The one thing I fear the most in life is a missed opportunity. The idea that I’m missing out on something great in the future for a present-day luxury literally keeps me up at night. So, in order to secure said future, I’ve finally sold my ridiculously rare 1999 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. This sucks.
For those of you not in the know, about a year and a half ago, I purchased one of my favorite childhood automotive icons from a reader of my articles. It was a Caracas Red 1999 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. It was the poor man’s GT-R, an all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steer, twin turbo, all analog powerhouse that only had 287 examples in existence for that year, in the North American market. It was the rarest model of Mitsubishi’s last true grand-tourer, and I loved it so much that money didn’t matter (at the time.)
The driving experience was second to none. Every angry downshift and hairpin bend made it come alive, requiring the kind of manhandling that pansy journalists nowadays would consider ungainly and bothersome. It was an event to drive this car, a reminder that sometimes it’s worth giving up some ride comfort for a stellar handling experience at the limit. It looked great, sounded great, and was adequately fast, considering that it was nearly stock and 320 horsepower in the ‘90s wasn’t nearly as much as 320 horsepower today.
However, as some of my Twitter followers may know, I’m buying a house, which means death for every fun-yet-sellable asset in a person’s general vicinity.
With every penny counting, the car, as rare and desirable as it may have been, had to go.
Now, in video form, you can see a gutted version of me standing before the camera, with purple lint in his beard, tell the story of the car, with a walkaround for good measure, before a hapless truck driver awkwardly gets the car on the truck, never to be seen again. If you’ve ever had a car leave your possession that you truly cared for, you’ll know how this feels.
Dammit.