Fast & The Furious Garage Find! 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse
For those of us of a certain age, we can remember where we were the night The Fast and the Furious debuted on the big screen. I was in a loud, lowered VW Jetta, surely racing around like a maniac with friends in similar vehicles, waiting to see Paul Walker and Vin Diesel rip up the Los Angeles streets in a car just like this – a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible. This car actually looks like it could have just walked off a film set in 2001, as the colors and cheesy graphics fit perfectly with the styles that were all the rage in the late 90s and early 2000s. The seller has listed it with no reserve here on eBay, following a supposed deluge of interest on the local craigslist site.
The Eclipse is a non-turbo model, which kills off some of the interest right away for anyone hoping to find a performance car in the corner of this cluttered garage. No luck – this is the base model, naturally-aspirated four cylinder model – but the seller does claim it to be rust free. He bought the car with big plans years ago, but hasn’t touched it following the discovery of a clutch issue that couldn’t be resolved with a simple replacement. The property where the Eclipse has been stored is now sold, and the seller is losing his storage arrangement. This car is going cheap at the moment, with bidding still under $1,000 and two days left.
The issues with the transmission stem from this Eclipse originally being an automatic car that was later swapped to a manual. The seller discovered the starter was left over from when the Eclipse had an automatic and now has clearance issues with the clutch that prevents normal operation. So, it could be a case of just swapping out the starter and having a running car, but I doubt it’s that simple. The interior sports the typical hallmarks of the 90s tuner car era, with color-matched trim in the center stack and on the door panels. The seller notes the convertible top is original and does leak when it rains.
The seller notes it will come with two sets of wheels, both of which appear to be bargain-basement import-friendly designs from the same era as the Eclipse. These were usually Konigs or Enkei wheels, neither of which were particularly rare or special but worked well with the body kits like the kind that this Eclipse sports. The body kit itself does have some damage from being transferred onto or off of a tow truck. The funny thing is, there’s already a renewed appreciation for this era of import tuning among Gen Xers and old millennials, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one restored back to form as a car that could have served as a stunt double to the movie vehicles – hopefully, reborn with a turbo.
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Comments
I’m assuming the drop top is fairly rare and in surprisingly (seemingly) good shape, interior too, from what I can tell. I’m fairly sure these will only go up in value.
Funny, in another 10 years this will be the kind of garage finds .
Was at the Detroit Auto Show in 2001 and saw the actual movie cars before I knew what the movie was. My brother and I both have Grand Nationals and were making fun of the little tuner cars at the time. RIP Paul Walker
This is just a (not very good) used car. Why is it here?
I say keep them coming. I like seeing future collectables and cheap projects like these on Barn Finds. I’m not a buyer of knackered out $30k ’69 Camaros or Mopars that need $50k restos anyway. I’d rather take bets on the presently unloved and undervalued potential future collectables.
Time to get out from under a rock. These are the future classics now. What I have found is there is a group that is active in searching out and saving these modded imports. Myself included. This would score as a legit barn find. This was a show car.
The story line is always the same. After their show time many things lead to their demise. Owners selling moving. Some owners saved them like the one above.
Others lets just say with new found money (drug dealers and those with substance abuse) tend to desire them and beat on them. Once impounded the tow operators often older muscle car crowd further add to their destruction.
These are an era specific build like 70’s vans. The parts and the many companies that were involved are long gone. At the import shows these builds are still wildly popular. You want a car that turns heads for little coin that you can enjoy. This beats tapping in the 401K for a “choke….old Camaro,Corvette or any host of old cars.
These used to be all over the place – didn’t Mitz back in the day sell more cars than Nissan or Hyundai or Kia?- i even rented an eclipse in orlando with popup headlites. I don’t understand what happened to all of them, especially the obd1 cars prior to ’95 that have no body control modules & just 1 or 2 ECM’S that can be rebuilt for not much money.
I don’t remember seeing rusty ones either.
Can’t believe NO small 2 door is being made for single people by Mitz. Who would want a 4 door 3 cyl Mirage? No EVO either.
How could Mitz still be in business here?
