor und wir schüttelten Hände. Tschippi machte dann einen Witz, Ich solle doch jetzt noch einmal alle Namen aufzählen. Haha. Sicher doch.

There were fourteen Mitsubishis there. Here’s where my American and UK Mitsubishi friends will be surprised – there were no DSMs or Evos. At first glance (at the front mount intercoolers), we thought there were a couple Evo Xs in the group, but it turns out, those were turbo diesel Lancers (Lancer CYO 2.0 D-ID). More on them later. I was immediately drawn to the 8th generation Galant Combi (wagon), as it reminded me of a Legnum. There was also a super clean Colt Turbo and a Grandis minivan in the mix. Excellent!

Es waren vierzehn Mitsubishis dort. Jetzt kommt was, wo meine amerikanischen und britischen Mitsubishi Freunde überrascht sein werden – es gab keine DSMs oder Evos. Auf den ersten Blick (vorne montierte Ladeluftkühler), dachten wir, es gab ein paar Evo XS in der Gruppe, aber es stellte sich heraus, das waren Lancer mit Turbodiesel (Lancer CYO 2.0 D-ID). Mehr über sie später. Meine Blicke zogen sich sofort auf die 8. Generation des Galant Kombi (Caravan), da er mich an einen Legnum erinnert. Es gab auch einen super sauberen Colt Turbo und einen Grandis  Minivan in der Runde. Ausgezeichnet!

As we waited for the last stragglers to show up, we looked at all the cars, and started chatting with Ingmar, who spoke a good amount of English. Someone told us one of the Carismas had a bathroom in the trunk, so we walked over to check it out. Sure enough, a tile floor in the trunk with the Mitsubishi diamonds in red. About this time, Sarah showed up with her super clean, blue Galant.

Als wir auf die letzten Nachzügler gewartet haben, haben wir uns alle Autos angeschaut und ich  begann mich mit Ingmar, der eine gute Portion Englisch sprach, zu unterhalten. Jemand sagte uns, dass einer der Carismas ein Bad im Kofferraum hat. So gingen wir gleich hin um das zu prüfen. Ja, ein gefliester Boden im Kofferraum mit den Mitsubishi Diamanten in rot. Zu dieser Zeit kam Sarah mit ihrem super saubereren, blauen Galant.

I couldn’t help but notice the front clip on her Galant. It was fairly radical, yet looked nearly flawless. When I commented on how this must have been the cleanest body kit installation I’d ever seen, Tschippi (who drives the red Galant) pointed out that all the Galants in attendance were sporting factory trim! Four Galants. Four different front clips. All OEM. All fantastic.

Ich komm nicht drum rum die Frontlippe an ihrem Galant zu erwähnen. Sie war ziemlich radikal, doch sie sah fast makellos aus. Ich muss anmerken, dass war das am saubersten verarbeitete Bodykit das ich je gesehen hatte. Tschippi (der den roten Galant fährt) wies darauf hin, dass alle Galants die anwesend waren auf Sportlichkeit getrimmt sind! Vier Galants. Vier verschiedene Frontlippen. Alle OEM. Alle fantastisch.

In addition to the Mitsubishis, there was a Suzuki in attendance which had a great sound system in it. Nein Mann by Laserkraft 3D came on the radio and every door flew open to crank it up. Vanessa and I laughed, as we’d heard this song about once a day since we landed in Frankfurt. Ingmar and Ralph, who had joined us in the conversation, told us how, the first time people hear this song, their first reaction is usually, “What the f*ck?” But it isn’t long before they start nodding their heads to the beat. Catchy tune.

Zusätzlich zu den Mitsubishis, gab es noch einen Suzuki, in den ein großes Sound-System eingebaut war. „Nein Mann“ von Laserkraft 3D kam im Radio und jede Tür flog auf und es wurde voll aufgedreht. Vanessa und ich lachten, da wir dieses Lied etwa einmal pro Tag gehört hatten seit wir in Frankfurt gelandet waren. Ingmar und Ralph, der sich bei unserem Gespräch angeschlossen hatte, erzählten uns, dass Leute die diesen Song das erste mal hören meistens mit: “Was ist das für ein Schei…?” reagieren. Aber es dauert nicht lange, bis  sie anfangen im Takt mit dem Kopf zu nicken. Ohrwurm!

Bonus German Lesson: Towards the end (of the long linked above), the bouncer (security) comes up and says, “Hey, junge mir platzt gleich das Hemd!” Which is to say, “Hey man, my shirt bursts!” (Like the Incredible Hulk when he gets angry.) So now our English-speaking readers can express their anger while working on their Mitsubishi auf Deutsch.

Extra Deutschstunde (für die englischen Sprecher): Gegen Ende des Liedes, kommt der Türsteher (Security) und sagt: “Hey, Junge mir platzt gleich das Hemd!” (Wie der unglaubliche Hulk, wenn er wütend wird.)

Shortly after the song ended, Torsten came over and handed out the address of the Karting venue in Stuttgart. We were on our way.

Kurz nach dem das Lied endete, kam Torsten vorbei um uns die Anschrift der Go-Kart-Halle in Stuttgart zu geben. Wir machten uns auf den Weg.

Kart-o-Mania
Real estate is at a premium in Germany, so the karting venue was actually on the fourth or fifth floor of a parking garage. Upon arrival, we all settled in to have a drink while the previous group finished their race. The waiver was signed (a simple agreement wherein racers accept personal responsibility for any injuries they might incur while racing), entry fees were paid, and balaclavas (like a ski mask, these are like a sock for your head, going between you and the provided helmets) were purchased.

Kart-O-Mania
Die Immobilien in Deutschland sind teuer, so war die Kart-Halle eigentlich in der vierten oder fünften Etage eines Parkhauses. Nach der Ankunft setzten wir uns erst einmal für ein Getränk, solange bis die vorherige Gruppe ihr Rennen beendete, die Verzichtserklärung (eine einfache Vereinbarung,  in der der Fahrer erklärt das er bei Verletzungen selbst die Verantwortung trägt) unterschrieben wurde und bis das Startgeld bezahlt und die Sturmhauben gekauft waren.

As the track boss went over the rules, he was told there were non-German speakers present, which he assumed was just Vanessa. He would explain a rule in German, then look directly at Vanessa and tell her in English. We thought this was funny. Tschippi told me the first run was warm up and qualifying, then it was going to be Mitsu Fruende Formula 1 when the green lights came on. We strapped into our karts.

Der Chef der Bahn erklärte die Regeln, dann wurde ihm gesagt das es auch nicht deutsch sprechende Teilnehmer gibt, er nahm an das nur Vanessa ihn nicht versteht. Er erklärte die Regeln erst in Deutsch und schaute sie dann direkt an um ihr die Regeln in Englisch zu erklären. Das fanden wir natürlich lustig. Tschippi erzählte mir im ersten Lauf würden wir uns warm fahren und gleichzeitig  die Qualifikation machen. Sobald das grüne Licht an geht, sollte die Mitsu Freunde Formel 1 starten. Wir setzten uns in unsere Karts.

The race
I’ve only karted once before this, so I pretty much suck at karting. I was making a conscious effort to stay out of the much faster people’s way. Through about half the corners of the track, I was staying outside to give the faster guys the holeshot. Who wants to see his hot lap messed up by a rookie messing up the racing line? Vanessa passed me, and I couldn’t pass her, so I came in dead last.

