**A 12-Year-Old Mitsubishi Lancer: A Surprisingly Solid Find**

As I sat down to work on my trusty 12-year-old Mitsubishi Lancer, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and trepidation. At first glance, it seemed like just another old car that had been left behind at a Cadillac dealership. But as I started to tinker with the engine, I realized that this little blue sedan had some real potential.

**The Single Overhead Cam**

One feature that caught my attention was the single overhead camshaft. Many people seem surprised by its presence, but I've found that it's actually quite easy to work on. The fact that it's a single overhead cam is definitely a plus - less complexity means fewer things can go wrong. And indeed, after some tinkering, I discovered that rattles and other issues were relatively few and far between.

**A Solid Chassis**

Despite its age, the chassis of this Lancer seems surprisingly solid. With some sticky tires, it's capable of handling even the most aggressive driving conditions - which makes it a great candidate for autocross events or canyon running. And with a little creativity, you might even be able to swap out the standard steering rack for an aftermarket unit like an EVO setup.

**A College Kid's Dream Car**

As I worked on the car, I couldn't help but think about its potential as a college kid's dream car. With a price tag of just $3,000, it's an affordable option that still offers plenty of fun and excitement behind the wheel. And let's be real - what's not to love about a little blue sedan that can handle itself on the road?

**Film School Connections**

As I continued to work on the car, I had a chance to chat with my friend Ian, who happens to be studying film in school. We talked about his experiences with second unit work and stunt driving - which sparked an interesting conversation about the art of capturing dynamic scenes on camera.

**A Fun-to-Drive Engine**

One thing that really surprised me when I started up the engine was how smoothly it revved. It's definitely not a car that will blow your doors off at high speeds, but it's perfect for casual driving or putting in some spirited laps at the track.

