SP Rides: A Revving Revival
BY MICHAEL KITCHENS
Name: Brian Calbero
Age: 38
Occupation: Management
Hobbies: Cars, collecting rare items
Year, Make, Model: 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage Evo6.5 Clone
Color: Satellite Silver
Engine: Evo9 MIVEC engine and AWD transmission; ARC parts: intake filter, blow off valve, sparkplug cover, heat shield, oil cap, slam panel, intercooler and upper strut bar, radiator and cap; Mazterpiece Automotive titanium bolts all around, Merrill Performance titanium upper and lower intercooler pipes, carbon fiber hood struts, carbon fiber fuse cover, Ingalls engine damper, STM power steering and coolant reservoirs, Samco silicone intake and radiator pipes, custom Billet radiator brackets, Reboot Engineering titanium sensor covers
Interior: Front and back Evo6.5 Tommi Makinen Edition Recaro seat, Takata black four-point harness, NRG harness bar, Cusco six-point dash through roll cage, Cusco rear three-point strut bar with trunk cage and brace. Red carbon fiber Kevlar panels, Evo9 dashboard and center console conversion.
Exterior: Evo6 OEM parts include: aluminum hood and fenders, headlights, power folding mirrors, side skirts, rear overfenders and bumper, taillights, trunk and wing. Aftermarket carbon fiber parts include: Carbon Goodies UK side skirt extensions bumper vortex roof diffuser and bumper diffuser.
Suspension: Induratec coil overs, Brembo calipers all around, Evo9 front and rear complete AWD subframes and control arms.
Wheels and tires: Volk Genesis and Gold CE28n 18-by-9.5, BF Goodrich 255/35, Mazterpiece Automotive titanium lug nuts and valve stem cover, titanium center hub nut.
This incredible build came about by one of the most unfortunate accidents. There’s nothing worse than fate rearing its ugly head and wrecking your pride and joy in a blaze of sheared metal and seat-grabbing terror. Brian Calbero loved his Evolution 9 — known to many as one of the best handling AWD performance platforms on the market. It was his first real car, it was well modified, and, it went right through a fence and into a canal.
Two years later, with the Evo9’s carcass sitting in the backyard, Calbero visited a SEMA automotive trade event and came across a two-door Evo conversion that gave him an idea. After a short time and $400 later, he became the owner of a 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage, took it home, and stripped it to a bare shell. And that’s when the fun began. You see, Calbero is a bit of a mad scientist and in a fit of planned chaos, he turned that miserly Mirage into an asphalt-crushing AWD monster. You can’t buy this car off the shelf anywhere. It’s essentially a 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage that has been converted into an Evolution 6.5 Clone — that’s right, a straight-up Frankenstein.
This wasn’t some bolt-on experience. The rear pan from the Evo9 was removed and welded in-place of the Mirage’s. The firewall and transmission tunnel came soon after along with the engine and the AWD drivetrain. This is essentially the lightweight shell of the Mirage mated to the Evo9 chassis. Everything was included from the Active Center Differential (ACD), the entire wiring harness, the locking systems all the way down to the A/C. This includes the dash and center consoles as well. Even the rear windshield was swapped out for the wiper-enabled version.
The exterior panels have all been replaced with OEM Evo6 parts, which include the hood, headlights and fenders. Practically the only thing left untouched is the roofline and door panels. The body has been accented by power folding mirrors, carbon fiber side skirts and rear overfenders. The front bumper is a mish-mash of an upper Tommi Makinen and a lower Voltex front lip and lower bumper melded together for a distinct look. Carbon fiber goodies galore grace the car including side skirt extensions, a vortex roof diffuser, and bumper diffuser.
Along with the swapped interior components, the cockpit also features very rare and very expensive Tommi Makinen Edition Recaro seats, front and back. A Takata black four-point harness is strapped to an NRG harness bar while a Cusco six-point dash through roll cage has been installed for safety.
The engine features a cornucopia of goodies from hard-to-source companies like Arc. It looks like the entire bay is filled with hypercolor candy. Titanium piping and tons of dress-up parts are everywhere. And although there isn’t a huge amount of power mods, the engine has been built up to support some major power coming in the future.
This car is part of Team Hybrid, so it’s quite fitting that each side has its own set of wheels — Volk Genesis and Gold CE28Ns at 18-by-9.5 all around are wrapped in BF Goodrich tires.
When I first came upon this car, I had absolutely no clue as to the amount of work that went into this build, but that’s what makes it so special. This is a quality pairing that was completed in someone’s garage in his spare time and you’d be hard pressed to know it. While Calbero was all about revamping this masterpiece, his all-around faith was a work of progress as well that came to be just as strong as his ride. “From what I had before with the Evo9 to where it is now, I realized it was a healing process,” shared Calbero. “I never thought I’d be back in it but now I’m at a different height than I started with. Never give up.”