Das Rennen
Ich bin davor erst einmal Kart gefahren, so dass ich hier ziemlich versagt habe. Es war, für die ganzen schnellen Leute, eine echte Anstrengung mich zu überholen. In etwa der Hälfte der Kurven auf der Strecke, bin ich ganz außen geblieben, um den schnelleren Jungs die Ideallinie frei zu machen. Wer will schon, dass seine schnelle Runde von einem Anfänger vermasselt wird, weil er ihm die Ideallinie versaut? Vanessa zog an mir vorbei und ich konnte sie nicht mehr einholen und so belegte ich den letzten Platz.

The award ceremonies
We were sitting in the restaurant area waiting for the results, which I thought would be a print-out with our times so we could compare them with each other. Suddenly, the lights went dim and Eye of the Tiger began playing over the speakers. The spotlight came up on the track boss, who announced the results to great fanfare.

Die Siegerehrungen
Wir saßen im Restaurant-Bereich und warteten auf die Ergebnisse. Ich dachte wir kriegen einen Ausdruck auf dem wir unsere Zeiten vergleichen könnten. Doch Plötzlich gingen die Lichter aus und es wurde „Eye of the Tiger“ gespielt. Ein Scheinwerfer schwenkte auf den Hallenbesitzer, der die Ergebnisse mit großem Tamtam ankündigte.

I came in 14th of 14 competitors. Yes, dead last, but I’m chalking it up to superior German driving skills and international courtesy on my part; not wanting to mess up any faster racers’ lines on the track. I was called to the stage and presented a medal. Next up, Vanessa was crowned “Fastest Woman from America,” with a medal and bottle of champagne!

Ich war 14. von 14 Teilnehmern. Ja, der Letzte! Die deutsche Fahrkunst war überlegen doch ich kann die internationale Höflichkeit auf mich nehmen. Ich wollte den anderen ja nicht die Rennlinie vermasseln. Ich wurde auf die Bühne gerufen und bekam eine Medaille. Als nächstes wurde Vanessa als “schnellste Frau aus Amerika” mit einer Medaille und einer Flasche Champagner gekrönt!

To the victors go the spoils, and there was champagne spraying everywhere after all the winners were announced.

Die Sieger bekamen Pokale und dann wurde mit Champagner gespritzt  nachdem alle Gewinner bekannt gegeben wurden.

The Photo-op
We rolled out from Kart-O-Mania, headed to dinner at Lemberghalle, but stopped in a parking lot beneath a giant power plant for a photoshoot of all the cars together. While everyone figured out how to arrange the cars for the picture, some of us stood off to the side and talked cars.

Das Foto-Shooting
Wir fuhren vom Kart-O-Mania in Richtung  Abendessen zur Lemberghalle, aber wir blieben auf einem Parkplatz unter einem riesigen Kraftwerk, für ein Fotoshooting mit allen Autos, stehen. Während alle heraus zu finden versuchten wie man die Autos für das Bild platziert, standen einige von uns an der Seite und sprachen über Autos.

Ralph showed me the engine in his diesel Lancer and it was pointed out the engine is sourced from VW/Audi. Top speed is limited, but the the limit in the Audi is higher than that of the Lancer. Ingmar said it can be frustrating to be on the Autobahn, maxed out at 215kph (134mph) and have to get out of the way to let an Audi with the exact same engine pass you.

Ralph hat mir den Motor seines Lancer gezeigt und es wurde darauf hingewiesen das der Motor von Audi VW stammt. Die Höchstgeschwindigkeit ist begrenzt, aber die Grenze im Audi ist höher als im Lancer. Ingmar sagte, es kann frustrierend sein wenn man auf der Autobahn, bei 250 km / h (155 Stundenmeilen) die Grenze erreicht hat und einen Audi mit dem selben Motor vorbeilassen muss.

Yes. Ralph and Ingmar spoke of going 134mph on the Autobahn as if it was no big deal.

Ja! Ralph und Ingmar sprachen von 155 Stundenmeilen auf der Autobahn, als ob es keine große Sache wäre.

The fastest car at the meet
Robert drives the turbo Colt. I believe they said it makes 160hp and is faster than anyone else there. Robert prefers to drive late at night so he can go faster with less traffic. While the Lancers have HID headlights and few people will try to pass before they catch them, the Colt does not have HIDs and, since it’s a small car, Robert ends up running right up on people on the Autobahn and having to slow down until they get back over into their own lane.

Das schnellste Auto auf dem Treffen war Roberts Turbo Colt.
Ich glaube sie sagten er hat 160 PS und ist schneller als jeder andere dort. Robert fährt lieber  nachts damit er bei weniger Verkehr schneller fahren kann. Während die Lancer Xenon Scheinwerfer haben und einige Leute sie deswegen  passieren lassen, bevor sie selbst überholen, muss der Colt ohne Xenon oft bremsen da die Leute denken da kommt nur ein kleines Auto und dann vor ihm auf seine Spur ziehen.

Driving on the Autobahn
Many people think the Autobahn is a racer’s dream, with unlimited speeds and no traffic, but over 80% of the Autobahn now has speed limits. Unless otherwise posted, the limit is 130kph (80mph), though there are a few places where one can still go unlimited.

Das Fahren auf der Autobahn
Viele Leute denken, die Autobahn ist ein Racer’s Traum, mit unbegrenzter Geschwindigkeit und keinem Verkehr, aber auf über 80% der Autobahn gibt es jetzt Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen. Soweit nicht anders angegeben, ist die Grenze 130 km/h (80 Stundenmeilen), obwohl es ein paar Strecken gibt die unbegrenzt sind.

In my personal opinion, the biggest appeal to the Autobahn is this:

Meiner persönlichen Meinung nach, ist der größte Reiz an der Autobahn:

1. Everyone – everyone – uses their turn signals. Every time.
2. Rechtsfahren. No one -  no one – passes on the right.

1. Jeder – alle – nutzten ihre Blinker. Jedes Mal!
2. Rechtsfahrgebot Niemand fährt auf der rechten Seite.

If you are passing traffic and see a car pull out ahead of you to pass a truck, for example, before you flash the high beams or let off the gas, they already have their signal on and are pulling back over to the right. Absolutely fantastic. When I told everyone how drivers in America will ride the left lane or pass on the right (or not even use their turn signals), they were troubled by this information. How can you pass someone safely if you go to move back over to the right and find a faster car trying to merge left? It’s stupid and a sign of poor driving. Shame we’re so used to it here in the States.

Wenn ihr im Durchgangsverkehr seit und ihr seht ein Auto das vor euch an einem Lastwagen vorbei zieht, als Beispiel und Ihr Lichthupe gebt oder vom Gas geht, haben sie bereits ihr Blinker gesetzt und ziehen wieder auf die rechte Spur. Absolut fantastisch! Als ich allen erzählte, wie Autofahrer in Amerika immer auf der linken Spur fahren oder einfach auf die rechten Seite wechseln ohne den Blinker zu setzen, waren sie durch diese Informationen besorgt. Wie könnt ihr sicher fahren, wenn jemand zurück auf die rechte  Spur will oder ein schnelleres Auto versucht sich links einzuordnen? Es ist dumm und ein Zeichen von schlechten Fahrens. Schande das wir es so in den Staaten machen.

Lemberghalle
Thomas runs Lemberghalle, which is a hotel, restaurant with a festhalle on site. A festhalle is like a ballroom where you might hold a wedding reception or party. We show up to find Thomas has pulled out all the stops. There are Mitsubishi ASX posters everywhere. Mitsubishi balloons, Mitsubishi lanyards (for keys, badges, or whatever), and even Mitsubishi candy in bowls. Amazing.

