I bought myself a 1997 Mitsubishi 3000GT, I got it on October 11, 2001(sort of an early birthday present to myself!!). It is Solano Black and has the following options: Tan leather interior, Infinity premium sound system with both CD/cassette, chrome wheels, 5 speed standard transmission, power windows, power locks, power mirrors, and fog lights. I love driving this car. It has the 3.0 litre SOHC V-6 engine. The word on the street is that it makes 164 hp stock. I talk with a friend who works at a tuner shop, Greenlight Performance, and he gives me tips and suggestions. I always go in there and ask questions and learn all sorts of good stuff.

I ordered a race only catalytic converter, called a test pipe". It is suppose to add up to 20 hp, up to 15 lb-ft, and 2.1 mpg. I can't say for sure how much the numbers changed, but I can tell that there is a performance difference. The sound isn't as loud as I wanted it to be, but it is a bit louder. Only one small problem with this, it isn't exactly smog legal, so I'll have to change it out once a year to take the state inspection test. Oh well, it's a small price to pay.

Went to Discount Tire where my dealership orders probably 20 sets of Michelens a month and got a killer deal on a new set of rubber for my 3000GT. It came with 225/55 16's, but I stepped up to the wider 245/50 16's. So the overall height is the same, but the tire is an extra 1/2" wider on each side. I ended up getting Yokohama YK420, the tread pattern looks great and because they are wider, they fill out the wheel wells better too.

I finally installed a Viper alarm system. I ended up with the Viper 300ESP. I didn't have a remote trunk release and the car has a standard transmission, so I couldn't get auto start, so I didn't need all the extra buttons that the 500ESP had. So I'm happy with what I got. A new toy to play with!!

I just bought an OBX Racing muffler. It looks great, I love how the tips curves back in, but the inside diameter isn't changing, which means it will keep its full megaphone effect. Here is the whole muffler sitting on the ground. Here is the stock exhaust still on the car. Notice how retarded this set-up is, main pipe goes into a primary muffler, then back out and over to a little secondary muffler/resonator. Here we are in the process of setting and getting ready to weld in place the OBX system. Finally, it is set in place and all welds are done. One last final shot of the OBX Race muffler on the car. I wish it were louder still. I wanted serious sound to come out of this system. But I guess I take what I get. It still is 100 times better looking and sounding then the original stock set-up.

Since I took off the original exhaust and installed the OBX Racing Muffler, I decided that I still wanted it louder, so I needed to take off the resonators. There were 2 resonators right in a row that were quieting the system too much. So I went back to my muffler guy and had him eliminate the resonators. This made a drastic difference on the sound of the car. Here is another picture of the resonators that I removed.

I can still swap in and out the Race Pipe or the Cat. I was testing to see what the sound difference was both with and without the Cat when all the resonators are gone. I am running it with the Test Pipe, no resonators, and the OBX Racing muffler right now. I love the sound. It is way louder with the Test Pipe, then with the cat. Essentially, now I have a total fabricated exhaust system with only the OBX Racing Muffler on it. Everything else under the car is pure straight pipe!!! I defintaly notice more power too. I'd be interested in dyno testing the car to see what kind of horsepower the car will do now.

I bought a set of Maruta Design R Shoulder Pads. They say, "MITSUBISHI Super Racing" on them. They look pretty cool. Supposedly, it is suppose to be more comfortable when extreme braking is being used, like when your running on a track. For me though, it just looks cool.

I finally added my APR GT2 wing. It is everything I hoped it would be. It is "IN YOUR FACE" big!! It is everything BUT subtle. I don't know what else to say other then this thing is behemoth. To get this same set-up on another car would cost about $1500, with wing, hardware, installation, paint and body work all together. Here is a shot right after my body shop had it for 2 days, they had to take the old wing off, and then fill in all the holes. There were 12 holes in the rear quarters and rear deck lid that were used for the old spoiler. They filled them up and then resprayed it. It looks great, they do very nice work. Then it was off to Green Light Performance who installs aftermarket accessories. We taped the rear deck lid, measured all the stuff out, marked and drilled. After that it was just bolting that bad boy on there. The final outcome is awesome!!

Just installed a Autometer Autogage 5" Monster Tach with a Shift light. I installed it myself with the help of a friend. It wasn't that hard, just 4 wires is all: ground, ignition, lights, and coil. Looks real mean sitting up there. Mounted it clear as day right on the dash. This doesn't really fall into the "subtle" category either. But hey, if you spend all that money on a show car, your whole intention is to get people to look and notice you... right! Well it sure does get the looks. I've noticed that more and more people will pull up next to me and rev their engines a little bit and want to me race them.

I added the tint to the windows now. I went as dark as legally possible. In Texas that is 35% on the doors and 5% on the hatchback. It looks SUPER awesome. The back windows are so dark, they don't even look like windows, just like another wall. I sold a car for a friend on eBay and as payment, he agreed to get my windows tinted. So that worked out pretty well.

