1998 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4

GT PRO Performance Tuning and Omar Z have a history of making fast Mitsubishis even faster. As co-owner and general manager of Tustin Mitsubishi, Omar has GT PRO build limited-edition EVO IIXs and IXs to sell on his showroom floor. Their latest diamond star project, a '98 3000GT VR4 isn't bound for a dealership lot, however. Omar built this all-wheel-drive, old-school heavyweight to showcase the potential of these technological wonders of yore. Well, that and he wants to make a name for himself and his dealership.

The ideal way to build a racecar is to do it all at once, and that's exactly what Omar did. Brian LaFuente and Dennis Dickerson of GT Pro say the most difficult part of the 3-week-long building frenzy was coming to terms with the car's stock engine management. Rather than deal with the additional constraints of the stock ECU's emissions-stringent OBD-II components, they simply converted the car to pre-OBD status. The "down-grade" was executed by retrofitting a '91-'93 wiring harness, which proved to be more of a challenge than expected. With that taken care of, they plopped in an AEM Programable Engine Managment System and turned their attention to massaging the DOHC, 32-valve all-aluminum engine.

This heavyweight bruiser weighs in at a healthy 3875 pounds, making megahorse power numbers a necessity to get it moving. With this in mind, GT PRO performed their Stage Eight engine build, which includes a 100cc overbore to 3.1 liters, forged internals, GT PRO camshafts, a sheet metal intake manifold and their Magnum fuel system. Denso 720cc/min injectors do their part to make sure ample fuel is on tap when the turbo swooshes into action.

The 8:1 compressed bottom end is topped off with GT PRO prepared heads. They performed a full intake and exhaust port, bowl blending and de-shrouding of the valves. Once the heads were bolted to the prepped block, they moved on to the meat of the engine build-up.

Bolted to the exhaust ports of the 6G72 mill are GT PRO cast manifolds, and to them a TD05/TD06 hybrid turbocharger. Spent gasses exit the turbine housing via an 80mm downpipe and Tanabe Hyper Medallion exhaust.

When running boost levels upwards of 30 psi, the ignition better be up to the task. To this end, GT PRO installed a set of Denso IK27 spark plugs, MSD 8.5mm wires and an HKS Twin Power ignition system.

To help keep rotating mass to a minimum, a lightweight RPS chromoly flywheel was bolted to the back-end of the engine's crankshaft. Sandwiched between it and the stock 5-speed transmission is an RPS twin-disk clutch. At the power levels Omar is seeing, the stock one would simply go up in a cloud of fishy-smelling smoke and promptly take a crap.

Aft of the trans, power delivery is handed off to a stock driveshaft, rear end and differential. Hey, they were built for a nearly 4000-pound vehicle, so they are already substantial pieces.

On its inaugral dyno run, the beast put down 581-wheel hp @ 5800 rpm at only 18 pounds of boost-on an engine with less than 200 miles on the clock. With that much power on tap, having the ability to keep the beast in check at all times is a must. Plus, Omar knows that if he wants to compete with the cars he will be facing, he'll need world-class brakes and suspension. To address this, GT PRO contacted TEIN, which put together a set of custom-valved FLEX coilovers. After installing them, GT PRO set up the alignment, installed adjuster plates, dialed it in and called it quits on the suspension mods.