East meets West with this oriental Colt Galant GSR

18 September, 2015

Japanese car culture’s expansion to the proverbial West continues to grow and grow, with an exponentially increasing amount of stories of cars like this beautiful Mitsubishi Colt Galant GSR, which now calls America home, popping up all over the World Wide Web.

In stark contrast to the high-tech Mitsubishi GTO from the early ’90s that NZ Performance Car staffer René gallivants all around the greater North Island in, the Colt Galant GTO and GSR were much simpler beasts from a much simpler time. While René’s GTO features four-wheel steering, seats that mould to your body, and a twin-turbo six-cylinder 6G72 power plant; the Colt Galant GTO is your perennial battler, making do with an enthusiastic two-litre twin-carb engine paired with a five-speed manual. Simple thrills.

But enough of our talk (did we mention that René owns a GTO?) — find a quiet spot, put your feet up, and check out this stunning Petrolicious video on the Colt Galant below:

Header image: Petrolicious / Jeremy Heslup

Merry Christmas from NZ Classic Car magazine

The Classic Car magazine team is taking a few weeks’ holiday from the work computer and heading to the beach for some kickback time.
Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful summer holiday to all our readers, followers, and fans. Enjoy this special extra time with the family. We will be posting archive articles again in mid to late January.
Have fun, be good and be careful out there.

Two engines instead of one?

Popping two motors into a car is not only complicated, it doesn’t always end well. Donn Anderson recalls early attempts, including John Cooper’s ill-fated original Twini Mini built 58 years ago

For a boost in performance, better traction, and perhaps improved handling to some, two motors seems an obvious solution. It would also eliminate the need to develop a larger engine replacement from scratch, but would that outweigh the not inconsiderable technical difficulties?
The idea of using a pair of engines dates back at least 86 years to the Alfa Romeo Bimotor single seater racing car that was officially timed at 335km/h, or 208mph. Taking a lengthened Alfa P3 chassis, the Italians fitted two supercharged straight eight 2.9-litre and 3.2-litre engines, one in front of the cockpit, and the other behind the cockpit.