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.

Last week, we celebrated the first anniversary of Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine. We are always looking to interview Mitsubishi enthusiasts in new countries, but the language barrier can sometimes be a problem. Still, this is important, so we press on regardless.

What are your thoughts on being part of an international community?

[Image courtesy of Ralph Apollo]

Why no interview this morning?
Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine is for Mitsubishi owners by a Mitsubishi owner. That said, there’s a Mitsubishi partly to blame for this! The Prescott Rally is this coming Friday – we will be there – but last year, we lost the transfer case in the Galant VR4 on the way up the mountain. We’ll be taking the same GVR4 up this weekend to talk to people, take pictures, and try our hand at video, but I wanted to be sure all the driveline fluids were fresh. Rear diff, tcase (!), transmission, and why not do an oil change while I’m under there?

Unfortunately, a spontaneous trip to Ikea lead to many hours spent assembling furniture, which pushed car maintenance back to late last night. I’ll get the next interview up sometime this evening, though. Speaking of that…

What goes into a Gearbox Magazine interview?
I use “we” a lot when talking about Gearbox, but mostly because I feel we – you and I – are doing this together. I might be the only person at the wheel on this end right now, but I can’t share Mitsubishi owner stories if I don’t have Mitsubishi owners sharing them with me.  So here’s a look at the process.

I find someone who’s doing things right – clean car, unique mods, solid accomplishments, community leader, et al.. Sometimes people will tell me about someone I should contact (the last question on the interview asks for contact info on your mentors), sometimes my friend Justin Mohney will track people down, interview them, and send me the interviews, but I still spend a lot of time visiting Mitsubishi forums all over the world, trying to find people who speak English with something unique to share with the rest of the world.

These people get an email or private message (PM) telling them a little bit about Gearbox; what it’s about (uniting the global Mitsubishi community, getting people talking about what works, how it works, and why, and hopefully inspiring a more platform-independent, global mindset among Mitsubishi enthusiasts).

Those who reply interested in being interviewed (I’ve had some say no, and even ask me not to contact members of their community, believe it or not), get an email directly from me with the most recent version of the interview questions.

When I get the answers back, I transfer the text into the WordPress platform that powers this thing. Questions are made bold, text is read, then re-read to try and reduce typos and grammatical issues. (While I do make a point of cleaning up things a bit to make sure you’re presented to the world in the best possible way, I seldom change your words, as it’s your story, not mine.)

Next, when you mention shops or vendors who have treated you well in the past, I find their websites and hyperlink them from the story. This is something I started doing on Rally Gearbox Magazine to help those competitors and rally organizers with sponsors to give a little more back to their sponsors. Maybe, one day, this could help you build a closer relationship with a sponsor or two.

Once the text is done, I upload and position the pictures. I could fill a Montero with the amount of pictures some people include with their interviews, other times, I get a couple or a batch that are too small to use, so we have to go back and forth to figure out a solution together. (Note: We do have an agreement with Mitsu-Media. If you want/need some quality shots of your Mitsubishi, you ought to visit that community and see if there are any Mitsu photogs in your area!) I get a LOT of incredible pictures of Mitsubishis. Sometimes I just have to open them in Photoshop and resize them so they don’t take an hour to upload! All our story images are scaled to 630 pixels wide, so maybe keep that under your hat, eh?

Finally, I preview the interview top to bottom. Maybe I move a picture up or down to better balance out the story, but it’s not too involved. If I’m happy the story will make the person interviewed look his or her best, I schedule the post to auto-publish at 3AM Phoenix time on Monday morning.

But wait! There’s more!
I’m trying to do two posts a week from now on. Fortunately, the second post is a bit easier to put together (only not always).

Every Monday: A new interview on Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine. (Well, aside from today. My bad.)
Every Wednesday: Let’s talk about something mentioned in the previous week’s interview.

Sometimes these follow up stories for discussion are easy to come up with. Sometimes they aren’t, but I hope we can start talking more. Either way, I’m making a point of putting together two stories a week for you on Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine. I also do this for Rally Gearbox Magazine, so I’m trying to do four stories a week – on my lunch break at work, when I get home from work, over the weekends, and any chance I get to sit down on a computer outside my day job.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love. Sorry I didn’t have a new interview ready for you today. Hope this piece will get you by until tonight.

Go 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.