| 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - Project Strip
With as little knowledge as we have of the DSM family, why would we even attempt to tackle a project like this Eclipse? Well, we see it as, why not? We shouldn’t limit ourselves to things we are familiar with. The more you know, the more you grow, right? Or something to that effect. The GSX comes with the very stout turbo 4G63 motor that was and has been the bread and butter for Mitsubishi’s sport compact market. Plus, we’d like a little all-wheel drive action to throw into the mix.
Not surprisingly, it was pretty damn hard to find a clean one for sale in California. A 16 year-old turbo car is either stripped down and modified to hell, or just beat up and not properly taken care of.
We actually had to locate one up in Seattle and drive it down. With 180,000 miles on it, everyone who saw the car had the same initial reaction. “Wow, that Eclipse is really clean.” The previous owner took very good care of it and did all the necessary maintenance, like changing the plugs and wires, ECU capacitors and swapping all the fluids. Plus it has some aftermarket parts like shocks and a heavy-duty clutch. In our opinion, it’s well worth the money we paid.
Though the car was extremely clean, we knew that we were in for some long days when the stock crank pulley separated on the freeway, forcing us to call AAA for a tow back to the office. That set the precedent of how things were going to go for the entirety of this build, but that’s what we’re paid for, or not.
Since this car was purchased mainly to take to the drag strip, we’re focusing the majority of our $6,500 budget on engine mods starting with basic bolt-ons and then moving our way up to a turbo upgrade. Our goal is to gain 75hp at the wheels, shave two seconds off the quarter-mile and learn more about Mitsus.
Finding an all-wheel drive dyno isn’t easy, but we got lucky and convinced Dynamic Autosports to help us out and do the testing throughout this build on their Mustang dyno. They’ll also be doing some tuning, which they’re notorious for.
Fast Facts
1990 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE GSX
PRICE $2,900
CONFIGURATION front-engine all-wheel drive
ENGINE 2.0L DOHC turbo
FACTORY RATED CRANK HORSEPOWER 195
DYNOED WHEEL HORSEPOWER 151
QUARTER-MILE 15.5 @ 89.5 mph 60-0
BRAKING 139.56 ft
PLANNED POWER ADDER TO4B turbo upgrade