Mitsubishi's local product lineup isn't one that you'd call inspiring. There's the cheap but not especially cheerful Mirage, the Eclipse Cross that's better but not great, and the distinctly average Outlander. But it wasn't always like this; there was the Lancer Evolution, one of the best-handling four-door sedans, and in the early 1990s, the two-door Mitsubishi 3000GT. Both made our list of the greatest Mitsubishis ever.
A designer by the name of Matthew Parsons from South Africa agrees, and he went about creating his idea of a successor to the 3000GT called the 4000GT. Parsons describes himself as a "90s JDM fanatic", so his choice is a natural one.
We've got to say - his 4000GT looks great, retaining just enough of the original but modernizing the sports car's overall shape. The 4000GT he dreamed up has a much shorter rear overhang than the original, giving it a chunkier stance. What he describes as "soft 90s surfacing" on the 3000GT has made way for sharper edges and character lines in the 4000GT.
The 4000GT's wheels completely fill the arches and Parsons has used a much larger rear wing, but he did retain a couple of cues from the original. It looks like the 4000GT also has pop-up headlights, for instance, but the full-width LED lighting strip is clearly from 2020, not 1990. The wraparound rear window has been retained, but other than this, the 4000GT is much less dainty in its appearance.
Parsons badged his 4000GT as a VR-5, calling it "an evolution of the VR-4 system" - VR-4 stood for Viscuous Realtime 4WD, and the system was part of what made the 3000GT VR-4 so rapid. The VR-4's 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 engine initially produced 300 horsepower and allowed the Mitsubishi to hit 60 mph in just under five seconds.
Alongside the Toyota Supra of the time, the 3000GT marked a golden era for Japanese sports cars. Now that the Supra has made a mostly successful return and with Nissan cooking up a new 400Z, could Mitsubishi be inspired to do the same and develop something similar to Parsons' 4000GT? We can but dream.