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Three Diamonds for Everyone

Mitsubishi Owners Day celebration

Anyone who has ever owned a Mitsubishi knows of the power of the three-diamond brand. Over the years, the engineers and brain trust at Mitsubishi have churned out some of the most interesting, tough, innovative, and performance-oriented vehicles on the planet. Some of these vehicles were so far ahead of the curve as to be out in front of their time; unfortunately, slightly too far ahead to be fully appreciated by the majority of the motor going public at large when they were on the market.

Rolling Rep

All of this is no great-breaking news item to the guy or gal driving a Lancer Evolution to work or at play. Representing a rolling platform for the latest and torture-tested technology that Mitsubishi Motors has to offer, the Lancer Evolution is just that, a progressive evolution of all technology that has come before. Mitsubishi understands the passion of its loyal fans, and each year hosts MOD, the Mitsubishi Owners Day at the Mitsubishi Motors North America HQ in Cypress, California.

Oddly enough, the first Mitsubishis sold in North America were Dodges. Race heritage gleaned from winning brutal legs of desert rally races that stopped lesser machines dead in the dust was repackaged into Galants, sold here in the states as Dodge Colts in the Seventies. This little car paved the way for the Galant GSR, sold here as Dodge Challengers and Plymouth Sapporos, and later the mighty Mitsubishi Starion—cleverly rebadged as a Chrysler Conquest. Confused yet? It gets better.

Performance Partners

Carrying on the partnership between Chrysler and Mitsubishi was Diamond Star Motors, a corporate contraction of the Diamonds of Mitsubishi, and the star of the Chrysler Pentastar. From this partnership came more performance in the form of the first- and second-generation Mitsubishi Eclipse, Plymouth Laser, and Eagle Talon. The top-tier versions of these cars came with AWD and a turbocharged version of the now-legendary 2.0-liter 4G63 four cylinder engine—the very same engine at the heart of the modern, yet still un-sane Lancer Evolution.

The passion of driving is at the heart of the MOD, and is the real reason folks come to show off their rides, pick up on the latest technology to improve performance even more, and share the enthusiasm and stories of fellow, proud owners. Each group of folks had their own section to park in, broken down more or less by model and year. From Starions and Monteros to 4G, or fourth generation, Eclipses, MOD had it all. Prime examples of the entire Mitsubishi fleet, save for some of the very rare Seventies rebadged Dodges and Plymouths, filled the lot to capacity and had the show spilling out to the surrounding streets.

Start the Party

The count was obviously up over last year's party, with the numbers of Lancer EVO owners clearly growing everyday. What's not to love about an all-wheel drive, near 300-hp street-going incarnation of a WRC Rally car for under 30K? Now if Mitsubishi could turn on the way-back machine and re-introduce the rear-drive Starion with a 300-hp four under the hood—the party would really get smoking.