Lemberghalle
Wir fuhren zu Thomas. Die Lemberghalle ist ein Hotel und ein Restaurant mit einer Festhalle an der Seite, wo Ihr eine Hochzeit oder eine Party feiern könnt. Wir sahen das Thomas alle Register gezogen hat. Es waren überall Mitsubishi ASX Plakate, Mitsubishi Luftballons, Mitsubishi Schlüßelbänder (für Schlüssel, Karten oder was auch immer) und selbst Schalen mit Mitsubishi Süßigkeiten. Wunderbar!

Dinner was a fantastic buffet, with Schnitzel, chicken Cordon Bleu, pommes chips (like french fries, only round), Spaetzle (flour, dumpling-like noodles), salad and drinks. Sabrina ordered one of my favorite drinks, a Spezi (pronounced “SCHPATE-zee”), which is Fanta Orange and Coca-Cola mixed 2:1. This drink is so popular in Germany, Coke actually bottles it themselves as Mezzo Mix.

Das Abendessen war ein fantastisches Buffet mit Schnitzel, Hähnchen Cordon Bleu, Pommes, Spätzle (Mehl, Knödel-ähnliche Nudeln), Salat und Getränke. Sabrina bestellte eines meiner Lieblings-Getränke, eine Spezi (ausgesprochen “SCHPATE-zee”), das 2:1 mit  Fanta Orange und Coca-Cola gemischt wird. Dieses Getränk ist in Deutschland so populär, das es tatsächlich in Cola-Flaschen als Mezzo Mix verkauft wird.

There was ketchup for the fries/pommes, but everyone wanted gravy and supplies quickly ran out. When Thomas brought out more gravy, there were actually about five or six people who ran up to get gravy for their fries. Of course, this was all in good fun; not that people are that hardcore for condiments in Germany. As this article is already extremely long, let me just say – the food was phenomenal.

Es gab Ketchup für die Pommes frites, aber einige wollten Soße für die Pommes. Als Thomas die Soße brachte standen tatsächlich fünf oder sechs Leute auf um Soße für ihre Pommes zu holen. Natürlich war dies alles ein riesen Spaß. Da dieser Artikel bereits sehr lang ist möchte ich nur sagen – das Essen war phänomenal!

Gifts
When I interviewed the folks at Mitsubishi earlier this year (recording lost in a hard drive crash, sorry), I was presented with a really sweet Mitsubishi Drift Team shirt. I also had a Mitsubishi Owner Day (MOD) 2010 shirt and an Evo hat with me when we showed up to the meet. Since Ralph and Ingmar were such gracious hosts, making sure Vanessa and I could communicate with everyone in the group and knew what was going on, I gave Ralph the MOD shirt and Ingmar got the team shirt. I gave Tschippi the hat, but since he doesn’t wear hats, it ended up going to Torsten, who put it on right away and resumed clowning around with the group.

Geschenke
Als ich einige Mitsubishi Fahrer im Frühjahr interviewt habe (die Aufnahme ist bei einem Festplattencrash verloren gegangen, sorry) wurde ich mit einem wirklich schönem Mitsubishi Drift Team Shirt beschenkt. Ich hatte auch ein Mitsubishi Owner Day (MOD) 2010 Shirt und eine Mütze mit Evo dabei als wir zum Treffen kamen. Da Ralph und Ingmar so freundliche Gastgeber waren und sicherstellten das Vanessa und ich mit jedem in der Gruppe kommunizieren konnten und wir wussten was los war, gab ich das MOD Shirt Ralph und Ingmar bekam das Team Shirt. Ich habe Tschippi die Mütze gegeben, aber da er keine Mützen trägt landete sie bei Torsten, der sie sofort aufgesetzt hat und mit der Gruppe rum gealbert hat.

Thomas becomes an honorary member of the club
From what I was told, Thomas has driven ONLY Mitsubishis his entire life. He went out of his way to decorate the festhalle with Mitsubishi for our event and he does this sort of thing on a regular basis. In addition to celebrating the 1 year anniversary of the club, Thomas was made an honorary member of the club and presented with a club shirt, complete with his name on it. Awesome.

Thomas wurde zum Ehrenmitglied des Clubs.
Wie mir gesagt wurde hat er sein ganzes Leben nur Mitsubishi gefahren. Er schmückte die Festhalle mit Mitsubishi Artikeln für unsere Veranstaltung und das auf freiwilliger Basis. Gleichzeitig zur Feier des 1-jährigen Bestehens des Clubs wurde Thomas zum Ehrenmitglied des Vereins gemacht und er bekam ein Clubshirt mit seinem Namen drauf. Sehr schön!

Movie time
Some of us were later outside smoking, when word came that everyone needed to be inside, where we went behind the divider wall to the other side of the festhalle and the lights were dimmed for a movie. They had made a video showing pictures of all the meets the group has had since their first on September 12, 2009. Again, awesome.

Movie Time
Einige von uns die draußen rauchen waren, wurden gebeten rein zu kommen. Wir sollten hinter die Trennwand auf die andere Seite der Festhalle gehen, wo die Lichter für einen Film gedämmt waren. Sie hatten ein Video, mit Bildern von allen Treffen die die Gruppe seit dem 12. September 2009 gemacht hatten, erstellt. Auch genial!

After the video, a fruit and cheese tray was brought out and we all enjoyed digestifs (after dinner shots, basically). I was coming down with a nasty cold and it was getting late, but we still managed to have several conversations about politics, the economy, and how much our worlds, as Mitsubishi owners in different countries, were similar.

Nach dem Video wurde eine Obst-und Käseplatte aufgetischt und wir genossen alle ein paar Kurze. Ich wurde müde und mir war kalt und es war auch schon spät, aber wir haben noch mehrere Gespräche über Politik und die Wirtschaft geführt und wir merkten wie sich unsere Welten, der Mitsubishi Besitzer in verschiedenen Ländern, ähneln.

Vanessa and I didn’t want to leave, but we knew we had an hour-plus drive back to our hotel near Heidelberg. We all stood outside under the stars, counting down the seconds to midnight, when the official 1 year anniversary occurred, then we shook hands and said our goodbyes.

Vanessa und ich wollten noch nicht gehen aber wir wussten das wir eine Stunde für die Rückfahrt zu unserem Hotel in der Nähe von Heidelberg brauchten. Wir standen alle draußen unter den Sternen als  der Countdown bis Mitternacht gezählt wurde, als das offizielle 1 Jahr-Jubiläum eintrat und verabschiedeten  wir uns und schüttelten allen die Hände.

In closing
If you’ve read this far (and I hope you have), we’re pushing 2600 words in this post, making it the longest we’ve ever run on Gearbox Magazine. Why is it so long? Because this experience represents exactly the single most important reason why Gearbox exists. As Mitsubishi owners, we have something in common with people all over the world. We care about our cars and trucks, we take the best care of them we can, and we enjoy spending time with our Mitsubishi friends. The things we have in common with each other can help us to better understand our differences.

Zum Schluss
Wenn Ihr bis hier gelesen habt (und ich hoffe doch das habt ihr), dann habt Ihr über 2600 Wörter gelesen. So ist dies der längste Beitrag den wir je hier auf Gearbox Magazin veröffentlicht haben. Warum ist er so lang geworden? Na weil diese Erfahrung genau der Grund ist warum es Gearbox Magazin gibt! Als Mitsubishi Besitzer haben etwas mit allen Menschen auf der Welt gemeinsam. Wir kümmern uns um unsere Autos und LKWs, wir pflegen sie so gut wir können und genießen die Zeit mit unserem Mitsubishi Freunden. Die Dinge die wir mit anderen gemeinsam haben, können uns helfen besser zu verstehen wie unsere Unterschiede sind.

