Reconnecting with the 19-year-old ‘MR’ driving self
Mr. Tadayuki Yamamoto says he wanted to drive the same car again as the car he loved in his youth, and it was with this single-minded determination that he acquired the Mitsubishi Colt Galant GTO GS-R. He originally drove a Colt Galant GTO MR when he was 19 years old, so why did he decide to own this car?
In longing for the short-lived ‘MR’, discontinued by emission regulations
In October 1970, Mitsubishi launched the Colt Galant GTO as a hardtop coupe based on the Colt Galant. Mr. Tadayuki Yamamoto’s beloved car at the age of 19 was a Colt Galant GTO MR. It was a rare car, with a total of 835 units produced, but when he got married and his family grew, he had to part with his beloved car. However, at a certain point in his life, his desire for a ‘MR’ rekindled. When he had finished raising his children, he considered buying one, but decided against it due to the high price. Still, he could not give up and acquired a ‘GS-R’.
Spec change for trim level change
Mr. Yamamoto’s current car is a Mitsubishi Colt Galant GTO GS-R, which he acquired about six years ago. The MR was a formula car engine, which Mitsubishi works team was competing against its rival at the time, the Toyota Celica. The MR was powered by a 4G32 DOHC engine, which was based on the DOHC engine used by Mitsubishi works cars to compete with the rival Toyota Celica at the time. The GS-R, on the other hand, was SOHC and had a very different front and rear design. Mr Yamamoto’s memories of his youth were of the MR, so he dared to change the specifications.
“My car back then was white, but the GS-R I got this time was this orange. It was originally white, but this was the color I wanted, so I bought this unit, which was for sale in Tokyo, without checking the actual car. Then, I immediately applied black stripes to it to make it look like an MR. The paint was sprayed on by myself. It took courage at first, but I painted it all at once.”
The workshop is an outdoor parking lot. Momentum was important, and the painting process took about two hours: to recreate the memories of when he was 19 years old and further longing, he dyed the 31 years of blank time with a single stroke of his courage.
By the way, the MR-specific bonnet hood was also a retrofit. Only one real part was available, so the one currently fitted is made of wood! The hood is a gem of a piece of wood, which he asked his son, a carpenter, to cut with a plane.
“It’s not easy to get real ones. The installation is screwed in from the back, but the real thing is the same way, so I thought that would be fine. Anyway, I wanted to make it look as close to an MR as possible, so I’ve already replaced the headlights, including the grille, and the taillights.”
However, only the rear emblem remains ‘GS-R’. As the car is not completely MR-spec, including the engine, Mr. Yamamoto was particular about not changing this part of the emblem.