I always liked the idea of the FTO, a small, stylish coupe that could fit in below the Eclipse in Mitsubishi's lineup. For some reason, seeing this video today reminded me of the triple-diamond's good old days; you know, back when they put out cars like the twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive 3000GT VR-4 and the turbocharged GS-T and GS-X Eclipses.
They even teased fans with the turbo'd, AWD Eclipse Ralliart concept back in 2006; for some reason, nothing came of it. Who WOULDN'T buy a coupe-ified Evo?
Certainly returning cars like that would have justified bringing the Eclipse up-market (think Genesis Coupe), allowing for a small, non-turbo FWD two-door like an FTO (or Lancer Coupe) to go up against cars like the Cobalt, Focus, Civic and upcoming Veloster coupes.And what if Mitsubishi had continued to build fast, turbocharged cars as in-house luxury/performance alternatives to their front-wheel-drive lineup? The trick would have been to create a sub-brand along the line of Hyundai's Genesis line of vehicles.
The really sad part is that Hyundai is kicking ass with Genesis (which showed up out of the blue), while Mitsubishi had a brand just sitting around and collecting dust: Ralliart. Marketing the sub-brand as Racing meets Beauty, one would think it impossible to mess that up - but they did. That's what you call a shame.
- By Phil Alex