The challenge
Go to a Mitsubishi meet in another city, another state, another country. You are part of a very important, global community of automotive enthusiasts and you have a lot to offer. You have experiences and ideas and stories which your brothers and sisters under the diamonds will appreciate and understand. We have all learned so much about our Mitsubishis from posting to forums and chatrooms online, but it is when we meet face-to-face that we truly get to know each other as friends.

Die Herausforderung
Geht zu einem Mitsubishi-Treffen in einer anderen Stadt, in einen anderen Staat oder in ein anderes Land. Ihr seit Teil einer sehr wichtigen, globalen Gemeinschaft von Automobil-Enthusiasten und Ihr habt eine Menge zu bieten. Ihr habt Erfahrungen und Ideen und Geschichten zu erzählen, die eure Brüder und Schwestern unter den Diamanten zu schätzen wissen. Wir alle haben so viel in den Foren und Chatrooms über unsere Mitsubishis gelernt, aber nur wenn wir uns von Angesicht zu Angesicht treffen, können wir uns als echte Freunde kennen lernen.

Special thanks to Enrico Tschipke for making sure Vanessa and I knew where to go for Geburtstagtreffen before we even got on the plane in Phoenix, to Ralph Wolter and Ingmar Micheel for helping us to communicate with everyone else in the group, to Conny and Sabrina for making my wife feel at home while we guys were talking cars, to Torsten Koschinski for printing out the day’s agenda and making himself available as a point of contact for anyone who got lost during the day, to Robert, Stefani, Marco & Ramona, Sarah, Thomas, and ALL DIE MITSU FRUENDE for making 11 September 2010 one of the greatest days Vanessa and I have ever known.

Besonderen Dank an: Enrico Tschipke für die rechtzeitige Registrierung für das Geburtstagstreffen, so das Vanessa und ich wussten das wir dabei sein können bevor wir in Phoenix ins Flugzeug gestiegen sind. An Ralph Wolter und Ingmar Micheel die uns geholfen haben mit allen Leuten in der Gruppe zu sprechen. An Conny und Sabrina dafür, dass sie meiner Frau das Gefühl gaben zu Hause zu sein, während wir alle nur über Autos redeten. An Torsten Koschinski für das ausdrucken der Tagesplanung und der Adressen, um somit sicher zu stellen das niemand verloren gehen konnte. An Robert, Stefani, Marco & Ramona, Sarah, Thomas und an ALL DIE MITSU FREUNDE die den 11. September 2010 zu einem der schönsten Tage für Vanessa und mich machten!

We will find a way to interview you all and we will find a way to meet again…

Wir werden einen Weg finden Euch alle zu interviewen und wir werden einen Weg finden damit wir uns wieder treffen werden …

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.

What’s your real name?  (What’s your screen name?)
Darin Frow  (Username: Darin)

Where do you live and what do you do for a living?
I live in Bath, England and my job is running the Mitsubishi Lancer Register

What Mitsubishi(s) do you drive?  How long have you had it/them?

2003 Mitsubishi Shogun 3.2 TD LWB
This is my ‘everyday car’ but is unique as it’s one of the actual Support Vehicles for the Long Way Round; the round the world trip that Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman filmed in 2004. I’ve owned it since 2007 after Mitsubishi offered it to me.  In addition to the upgrades from TBR UK (OME springs, full length roofrack, bullbar, snorkel and tints) it came complete with dirt from Kurdistan (inside and out), the Shaman scarf that were tied on the rack for good luck and all the teams personal phone numbers on a grab card in the glove box!  I’ve managed to get rid of the dirt, but still have the scarf (and the numbers!)  Since then have done over 100k miles in it I have to say it’s probably the best vehicle I’ve ever bought.

1999 Evo 6 GSR
#23 of the ‘first official’ UK cars brought in to the country by Ralliart UK (now Xtreme Autos) and was originally ordered by my friend and Rallyday co-organiser Brian.  I bought the car with Mechell (who also works for the MLR) in 2008 as I’ve known it from new and it’s still standard with the exception of an HKS air filter and Ralliart exhaust.

Ex-works 1981 Lancer 2000 Turbo WRC
Believed to be 1 of only 3 genuine works rally cars in the world today – out of a total number of 8 built – the other 2 being owned by Mitsubishi Motors Japan (on display in the Mitsubishi Auto Gallery) and the other by Andrew Cowan, ex-Mitsubishi Ralliart WRC Team Director.

Originally built by Denzel’s of Austria for Mitsubishi’s WRC programme in the early 80s, the car features one of the last works 4G63T engines producing approx 380bhp but with multi point injection, larger turbo with integral wastegate and intercooler, dogleg 5speed gearbox and 4.6 LSD.   The LHD arched bodyshell was acid dipped, part seam-welded and caged, with revised suspension and engine mounting, and internally features 3 position switchable boost,  Recaro seats, Willans harnesses, Halda navigators computer, and rear bulkhead mounted ECU.  The boot is dominated by the 20gallon fuel tank, along with the fuel pumps and filters, spare wheel, jack and wheel brace.

What are your build philosophy & goals for your Mitsubishi(s)?  How do you use it/them?
I don’t really have a build philosophy but my goals are very simple; buy standard, original and if possible unique cars and keep them that way as much as possible!

The Shogun is a workhorse – and a very good one, pulling the MLR show trailers and being loaded to the roof with other event gear on a very regular basis.  The Evo is used by Mechell as her daily driver, and the Lancer Turbo rally car is hardly ever used – in fact I doubt I’ve done 50 miles in it since buying it back in 1995!!! (probably not something I should admit to!)

You run a Mitsubishi community.  What’s it called?  Why/How did it start?
It’s the Mitsubishi Lancer Register, and it was started by me in 1996 to cater for owners of the Lancer 2000 Turbo, although in those days is was called the Lancer Turbo Register.  The “LTR” expanded to include EVOs as the Jap import scene kicked off here in the UK and become the “MLR” in 2000 shortly after the Evo 6 become an official UK model.

Who are your members?  How many are there?  Where do they come from?
MLR members include anyone who has an interest in Lancer Evos and 2000 Turbos – whether they are owners, ex-owners who enjoy being a part of the club or enthusiasts who currently own other cars.

We currently have around 3000 fully paid up members predominantly from the UK, but approx 10% from overseas, including the Europe, USA, Australia, Scandinavia and Japan.

Every member is important, but describe the ideal community member.
To me the ideal community member is someone who enjoys being a part of the community, gets involved in a variety of different ways and is keen to help others wherever he or she can. As the MLR is more than an online community though, we also hope members step away from the keyboard and attend one of the many national or regional events that we organise or attend throughout the year, or contribute to the magazine, or maybe get more involved in the club by becoming a regional organiser or another role which in turn enables the MLR to do and offer more to our members

How do you keep community members engaged and active?
We genuinely try to offer all MLR members as much as possible as we understand that not all members want the same things, or have the same opportunities (eg: not all members have internet access and therefore cannot see the site or forum), so what we offer members has now grown to include all the following…
•    Membership pack including A5 Handbook, ID card and lanyard, decal pack and stainless steel badge (the pack varies every year)
•    Full colour 120 page magazine which all members receive on a quarterly basis
•    Access to a huge event calendar which includes UK and European trackdays, national MLR Sprint Series, car shows and bespoke MLR events such as 30-130 and MLR500
•    Regional events
•    Unlimited access to the website and Forum
•    Discounted prices for virtually all the items in the MLR Shop
•    Huge range of discounts with official MLR traders
•    MLR insurance scheme and more
Full details of membership benefits can be seen here.

