General Information
Year
1995
Make
Mitsubishi
Model
GTO
Color
Black
Packages
AWD AWS ATX TT
History
SEPTEMBER, 2011 3SI.ORG CAR OF THE MONTH
My name is Ilian and I am thirty-five years old. Originally from Bulgaria, but currently living in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. I went to college in Greenville, SC (North Greenville University) and then to Graduate School in Honolulu, HI (Hawaii Pacific University). My current occupation is a tennis pro and a property manager.
My 3/S obsession started back in 2003 when I was in college. I was originally looking for a DSM, but a friend of mine pointed me to the 3/S platform and I bought a 1992 Dodge Stealth ES MTX. Being an international student in the U.S. gave me almost zero opportunity to do any upgrades to my car, because as such, I was not allowed to work anywhere, but on-campus and only 20 hours per week. With that said though, I still managed to spend time with my car with different small projects. For example, I did an almost full 2nd gen. 3KGT body conversion (save the sail panels). I also got to learn about cars through my ES, which was great. I was determined to keep that car forever, until I got out of graduate school and the economy crushed. That made it impossible for me to get a work visa and remain in the country that I grew to love so much.
Forward another year and I am in the Cayman Islands, married to a Caymanian goddess (we got married in the U.S., before I had to leave). Well, all that sounds good, but my other love (my ES) remained in the U.S... After a long effort to return back, I was denied a tourist visa and eventually had no place to keep my car and had to sell it.
By that time, I was so hooked to the 3/S platform that I didn't even consider buying another car. Maybe that was the reason why I secured my current 3/S, before I had even sold the first one... I bought my 95' GTO SR in December of 2009 from Japan for $3,600, including shipping. The car had 67,000 miles on the clock. However, there were two unpleasant surprises waiting for me at the customs department. First, I discovered that the company that sold me the car was not truthful with me and sent me a car with a big dent in the rear fender and a noisy water pump. Second, it turned out that my initial calculations were further stretched since the environmental waste fee in Cayman had apparently gone up from CI$250 to a whooping CI$1,250. I tried explaining that I had paid for the car in the begining of December, 2009 while the new fee was introduced on January 6, 2010, so it was not fair for them to put me in this situation when I had no way out, but I was given no mercy...
So, when I added the CI$850 for duty, the total price of my car became way higher than I had planned. At that point, as angry as I was, I just knew that happiness had no price and a 3/S definitely makes me very happy, so I forked out the money and got the car home. CI$1200 later, the rear fender damage and some other cosmetic stuff was fixed.
After all that was behind me and the car was on the road, I started thinking about possible upgrades that I never had the chance to do to my first ES. The first thing I did was the 60K mile service, which ran me CI$2000 parts & labor. After that, I went ahead and purchased a new set of 18" Saleen Replica wheels and tires, 99' front bumper & brackets, 3SX aluminum dash vents, 7" screen DVD player, full set of new aftermarket speakers, two 10" Bazooka subwoofers and a 2000 W Power Acoustic amplifier. There are many other little things I have done to the car, but not that significant to mention here and/or could be seen on the pictures I have provided. After all was said and done, I drew the bottom line and the final price was about $10,000.
What I have planned for the future are a couple of turbos with all required supporting mods, trans high stall torque converter, shifter kit and a possible R/T sail panel conversion. I have changed the rear seat covers for stock leather ones and I have just purchased two front ones as well, in order to replace the cloth interior.
Lastly, in case you were wondering where I got the name for my car, it is from the movie Lock Up with Silvester Stallone, where there was an old Mustang, named Maybelline that some of the characters were fixing up while they were in Jail. :)
*** EDIT 2014 ***
What is new since the last time I entered the Ride Of The Month competition, you may ask... Why should you vote for my car again? Well, there are several significant upgrades I have done since!
