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During the 90s, Mitsubishi was a sports car powerhouse, building several performance-oriented vehicles in a range of categories.
While this came as no surprise over the period – due to their success across a wide range of motorsports – many have almost forgotten some of the lesser-known JDM icons that Mitsubishi have produced over the years.
Whether lost behind the huge shadow that the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo cast or not, cars like the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 and Pajero Evolution have remained affordable compared to their JDM brethren: known for pioneering some of the technologies most sophisticated of the time, none has arguably been more neglected than the 3000GT VR-4.
Supposedly dubbed the “Swiss Army Knife of Sports Cars” by Car and Driver in 1993, the all-wheel-drive twin-turbo supercar featured the latest and greatest in automotive technology, and is currently available on Car and Bids for a very- reasonable price of $20,000.
The forgotten JDM hero: the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 is still not gone
But for all the big-name gimmicks like its four-wheel steering and electronically controlled suspension, it seems to garner the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ moniker.
It was not, however, the smallest of JDM sports cars – which belonged to the another JDM legend, the Mazda RX-7 – nor was it more powerful than the rest of the market; besides, it wasn’t particularly pretty either.
But we’re talking about the 3000GT from a 2022 perspective, if we were to put on our Oakley Eye Jacket sunglasses and look at it from a 1995 perspective; we would now have an automaker developing a new design language while pushing the boundaries of technology and what a car is capable of: in the US at least you could get a 3000GT VR-4 with that twin-turbo V6 of 3 liters doing the trick 300 hp and more than 300 lb-ft.
Other than the Toyota Supra A80, there was no better option if you lived in North America, unless you liked the relative monotony of driving a Porsche 968.
An all-wheel-drive twin-turbo supercar ahead of its time
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So when we came across the Spyder version of the VR-4 on Cars And Bids.com for less than $20,000 (at the time of reporting), it seemed almost too good to be true – as Doug mentions in the description, finding one in any condition is “a rare treat” due to low production numbers.
However, you may want to proceed with caution if considering bidding: a serious lack of service records, as well as a “squealing noise” in the wheel arch that bidders have identified from the video , could mean big repair bills in the future.
But if you’re handy with a wrench, it might be worth it when prices inevitably rise.
There are a host of 90s JDM alternatives like the Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline and Mazda RX-7; but it is perhaps the most original and affordable car from a golden era that we would like to take a spin.
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