What’s the best part about running a Mitsubishi community?  The most challenging?
Personally I enjoy seeing the members benefit and enjoy what the MLR is able to offer, and know that what we do makes a difference not only to their enjoyment of Evo ownership but is also very likely to have saved them a considerable amount of money. Of course, seeing what other members do and what’s available through the MLR and MLR traders may also cost them more money too, but if it puts a smile on your face there’s nothing wrong with that!

The most challenging part about running the MLR is trying to find time to develop certain areas and continue to improve it whilst having to manage the day-to-day aspects.  I wish my success rate in doing both was higher!

Tell us about some of the events your community organizes each year.
As I mentioned earlier, the MLR organises a fairly comprehensive events calendar throughout the year, and this has continued to grow year on year since the club started.  To give you an idea of what we offer members, the national 2010 calendar is listed below, and all events with the exception of the Shows and Driver Training are organised by the MLR.  This doesn’t include all the regional dates which add a considerable number of events to the calendar.

MLR TRACKDAYS:
22 February         Brands Hatch – Indy
26 March              Anglesey – International GP
23 April                 Oulton Park – International
7 May                    Silverstone – New Southern
31 May                  Spa Francorchamps
31 July                  Cadwell Park – Full circuit
21 August            Castle Combe
9 October             Snetterton
22 October           Spa Francorchamps
19 November       Oulton Park – International

MLR SPRINT SERIES:
20 March         MLRSS Round 1              Silverstone – New Stowe
24 April            MLRSS Round 2              Oulton Park – Full Rally Circuit
21 May             MLRSS Round 3              Rockingham – National Circuit
11 June           MLRSS Round 4              Castle Combe
25 July             MLRSS Round 5              Ingliston, Edinburgh
6 August          MLRSS Round 6              Teesside Autodrome
23 October      MLRSS Round 7              Silverstone

30-130 & MLR500
13 March                  MLR                   RAF Marham
25 September         MLR500            Blyton

MLR DRIVER TRAINING:
19 March           Millbrook
17 July               Millbrook
16 October        Millbrook

SHOWS & OTHER EVENTS:
24 April                        Modified Live            Oulton Park
15 May                         Japfest                       Castle Combe
16 May                         Modified Live             Knockhill
5/6 June                      Rally Show                Chatsworth
27 June                       Modified Live             Brands Hatch
4 July                           Japshow                    Santa Pod
1 August                     Modified Live             Cadwell Park
7/8 August                  TOTB8                        Elvington
15 August                   Japfest 2                    Rockingham
5 September              TRAX                          Silverstone
10-12 September     JAE                              Wicksteed Park
18 September           Rallyday                      Castle Combe
4 October                    Japshow                    Santa Pod
10 October                  Modified Live            Snetterton

If you’d prefer to list a summary, the total is 36 national events split down as follows;
•    14 Shows
•    10 Trackdays*
•    7 Sprints*
•    3 Driver Training events
•    2 bespoke events
* which also include driver tuition

Tell us about something really exciting your members have done or regularly do.
Really exciting?!?  Well a number of people would say the MLR trackdays and sprints were all exciting for those who take part (driver and passenger), but as the times for the Sprints are shown instantly on a large plasma screen in the paddock, the competition is so close watching the screen can be enough for some people!

30-130 (which is also a top speed event) is quite unique and guaranteed to get adrenalin rushing as drivers test their cars from a rolling start with the sole aim of getting from 30-130 in the shortest time possible. They can then continue to complete a top speed run if they wish – the quickest Evos we’ve seen so far is 30-130 in 5.94seconds and a top speed on 201mph.

The MLR500 is another unique MLR event where 20 teams compete in a Mitsubishi worth no more than £500 on a dirt oval for a 4 hour endurance.  The event includes compulsory refueling, driver changes and a sin bin (for the over excited drivers!) and the winners are the team who completed the most laps. When everyone has calmed down we have party into the small hours with a BBQ, band and a bar – in a word it’s a riot!

We’re also now in the Guinness Book of World Records having successfully organised the largest parade of Mitsubishi Lancer Evos in July 2008, when we had a total of 273 cars on track together. It took some considerable time by a few members to make it happen, but it was a great spectacle and well worth the effort – and we raised nearly £8000 for charity too.

How do you want your community to benefit Mitsubishi owners?
In all the ways it already does, ie: bring people together with a similar interest in a particular subject, help them get more from their interest and help them when they have problems.   I think the measure of a good forum / community is too see its continued growth and the regular influx of new members, all wanting to be a part of something informative, interesting, social and good fun.

What steps are you taking to make sure that happens?
We have to continue to offer our members what they want and what they’re used to receiving, but it also important to improve what we do and look at introducing new elements to the club too – whether that’s with the magazine, events, website etc.  It’s very important to retain members, but equally to attract new members also think it’s important to get as many members as possible really involved in the club and it would be great to see more members attend events.  Away of the visible part of the MLR, we also need to ensure our IT infrastructure is resilient and up-to-date, so the elements that most take for granted remain operational, and we’re extremely fortunate to have an ISP and IT consultant who between them ensures the MLR runs 24×7.

Your thoughts on those who part out otherwise salvageable cars?
As much as I like cars (including Evos!) in general, I’ve always been more interested in the older versions – partly because they’re invariably rarer and in my opinion have more character, so it’s sad to see these cars get broken for spares if the only reason is they’re worth more money in parts. Sometimes of course it’s the only realistic option, but if it helps other people keep their cars roadworthy then it’s worthwhile. We see it happen very often now with newer models too though, purely because there make more money in their component form, which although is fine for the short term gain, it will accelerate their rarity too so I hope there are some owners out there who have the foresight to retain their cars originality – because they’ll be sitting on a very sought after car in years to come.

How do you feel building a Mitsubishi compares to building a Mitsubishi community?
Although I’ve never built a Mitsubishi, I have built other cars and there are similarities in understanding what you want both to achieve and having a game plan on how to get there. So although the details and components are quite different, the ethos is very similar.  There’s also a similarity in that neither are ever finished!

Who do you look up to in the greater automotive community?
A long (long!) time ago I was a member of the Porsche Club and I was always in awe of what they offered their members; from the quality of their magazine, the numerous events, the support network with regional areas and organisers, merchandise, and their whole infrastructure.  I’m extremely pleased and proud to see the MLR in the position it currently has, but I still think we have some way to go before we’re on a similar plain – it’s good to have goals though!

Who has helped you the most along the way with the car(s)?  With the community?
The MLR simply wouldn’t be where it is today without the help of a large number of people who volunteer their time and services – they are all the “MLR Staff” who want to get more involved with the club they enjoy, and because of their involvement, they create a better environment for others.

Is there a particular shop you’d like to recommend?  Want to thank any sponsors?
Due to the overwhelming popularity and growth of the MLR over the past 10 years we’ve been fortunate to attract a number of companies who have chosen the MLR to promote their businesses through. All these companies have helped the MLR grow and enabled us to invest, so I would like to thank all of them equally for their continued support.

Other than your own, do you spend time on any Mitsubishi sites?  Which ones?
Regrettably no – I really wish I did, but I don’t have the time!

Are you on Twitter?  Facebook?  How can people find you online?
Me personally?  Errr, no!  Apart from that ‘lack of time’ factor again, my details are all over the internet via the MLR, so if anyone wants to contact me they’re already able to via PM and email – and there’s always the mobile too which is welded to me 7×24!

What’s next for your Mitsubishi(s)? Your community? (might not be exciting)
There are a few plans I’d like to see come to fruition for the MLR over the next 12 months – some of these are web based, some involve the magazine and there are also a couple of events which I would like to introduce. Whether they become a reality we’ll have to wait and see!

