So we’re at Mitsubishi’s LA Auto Show press conference. And MMC President, Osamu Masuko starts in about the all-new 2010 Outlander GT. And we start checking our Facebook (oooh, someone liked our status and a friend of ours is taking a road trip. Hmmm, maybe we can tag along).

Suddenly this shot of a Lawson Mart flashes on the screen and visions of CC Lemon, Pocari Sweat and onigiri dance in our heads. But is that chica charging an i-MiEV at Lawson Mart? Sho nuff. It seems Mitsubishi has sold some 800 examples of the quirky little EV since it went on sale in Japan last summer. Mitsubishi also plans to have an EV on sale in North America in as early as 2011. As part of the promotional push the automaker will lease four JDM-spec i-MiEVs to Best Buy as part of it’s Geek Squad fleet (note to the nerd herd: watch those left hand turns!). There are more i-MiEV images as well as other big news from Mitsubishi after the jump.

In addition to the iMiEV Masuko-san spoke of the PX-MiEV, which will probably be the next-gen Outlander. The PX concept first bowed at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show and it’s a range-extender hybrid.

While all this was happening Autoblog’s Jonny Lieberman was actually working as a journalist (as opposed to the ones we play on TV) and he got the scoop that Mitsubishi is planning to bring the JDM Colt stateside. Looks like small is the new big as the Colt will join this micro class along with the Fiesta, Fit, Mazda2, Versa and Yaris to name more than a few. In the meantime peep these shots of that crazy i-MiEV.

Source Interlink Media held its Super Lap Battle finals at Buttonwillow Raceway Park’s Race 13 clockwise configuration today. All of the ink and paper outlets should have the complete story in a few months but if you can’t wait here are the dirty deets as reported by our boys at Everything Time Attack. It looks like David Empringham took/ate/slathered with hot sauce the whole enchilada in the Sierra Sierra Evo VIII with a 1:45.061. This is not too close to the 1:43.523 overall record held by Nobuteru Taniguchi in the HKS CT230R Evo VIII but an impressive time nonetheless for a car that is very much still in development.

The Sierra Sierra Evo is a bit of an enigma in the time attack world, like someone who eats their waffles with syrup and no butter (now THAT’S messed up). This car is built to FIA GT3 specs in a field of cobbled together tuner cars. On another note, this 8 will be retired after this season, as Sierra Sierra is already hard at work on an Evo X with a Cosworth built 4B11. Hit the jump to see some more good times from Buttonwillow.

Second fastest time of the day was Billy Johnson in the FX Motorsports Development Unlimited FR NSX just a couple tenths from the overall with a 1:45.247. I’m sure this team struggled as Yokohama, their tire sponsor, does not make a DOT tire with a wide enough cross section to allow this car to lay down its full fury. I believe the car ran on the A048 Advans as opposed to the Yok slicks they are allowed to run in the Redline Time Attacks. Next year we’ll also see an all-new NSX with a full race build from FX.

Our bestest Vaka-Mon Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada was third overall with a 1:45.552 in the Crawford Performance Subaru STI. This is a timeless Tarzan classic as the time was no doubt achieved with some balls out driving skill as this car needs more power and tire, less weight and better aero.

Paul Gerrard brought the AMS Performance Evo X home in fourth overall with a 1:46.829. From what we understand the car caught fire and the AMS crew will have to struggle to scrub the char from this car in time for this weekend’s Redline Time Attack. Now’s the time to exploit that NOS energy drink sponsorship, boys.

Other times of note include Kip Olson with a 1:48.072 in his NSX as well as the big Ragu, Christian Rado in his fwing’d tC with a 1:49.703, which was no doubt the fastest FF time of the day and also an overall class record finally toppling the long-standing time of the GM Cobalt. And Brian Lock drove his 800hp GoTo Racing R35 GT-R to a 1:50.022. Special thanks to the bank, er Source Interlink Management for presenting this time attack. Somebody get these guys a cookie.

Who knew that a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was capable of a 221 mph standing mile run? The ultimate in JDM performance, this EVO II is an amazing tribute to the tuner’s ability to outperform larger displacement engines. Extensive work went into rebuilding the entire vehicle for this run, and the small two liter was pushed to the limit. With an original OEM spec top speed of 112 mph, this car nearly doubles that top speed within one mile, from a dead stop launch!