Installed a cold air induction conical filter. I used a Matrix conical filter. I believe they are a subsidiary of K&N because it looks exactly like it, but only cost 1/2. I needed a MAS adapter (Mass Airflow Sensor) in order to install it. So once I got it, it was just a sinch to install. You can hear it sucking in the air when you increase the throttle. I'm not sure what kind of horsepower gain there is, probably not much. Maybe 1-2 hp gain. But it makes the engine bay look cleaner too though.

I finally bought my Eibach Springs. I went with the Pro-Kit so that I wouldn't have to camber the wheels. The Sportline kit would look better, but then I'd have to put negative camber on the wheels to keep them from hitting the fenders. I got them through one of my best friends down here in Texas who owns Greenlight Performance, in The Colony, TX. He cut me a super deal on them and we both installed them. Adam Tjsovold is the owner of the shop, so he and another friend of mine, Bert, installed them on a Saturday. It only took us 1.5 hours to do the entire car. So it went super smooth. Not any problems at all. We started by doing the fronts and then moved on to the rears. All four of them were basically the exact same. We thought the rears would be easier, but they were no different then the fronts. I took a bunch of pictures through the whole process so you can see what we had to do. They turned out pretty cool.

#1 - Me removing strut assembly
#2 - Strut assembly removed
#3 - Me holding orginal strut assembly
#4 - Adam and I with strut disasembled
#5 - Me removing spring compressor
#6 - Bert and Adam reinstalling Strut assembly
#7 - Eibach Spring installed
#8 - On to the rear assemblies

The final stance of the car is greatly improved. There was originally way too much wheel gap. About 4" on each tire. This droped the rears to about 3" and the fronts are probably about 2.5". I'm definately impressed with how the Eibach springs perform as well. I can greatly notice less body roll through hard corners. I love taking extrances and exits fast on the interstate

I striped off all of the emblems on the back of the car. It makes it look cleaner, also that way you can't really tell if it is a VR-4 or not. Some people are just way to stupid to know the difference. I had one guy who asked me if it was an Acura NSX. I just said sure....

I saw another car online with these wicked hoodscoops and I had to have them. Hardly anybody makes aftermarket stuff for my 3000. I've never seen any aftermarket hoods, so this is as close as I can get to having a wild hood. I ordered them through Green Light Performance of course and had his painter match them to the car. Again, I took install pictures as I went.
1. Test fitting 1
2. Test fitting 2
3. Test fitting 3
4. Mark hood with Tape 1
5. Mark hood with Tape 2
6. Strip wax
7. Stick one on
I was a little concerned whether they'd actually stick to the hood, but they've held on. I think they look great on there. I get all sorts of looks now. I think that between the hood scoops and the wing, people don't know what to think.

Adam at Green Light Performance is always looking for cool stuff that I don't have yet. He'll call me and give me some heads up on some specials he gets. He called and said hey, I can get these chrome fire extinguishers for pretty cheap, you want one??? I said of course I do. So we installed it the same day I put on my hood scoops. Definately the most frequent question now is, "Do you have NOS?" They are all asking because my fire extinguisher is in plain sight. After awhile, it is just easier to tell people yes, I do have NOS. So now I guess that means I have to get some NOS huh? Well I'm thinking about it. For just wanting a show car to drive around, I seem to keep dumping lots of money into this thing huh?

Adam again has totally hooked me up with a super deal. I just installed a nitrous oxide system on my car. It looks totally awesome on there. I got it mostly for show, but it is a lot of fun to play with on the street. I also got the purge kit with it. So I can purge the lines anytime I want. I love doing this at stoplights when people are looking at my car. The car already gets attention everywhere I go, but now when you blow the snow cloud out it looks pretty impressive. I love it!! I'll purge it for the hotties in the car next to me or if some Mustang or Camaro pulls up next to me, I gotta put on a little show for them!! We have neatly installed both the activation switch and the purge button on my center console. They look like they were made to be there. I'm hoping that this will also improve my ranks in the car shows that I go to with Adam.

I had to add something to spice up the paint. I didn't want to pay for an expensive custom paint job though. I found a sweet set of dragan graphics for the side of the car. They go on there realy easy and they turned out super.

To put some finishing touches on the car, I went to a Mitsu dealer and bought an OEM replacement badge that said "VR-4". I put that baby on the back of the car and now EVERYBODY thinks it is a VR-4. They are too stupid to know the difference. Of course I reassure them that it is indeed a VR-4. If they can't tell, I'm not going to either...

I guess I get bored of things fairly quick. I bought my BMW while I still owned the 3000GT. I didn't want to trade it in because I knew I wouldn't get crap because of all the stuff I've done to it. I needed to find some kid to sell it to. I didn't lose my ass too bad.

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