Feature: Minty Freshness - Juiceboxforyou

The phrase “built not bought” is a common collection of words thrown around in today’s car scene. Many cars proudly wear the sticker and it’s become almost a trend in itself to say your car was built not bought. This car is the true definition of that phrase. The owner of this car Neil wanted to go his own route, always being interested in the JDM/US hatch scene he decided to make his purchase. A 01 Mitsubishi Colt would become his canvas. Ireland has a great deal of love for the Honda and the Toyota, and it’s no lie that these dominate the hatch scene here whilst Honda dominates the Hatch scene in the US. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if an American Honda owner got his hands on a Colt/Mirage and built one with the same love and enthusiasm they seem to have for the Civic, carefully selecting a mixture of performance and OEM parts to build a flawless clean hatch.

When talking to Neil about the car I was very surprised at how there was no previous experience of building car’s and undertook this whole build himself. Both the car and his knowledge grew with the build. The whole project started about 5 years ago when Neil made the purchase of a colt, it was different to the usual Civic or Glanza and he wanted to try something different to set himself apart from the norm. He began building the car up with some tasteful clean modifications such as a Mivec lip and a set of Recaros from an Evo. The real build had not started yet but Neil had a GSR lump and a garage filled with goodies ready to be fitted to his colt. Sadly the car was stolen at the end of 2008, something that would push many people away from building a project car but this only made Neil’s plans stronger. He knew that this project had to be finished and decided to go full steam with a new car in the summer of 2009.

The plan was in mind was a clean OEM Mivec Mirage look for the Colt that would look almost stock on the outside with the addition of subtle modifications. The Exterior was treated to Mivec lip kit. A rather nice Facelift Mivec boot spoiler was then added with the help of a JDM back bumper. The spoiler was painted black and the back windows treated to a light tint along with the side repeaters. The headlights were also painted black giving nice black and blue theme to the car. I love how he decided to use spoon Mirror’s on the Mitsubishi. It’s such a classic mirror in the Honda scene and looks awesome on the colt. Finishing the clean exterior, Neil flushed the rear boot lock and wiper finishing the super clean look the exterior.

Under the bonnet is quite impressive. This has to be one of a very few wire tucked Colt/Mirage hatches in the world. I was even more impressed that Neil undertook this wire tuck on his own. Taking help from online forums and drooling over the super clean engine bays of the US Honda scene he knew this was something he wanted to do in his build. Again this wire tuck looks super clean and almost as if it’s from factory. The Mivec engines were never too popular in Ireland upgrade parts are hard to come by and expensive so instead a 4G93T 1.8 Turbo engine was sourced and fitted to the colt giving more or less instant power. A custom intake pipe was fabricated and fitted with a HKS Mushroom filter.

Once the  engine was sorted Neil went about removing the ABS, aircon. The Fuse box, battery, washer bottle and expansion bottle were all relocated and the mounts all flushed and the entire engine bay treated to a fresh coat of blue. Everything looks super immaculate under the bonnet and every inch of most parts were fully scrubbed and refurbished to an almost new condition. A Ralliart fuel cap replaced the original while the rocker cover was treated to a nice yellow finish which pops against the blue with the help of some yellow reservoir socks. It’s one of the cleanest engine bays I have ever seen and the fact its inside a colt makes it that bit better.

By now you should be getting an idea of just how clean this car really is. The inside is no exception. The same style of clean modifications is evident throughout the cockpit. Neil decided to add an EVO IV interior. The blue and black suede Recaro interior looks great and almost looks standard in the car. The rest of the interior trims were upholstered in suede which looks great with the EVO interior. A Nardi classic is the choice of wheel for steering. Again this car proves that its such an awesome wheel that looks good in pretty much any Japanese car. For information the car has been fitted with a Swoosh boost gauge while the centre dash has been fitted with an Apexi rev speed meter and a neat Apexi turbo timer is also just under the CD player giving the driver just the right amount of information and keeping the inside looking clean and simple. Neil didn’t want to take any more chances with this car so a Meta alarm and immobiliser was fitted for good measure.

The attention to detail on this car is so impressive in every aspect and when it came to wheels it was just as good. Neil managed to source a set of 15″ Desmond Evo Regamaster’s. The wheels were fully refurbished and replacement stickers were bought and fitted. The Regamaster is one of the nicest wheels for any Japanese hatchback and work’s perfect under this colt’s arches. Some lightweight extended Tegiwa wheel nuts pop against the immaculate white shoes which are wrapped in Kumho ecsta rubber.

It just takes one look at the underneath of this car to understand just how clean it is for an Irish car. Even our summers would rival some countrys winters and I was more than impressed when I got down to check out the underneath. Staring out at me was a gleaming Fujitsubo rm-01a exhaust and a set of immaculate control arms.

Like every other part of this build the handling department received just as much attention. Inside Neil fitted a short shifter kit to a 4G13 gearbox which is mated to an Exedy clutch and braided clutch line. For suspension the Colt was fitted with GSR shocks and Apex springs. Up front the shock towers were fitted with an OEM EVO Ralliart strut and at the rear an OEM strut both top and bottom were fitted giving the car an overall stiffer ride. For stopping power the colt was fitted with reconditioned Evo 3 brakes and Ferodo brake pads. The callipers were finished in yellow to flow with the paint scheme and are now controlled by new Goodridge brake lines.

This is one of the cleanest car’s I have ever seen. Everything about this car has been perfectly executed; it could easily be one of the nicest 6th generation colts out there. Starting out as a humble 1.3 commuter to college both the driver and project will never be the same again! This is one of those rare impressive stories that I always love to hear in the car scene, one about an owner jumping in the deep end and getting his hands dirty and coming out on top. Each step was a difficult learning process but the outcome was more than rewarding. The owner took a step outside the box, kept an open mind and took influences from the JDM/US scene and translated them onto a different canvas that could rival any purist built clean Civic hatch. I Hope you enjoyed this car as much as we did. This is a truly original build pushing the bar for clean cars in this country.