Thank you to Darin – and all the members of the Lancer Register – for helping make this story possible. For that one MLR member who left the visitor message on Darin’s profile requesting pictures of his Mitusbishis, we hope this will suffice.

Now what about you? What was your favorite part of this story? Are you excited? We are!

The month of June is all about community here on Mitsubishi Gearbox. Last week, we asked you to share your top 3 Mitsubishi forums. This week we’ve got a new question for you.

Which Mitsubishi projects are you following?

Why not tell somebody about them? Who’s doing what, where, and how can we follow along? Can you point us to a build thread somewhere or maybe a blog? We’re all Mitsubishi fans here, so this is the sort of stuff we get into. Who knows? Maybe we might be able to catch these folks on the phone for an interview this summer!

Disclaimer: Tarmac-and-Gravel is the author’s personal Galant VR4 site. As was the case last week, the author needed an image to go with the post. We’re looking for more sites like this.

Many of us have a forum or two we call home. We spend more time on these sites than any others. If you’ve ever had a conversation with a buddy and referred to “the board” or “the forum,” you know what we’re talking about this week.

What are your top 3 Mitsubishi forums?

No, we’re not asking you to actually rate which boards are best. We’re just looking for 3 forums you spend the most time on and maybe some reasons why you like those forums. You see, we want to help Mitsubishi owners get the most out of their vehicles. We got our start on forums back in the day and we feel the boards are critical to the health of the Mitsubishi community so we’d like to give folks a chance to pitch the sites that they like the most.

Can’t name just 3? Name 4, 5, 10, 100 if you want!

Disclaimer: The author is a member of the pictured forums (and many, many more). Gearbox Magazine doesn’t claim these communities to be the best, but these are the communities where the author spends most of his time and, well, he needed a picture to go with this post.

What do you do for a living and where do you live?
Software Analyst in Chicago, IL

What Mitsubishi(s) do you drive?  How long have you had it/them?
I’ve previously owned a Ram 50 (Mighty Max) and a 1990 Galant GSR.  I’ve also recently retired from my possession 1991 Galant VR-4 #858/2000 after about 7 years of mostly daily driving.  My current daily driver is a 2007 Outlander LS.   In the last 6 months I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to purchase 1991 Galant VR-4 #77/2000 as a rolling shell.

What’s your build philosophy/goals for your Galant?  How do you use it?
It has been proven that the VR-4 is a very potent and capable platform: top speed class world record holder on salt flats, three time FIA World Rally Championship race winner, serious class contender in the 2009 One Lap of America (I predict in a few years when it qualifies as Vintage Import it will be dominant), quarter-mile drag race monster, Auto-X cone dodger…  but I feel like the VR-4 is most at home embracing it’s category-storming transformation from a run-of-mill 4-door Japanese sedan into an aggressive display of technology and careful adaptation to American sensibilities, circa 1990.   It is a black sheep in so many ways.  I feel it works best as a street car.

Photo: Cody Lind, CodyLindPhotography.com

You started a Mitsubishi community.  What’s it called?  When did you start it?
The community began as a mailing list run by Ron Vasquez on April 6, 1999 (the GVR4list on Yahoo Groups) as an offshoot of the typical DSM email lists.  Jon Roberts started a web-based forum with “insidetheweb” and linked to it from his personal page; originally hosted on whiterose.net/gvr4/ and later moved to jgronline.com in April of 2000.   The current incarnation was started February 21st, 2001 and eventually moved to GalantVR4.org in November 2002 as Jon separated the community from his personal website and he sold his VR-4.

I joined the community in July of 2002.  I originally started a personal page of my own to keep track of links of interest as I moved between computers and eventually to share with other enthusiasts.  That page still stands today with only minor updates at www.galantvr4.org/rhertz/.   Using my personal resources and abilities to help the community, I started to offer additional functionality to the forum by creating an image hosting service in late January of 2003.  The image hosting still runs today and contains over 104,000 uploads.

The site was transferred to me a few months later, around February 2003.

Although we’ve been through a few upgrades we hold true to Jon’s original mantra: “No ads, no crap, just the best Galant VR4 site on the web!”

Why did you decide to start a Mitsubishi community?
I’ve made a lot of friends through the site and it is a way to give back to the community.  I hope it remains as a lasting tribute to all those who came before me and continues to be a place where we can share our trials, tribulations and aspirations.

Who are your members?  How many are there?  Where do they come from?
Our membership consists of mostly U.S. residents and a lesser number of members from Australia, New Zealand and some in Russia.  A few members are scattered about in the most unlikely places, from Columbia to Hong Kong and the Middle East.

Most of the membership are current 6G Galant VR-4 owners, followed by former VR-4 owners (who won’t give up the fraternity despite the loss of interest in the car itself) and then a smaller number of DSM enthusiasts who use the site for research in the issues that our platforms share.

We periodically cull membership to those visiting within the last 12 months and the base fluctuates around 2,500-3,000 members.  What I would consider “active” members number about 1,000 (visiting within 30 days).  We’ve logged 124,000 unique visits in the last year and served 9.6 million pages.  Membership/registration is not a requirement to view most parts of the site.  In 24 hours we will have about 450 registered members and 550 unique guests visit.

How many GVR4s were sold worldwide?  In the United States?  How many likely remain?
No idea, I don’t think we have this data.

3,009 where imported into the United States.  Not all of them were sold directly.  9 of them never received numbered badges.  The badges we covet here are numbered “limited edition” plaques that were fitted onto the cars by Mitsubishi Motors North America at the port when the cars arrived to the United States (there is no correlation between VIN, build sequence and edition number).   The un-badged cars were likely for testing, media mules or company cars.  Some of these are owned by our members today.

Some more of the uniquely American features I think are worth mentioning are the USDM bumpers.  Our models, to meet NHTSA crash requirements, were fitted with rather protruding front and rear crash bars/bumpers.  As such, the foreign market’s larger intercooler was foregone for a much smaller, inefficient part.

One of my favorite features is the leather seating which is unique to the USDM VR-4.  The all black leather seats were manufactured by AMG (Aufrecht, Melcher and Großaspach) that most people would recognize historically as a Mercedes-Benz tuner, and now a wholly-owned division.   This unique feature likely stemmed from the MMC AMG collaboration Galant AMG which sported a tuned naturally-aspirated motor and many cosmetic upgrades, including two-tone leather seating.  The origin of the seating can be confirmed by examining the backside of the upper rear bench in which AMG is embossed into the foam.

We don’t know for certain how many remain, but here’s my best deduction:

We are currently tracking 717 badges in our membership (again, active in the last year) and our registry project, which attempts to document VIN and badge number, has the following: 366 ’91s and 193 ’92s for 559 total matches between VIN and badge.  Of those 559, 38 ’91s and 16 ’92s for 54 total documented scrapped (About 10%).  So let’s say that enthusiasts’ scrappage rate is about 10%.   If we factor that 10% of those members may be scrapped it brings us down to 645.

717 badges out of 2,638 current members is 27% so I believe at least 27% of our users currently have or had a VR-4.   Our current membership vs. historic membership (10,501 members) roughly gives us 25% representation of the general public.   So I would say our community’s slice of the total USDM VR-4 population is likely between 25-27% of the total.

Take the maximum examples of 3,009 at 25% and we have 752.  That puts us within 5% of our 717, and since not all members list their badge numbers, I think we’re close.

Nationwide, scrappage rates have been 70% to 85% and rising between 1990 and 2010.  So let’s take the membership out of the population (3,009-25% = 2,256 cars) and assume that these are not held by enthusiasts and were scrapped at 75% (2,256-75% = 1,692) outside of the community.

That leaves us with 564 in the wild, 717 registered and 35 unregistered for a total of 1,316 USDM VR-4s hopefully still in existence.

