Wednesday, August 29, 2018

People are Racing the Mitsubishi Mirage in Indonesia and Thailand

Mitsubishi Mirage Race Car

Yes, that's a Mitsubishi Mirage race car. Yes, it still has its 1.2-liter engine. In fact, it's part of a 1200cc class of race cars in Indonesia. It turns out, people do race these little things.


I've actually wondered if anyone was road racing non-4G63T or 4B11T swapped Mirages. Well, it turns out, there are.

I first happened upon an Indonesian publication called Otomotif. There I discovered this 2015 Mirage as driven by Ricky Dianto and apparently driven in the Indonesian Touring Car Championship. From what I could gather from the brief article in the publication, modifications include suspension, roll bar, racing seat, steering wheel, exhaust, a Unichip Q+ engine management, wheels/tires, custom downpipe (header?), and a few other things. You can check out the article here.

Mitsubishi Mirage Race Car

Remember: The '15 Mirage would've made 74 hp. However, with a stripped interior and weight reductions, I'm certain this hatch is probably under 1,700 lbs. if not quite a bit less (since a factory version weighs just over 2,000 lbs.). Keep in mind, this car is (or was) in a class of other 1,200cc cars including the Honda Brio. FYI, I think there may be a "Mirage Challenge" program in that country that allowed people to buy a Mirage and take it racing. I'm guessing this is a factory-backed racing initiative with Mitsubishi, much like Nissan has done with the Nissan Micra Cup in places such as Canada.

You can read more about Ricky's Mirage at Merdeka.com (you may need to translate from Indonesian to English).

So maybe Ricky is a fringe lunatic about Mitsubishi Mirages like I am, right? Nope. It appears there are a bunch of us weirdos as evidenced by this video. Yes, this is a Mirage (aka Attrage in other markets) one-make race.



From what I can gather, this race is in Thailand, which is where the Mirage/Attrage/Space Star are produced. Want more? How about this race, which includes a host of low-power subcompact cars including Suzukis, Hondas, and more. 


Mitsubishi has sold over 100,000 Mirages in the U.S. since its debut, and over 750,000 globally. It warms my three-diamond-shaped heart to see people racing these three-bangers!