Mitsubishi FTO

Mitsubishi FTO (DE3A / DE2A): the pretty front-driver that pinched Car of the Year

The 6A12 MIVEC: a two-litre V6 that spins to the moon

The Mitsubishi FTO is a compact front-wheel-drive sports coupe that Mitsubishi built from 1994 to 2000. It landed to a fair bit of fuss, winning the 1994 to 1995 Japan Car of the Year, and the factory even put out a dandelion-yellow GPX to mark the win. Pretty thing, sharp for its day, and cheap enough back then that plenty of people who could never stretch to a Skyline fell for one of these instead.

The car you actually want carries the 6A12, a 2.0-litre V6, wearing MIVEC. That is Mitsubishi's variable valve lift and timing gear, their answer to Honda's VTEC. In plain English: the engine runs a mild cam profile for pottering about, then up high it swaps to a second, wilder profile and properly wakes up. In the hot grades it makes about 200 PS at 7,500rpm and spins on toward a redline up around 8,000rpm, which is a mad racket for a little front-drive coupe. Treat the exact numbers as factory claims rather than gospel.

Which engine you are actually looking at

This bit matters, because Mitsubishi sold the FTO with more than one heart and they all look near enough identical from ten paces. The base GS runs a 1.8-litre 4G93 four, good for somewhere around 125 PS, fine but nothing to write home about. Then there is a plain 2.0 V6 without MIVEC, roughly 170 PS, in grades like the GX and GR. The MIVEC V6 in the GPX and GP Version R is the proper one. Badges get swapped, so pop the bonnet and read the engine before you believe the boot.

The self-shifting auto that was ahead of its time

Here is a neat bit of trivia. A lot of FTOs came with INVECS-II, a four-speed automatic with a manual Sports Mode you flick through yourself, tiptronic style. That was genuinely clever kit for 1994, and it even learned your driving a little and picked its shifts to suit. Purists still want the five-speed manual and it will always fetch more, but a healthy INVECS car is a lovely relaxed way to enjoy that V6. The key word there is healthy, since a tired one is dear to put right.

Buying one without regrets

So why bother. It is a genuinely pretty cult coupe that never cost silly money, with a following that looks after its own, and because it drives the front wheels it is a sweet, chuckable road car rather than a drift weapon. Buy with your eyes open, though. Rust is the killer on imports, so crawl over the sills, the wheel arches, the boot floor and the strut tops before anything else. If you are paying MIVEC money, check the engine really is the MIVEC V6 and not a plain one behind a swapped badge. On an auto, feel for slurred or flaring shifts and ask about its history, because an INVECS rebuild is not pocket money. And remember these are all twenty-five years old now, so a straight, honest car beats a tarted-up one on cheap coilovers and a dodgy exhaust every single time.