Mitsubishi’s little Mirage hatchback gets a lot of flack for being a bad car, but I don’t think it’s a bad car at all. The Mirage served a purpose as one of the least expensive cars on the road, and they’re reasonably reliable rides for folks who need inexpensive wheels. That said, I always believed Mitsubishi should have offered a performance version of the Mirage to play up the brand’s significant rally heritage. Imagine if Mitsu had beat Toyota to the punch and delivered a Mirage Evo years before there was ever a preliminary planning meeting about the GR Yaris or Corolla. All of the parts were already in the Mitsubishi parts bin, why not sling them together and see what happens? The world loves a hot hatchback.
Rally driver Patrick Gruszka has been running basically that very car in the ARA rally series for a few years. The full drivetrain from an Evo X, including the 4B11T engine and S-AWC all-wheel drive system, though the transmission has been replaced by a proper motorsport sequential gearbox. With a full WRC-style widebody kit and “a lot of one off custom in-house R&D stuff that I can’t disclose or talk about” this thing looks like a full factory racing effort, but somehow it isn’t. Why didn’t Mitsubishi race the Mirage? Why didn’t Mitsubishi build us a street rally hot hatch for the ages? Alas, for it wasn’t to be. We simply must console ourselves with this new rally video from Hoonigan featuring Gruszka and his Mirage.
The rally speedrun
After several seasons of competition, it’s easy to see that this Mirage is a little on the tired side, and Gruszka won’t treat the old girl to a proper quiet retirement. Even as the car seems to fall apart around him, he keeps pushing it for everything it has. With the front differential not putting the power down, the car still managed to be the fastest so far around Hoonigan’s secret California rally test facility. At full-send mode the engine finally decides it has had enough and blows up just shy of the finish line, robbing the world, and Patrick, of an even faster lap time.
This is a really cool car and I hope it gets rebuilt again and again to keep the flame of hope alive that a Mirage isn’t just a boring commuter. Every car has potential, even the Mirage.