De-lurk

Hay guys,

After 1.5 years with no car, I just impulse-bought this. It is awesome.

I'll leave you guys to puzzle out what it is. Besides another checkmark off my long-standing 'weird Japanese sports car' bucket list.

I don't post much here anymore, but I still read from time to time. Just thought I'd share.

FTO Type R?

Deffo looks like an FTO to me, but then again I've seen a bunch of them in the UK.

Glad to see you still occasionally stop by, Jay!

Mitsu FTO.

Kick. Ass.

one of my favorite FF cars. I've only had the pleasure of experiencing them on Forza and Gran Turismo though.

Cool!

Jay, are you still living in NZ? How is that working out?

Yep, still in Auckland, am enjoying it here a lot... but there's so much to do out of town that I decided it was finally time to have some wheels. I've had my eye on FTOs for a while because I always thought they were incredibly cool looking, but I didn't really want to own another car for the time being... but this one came up and ticked all my boxes at once - correct colour (black would have worked too), straight, no corrosion underneath, not 'modified' by boy-racers, manual, cheap~y (near challenge $ if you figure out the currency exchange.) So I bit.

Honestly I would compare how this thing handles to an overweight Elan M100, and that is a very good compliment. Even with some mileage (225 000 km) it is super taught and responsive. I don't have the GP-X V6 version but I think the suspension tune of the 4-cylinder is the same, and the 4G92 MIVEC is a brilliant little engine anyway.

Thanks for the kind words all!

Dude, I wondered what happened to you? Welcome back.

Jay, nice to have you back! Sweet ride, looks fast.

If I hadn't seen the emblem in the front in the first photo, I would have typed "Supra". (But I haven't had coffee yet.)

Nice. Congrats.

the car we should have gotten instead of the Eclipse

Nice ride

Thanks guys! I don't know how 'back' I am, I quit posting in off-topic for... reasons... but now that I've got wheels again it's fun to poke around this side of the board. I'll be checking in now and then.

Five days with this thing has just made me appreciate it more. It really responds like you're "wearing" it rather than just operating it - a proper sports car feel. Granted I'm not out on race tracks or autocrossing or whatever, but for moderately-spirited backroads it works beautifully.

Few more pics:

^^ Love the dark blue seat inserts on a white car... soooo Japan

^^ Great sporty cockpit. The only 'mods' on this one - pedals, shift knob & stereo. I can live with that.

mad_machine wrote: the car we should have gotten instead of the Eclipse

Dunno about that, this model was concurrent with the 2G DSM which were pretty damn cool cars. The 3G Eclipse failmobile only came around the time they were discontinuing both.

Glad you are still living large and enjoying the car

You know the only reason most of us recognized it is because of Gran Turismo. But I'm okay with that.

For me it was Tokyo Extreme Racer on the Dreamcast ;) - always ended up starting a new campaign with one. Usually in white.

WOW! An FTO. I love these cars. First time I saw one was in Gran Turismo. One of the best chase scenes was with an FTO in Thunderbolt.

Nice score!

Hah, the stupid aftermarket pedal covers loosened and came off during some backroads fun north of town this evening. That was a fun thing to deal with during a downshift between two hairpins. I dont know how it passed inspection with those on if they were fitted that poorly.

Fortunately they're off now; problem solved. Was pleased to discover the stock pedals were intact and in fine shape underneath.

Life with FTO continues. My sister came to visit for a couple weeks and we drove it all over the North Island. Lots of motorway, lots of windy backroads and hilly passes, a bit of in-town & big city driving... Average fuel econ since I've had the thing is running about 7L/100km on 95 RON. I'm getting well over 500 km per tank (usually ~40L fillups.)

I searched way deep into my backup drive for the spreadsheet that covers all my cars back to the Mirage I had around 2000~2001 and yep, this is the best mileage by far I've ever gotten out of any of them. I don't know what the deal is - aerodynamics, lower speed roads in this area, the fact that I don't cruise at 150 on the motorways anymore - but this thing uses a solid liter less per hundred than anything else I've had. With gas at $2.15/L I'm not complaining.

BTW anyone who's seen (or rather heard) me accellerate it out of a hairpin on a mountain uphill will tell you there's no possible way I should be seeing hypermiling numbers like those. :D

In other news it turns out I don't have MIVEC like I initially said; only the V6 had that (and I'd love to try driving one of those! Too bad the V6/manual combo was exceedingly rare.) I have a plain old 4G93 16V. Still a great engine. No big deal, the intake & exhaust make a superb 4-banger song at WOT as the RPM climbs and there's more than enough power for anything I'm likely to do with it.

I wasn't supposed to fall in love with this thing... The plan was for it to be cheap, fun, and saleable again when I'm through with it. Damnit.

BTW this is the first Japanese sports car I've had with a fully-opening electric sunroof that doesn't (a) leak or (b) ridiculously impede headroom. Helps that the seats sit extremely low; actually the driving position is awesome once you get used to it. You can totally see the wheel arch flares & hood bulge out ahead from the driver's seat, and once you're in it's more like 'wearing' the car than 'sitting in' it. I love it.

For those of you who complain about "too-high belt-lines", poor rearward visibility, or claustrophobic cabins, do not drive an FTO. I, on the other hand, consider those points to be proper sports car features.

Sweet,

This thing rocks.