The only thing smoking are the tires on a Stang...
Here's my $5 worth of comments...
When Mitsu made the DSM's, they made a four banger that could hang with the Mustang's and Z28's in the early 90's. When Mitsu made the 3S's they made a car that would hang with the Vette's and the Porsche's. The bottom line is, the DSM's are fast and a stock DSM AWD will be just behind a Stock VR4 in the quarter mile. Both can be upgraded to go faster but only one was made for true performance.
The 3S's, as many of us tend to forget, is a true performance sports/touring car. Where a DSM will slide off the road at 70MPH on a tight S-Curve entrance ramp, the 3S will hug the corners at 80+MPH with ease. Where a Stang will slip on the road and do 360's on ice, the 3S will take off in confidence.
Where a DSM tops off and runs out of gears and RPMs at 140MPH, the VR4 rides away at 170+MPH.
Sure, the 3S is heavy, but ever wonder why the $300K 6.0 V12 Diablo GT weigh's more than an 8.0 Viper? It's a performance touring/sportscar that can make the driver one with the road. The Diablo GT weighs about the same as a VR4.
When Mitsu made the GTO in Japan, they wanted it to be "Everything All Four" and of course wanted speed. The 280 RWHP limit in Japan was one of few things stopping them from doing what the designers intended the car to do. It had the potential to be faster and they could have easily done this. Bet you didn't know the the three Flavors of GTO in Japan were the GTO Twin Turbo, the GTO Twin Turbo MR and the GTO SR, where the SR was 225HP and AWD! There were no front wheel drive N/A's with SOHC; All models were AWD; and two were Twin Turbo. See the link below and go to Specifications to see for yourself. Mitsu could have put in 15G turbos but that damn limit probably held them back.
http://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.jp/docs8/productss/gto99/index.html
So the next time a DSM guy gives you flack about the inferior Talon or Eclipse being faster from an upgrade, remember the heritage of our cars and the dream that Mitsu had when they designed the Coca-Cola looking Performance Touring/Sportscar that was truely "Everything All Four".
I think I'm going to cry.