Here’s a great little article on a car that rarely gets any love, the Mitsubishi Colt. But it’s not the Colt you’re thinking of. While the US was getting Mitsus branded as Dodges and Plymouths, Australia got these exports straight from JDM-land. The US market Dodge Colts were called by other names like Lancer and Galant in Japan.
This car debuted in 1965 in as the Mitsubishi Colt 800 due to its 800cc motor. It was a sporty two-door coupe with styling inspired by the jet age. By 1966 the engine grew to 1000cc and it became known as the Colt 1000F. Finally, in 1969 it got another 100cc bump and was called - you guessed it - the Colt 1100F, which is the white one pictured here. You can see severalposts in the JNC forum from our Aussie readers regarding these cars, including the sedan version. For more information, check out OldColts Australia.
Today at the LA Auto Show, Nissan finally revealed the 370Z to the world, finally, at long last, and for reals. Mitsubishi also brought out a couple of classics to show the world, “Hey, we’ve been doing this since waaay before rebadging ourselves as Plymouths!” (more…)
Don’t you hate wasting good alcohol when tippin’ a 40? The solution: start out with a Colt 45 for five extra ounces. For JNCers who live overseas, Colt 45 is an American brand of malt liquor that, due to its cheapness, is far more popular as an ironic pop culture reference than an actual beverage. The brewers, though they would never admit it, obviously got a lot of mileage in name recognition because Colt 45 sounds suspiciously similar to the name of a popular .45 caliber handgun made by Colt Firearms.
Perhaps to prove that many things can be named Colt, Pabst Brewing enlisted the help of a Dodge (née Mitsubishi) Colt, hot rodded in gaudy 70s Corvette Summer style, for a commercial. Also, it’s piloted by star of 70s sitcom Sanford and Son Redd Foxx, who drives it off a ski jump to deliver a six-pack to Billy Van, an even more obscure 70s TV personality. Can one have too much 70s nostalgia? Apparently, yes.
Here are some pics from 2008’s Mitsubishi Owners Day. Although 99.9% of the cars on display were Lancer Evos of some Roman numeral designation, the triple diamond mafia did dust off some classics from their personal collection. (more…)
Being the graphic designer type, Van runs in some pretty creative circles. That’s how he spotted this series of positively righteous artwork from NoCarNoLife. However, we’ve locked the Vanster in a dungeon until he finishes the layout for JNC Issue 2, so he can’t post on this news himself.
Apparently, these beauteous renderings are intended for appearance on shirts, though the links on website seem to be dead. However, you can see the rest of the collection on NoCarNoLife’s Flickr Photostream. Let’s hope they get the site sorted soon, cause where else are you gonna get a T-shirt with a Datsun 610 or 710 on it? Of course, standard fare like the Celica, 510 and TE27 Corolla above are also available. For you 80s fans, there’s designs like the R30 and A60 Supra. If you like what you see, why not show them some support by letting them know how eager you are to order one?
UPDATE: Check out deadflo’s comments to this post. Be careful when ordering from this seller. We will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was not ready to deal with orders yet. Thanks for letting us know, deadflo!
The annual gathering at Mitsubishi Motors North America HQ in Cypress, CA will be not this weekend (thankfully) but next Saturday, July 19. Although this has mostly been an event for Evo and Eclipse owners, a small but strong contingent of triple diamond mafia elders have been known to make an appearance. Mitsu themselves have also been known to dust off some museum pieces from their personal collection as well. More details here.
We’re trying to announce of every show we hear about on the blog but even so we can’t get to everything in a timely manner, so please check the Events, Meets & Gatherings section of our forum regularly for all the latest notices and post-event pics contributed by our wonderful JNCers.
Here’s one for you members of the triple diamond mafia, a Mitsubishi Tredia commercial from 1982 complete with its own cheesy theme song. Try to get that out of your head now!