1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - Hands Off

Everyone needs a place to hang out. Muslims have Mecca. Teenage girls have the mall. Hippies have Humboldt County. And Mitsubishi Eclipse enthusiasts have Road/Race Engineering (RRE) in Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

One of the most respected underground tuners, RRE specializes in niche vehicles like the Mazda 323, EVO VIII and Mitsubishi Eclipse-particularly the first- and second-generation Eclipse. The company's utter devotion to improving performance supercedes all other considerations: ICE, bling, or other such worthless automotive trendiness. Their cars aren't flashy and they sure as hell ain't pretty-have a look at the staff pics on their Web site, if you don't believe us-but the cars RRE builds are fast, they work, and much of the RRE philosophy has become gospel not only among the DSM devotees, but among hard-core performance enthusiasts from many camps.

Long Beach, Calif., resident Jason Steinhart has owned everything from a Lexus SC400 to a '58 Edsel, and while that might lead you to believe the guy is into heavy luxury barges, his pictured Eclipse GSX should discount that notion. The guy likes cars, lots of different kinds.

"I've raced against the RRE guys in my turbo Swift, and they're always talking about how fast they can make [Eclipses] with relatively few mods," Steinhart says. Fed up with their gibes, he decided to take them on and buy an Eclipse of his own. Steinhart scored a sweet deal on a used 1995 GSX. As it happens, some high-school kid had gotten his first speeding ticket in the car, so the boy's father punished him in the most humiliating way possible.

Steinhart got the car, along with boxes of accumulated aftermarket junk-performance parts, a body kit-for fair market value. Once he had the car, he knew where to turn for advice on the build.

In the years RRE has spent tuning DSM hot rods, the company has established its own preferred upgrade paths as a be-all and end-all for 4G63 performance, which it posts online for the world to see. Following that path, the car's engine was upgraded with an A'pex Integration N1 exhaust, an RRE downpipe, and a ported and polished EVO exhaust manifold which bolts directly in place of the stock unit. The turbo was replaced with a larger 16G unit and boost is regulated at 18 psi by a simple, hand-built RRE manual boost controller.

Supporting hardware on the intake side includes a front-mount RRE intercooler and all requisite plumbing upgrades and a GReddy blow-off valve. To ensure all the fire-breathing, hard- and software remains in its original, functional configuration, an all-aluminum Fluidyne radiator and dual SPAL fans have been called on to carry cooling duties.

Fuel enrichment is provided by a piggyback A'PEXi S-AFC fuel computer, 255-lph fuel pump and 550cc Denso injectors. Although the car hasn't seen any actual dyno action, Steinhart, as well as the guys at Road/Race, say the car should be making about 350 hp.

While Steinhart and his friends bolted the equipment to the car, RRE did most of the fine-tuning on both the engine and suspension. The company added camber adjustment hardware to all four corners and modified a set of Tokico Illumina adjustable dampers to accept specially wound RRE springs for coil-over assemblies at the corners. Steinhart added the StopTech big brakes, which consist of 13-inch rotors and big, four-piston calipers up front. Large 19-inch TSW Force 10 wheels, strung with Toyo Proxes T1-S tires, cage these impressive assemblies.

Probably the thing Steinhart likes best about the car is its shape. A lot of work went into the car's exterior, including a total reshaping of the Blitz body kit that was included with the original purchase. "We got the Blitz kit on the car and it looked like ass," Steinhart remembers. "I looked at other kits and I didn't like them, either."

In the end, Steinhart's friend Bill Guin took a knife to the front and rear bumper and side skirts. He cut them up, and reassembled them in a configuration more pleasing to the eye.

To accentuate what Steinhart calls the car's sexy "Coke bottle shape," he commissioned Reflections Autobody in Lomita, Calif., to flare the fenders. A sheet metal artisan known to us only by the name of Manuel (it's important to Steinhart that we mention the guy) rolled the existing panels outward to give the car those flares. There's no fiberglass on this car. Manuel also sprayed the paint, a special mixture the guys call silver #420, with an eggshell clearcoat. "It makes it look like a raw piece of steel sitting on the ground," Steinhart says. Other additions to the exterior include a carbon-fiber hood and Rotora 3-D wing perched on the trunk lid.

On the other side of the window glass you'll find the owner's favorite modification: the sequential shift mechanism. It was made by a certain unnamed engineer who produced a couple of prototypes specifically for RRE. One such shifter is on one of the company's project vehicles. Steinhart badgered RRE into selling him the other. While complicated to install, the assembly converts the Eclipse's cable shift mechanism into a true sequential-type unit. Like a real sequential shifter, the lever is self-centering and will not budge side to side-"bombproof," Steinhart acknowledges.

Other additions to the interior include a MOMO Apache steering wheel to keep the car pointed forward, dual gauges (VDO boost, GReddy peak/hold EGT) in an A-pillar mounted pod, GReddy turbo timer and Bride racing buckets in place of the stock seats. We know you're wondering about it, so the digital display mounted on top of the dash (next to the A'PEXi S-AFC) is linked to the shifter and tells the driver what gear he's in. Pretty damn cool.

Though it looks finished, the Eclipse is still a work in progress. Steinhart's in no hurry though. For the time being, he's too busy trying to find a place to park it.

"Whenever I come out, it's surrounded by a group of kids," he says, gritting his teeth. We can't blame them. We'd stare, too.

InteriorBride seats, MOMO Apache steering wheel, VDO boost gauge, GReddy peak/hold EGT gauge, GReddy turbo timer