1320VR4 (Matt Stefans)

1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4

June 2009 - Ride of the Month 3000GT/Stealth International

1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4
Silver

Cosmetic:

• Tinted snake eyes
• Silverstar headlights
• Red tinted interior lights
• Grey/Black catskinz style seat covers
• Sunpro volt gauge
• Sunpro narrowband air fuel (both are temporary and were free)
• Custom airbrushed radio trim
• LED replaced door lights
• LED reverse lights
• Ronal 17” wheels
• Aluminum shift knob
• Aluminum cluster trim
• HDR lip

Sound:

• Alpine head unit
• Infinity speakers all around

Performance:

• APS 50/50 bov
• K&N intake
• AEM Truboost
• IPS Stainless Single Shot Exhaust
• Maximal Test Pipe

My Story

Since building my Stealth ES starting in 06, when I was 16, I became more than glued to the platform. After paint and everything was finished and she was exactly how I wanted her to be I felt the need to TT her. Well 3si persistently told me that instead of that, buy a TT, so I did. In November I came across this 92 VR4 down in Bloomfield NJ for $5500, 111k on the clock. Being in much better shape than I had hoped it was a definite. The 120k being done was a benefit, only issue was a slight studder under load which was fixed simply with plugs. I also replaced the transfer case seals, outer tie rods, and other misc. problems. As of today she runs incredibly smoothly, next on the list of maintenance is to change the trans fluid. As far as mods go I haven’t gotten too far just yet. I’ve gone through the basics as well worked on the 17 year worn interior. To go to the performance side of her, the APS bov and exhaust are perfect in sound and tone; the bov is audible but not rice and the exhaust has a nice deep growl to it. IPS makes awesome products. Jason at PMP helped me out a lot and gave me great deals on parts. I got a K&N intake from him as well as the BOV and most of my maintenance stuff. The test pipe is from Maximal, after getting one for the Stealth last year I was certain I’d be buying one for the VR, (Terry FTW). The gauge pod and AEM came from other members here on 3si for bargain prices. The other gauges are fillers until my wallet allows me to buy the real deal; my friend sold me both the volt and air/fuel gauges for $5. Interior wise, the leather seats were torn up like most, so I patched them up and put some quality ebay catskinz style seat covers over them, which for an EBay product, is excellent. I custom made and airbrushed my own radio trim piece out of some lexan I got from the hobby shop I work at. As far as sound, I’m waiting for my friend to build me a sub box to complete the sound system, the infinity speakers have great, great, great mid and high but almost no bass at all. The wheels came with the car when I bought it and although I hated them at first they grew on me; internet surfers say they look ugly, however in person I always get compliments on them. All I can say is in 6 months I’ve had great fun with this car.

As most do, I have big plans for the future and I’m looking forward to building her into something wicked. My hopes are to get her into the 11’s while still maintaining drivability. One nice thing about turbo cars is I can cut the power by a push of a button on the boost controller. Near future I’m planning some black 5 spoke rims, perhaps saleens, a drop and an FMIC since my side mounts are beat up and the look of a front mount is unbeatable. Still a long way to go and since I don’t plan on selling her any time soon, there’s still a lot of excitement to be had.

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1993 Dodge Stealth ES

September 2008 - Ride of the Month 3000GT/Stealth International

1993 Dodge Stealth ES
Sonic Blue

Cosmetic:

• 1G 3000GT body conversion
• Painted valve cover
• Polished aluminum "3000GT" spark cover
• Chrome intake pipe
• Aftermarket shift knob
• Snake eye mod
• H3 fog lights
• RUFF Racing 18x8.5 rims
• 99 Garnish
• Sonic Blue paint
• Carbon fiber cluster trim

Performance:

• Injen intake filter
• Spark plug wires
• Bosch +2 platinum plugs
• Half shafted throttle body
• 3sx Downpipe
• Maximal test pipe
• Maximal solid motor mounts
• Tanabe Concept G blue single shot (custom)
• 3sx stock size crank pulley
• Ground wires
• General Exclaim UHP tires

Sound:

• Pioneer speakers, front and rear
• Pioneer head unit
• Visonik sub + amp

Brakes:

• New OEM remanufactured calipers
• Drill slot front rotors, new rear rotors
• Ceramic pads

My Story:

When I was 16 my best friend Dan bought a 92 R/T, at the time I remember sitting in his living room as he was showing me the car he bought via his computer. I’ve had cars in my blood since birth and at the time I’d never heard of what a Stealth even was. After about four months he convinced me into buying a 3/S.

I found a highly abused Stealth ES in some kid’s garage about a block and a half from my house. According to him some friends of the kid he bought it off of, went drunk driving and crashed it into some street signs. At the time It was missing most of the interior, had an engine, although wasn’t promised to run, a bit of body damage, and was covered in corvette parts and bondo dust. After salvaging it and having it towed to my house, the project started almost instantly. It took about 3 hours to get the motor to run, however, running a bit of sea foam in it a few days later ended up snapping the tip off a new spark plug and it extensively damaged cylinder one and the head. We ended up replacing the motor with another one from a salvage yard which ended up having bad piston rings.

After motor number two, frustration started kicking in which almost ended the project. To surprise me, for my 17th birthday, my father bought me a low mileage engine with a 3 year guarantee. It was faster to do the motor swap this time since we’ve done it twice and excitement kept us going. Luckily it did the trick, It fired up without any issues and ran smoothly. With some other minor issues that were taken care of, the car was fully drive able, however defiantly not pretty in the least.

After doing a body conversion from stealth to 3000gt, the car ended up being white, red, blue and black. I ended up spray painting it primer black for a winter paint job so it wasn’t a total eyesore. At least now that I can drive it to and from a job, I could put funds together and really turn it into a head turner.

For the next six months or so, I did anything I could to get funds for my car. Along the way I managed to get a bunch of bolt on mods while still managing to put away money on the side for paint, rims and tires. By the beginning of this summer everything started to come together perfectly. I shopped around and got some great deals, most I can credit to 3si members. By my 18th birthday, my car had a fresh coat of paint and some sexy Ruff Racing wheels

Now that everything is where I want it, the car has really become quite an attention getter. Everywhere I go people stare as I go by and I often get stopped by other tuners asking me about my car. It’s really a great feeling that a year and a half of almost non stop work, and all the days my friends and I were in the snow or pouring rain trying to get the next stage of the process out of the way, was all totally worth it. Minus a few things, this entire thing was built in my driveway with hand tools. She may not be a VR4, but she’s something I’ll always be proud of.

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