**The Best of Both Worlds**

As I sat down to write this article, I realized that my little Mitsubishi Lancer has given me the best of both worlds. It may not be a supercar, but it's still a blast to drive - and with its surprisingly solid chassis and affordable price tag, it's a great option for anyone looking for a fun and functional ride.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmorning everybody Welcome to spunky Canyon Road the site of the infamous VF engineering log almost crash uh this is Ian and thank you so much for coming yeah that's what Ian is all the way from Austin Texas and he's doing uh a film production and one of the things he wanted to do is come out and and shoot with us and I've never driven a Lancer rally art so uh what the hell right right tell me about your car um not much has been done to it other than just um better brake pads uh let's see what else has been done a bunch of basic mechanics fixing some of the um idiosyncrasies in the car okay for all intents and purposes stop more or less okay and sadly you emailed me last night and someone hit your car and so the dented quarter panel happened yesterday which is very sad but I'm happy you came out anyway it was she looks good for getting hit by 2500 heavy duty oh no all right so let's see what this thing's about what engine is in this 4G 69 um it's basically uh oh people are going to rip me in the comments for this regardless um it's an evolution I believe of the 4g63 with is stroke more 2.4 L okay 2.4 non-turbo version of an EVO engine and it has um the myc tun it was their first MC that's Mitsubishi's VTEC right basically but this only does the intakes instead of both ah okay so that's why it only gets uh I think 162 at top end which is about 6,000 horsepower not miles an hour I was to say I think that'd be a little optimistic there although on the way up from Texas I did go 120 and she tracks beautifully 120 no I'm not making fun good the shifter feels identical to an EVO sh it is actually ripped out of an EVO the same right they gave you that stop for the and you get the Oz Wheels yep so we're going to go up this kind of tight section because this is a small little light car I imagine the straight line is not its Forte it's a handling machine so we're going to go right up there and for our front-wheel drive car from 04 I think it handles pretty decent well it feels you know pretty tighten together so far these cars you look at them differently when they're brand new on the lot and when they're like 10 years old cuz what what is one of these things like 4 grand now or something like that oh even less than that like probably about three grand right so in the context of a $33,000 car our expectations are adjusted and you know we stop being so picky that is very true little body rolls oh yeah she Body Rolls even with those it came with um strut Tower braces and everything that probably helps from the factory oh yeah all right little tire squeal there no problem it's all good you know they're Built Well you got to put you have to input a lot of steering but the feedback is actually pretty good yeah I I found that too um the road where you did the Mustang cob tuning on this thing was actually really fun oh yeah uh uh Lake whatever Lime Creek Road yeah that's blown up recently oh really sorry about that it's all good we got to do it that's one of the best roads I feel it is oh dude so yeah I mean obviously there's a lot of steering inputs going on but it actually has some decent uh what kind of tires do you have uh DL I'm going to butcher the name but bazaria pz 101's dza dza there we go I'm sorry that's why you're in film you can't read There we go you're my one handicap is has this thing been pretty reliable oh yeah all she's had done that was weird I guess is um cam seal which maintenance and timing belt and water pump that's maintenance yep and other than that just gas and oil her up and she's good and she's been in the family for 4 years the the clutch is very light all the inputs are light the shifter is very direct oh yeah you know it is Evo but it's good and luckily I was able to drive for a while so the transmission got warmed up because in the morning first start first gear it gets a little finicky okay that was a little hot for this down downhill off camera it was a little hot there right here is the site of the log incident all right and well there's no dirt Trail on the road right now so we have we're eyes up for logs oh there it is it's not bad I'm not even kidding it's not bad appreciate that one thing I do want to do with it and it's crazy cuz I want to make it a project car just because it's past the point of reselling it for the most part is um apparently the Outlander GTS their transmission with the four-wheel drive okay you can apparently hook up a different bell housing and and a different gas tank and they'll actually bolt in and so you wait and you can make this all-wheel drive yeah oh selectable all-wheel drive I'll probably have to strengthen up the gearbox and differentials cuz I like to I mean but is that worth it come on is that worth it that seems like a lot of work it is I kind of just want to do something stupid with it all right hey man look I I I have thrown money at worse things than that so I I'm not one to judge and maybe buy a turbo kit for it and make a dirt ball Evo now you do it I mean look I love the enthusiasm if you can get it done God bless it's better than my other I have one project car sitting at home just because it's broken you'll get a kick out of this it's a 93 Lincoln Mark 8 with the tesk BL I love those I love those cars I secretly really like those things so this car in the context of a $3,000 car is totally not bad that's good toar look at that good turning radius power on see w't blow the tires off no it won't it won't chirp second but that's okay let's see it will on certain roads like when they're really Slim the tires talk to you oh yeah you can have fun in one of these oh you really can it's not bad I have to shuffle steer a little bit bit but gota and I don't know if you know this or able to tell but single overhead cam uh I hadn't noticed but okay sure everyone always acts surprised when they hear it single overhead cam but they're really easy to wrench on that's the nice thing well that's good and there's surprisingly few uh you know rattles and stuff it actually feels pretty solid in here oh yeah I've kept her up as best as I could well it's just not what I would expect from a 10-year-old mitsub beu what year is this thing 04 oh 12-year-old Mitsubishi found her in the back of a Cadillac lot nice and I wonder how long they were like sitting on this thing oh yeah they