Tell us about something really exciting your members have done or regularly do.
Salt flats, One Lap, international visits, donating to worthy causes…

What’s the best part about running a Mitsubishi community?  The most challenging?
The fraternity, the knowledge, the humor.

Although we all have a common thread in our love for this platform we are still a wide cross-section of demographics.  Our problems may not be unique to an online community, they are just more apparent and on display for all to see.  We have to deal with troublemakers and scammers just as you do in “the real world.”  Our philosophy is mostly that of a self-policing group and we encourage everyone to watch out for each other.  It can be a challenge to balance freedom and moderation.  Whenever there is question on how to resolve a situation there is one guiding principal: knowledge and information above all.  If it doesn’t support the community, whatever it is, it doesn’t belong.

All of our staff:
2 administrators, 9 moderators are volunteers donating countless, thankless hours to the group.  We survive solely on donations, there are no membership dues, no advertisements, no paying vendor sponsors.

What excites you about the coming year?  (Your Galant and your community)
I’m really looking forward to the 2010 One Lap of America as a way our community can again be represented in a highly visible, national venue with a long history.

For my personal goals, I hope to again have a running VR-4 by mid-Summer.

Do you organize any contests or face-to-face meets for your members?
We don’t do contests too often, but I do organize regional meets (Midwest).   There have been talks of a national meet in years past, but because of the size of our membership, their schedules and the breadth of the United States it is unlikely to have the draw we’d like to see.   We did have a Midwest meets Colorado meet a few years ago where we logged about 6,000 miles collectively.  The Mitsubishi Owner’s Day (MOD) events are a good draw, as is the DSM Shootout.

How do you want your community to benefit Mitsubishi owners?  What steps are you taking to make sure that happens?
We have recently increased our available information to the public and have steadily increased our archives and accessibility to search engines.  As hosting costs have plummeted, we’re able to retain more in general for the public to find via their search engines.

What do you think could be done to improve the value of the Galant VR-4 and how could this benefit your community?
My strongest conviction is that available information is one of the biggest drivers of the perceived value.  Lack of information on repairs and maintenance drives the value down as issues that affect non-enthusiast owners turn out to be expensive problems that result in selling at a depressed public market rate or crushing of the car.   The best example of this is ECU failure due to ruptured capacitors.  A factory replacement will cost you $900.   A high-school electronics student could replace just the capacitors for free with $2 in parts.

There is also some spillover from the DSM crowd who don’t have the same consideration of the VR-4′s rarity and are interested in “fast, cheap and easy”.  Or new owners who get frustrated or are unable to get the knowledge they need from the community and often damage something or hack something and end up selling for cheap just to dump their problems.   These vehicles are often picked up again by like-minded individuals who repeat the process, giving the perception of falling or low value.

After seeing a low in the last 2-3 years, market value of a VR-4 has started to climb up.  It used to be that a Kelley Blue Book search would show the car’s value only marginally higher than any other trim 6th generation Galant.  The spread is now about 3x.  In general I believe that the United States is now more receptive to all wheel drive and turbocharged automobiles than in years past.

Sometimes these cars are removed from the market by those who know how to extract more value from the car, sometimes in a manner that is not very popular.

Your thoughts on those who part out otherwise salvageable cars?
Yup, we’ve got a few members who do not hesitate to scoop these cars up and sell off the parts individually.   I personally like to see every bit of value extracted from these cars; but it does thin the heard.  With all respect, this may be a necessary “evil”.   On the plus side it often returns quality used parts back into deserving cars and improves their condition.  Losing 10% at the hands of enthusiasts for parts and profit stings a lot less than 75% lost to scrap steel and the new-car-every-4-years general public.

How do you feel building a Mitsubishi compares to building a Mitsubishi community?
You shouldn’t do either of them alone.

How has your Galant build benefited from your involvement in the community?
I have spent 7 years of my life and probably 4,000 hours in developing, growing and giving to this community.  But, it is something that comes naturally to me, that I’m good at and I typically enjoy.   There have been dozens of members who have the same gift when it comes to their knowledge and skills with a wrench.   These people have given back to the community by working on my cars or documenting the work on their own.

What’s next for your Galant?
A heart.

What’s next for GalantVR4.org?
It may be time to upgrade the software, but we always want to focus on the community and that is rarely augmented by more bells and whistles.  Twitter would be the greatest example of all time on how a social network requires not much more than a line of text and a message that people want to share.

Who has helped you the most along the way with the car?  With the community?
Chris Beran/Headdynamics, Bob Heitsch, Doug Lila, Terry Posten, Aaron Rausch, Rob Neubauer, Charles Prell…
Steve Riedmueller, Jeff Oberholtzer, Jeremy Clark, Dave Bliese, Harry Blanchard, Nate Pharr, Gabor Meyer, Curtis Thomas, Andrew Staley, Mark Minjin, Rich Humphrey, all of our moderators.

Were you inspired by any other Mitsubishi community organizer?  Who?  Why?
Jon Roberts (galantvr4.org), of course.  Todd Day (dsm.org): the frontrunner for Mitsubishi and DSM enthusiasts on the internet.  Tom Stangl (vfaq.org): the original archivist for automotive how-to.

Who do you look up to in the Mitsubishi community?
I honestly don’t think we play second fiddle to anyone in terms of our mission and how we’ve stayed true.

Is there a particular shop you’d like to recommend?  Want to thank any sponsors?
I’d like to thank everyone who has donated to the site, hosted a meet, answered a question or turned a wrench for a fellow member.

Other than your own, do you spend time on any Mitsubishi sites?  Which ones?
Not a one.

Trivia:

“Anything Goes” was originally called “Yo Momma”

Original site logo, circa 2002.  Refreshed in late 2005.  Current version, 2009.

March is officially Galant VR4 Month here at Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine.  We remain dedicated to sharing the stories of owners of ALL Mitsubishi models from around the world.  DISCLAIMER: Both Ricky Vigil and Brian Driggs are Galant VR4 owners.  Ricky owns 1991 464/2000 and Brian owns 1992 464/1000.  We are members of GalantVR4.org.

Thank you to Ryan for taking the time to share so much with us and thank you to all our readers.  Go fast with class.

When he’s not working on customers’ cars or playing around with his DLSR camera, Ricky enjoys spending time with his family and looking forward to warm, summer weather, when he and friend Rich take to the roads in their Mitsubishis for regular cruises.  Ricky is excited to be part of Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine, where he can give a little something back to the Mitsubishi community.

Gearbox Magazine is all about bringing gearheads together.  This week, we feature an interview with DSMtuners founder, Chris Raymond.  Ever wonder why the biggest DSM site in the world was started?  What challenges they’re facing, or why they do it?  Read on!  What’s your real name?  (What’s your screen name?)
Chris Raymond (Ludachris)

Where do you live?
Lone Tree, CO.

What do you do for a living?
Web developer and community builder/manager.

What Mitsubishi(s) do you drive?  How long have you had it/them?
1991 Eclipse GSX – took it over from my wife around 1998/99.

What’s your build philosophy/goals for your DSM?  How do you use it?
My GSX is a track car mostly, as I enjoy doing NASA Time Trials/HPDE. I’d like to keep it somewhat streetable, but mostly just for weekend drives. My philosophy has always been to modify the car for performance and keep a relatively stock appearance. I like my modifications to look like they were done at the factory or by a race car builder. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s always the goal.

You started a Mitsubishi community.  What’s it called?  When did you start it?
DSMtuners.com – started in 2001 as a Parts Guide/Modification Guide resource for DSM owners to help them find all the aftermarket performance parts available on the market for their cars and give them more information to help them modify their cars the right way.