1. I went ahead and did the T/T conversion, so now my car is officially an AWD AWS ATX TT.
2. I installed paddle shifters so I can control the shifts of the automatic transaxle and thus gain the benefits of a manual. However, I have kept the option to switch back to full automatic, through the flip of a switch. I have written a "how to" in the 3si wiki.
3. I installed a custom 3" exhaust, all the way from the headers to the mufflers. I also installed aftermarket straight-through flow stainless steel mufflers with single tips.
4. I also went for the hybrid looks by installing R/T sails and banana wing.
5. I just bought brand new Sunny SN3800 tires for the new year.
6. I also installed an all-aluminum radiator to complement my T/T conversion.
My next upgrade on the list is a set of front and rear drilled and slotted brake discs and ceramic pads. Also, I am about to install an aftermarket BOV-S, manual boost controller and a SAFC and start turning up the boost to see what happens... :)
***EDIT 2022***
My car is now pearl white and features 19T turbos, Chrome ECU, LCDBC, rear diffuser, carbon fiber steering wheel and other goodies.
Here is a link to a video of the paddle shifters I installed:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doBqa2K77UU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doBqa2K77UU[/URL]
Also, here is a link to a video of my new gauges:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtuHUDPEIjg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtuHUDPEIjg[/URL]
And finally, here is a link to a video of my car:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69aFx-EnKJ8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69aFx-EnKJ8[/URL]
Thanks for looking!
My name is Ilian and I am thirty-five years old. Originally from Bulgaria, but currently living in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. I went to college in Greenville, SC (North Greenville University) and then to Graduate School in Honolulu, HI (Hawaii Pacific University). My current occupation is a tennis pro and a property manager.
My 3/S obsession started back in 2003 when I was in college. I was originally looking for a DSM, but a friend of mine pointed me to the 3/S platform and I bought a 1992 Dodge Stealth ES MTX. Being an international student in the U.S. gave me almost zero opportunity to do any upgrades to my car, because as such, I was not allowed to work anywhere, but on-campus and only 20 hours per week. With that said though, I still managed to spend time with my car with different small projects. For example, I did an almost full 2nd gen. 3KGT body conversion (save the sail panels). I also got to learn about cars through my ES, which was great. I was determined to keep that car forever, until I got out of graduate school and the economy crushed. That made it impossible for me to get a work visa and remain in the country that I grew to love so much.
Forward another year and I am in the Cayman Islands, married to a Caymanian goddess (we got married in the U.S., before I had to leave). Well, all that sounds good, but my other love (my ES) remained in the U.S... After a long effort to return back, I was denied a tourist visa and eventually had no place to keep my car and had to sell it.
By that time, I was so hooked to the 3/S platform that I didn't even consider buying another car. Maybe that was the reason why I secured my current 3/S, before I had even sold the first one... I bought my 95' GTO SR in December of 2009 from Japan for $3,600, including shipping. The car had 67,000 miles on the clock. However, there were two unpleasant surprises waiting for me at the customs department. First, I discovered that the company that sold me the car was not truthful with me and sent me a car with a big dent in the rear fender and a noisy water pump. Second, it turned out that my initial calculations were further stretched since the environmental waste fee in Cayman had apparently gone up from CI$250 to a whooping CI$1,250. I tried explaining that I had paid for the car in the begining of December, 2009 while the new fee was introduced on January 6, 2010, so it was not fair for them to put me in this situation when I had no way out, but I was given no mercy...
So, when I added the CI$850 for duty, the total price of my car became way higher than I had planned. At that point, as angry as I was, I just knew that happiness had no price and a 3/S definitely makes me very happy, so I forked out the money and got the car home. CI$1200 later, the rear fender damage and some other cosmetic stuff was fixed.