wanted to get rid of it they sold it at the time under Blue Book value to I like I'll take it it's but you know for a college kid you know do you need something that's solid and cheap and easy to fix and low maintenance but the chassis itself is pretty solid there I bet I bet with some sticky tires I wonder if you can put an EVO steering rack in this thing you might be able to a lot of stuff tends to with mitsubish ler line T if you could find yourself an EVO steering rack you'd have one hell of a little autocross car with this thing gotta I would I would look into that cuz that's really the I mean obviously all wheeel Drive in a turbo but from a chassis perspective and like a canyon running perspective that that would make a really big difference gotcha I'll look into it into that I like this section here oh yeah that's great woo the car talks to you it lets you know what's going on that is one thing that I do like about am I going to end up with in this video recommending a Lancer to somebody is that what's going to happen hey if you can find it for three grand I mean well at least because it's your car the internet at least can't say I've been paid off to drive there is that yeah God forbid I say something nice about a car I've been paid off I feel that dude it's I'm man it's not bad if the engine revs really smooth it actually feels less like Buzzy than the Evo engine no a good day for this too this flat light the shots will probably look good you're into film you know that YouTube's compression doesn't work really well light and Shadow especially at 60 frames but this nice flat even light will look really good today what are you trying to learn in film school um I'm more of a second unit guy my first short film for the University I actually was the director of it and I was on my motorcycle directing cuz all my other actors who were going to be on motorcycles pretty much dropped out except for one other dude so I was like well I'm going to be in it now so you're trying to do action sequences that's second unit right is action sequences stunt work all that stuff yeah well you're you got to you got to hang out with the right people I can introduce you around to some of them I will definitely take you up on that they can they consider the kind of driving I do stuck work for Stuff driving for camera and such Full Throttle third G it revs it revs up nice 7,000 dude it's totally not bad I appreciate it I mean you know I I don't know if I would have said the same thing 10 years ago when this car was 27 Grand or whatever it was 16 oh was that all oh well even for that that's not that bad it was back during the you know no one was making super out sports cars really in the masses so everyone was like you know Ford Focus SVT C SII yeah they were like the stop gapy ones Mazda Speed 3 that's well that one got a turn oh yeah it did but this is uh for for a a a functional somewhat fun runaround car yeah made the trip from Texas to he no problem I I'm with you on this I really am I get it it makes sense it's got a it's it's fun to rev it's easy to drive has decent inputs reasonably comfortable air conditioning works the heater doesn't though it doesn't the flat stuck and it's a pain in the ass to get to well wow thanks Ian I mean I think you're doing okay here man I wish you the best of luck with your film career and thank you for coming out and sharing the car with us and hey man you need a you need a cheap beater that's pretty fun to drive Oz rard Lancer it's it's not bad at all actually thanks for watchingmorning everybody Welcome to spunky Canyon Road the site of the infamous VF engineering log almost crash uh this is Ian and thank you so much for coming yeah that's what Ian is all the way from Austin Texas and he's doing uh a film production and one of the things he wanted to do is come out and and shoot with us and I've never driven a Lancer rally art so uh what the hell right right tell me about your car um not much has been done to it other than just um better brake pads uh let's see what else has been done a bunch of basic mechanics fixing some of the um idiosyncrasies in the car okay for all intents and purposes stop more or less okay and sadly you emailed me last night and someone hit your car and so the dented quarter panel happened yesterday which is very sad but I'm happy you came out anyway it was she looks good for getting hit by 2500 heavy duty oh no all right so let's see what this thing's about what engine is in this 4G 69 um it's basically uh oh people are going to rip me in the comments for this regardless um it's an evolution I believe of the 4g63 with is stroke more 2.4 L okay 2.4 non-turbo version of an EVO engine and it has um the myc tun it was their first MC that's Mitsubishi's VTEC right basically but this only does the intakes instead of both ah okay so that's why it only gets uh I think 162 at top end which is about 6,000 horsepower not miles an hour I was to say I think that'd be a little optimistic there although on the way up from Texas I did go 120 and she tracks beautifully 120 no I'm not making fun good the shifter feels identical to an EVO sh it is actually ripped out of an EVO the same right they gave you that stop for the and you get the Oz Wheels yep so we're going to go up this kind of tight section because this is a small little light car I imagine the straight line is not its Forte it's a handling machine so we're going to go right up there and for our front-wheel drive car from 04 I think it handles pretty decent well it feels you know pretty tighten together so far these cars you look at them differently when they're brand new on the lot and when they're like 10 years old cuz what what is one of these things like 4 grand now or something like that oh even less than that like probably about three grand right so in the context of a $33,000 car our expectations are adjusted and you know we stop being so picky that is very true little body rolls oh yeah she Body Rolls even with those it came with um strut Tower braces and everything that probably helps from the factory oh yeah all right little tire squeal there no problem it's all good you know they're Built Well you got to put you have to input a lot of steering but the feedback is actually pretty good yeah I I found that too um the road where you did the Mustang cob tuning on this thing was actually really fun oh yeah uh uh Lake whatever Lime Creek Road yeah that's blown up recently oh really sorry about that it's all good we got to do it that's one of the best roads I feel it is oh dude so yeah I mean obviously there's a lot of steering inputs going on but it actually has some decent uh what kind of tires do you have uh DL