A new addition to the House of High Revving JDM....1996 Mitsubishi Mirage RS

Been bad about updates but for the most part I've just been driving it. It now has more miles on it in 5 months than it had over the last 5 years. It's my summer daily driver and does a great job at it. 

A few small changes. Got the SSR's welded, trued, and powder coated. It turned out great. I was really happy with the results. 

Fitted a different steering wheel on the car as well. I like this one better. It just falls into my hand. 

I also have the new brake pads/rotors fitted. Project Mu up front and Endless in the rear.

Found out the rear rotors were not what I thought but I did find a US based car that used the same ones, the Mitsubishi Carisma based early Volvo S40.

I also fitted some new speakers as everyone of the speakers were blown. So now 4 new Focals in the car and decent tunes for a buzzy little car. 

All and all, just having a lot of fun with the car. :) 

This is so cool!

In reply to Shavarsh :

Thanks brother. It surely gets a fair share of looks and thumbs up in the midwest. 

So this car keeps throwing me a curveball in interesting ways. I owned USDM mirages in the past and built a FSP one. So silly me thought this car was almost the same. Not!

Case #5 Front control arms. So I was expecting the USDM or the Lancer GSR style and ordered my favorite suspension updates, the whiteline anti-lift bushing. Basically it's a replacement for the rear bushing in the front control arms. Well, surprise surprise, it's the same style as the Evo 4-6 instead. 

Got the right one on order and set the wrong one aside. So that will be something for a different day. Lesson learned. Don't assume. Look in the ASA first for just about anything. 

Dug in a little more today on the car. The weld broke on the flange to the muffler so did a quick clean up and rewelded it. When I took it down the exhaust gasket was cracked in 2. I was like no biggie, I'll just get a new one at the local parts store. Nope. none of them had any of them in stock. So off to the web to go and order one. I'll get that job finished in a few days. 

So while I had it up on the stands, I wanted to check out the rear connecting arms. The rear of the car always felt loose and didn't feel as good as I thought it was should. So the mirage has a trailing arm and a few connecting arms. So I started to unbolt some things and examining the bushings. Yeah, they are all toast. Most I was able to twist 30-50 degrees. So off to my favorite UAE parts warehouse to order new links and bushings for the whole rear. It's enough different that the USDM stuff doesn't work. I'm really excited to see how well it handles once these are all fixed. It did pretty decent with all of them being absolute garbage. 

This kind of makes me want to get a MIVEC FTO lol 

Someone in my neighborhood has a friend or relative with an FTO. I couldn't believe I was seeing one in the US.

This thread is awesome I'm learning a lot about obscure 90s JDM goodness.

Kanaric, Man It was tough not importing one of those. It was an either or. 

The fun thing is that this chassis is 90% the same as the FTO. So the driving dynamics is very much the same when the bushings aren't toast. I looked at both. I went this way for a couple reasons. The LSD that they installed on this one and the weight. This is closer to 2000 LB vs the 2500ish of the FTO. The V6 is a little stronger in the midrange. 

The good thing is a lot of things are available stateside for this because the us Mirage does have the same engine family so the accessories are same. I got a new alternator and clutch slave cylinder from rockauto. Also got all of the brake stuff outside the pads from there as well too. Not so much for the FTO since we never saw the 6A1X series here. 

So I should have a load of bushings arriving this week. I'll take some pictures as I'm changing those over. It seems that sitting during covid really messed up the car and most of the bushings were frozen on the bolts and as I drove it, they just tore the already weak original rubber bushings. 

In reply to clutchsmoke :

Glad I can help!! Ask any questions. I have a weird love affair with these little cars. I've been waiting for one since the 25 years expired. 

So I started the rear suspension rebuild last night. Mostly just putting in new bushings all over. I'll get some pictures up tomorrow but umm yeah. This will tighten up the rear end a lot. It is all still 27 Y/O Factory rubber.

I pulled one of arms off and literally the locating sleeve on one end could be moved with my pinkie. This is well overdue and will transform the car. I am going mostly factory rubber where I can get it but some are no longer available so poly it is. 

You sure this is an RS? Looks more like a ZR..  I thought the RS interior was black and red (I've had 2) and from what I've seen always came with a rear spoiler and no rear wiper blade.. 

I suppose the big question then is when does the mivec kick in ? It kicks in later on the RS (6700) vs the ZR (5200) as I'm sure you know. That's a sure fire way to know at least. 