Who are your members?  How many are there?  Where do they come from?
Our site consists mostly of performance DSMers. We have over 100k members, though not all of them are active anymore. They come from all over the nation, and some from around the world. Since our site caters to the performance crowd with the content we offer, we tend to attract people interested in making their DSM faster. We’ve had several well known DSMers like David Buschur and John Shepherd participating in our Tech forums, just to name a few.

Why did you decide to start a Mitsubishi community?
I was tired of scouring forums and retailer websites trying to find out what parts were available for my GSX when I started modifying it, so I decided to build a resource myself. We launched a forum in order to promote a more friendly atmosphere than what was available at the time and it’s now the largest DSM community on the web.

Tell us about something really exciting your members have done or regularly do.
We have a really tight knit group of guys on our site, as well as in the DSM community in general. We’ve done a lot of fun things on our site over the years – we’ve put out a member calendar each of the past 6 years now, which is always fun. But I don’t know that anything compares to the recent support of Wendy and Brad Pate, through Wendy’s battle with cancer. It was something that has made me really proud to be a part of this community. The DSM community has always been a good group historically, with countless people willing to help others in the Tech forums, but this was something special. We had retailers, fabricators, and everyday people getting involved trying to make someone else’s life a little better in a time of great need. And though we all would have liked to see it work out differently, I know it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my days.

What’s the best part about running a Mitsubishi community?  The most challenging?
The best part of running a Mitsubishi community is probably no different than running any other car community – meeting new people and building relationships. The DSM market has always been about being innovative and doing things with minimal resources. And that’s essentially what I’ve done with DSMtuners. It’s challenging anytime you have different personalities coming together, but it’s easy when most people are there for the same reason.

What excites you about the coming year?  (Your DSM and your community)
Well, I just bought a welder this winter so I’m excited about doing some fabrication on my DSM. But I also have a baby girl due in late January, so I don’t know how much time I’ll have to devote to working on the car. As for the community, I look forward to another great year of innovation and passion from the members, sharing ideas and information like always. I’m hoping to get some more excitement built up around the idea of DSM road racing events. We’ll see how it plays out.

Do you organize any contests or face-to-face meets for your members?
From time to time, we’ll set up some informal contests but it’s been a while since we’ve done anything big. A few years back we gave away a driving seat system for console/online gaming. As for face-to-face meets for our members, I’ve been working hard on our regional forums lately, trying to incorporate some solutions to help locals build up more local resources and organize events more efficiently across the nation. I’ve found that many of the regional DSM sites do much to actually promote event organization and meets (they tend to just replicate the tech resources we offer), so I’m trying to do more to fill that need on our site.

How do you want your community to benefit Mitsubishi owners?  What steps are you taking to make sure that happens?
We want people to modify their cars the right way and to take the cars to the track. We’ve had a policy in place for quite a while that prohibits street racing discussions on our site, as we don’t think they should be glamorized. It’s one thing that we do differently than most car sites out there. We feel that we’re in a unique position to help shape young minds and foster a sense of responsibility in our community, and we’ve approached the effort in a way that we feel will have a positive impact. It might drive some DSMers away, but we’re alright with that. Not only do we disallow street racing discussions, but we offer unique programs to help DSMers who want to go racing get sponsorship in return for special content contributions. I personally feel that all site owners should have a “no street racing” policy. It will only help our hobby live longer and grow the right way.

How do you feel building a Mitsubishi compares to building a Mitsubishi community?
In some ways building a DSM and a DSM community is very similar. If you have a positive attitude, treat every person with respect, and do things the right way, the car (or the community) will respond the way you want it to. You’ll always have a few headaches along the way, but being passionate and committed will always yield positive results. At least that’s my take on it.

How has your DSM build benefited from your involvement in the community?
My DSM build has come a long way due to all of the information I’ve gathered and experiences that have been shared by other DSMers. I’ve learned so much from others, but I’ve also been extremely inspired by other DSMers’ projects, and I think that inspiration is what has driven my build the most. It’s all about passion and there is plenty of passion left in this community, even though the last DSM rolled off the assembly line over ten years ago.

Image courtesy of Performance Imagery.

What’s next for your DSM?
I wouldn’t want to take up too much space with all the plans I have for my car. Basically, I want to do a bit of fabrication to lighten things up and make the car more fun on the road course. But I’d also like to retain some level of streetability if possible. You’ll have to follow my blog on DSMtuners for the details and updates!

What’s next for DSMtuners?
I’m always tinkering with the site. We just implemented a number of new regional forums and new features and policies in those forums in hopes of helping spur more local DSM involvement and participation. We’re also revamping our Parts Guide and Classifieds to make them even more useful for the community. I have a long list of things I’d like to do, but it will take time. You can be sure that we’ll continue to introduce new features though, just like we always have. Our site was the first to offer many features that are now common for auto enthusiast communities, and we plan to continue that trend.

Who has helped you the most along the way with the car?  With the community?
I have some good friends, not all of which are DSMers but are car enthusiasts, who help out with the GSX from time to time. Not to mention all the people on the site who help answer questions here and there. As for the community, I can’t thank our site moderators and other leaders enough. It’s really the members who run this community, I just help them.

Were you inspired by any other Mitsubishi community organizer?  Who?  Why?
I can’t say it was a Mitsubishi community organizer that inspired me. If anything, it was a combination of other community organizers and online resources that motivated me and helped me see (and fill) a need in the DSM world. As I always say, anyone can open a car forum these days, but very few actually put in the work to build a complete website. If I had to pick an automotive website that helped inspire me, it would have been the old AudiWorld.com (now called QuattroWorld.com) that had the biggest impact on what I wanted to do with DSMtuners, back in 1999.

Who do you look up to in the Mitsubishi community?
I look up to people that not only have achieved some impressive stats with their DSMs, but specifically the ones who have done it and continue to take the time to mingle with the rest of the DSM community and share their experiences. It takes a certain type of person to build a powerful/fast DSM and then share with the entire community how they did it and continue to help the “common people.” We have a number of fast DSM owners on our site who have chosen not to limit their community interaction to a small DSM clique, but instead, continue to participate with the masses (the rest of us). I think that’s important, and it’s what keeps driving the DSM community. Those are the type of people I look up to.

Is there a particular shop you’d like to recommend?  Want to thank any sponsors?
We’ve got some great site sponsors and I always recommend them to people. We greatly appreciate those vendors who have supported our site and the DSM community over the years. Some vendors will come and go, but we have just about every shop worth mentioning in the DSM world involved on our site. I always tell people that they should support the shops that support our site – as those are the shops that support the DSM community.  Keep them in business and you’ll always have all the parts you’ll ever need for your DSM build.

Other than your own, do you spend time on any Mitsubishi sites?  Which ones?
Can’t say I do. I really just don’t have time. And I think I owe it to our members to spend most all of my time on DSMtuners, contributing there instead of other sites.

Are you on Twitter?  Facebook?  YouTube?  How can people find you online?
I don’t use Twitter, and only use Facebook once in a while to keep in touch with family. If you want to get in touch with me, DSMtuners is really the best place to find me. If I had time to tweet, I’d be getting nothing done.

Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine would like to thank Chris and the several DSMtuners site team members for taking time from the community to contribute to this article. Gearbox Magazine is all about bringing gearheads together – around the world – to recognize what we have in common and to help each other out.  Community leaders like Chris, Scott, Dino and the many more we plan on interviewing believe in helping YOU to get the most out of your Mitsubishi. Are you a member of DSMtuners?  Why not take a moment to thank these guys or share a story about a time being a member saved your butt?