Many have wrote Mitsubishi off. Some believe like myself they are in transition. They are a very large global company. They are involved with many industries. Their AWD systems are used by other auto companies. They are into avaition and electronics and even make pencils and paint markers
I recently bought my wife a new Outlander Sport AWD. We looked at others. She loves it and it is way under the radar. Forget Consumer reports.
Who needs a new Marage? Have one of those too. It’s modified with adjustable suspension and wheels. A company in Puerto Rico Speedlab makes a supercharger for it. It’s a fun car. Its gets 51 mpg.
In the NYC area i have seen maybe 3 Mirages in the last 6 months! Well named car. lol
The Mirage really should be a 2 door only with at least a 4 cyl option. The 2 door only fiat 500 WAS a lot more stylish, but TOO small.
FOUR door subcompacts were unheard of IN THE USA in the early 70’s, except for the imported “Plymouth” Cricket which was a 1 yr only FLOP. lol
Even the pinto & vega wagons & delivery “trucks” were stylish 2 door only! Thank God no 4 door VW bugs or Gremlins or Eclipses!
The pinto could seat 4 comfortably – i been in the back seat of a lot of em. Yet the modern Camaro & Mustang’s back seat is useless except for pkgs. Still scratching my head. & it’s a very tite squeeze into todays ugly 4 door only Chevy Spark & similar cars. Even the larger Sonic.
If i was single & young today, i would seek out an older used compact 2 door as a daily driver, like a stylish 2010 Focus 2 dr hatchback coupe – or the 2 door Focus WITH A TRUNK!! or some older 2 door Civic or Integra.
There’s been one of these parked on the street in my neighborhood for about 4 years now. Don’t know the story but I’m fairly certain its future doesn’t include me. Would be a fun car to resurrect but preservation of the last 40 years is more important at this point in my life.
Further observation. The Eclipse Spyders are fun cars. Several things that are not optimal. The 42A engine. Great engine that will run forever.
If this was a 2G car with a DSM 4G63 there would be more interest. This motor started the tuning era. Not uncommon to build one to 1000-1200 HP Typical serious street cars are 500-700 range. So beware of the kid with the fart can exhaust. You will get disrespected quick.
If this were an AWD then it would be more desirable as well. The manual swap to auto is not that big a deal. Parts are there and there is help on the web.
If you are making high power with AWD you may need the auto. I am not a fan of automatics, but in drag racing these the manuals do not hold up well over 700 HP.
Very true. I have a buddy with a 1G AWD and he is going the auto route now. He daily drives it but also races it. It is quite the sleeper. A dog box would be cool but not $15K cool.
As I recall ..the orange Ecliose in F&F 1, was A hard top / or targa top car- Not a convertible ! So the ” Just like this one ” remark , is incorrect(Imo) .and i see no
” Cheesy graphics “on this one either,thus a second misnomer there to.
Cant compare the Hollywood built car – to this one in any ways actually. When this car is a base model 4 cyl. With a trans. Swap gone wrong. Vs the HIGH PERFORMANCE TWIN TURBO BOOSTED – NITROUS OXIDE inhaling custom built car Paul himself owned and drove in the movie.( note the engine damage and smoke caused to it in the movie scene was special effects created..) .
If the deluge of interest was drawn from a Misguid3d/ misrepresentation of this car, by comparisons to Paul Walkers car. .. those people were ” faked out” big time. The clutch vs starter issue shouldve fallen on the seller to fix/ resolve ,before Ever listing it for sale.as would be the Roof leaking issues repairs done also.. this car would be fortunate to pull in $ 3k at best with all issues it has and the added expenses left for the buyer to come up with to resolve them..
Hard pass on it from me.
I never got into these cars because I had a hard time getting into them. Most often seen as yard ornaments around these parts, with owners whose eyes sparkled when they talked about rebuilding them, or confidently knew they were going to get theirs running right, “It just needs….”.
This was for sale locally for $500 I think. My son and probably a ton of other people contacted him and then he decided to put it on eBay as he got so many inquires.
We checked and the starter motor for the automatic and standard was a different part #.