THE GALANT
If “Ollie” is the sweet little Jack Russel of cars, jumping and barking and being lovely to everyone except it’s owner, then the Galant is a Jack Russel too, but it’s actually a greyhound wearing a Jack Russel costume
It’s got a 1.8L road car engine in it from an Eclipse (I think)
A 5 Speed from another Mitsubishi
And some other go-fast bits.
The owner has crafted this car from the ground up, twice. and while every time I see “Ollie” I am always reminded of the trips to the plant nursery with nan and grandad, he was free to build his car without being reminded of his dead grandparents.
The car has custom suspension mounts, with the Differential and shock towers being nowhere near the stock positions.
There are no trims inside the car, the radiator fan is manually operated and every panel is a wafer-thin skin, the bonnet and boot are totally removable and are held on by four pins each instead of anything that is used to lock and hold-up bonnets and boots.
At one point, the car came off it’s trailer during a long trip home and the entire car was bent out of shape, over the last year he fixed it and when I was given a drive of the car in March, the body was still out of line with the wheels.
But, the wheels were in line.
Thanks to a torrential rainstorm during the 1st lot of runs, I set the fastest time so far and almost spun out during my second run as I tried to take a corner at 90km/h in the rain which saw me fly off the track and hurriedly fight to keep half of the car on the road.
At the end of my drive of the Galant, I’d gone around the track 5 seconds faster than my best time in the Corolla, which I had yet to set at that point and it’s given me something to aim for if I can ever find a new car to work on. (I’m looking for a 1970’s Ford Cortina because Boxy I6’s are sex on wheels)