Here's a good thread for some discovery

http://www.mivec.co.nz/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2698&sid=19349ed6350e775f37e1347586b4f816&start=0

100% positive.

It was an early one, in the first 75 of the 2nd generation, and there was an option of no spoiler and wiper for the first year. Almost no one took the option but it was available. If you play the 1 of one game, It's really an odd duck with that option, LSD, and large brakes. You can also see the different header in the engine shot and the ECU matches along with ASA. 1600/2WD(SEDAN/HATCHBACK) - RS(MIVEC/HATCHBACK),5FM/T Option Package 0UA: FR LSD; RR WIPER & WASHER; OTHER OPTION COMBINATION; FR HARNESS (OTHERS OPTION)

The Zr also came with the auto climate control, power windows and mirrors, and a bunch of other luxuries like painted mirrors haha. A picture of a friend's ZR for comparison. Seats are the same as a base with the recaro option available in the ZR. 

So it's just about time to park the mirage for the winter. Final track day is done for the year. It's a champ at the track. It just loves getting run hard and asks for more. Revs for days and with the LSD you can get into the throttle way earlier than I've ever been able to past cars and it just sticks. I have to retrain myself some but all good. 

Projects for the winter are 3 major things.

1. Install new coilovers. The ones that came with the car just don't work right and I'm not happy with the way the car feels diving into corners. So I'm going to have some custom valved ones built for it. Redshift Motorsports ae the guys doing the work. GRM featured before on the triple threat miata. Chris over there was super helpful and knew everything I was talking about with the little quirks of the car. So I'm going to get a set of their competition coilovers from them.

I'm trying a different spring rate philosophy from the past and put some more rear spring in it and not change the RSB with a 19MM one. I am hoping to reduce the snap oversteer and tripoding that I had in my last one. So just a different setup to test it out. If it doesn't work then I can just change it back for pretty cheap. 

2. Doing a complete hose change out. It's all old and I just feel better trashing it with the knowledge of new hoses on the car. 

3. Finish getting all of the new bushings pressed in. I have the rear trailing arms and the front control arm bushings left to do. 

That should be enough work for the winter and have her all ready for a busy track season next year. 

So another project added to the list for the winter....E85 conversion. 

So one of the complaints for the car was it never quite lived up to the hype that Mitsubishi claimed for it. It was always a dyno dud and well under performed the advertised 175HP. The excuse was always that it was tested on 100 RON and the Ralliart ECU programming that they used for the mirage cup race cars. 

Well I got chatting with a bloke in Australia I've gotten to know about his thoughts and what do you know, He had a ROM that I can flash onto a USDM ECU that was a clone of the original ralliart tune and setup for E85. Since I'm in the corn belt, E85 is really common so no issues there. Just need to change a few hoses to be safe, put in the 450CC injectors I have on the shelf, and add a RPM activated switch for the Mivec control. This will also open the door to a bigger motor in the future. 

Oh the sweet smell of corn juice. 

On other notes, My custom tuned suspension from the guys at Redshift will be here by Christmas.  If the product is half as good as the pre-sales support, I'm in for a pretty awesome mirage for next track season. 

Hey, cool car.  I have a Colt rally car that was converted to RS.  The car is based in Barbados but happy to find this one stateside so I can learn what crossover parts you can find locally that works.  Also happy to share what I know (e.g. Proton Satria suspension is compatible or about my Evo3 brake conversion).  The car handles fantastically, you just tell it what to to and it says "OK" without any surprises.  Hit me up sometime...  Rally stage link below for your enjoyment...

RB2022 Pickerings 3 - YouTube

Cool Car there Kyle. I love it. Totally missed this post. I have a whole list of cross compatible parts if you need anything. It's really a parts bin car. Hit me up if you have any questions. What engine is in it? 

You are so right with the handling. It's a happy car. Chuck it into the corner and it just says yes please and sticks and goes. It's as fun on the track as my miata. Especially mine with the LSD in it. 

So I already have the Evo 3 brakes on it. May convert to Outlander or Evo 6 brakes when I go up to 17" wheels/tires. But that is a 2025/2026 mod. 

So on with the 2024 mods. Finally got my coilovers from Redshift in. There was a part from BC that took awhile. So excited to try these out.  

Tomorrow's task is to get those installed and take out the Ohlin's I have in it. Then there is the debate on the front swaybar setup. Do I convert to the USDM style for servicability or do I keep the JDM style that is the same as the Evo3. We will see. That will be a decision that I'll make through the year as I have all of the parts for both. 

