Let's take it a couple of years back to 2015. It was November 2015 and I wanted a second car besides my Honda Civic coupe that i had. I was looking for a sporty looking four door sedan that i could ferry people around in as well as do Uber on the side with. Yes.. the award winning car that you see now was once upon an Uber car.. The Evo X was out of my price range but i was looking at a couple of used Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliarts and Lexus IS250s. After a few deals fell through, my friend told me to check out the Mitsubishi dealership. I was not ready to buy a brand new car from the dealership but decided to check out what cars they had for sale. I asked if they had any Ralliarts for sale but they did not. The Evo X GSR was priced at $38,000+ and the Evo X MR was priced at $43,000+ and that did not fit my budget. The next model down from the Ralliart was the Lancer GT and I decided to take it for a test drive. The Lancer GT that i was looking at was priced at $25,000 with a couple of add-ons. After taking the car around the block and 6 hours spent at the car dealership, I had a brand new 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer GT in my name!
I started modifying the car with the simple stuff first like changing out my halogen bulbs to HIDs, wrapping my chrome front grill in carbon fiber wrap, debadging the car emblems, plasti-dipped wheels etc. I just wanted to make my Lancer GT my own without breaking the bank. A couple of months passed and i decided to throw more money at the car. I bought a front lip, Injen cold air intake, Tein coilovers, and wheels. I told myself that I would just make the car a mild build since it was my daily driver. Here is how the car looked after 6 months of ownership.
I went to my first car show as a spectator and I remember a few people coming over to compliment me on my build and stopped to take photos with the car. That made me feel really proud! I started watching more Youtube videos, read up forums and did more research on what I could do to modify my car. I added more cosmetic car parts on the exterior to beautify it. I did not want to modify the car for power since Mitsubishi dealership told me that it would void my sweet 10 year/ 100,000 mile warranty. I changed to many different wheel and tire set ups in an attempt to get a better fitment. Some would say that I have a different wheel set up every few months the first 2 years that i owned the car..
My Lancer GT was at a stage where I felt I was "ready" to compete in car shows. I say "ready" because I thought my car was ready but it was not compared to the other competition. I entered my car in it's very first car show, Hot Import Nights Texas 2017. I was blown away by the caliber of some of the car builds at the car show. Some cars at car shows are on a different level! Some cars were garage queens, some were trailed to the car show venue and there were some that had a crazy attention to detail! Every car in a car show has to be screened before being accepted or denied to a car show. Photos of the exterior, interior, engine bay, trunk set up etc has to be submitted prior to the show. It was after my very first car show that I felt my car was not up to par with the others and I decided to build it up more. I needed more interior and engine bay parts.
As I added more parts to my car, I attended more car shows all around Texas to gain inspiration from others. I knew that my Lancer was an underdog when it went to car shows as I was placed in the same category as other Mitsubishi platforms like the Evo, Eclipse, 3000gt etc. I had to be unique to one up my competition. I wanted to build the car as a reflection of myself and to my liking, and not what was trendy.
Going into 2018, I set a goal for myself to win an award at a car show. This was not for any bragging rights but to prove to myself that if I set my mind to building a show car, I can make it an award winning show car from scratch! I started envisioning how I wanted my build to be and what parts I wanted on the car. I saved up and checked the parts off my list whenever I purchased it. I was building my dream build one part at a time. After going through a few different wheel set ups, I finally got my all-time favorite wheels – Rays Volk Racing TE37. They did cost a pretty penny but I knew that they would be worth it! I got a custom widebody kit made, (can be bought on my website) and started to get more custom parts for the car. I always pride myself that I never had a single oem Evo X part on the car. Not an Evo X hood, or wing. I wanted to be different. I retrofitted parts on my car from various cars including a 370z, R32 Skyline and more.
At the beginning of 2018, I planned to compete in 3 to 5 car shows for the year and hopefully take home an award. I ended up taking part in 7 car shows and taking home 3 awards at various car shows! I felt so proud as a car owner to have my build recognized after all that sweat, money, and hard work that was put in! The most memorable car show of 2018 for me would be winning Best Mitsubishi at Wekfest! If you guys know car shows, you would know that Wekfest throw one of the best car shows and the quality of cars are always steller. I felt so humbled to receive the award amongst other high caliber builds!
Fast forward to 2019, I wanted to apply the same formula but cut down on the number of car shows I attended. I had a bunch of fun attending car shows in 2018 but it was pretty tiring travelling every few months to a different city all around Texas. Not to mention getting ready for the show doing car show prep and putting on last minute parts! A good half of 2019 has already passed and I have attended 2 car shows so far and both have been great! Really fortunate to have placed in both shows and received awards as well. I plan to have my car in possibly another 3 shows for 2019. Besides car shows, I would also like to have some fun with the car on a track or autocross. I took the car to a Time Attack track day earlier this year and it was a bunch of fun! As we move towards the second half of 2019, I would like to continue getting more rare and unique parts for the car as well as have more seat time hopefully! I still have more plans to come for my Lancer GT so if you would like to stay updated on the build progress, make sure to follow me on my Youtube channel, The J Media!
Thank you so much if you managed to read all the way to the end. If you are new to the blog, make sure to check back for frequent blog posts! Also stay up to date on current car stuff by following my Youtube channel, The J Media and Instagram pages @jus_tyn and @thejmedia. Links to social media sites will be below. Thank you for reading!
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