I'm going to butcher the name but bazaria pz 101's dza dza there we go I'm sorry that's why you're in film you can't read There we go you're my one handicap is has this thing been pretty reliable oh yeah all she's had done that was weird I guess is um cam seal which maintenance and timing belt and water pump that's maintenance yep and other than that just gas and oil her up and she's good and she's been in the family for 4 years the the clutch is very light all the inputs are light the shifter is very direct oh yeah you know it is Evo but it's good and luckily I was able to drive for a while so the transmission got warmed up because in the morning first start first gear it gets a little finicky okay that was a little hot for this down downhill off camera it was a little hot there right here is the site of the log incident all right and well there's no dirt Trail on the road right now so we have we're eyes up for logs oh there it is it's not bad I'm not even kidding it's not bad appreciate that one thing I do want to do with it and it's crazy cuz I want to make it a project car just because it's past the point of reselling it for the most part is um apparently the Outlander GTS their transmission with the four-wheel drive okay you can apparently hook up a different bell housing and and a different gas tank and they'll actually bolt in and so you wait and you can make this all-wheel drive yeah oh selectable all-wheel drive I'll probably have to strengthen up the gearbox and differentials cuz I like to I mean but is that worth it come on is that worth it that seems like a lot of work it is I kind of just want to do something stupid with it all right hey man look I I I have thrown money at worse things than that so I I'm not one to judge and maybe buy a turbo kit for it and make a dirt ball Evo now you do it I mean look I love the enthusiasm if you can get it done God bless it's better than my other I have one project car sitting at home just because it's broken you'll get a kick out of this it's a 93 Lincoln Mark 8 with the tesk BL I love those I love those cars I secretly really like those things so this car in the context of a $3,000 car is totally not bad that's good toar look at that good turning radius power on see w't blow the tires off no it won't it won't chirp second but that's okay let's see it will on certain roads like when they're really Slim the tires talk to you oh yeah you can have fun in one of these oh you really can it's not bad I have to shuffle steer a little bit bit but gota and I don't know if you know this or able to tell but single overhead cam uh I hadn't noticed but okay sure everyone always acts surprised when they hear it single overhead cam but they're really easy to wrench on that's the nice thing well that's good and there's surprisingly few uh you know rattles and stuff it actually feels pretty solid in here oh yeah I've kept her up as best as I could well it's just not what I would expect from a 10-year-old mitsub beu what year is this thing 04 oh 12-year-old Mitsubishi found her in the back of a Cadillac lot nice and I wonder how long they were like sitting on this thing oh yeah they wanted to get rid of it they sold it at the time under Blue Book value to I like I'll take it it's but you know for a college kid you know do you need something that's solid and cheap and easy to fix and low maintenance but the chassis itself is pretty solid there I bet I bet with some sticky tires I wonder if you can put an EVO steering rack in this thing you might be able to a lot of stuff tends to with mitsubish ler line T if you could find yourself an EVO steering rack you'd have one hell of a little autocross car with this thing gotta I would I would look into that cuz that's really the I mean obviously all wheeel Drive in a turbo but from a chassis perspective and like a canyon running perspective that that would make a really big difference gotcha I'll look into it into that I like this section here oh yeah that's great woo the car talks to you it lets you know what's going on that is one thing that I do like about am I going to end up with in this video recommending a Lancer to somebody is that what's going to happen hey if you can find it for three grand I mean well at least because it's your car the internet at least can't say I've been paid off to drive there is that yeah God forbid I say something nice about a car I've been paid off I feel that dude it's I'm man it's not bad if the engine revs really smooth it actually feels less like Buzzy than the Evo engine no a good day for this too this flat light the shots will probably look good you're into film you know that YouTube's compression doesn't work really well light and Shadow especially at 60 frames but this nice flat even light will look really good today what are you trying to learn in film school um I'm more of a second unit guy my first short film for the University I actually was the director of it and I was on my motorcycle directing cuz all my other actors who were going to be on motorcycles pretty much dropped out except for one other dude so I was like well I'm going to be in it now so you're trying to do action sequences that's second unit right is action sequences stunt work all that stuff yeah well you're you got to you got to hang out with the right people I can introduce you around to some of them I will definitely take you up on that they can they consider the kind of driving I do stuck work for Stuff driving for camera and such Full Throttle third G it revs it revs up nice 7,000 dude it's totally not bad I appreciate it I mean you know I I don't know if I would have said the same thing 10 years ago when this car was 27 Grand or whatever it was 16 oh was that all oh well even for that that's not that bad it was back during the you know no one was making super out sports cars really in the masses so everyone was like you know Ford Focus SVT C SII yeah they were like the stop gapy ones Mazda Speed 3 that's well that one got a turn oh yeah it did but this is uh for for a a a functional somewhat fun runaround car yeah made the trip from Texas to he no problem I I'm with you on this I really am I get it it makes sense it's got a it's it's fun to rev it's easy to drive has decent inputs reasonably comfortable air conditioning works the heater doesn't though it doesn't the flat stuck and it's a pain in the ass to get to well wow thanks Ian I mean I think you're doing okay here man I wish you the best of luck with your film career and thank you for coming out and sharing the car with us and hey man you need a you need a cheap beater that's pretty fun to drive Oz rard Lancer it's it's not bad at all actually thanks for watching\n"