I think I have messed with mirages too much over the years. It took me all of 2 hours to install the coilovers. I had time to go to the pick n pull and grab a usdm front sway bar. I'll get that installed with the new front control arms here in a couple weeks. 

So I did another thing last night. I bought a Cusco rear strut bar last fall. I didn't fit it because I didn't want to cut up all of the plastics. I am avoiding cutting stuff up for now. So I finally gutted the plastics out of the back and pulled the rear seat since it's not a daily and the LSD is a pain on the street. 

So that is installed and I found the matching Cusco front bar as well. It's much lighter than the one I have in there. I'll toss that on as well. Next is the setup. I'm having a hard time getting someone to set the car up here. I am hoping to find someone soon as I'm not really interested in buying my own setup. If anyone knows someone here in the omaha area, Let me know. 

In reply to bmw88rider :

Curiosity question about those struts......does the threaded part of the body screw in and out of the bottom mounting piece? I ask because I occasionally see similar looking struts for sale at Challenge pricing and I thought it might be possible to weld new mounting tabs to the bottom part, but only if they are a separate piece. Then they might be fit to another model of car.

Hey warren, 

Yes they do. In fact, this set is a mix of 2 different coilover sets since my car is a 1 year only transitional car that carries a lot over from the prior generation. So the lower mounts in the front are from the prior generation. You can replace the bottoms if you want. Here is the link for the BC ones I bought for these as a visual. 

https://shop.bcracing-na.com/pages/product-result?rq=yr_1994~mk_mitsubishi~md_evo~xv_lower-mounts 

I can say that the BC coilovers and K-Sports are all like that for sure. I think Fortune is as well. 

Warren, just for a visual here is the part that screws into the bottom.

So first track day of the season is officially on the calendar so time to finish up a few odds and ends. 

I'll be doing the coolant hoses not this weekend but the weekend after that.

I got finished setting the alignment and ride height last weekend. It came out better than I expected. I got the alignment pretty spot on and the addition of the anti-lift bushings made it really did the trick in my little side road test. It's so planted to the ground now. I'll be very interested to compare it back to back with the Evo. It should give me so much more confidence as I dive into turn 1 braking down from about 120 MPH. 

I go to LA to pick up it's new garage mate and Mivec cousin, The Evo 9 MR. That will make a heck of a pair. 

The other thing that I'm starting on is collecting parts for the motor build. So for those that don't know much about mirage family, for the US it's been based on the 4G15 motor for the base and the 4G93 motor for the upgraded motor options. The  4g92 Mivec motor was only available overseas and was the top motor for the N/A models. That's what is in my car. For the AWD drive models there was an option for a 1.8L Turbo (4G93T) Motor. 

So there is a good thing about the 4G9X line is that it's like the B series with Honda and all of the parts of the motor can interchange. So the overall plan is after the end of the season this year, I will build out the Mitsubishi version of the LS/Vtec, the 4G93 Mivec. I got a long block (4g93) from the Pick and Pull a few weeks ago from the US for a whopping $200. I'll start to pull it apart over the summer and get the machine work done. It looks pretty clean overall internally on the bore scope and I've already got .5MM over pistons in house. I should get away with just the .5MM overbore. The stroke will increase from 77.5 MM to 89 MM with the new short block. I'll be keeping the head the same with just some intake port clean up and a quick skim so it's square. I'm thinking about a set of cams as well since I'm in there. We will see if I do that or not. 

The new engine will look like this: 

1857 CC 

Initial calculations say 10.9 to 1 compression.

Target Redline: 7800 RPM

Target WHP will be 170 at 6100 RPM on 93 and working out the plan for E85. Need to figure out the end goal for the engine management and that will decide how I want to get there. 

I'll be the first motor I build with my nephew and his friend so will be a lot of teaching while we build it. 

So today was a quick job in the garage, Changing the valve cover gasket. Nothing to it really but it was hard as a rock so well overdue. 

But while I was in there, I took a pic of the Mivec system to share with everyone. Unlike the newer mivec design which is true VVT, This is the old school 2 cam lobe style. Just wanted to share because it's always cool to see how everyone solved the same problem. 

Was doing some more pre-season prep with a belt and hose change. Every time I work on this thing, I remember just how easy it is to get stuff done and why I like cars of this era. 

Top Hose: 

Bottom Hose: 

Cute little battery: