Well I seem to have hit a few personal snags which has slowed down the process of my build. I’m still waiting on parts to show up, fixing broken parts and machining up some more custom parts. I’ll keep the updates coming, here is how she sits now.

The mistress is back to her home away from home now and beginning the long process of putting her back together! Started off with cleaning the interior and wiping up all the mess from the body shop that spilled over. I still need to grind down some areas on the interior and hit it with some paint for some added protection. Most of the interior brackets were installed along with pulling out a few things to send off to powder. The rear suspension will be going into the car this week along with swapping a few things over on the engine. More updates will be coming soon!

Well the cage is about 90% done as Hendrick at Switch Back is adding some finishing touches to it. The guys at Artisan Autobody have been doing an awesome job with all of her cosmetic changes! The new paint is a Mitsubishi OEM code with a twist and looks gorgeous. I will be picking the car up Monday to begin the long process of putting it all back together. I have also received my new O2 housing with dump and external waste gate. The powder coating has slowed down some but there are still a few things left to powder and I’ll have lots of pictures of the reassembly of the car with may updates of the progress.

It has been very busy the last few weeks, the cage is about 75% complete, rear subframe bushings are done and she is now sitting in the body shop under going the next phase. As of now I’m working on the specs for the front subframe bushings, waiting on a few more parts from the powder coater and an order from the guys at Street Tuned Motorsports. Just wanted to say thanks to Hendrick at Switchback for the cage, John at C3 Powder Coating, and Brian at STM! Here are some teaser pictures for now. I’ll have more pictures of the progress of the body work.

Been very busy the last few weeks working on small projects, putting a long list of things I still need to get together, getting the cage finished up and picking out a new OEM paint color with a little twist to it. The last 2 rear differential mounts were installed, now working on some custom sub frame mounts. The rear spindle arms were reassembled with new bearing and emergency brakes along with refurbished backing plates and hubs. I will have some new pictures up shortly of the progress of everything.

We had a very productive weekend, building the suspension for the car to roll on in order to take it to the next phase of the build. Ronnie did another awesome job welding the roller suspension; I put back in some of the interior so the guys at Switch Back know what to work around in order to put the cage in. Got the powder coated Greddy BOV back and put it together. Again John at C3 Powder Coating did a great job. I also came up short finding a new rear hub assembly for a reasonable price, so I decided I would rebuild mine. There will be pictures of that rebuild as well in the gallery. I’ll have more pictures of the cage being built.

Sorry I have not posted any updates, I have been pulling my hair out tracking down parts and looking for the next new unique part.  I got new emergency brake cables, shoes and rebuild kit.  Still need to pick up some rear hubs and waiting on the last few suspension parts from the powder coater.  Front rotors, alternation relocation kit and intake pipe showed up from the guys at HiRev Performance.  Talked to the guys at Chaser Aerodynamics and they helped me out with the GT Factory Diablo Door System.  Also been talking to James at 386-customs.com about many carbon parts for the car.  Should be a lot of new toys showing up in the mail!  I’ll be working on the car this weekend, plans to finish welding up the engine bay, cleaning out the rest of the fender wells and building the roller system for the car.  I’ll have new pictures up by the end of this weekend.

I turned my attention more toward the Laser putting the front end back together and working out a few other bugs. There is some more work that needs to be done but she is coming along nicely. Also want to say thanks to the guys at Artisan Auto Body for the awesome job they did on bring the life back my carbon hood. As for the spyder I stared installing some of the bushing from the prothane kit I got. Also we installed 1 of the 3 Billet/Poly Rear Diff mounts.

We had a very productive weekend of welding lots of holes and smoothing seams in the engine bay. Thanks to my buddy Ronnie for all his hard work and welding skills. More parts were in from by buddies at Hi Rev Performance. (Full Prothane Bushing Kit, Power Enterprise timing belt) We went through the complete Prothane bushing kit and popped in a few. I finally managed to get the rear axles out of the hubs and press the hubs out of the spindle. (Flash back; the rear end I got for my AWD conversion was from a car that spent most of its life in Washington with snow, salt and sand. So there is some rust and corrosion) Gathered up more parts to drop off with my buddy John with C3 Powder Coating. Thanks for all your awesome work.

Well my 1991 Plymouth Laser RS is up for sale, so I started to turn my attention toward her. Since she had been sitting for about 2 years after being put back together it was time to work out some of the bugs and get her up and running again.

Welcome to 1HotAWD.com; a website dedicated to my 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST Spyder (aka: The Mistress) with an AWD conversion making it a GSX!

A little history about the car and catch everyone up to date on what’s going on with the car now.

I purchased the car back in August 2004. By December 2004, I started putting aftermarket parts on the car. I took the car to its first local show in April 2005 and won first place. In 2006, I had a few motor issues, so I decided to do a full build on the car. The car underwent a lot of changes including an AWD conversion, 6 bolt motor swap, brake upgrade, additions to the interior, and a custom stereo setup. In 2007, I took the car to 3 shows and received 3 more awards. 2008 was a good year as well, attending 7 shows and bringing home 6 trophies including a Best Fabrication at the Wrevolution show in August. Little did I know that was her last show for the season giving me a transmission problem and bring me to where I am now with a fully stripped and gutted car under going major changes again.

I didn’t get a chance to take her to the track to get any numbers on her or any dyno pulls but I did manage to get her on the scale where she weighed in at 3,445 lbs (without driver). As soon as she is up and kicking again she will have a dyno sheet with a matching time slip. This car is not just show, but go as well!

I will be using this site to update as parts come in, help answer any questions others may have and progress of her getting her back on the road again.

I know I’ll say this many times on this web site but I’ll say it now, thanks for all the help from my friends, family and shops that help me build this car. Best part about this car is watching people get on their hands and knees to see if it really is AWD.

There is a FOR SALE section on the site that I will be updating with images of parts and anything else related to the car and build that I will no longer need, so check in for updates.

I am also working on an event calendar, so if you know of any shows or racing events that you’d like posted please email me with the information!

If you are interested in being a sponsor, or would like to have your website linked with 1HotAWD.com send me an email.

Thanks and Enjoy,
Justin G.