All-wheel drive and a lightweight chassis create a very high horsepower to weight ratio. The total power of this vehicle is unknown. How much power do you think it has? By the sound of boost, engine grunt, and high RPM red line I would guess somewhere around 600 to 800 awhp. To run this kind of power in the EVO II, a complete rebuild is required. High strength transmission and drive line combined with race quality engine internals is the only setup that will withstand this kind of boost. Chances are, it won’t last for long even with the best parts to run the type of boost required for a 221 mph standing mile.  For more information about the 221 mph Lancer, visit Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

The AMS Performance Evo is the ass kicker of you. It literally has only three actual events under its belt in its current guise. And somehow the AMS crew has been able to coax big numbers from the new 4B11 despite the lack of a G, a 6, or a 3 in the engine designation. Not only is the car stupid fast but AMS has plans in place for more power and even better aero with the aid of a flat bottom floor that has yet to be installed. If you would like to continue reading just click on the “continue reading” link for more, including a muy bonito StreetFire.net video.

In addition to this cool clip you can see even more great video on this car if click on over to AMS Performance’s StreetFire user profile.

I saw that a few of you guys wanted to see some more Evo Wagon material, so I headed to the treasure chest of car photos that is Minkara and found this shot of a tuned Evo IX Wagon running on the circuit in Japan. I don’t think a station wagon has ever looked more evil…

By Mike Garrett

The EVO X seems to be a bit hit in America and is quickly becoming a popular tuning platform. The Chicago-based AMS shop is one of the leading proponents of US Evo tuning and they built up this ‘silver bullet’ street/Time Attack machine. They got the car fresh from the dealer with only a few miles on the odometer and started to tear it apart. The guys at AMS started the build with one thing in mind, and that was to create a street drivable, time attack machine. So it needed to be lightweight and it had to pack a serious punch. Continue reading at Speedhunters

GM and Chrysler have been stealing all the headlines recently, but several foreign manufacturers are having a rough time, too. Just looking at June numbers, Mitsubishi sales are down 41% from last year, while Suzuki’s sales are down a whopping 78%. As a result, Yuuki Sakurai, chief executive of Tokyo-based Fukoku Capital Management Inc., is recommending that both carmakers “withdraw from the U.S.” He added that “it’s time for them to decide whether they pay a high price to continue business there or stop the bleeding.” Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said, “We will never give up the U.S. market.”

What do you think? Should they stick it out and hope for better times, or get out? Bloomberg via Autoblog

I was on the phone just now with Andy Barnes from the UK Time Attack/NFS European Drift Series and was discussing our plans for AWD month with him. He suggested I look up this brand new Evo 8 drag car run out of the UK from an outfit called JR Motorsports… The AWD 1400bhp car has been built to a target of 6 seconds if you can believe that… Madness! We are going to need to send a Speedhunter round their shop to see what this car is about.

By Rod Chong

The coolest part of this clip might not actually be the crash itself, but the way that the second driver, after going up on two wheels, manages to keep his Subie from flipping. And while I understand there’s a fair amount of luck involved in such a maneuver, I don’t think I’d be able to manage something like that even if I had all my fingers and toes crossed. It’s pretty clear from the first second that the Evo driver isn’t going to be able to navigate the turn—the angle is just too steep—but fortunately most his speed is lost before he makes contact with the statue. Think the driver and co-pilot were able to right the car and keep going? I’ll give them a 50/50 shot…

I’m extremely grateful for the support of this trunk project from MOST of the community. As readers of this blog already know, this trunk was one of the first products that Bulletproof invested in to develop. This trunk was never going to exist but we paid Do-Luck Japan’s R&D costs to build this trunk for us because we felt that the US market would enjoy it. And so far many people have!

At the same time there are still some people that just don’t get it…I just read 11 pages of posts on a message board about this particular client’s car and the trunk in particular. There were at least 5 people asking for someone to make a knockoff of the trunk. Are you serious? This trunk was not going to even exist because Do-Luck is already hurting from the knockoffs and they obviously don’t have the R&D budget to do so many new projects these days. I went ahead and helped them pay the expenses (removing their risk to make these trunks) just to have people ask for more knockoffs!? The Evo community needs to become more aware of what is going on with this industry and what these particular people are doing to it. Continue reading at The Real JDM