Hey Everybody this is Jonathan here. Is it just me or is everybody tired of hearing stories about people starting to make their Colt/Mirage all wheel drive and never finishing or abandoning the project?

I work here at M&S Recycling in Rancho Cordova (near Sacramento) California.. as some of you know we have a HUGE inventory of used Mitsu parts. I have been building and racing AWD DSM's for about 8 years now. A few years ago I was approached by Robert (the owner of M&S) to come to work for him building cars and engines. Robert is also a huge Mitsu fan himself so he was always having me build project cars to take out to the track and to sell as fast reliable drivers for anybody who wanted one but did not have the skill to build one themselves.

A couple of years ago we acquired a very clean red 89' Colt Turbo, from So. Cal, with a bad engine. So naturally I found a clean low millage 4G63t out of a wrecked Laser and dropped it in with a Big 16G turbo, HKS 264 degree camshafts, 550cc injectors, Walbro 255 fuel pump, 3"exhaust, S-AFC, VPC, and a bunch of other goodies,

Once I got it all tuned in the car runs 12.30-12.4'0s at 116-118 Mph (traction limited!!!) It put down 365hp @20psi at the tires which was about what I expected however the front wheel drive wheel spin was unreal!!! I had never built a FWD car before and now knew why.

One day I was pulling a rear sub frame off of a 92' AWD Talon and I started thinking about the Colt's traction issues, So I put the Colt on my lift and started measuring. I thought "hey!!! I can make this work!!" So I pulled the entire rear suspension and the fuel tank off of the colt. I then cut the pan hard mount and the fuel tank mounting stud brackets off. Next was to lower the car onto the sub frame from that AWD Talon. It sat up in there pretty good!!!.

Now I am pulling the engine to build new cross members and front/rear engine mounts for the AWD Trans/Transfer Case. I figure it will be best to work from the front to back since the engine and transmission are fixed in position. I am going to try and use as many stock Mitsubishi parts as possible to simplify the process and to make it possible for others to duplicate what I have done, using readily available wrecking yard parts.

I will keep posting pictures here on this page as I continue the project. I will be sure to write a little paragraph with specific information for each stage of the build up.

Feel free to email me directly here at jonathan@msrecycling.com for any questions or comments.

Thanks,
Jonathan Reimer
M&S Recycling