After all that was behind me and the car was on the road, I started thinking about possible upgrades that I never had the chance to do to my first ES. The first thing I did was the 60K mile service, which ran me CI$2000 parts & labor. After that, I went ahead and purchased a new set of 18" Saleen Replica wheels and tires, 99' front bumper & brackets, 3SX aluminum dash vents, 7" screen DVD player, full set of new aftermarket speakers, two 10" Bazooka subwoofers and a 2000 W Power Acoustic amplifier. There are many other little things I have done to the car, but not that significant to mention here and/or could be seen on the pictures I have provided. After all was said and done, I drew the bottom line and the final price was about $10,000.
What I have planned for the future are a couple of turbos with all required supporting mods, trans high stall torque converter, shifter kit and a possible R/T sail panel conversion. I have changed the rear seat covers for stock leather ones and I have just purchased two front ones as well, in order to replace the cloth interior.
Lastly, in case you were wondering where I got the name for my car, it is from the movie Lock Up with Silvester Stallone, where there was an old Mustang, named Maybelline that some of the characters were fixing up while they were in Jail. :)
*** EDIT 2014 ***
What is new since the last time I entered the Ride Of The Month competition, you may ask... Why should you vote for my car again? Well, there are several significant upgrades I have done since!
1. I went ahead and did the T/T conversion, so now my car is officially an AWD AWS ATX TT.
2. I installed paddle shifters so I can control the shifts of the automatic transaxle and thus gain the benefits of a manual. However, I have kept the option to switch back to full automatic, through the flip of a switch. I have written a "how to" in the 3si wiki.
3. I installed a custom 3" exhaust, all the way from the headers to the mufflers. I also installed aftermarket straight-through flow stainless steel mufflers with single tips.
4. I also went for the hybrid looks by installing R/T sails and banana wing.
5. I just bought brand new Sunny SN3800 tires for the new year.
6. I also installed an all-aluminum radiator to complement my T/T conversion.
My next upgrade on the list is a set of front and rear drilled and slotted brake discs and ceramic pads. Also, I am about to install an aftermarket BOV-S, manual boost controller and a SAFC and start turning up the boost to see what happens... :)
***EDIT 2022***
My car is now pearl white and features 19T turbos, Chrome ECU, LCDBC, rear diffuser, carbon fiber steering wheel and other goodies.
Here is a link to a video of the paddle shifters I installed:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doBqa2K77UU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doBqa2K77UU[/URL]
Also, here is a link to a video of my new gauges:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtuHUDPEIjg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtuHUDPEIjg[/URL]
And finally, here is a link to a video of my car:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69aFx-EnKJ8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69aFx-EnKJ8[/URL]
Thanks for looking!
1995 Mitsubishi GTO (Was black, but got repainted pearl white)
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Modifications
Drivetrain
6G72 DOHC N/A ATX AWD AWS; GTO chrome valve cover; 6G74 injector cover; aluminum radiator.
TT Conversion (19Ts).
TT Conversion (19Ts).
Interior
Aftermarket steering wheel; aluminum pedals; chrome instrument cluster cover; Aluminum "Twin Turbo" door sills; aluminum lower door trim; 08' Tiburon auto shift knob; 3SX aluminum dash vents; Glowshift gauges; carbon fiber center console cover; paddle shifters (I have written a "how to" in the 3si wiki); Exotic Leather seat covers.
Exterior
'99 front end; R/T sails; banana wing; front aluminum grille; halos on both headlights and fog lights; 6000K HIDs on both low beams and fog lights; '99 rear center garnish; LED tail lights (I have written a "how to" in the 3si wiki); Stainless steel exhaust; LED license plate bulbs; carbon fiber vinyl over the headlight inserts; rear bumper diffuser fins.
Audio
Farenheit DVD head unit; Power Acoustic amplifier; two Bazooka subwoofers; Pioneer speakers.
Lighting
6K HIDs
Exhaust
3" Straight Pipe with no cats and gutted pre-cats
Suspension
Coilovers; 3SX rear lower control arms.
Wheel and Tire
Saleen replica wheels. Home-made center caps.
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