Yes, there was a time when Japan was most famous for its copy-and-pasteabilities. What else to call your new-for-1971 sporty coupe? HTO?
Just One Letter Away: Mitsubishi Galant FTO
– Posted on April 24, 2012
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Curbside Classics Archives
FTW?
FTO? WTF? LOL!!
The GTFO would have been a good name for the Galant VR4.
They DID produce a GTO at the same time. This was the step down from that car.
Yup, and they continued to into the 90s. The car we know as the Mitsubishi 3000GT was (I think) the last GTO, although it couldn’t be sold here under that name for obvious reasons.
the 90s FTOs are quite common here I didnt realise the badge was that old though and we get the GTO ex JDM too plus the 70s Mitsu GTO coupe is now a collectors item.
I understand that there was a variant with a floral pattern vinyl roof that was called the Galant FTD.
…and a radio-delete strippo called the FWIW.
Around this time there was also a stillborn proposal for a decontented Benz: the 300MEH.
There was also a special S-Class in the late ’70s with metallic purple paint and yellow leather interior. It was called the 450UGH.
+1
I never thought the Datsun B-210 was worth suing over…but Datsun should have taken Mitsubishi to court over the design of this one.
The pert predecessor to the Lancer Celeste (Plymouth Arrow for us North American folks). FTO was meant to stand for Fresco Turismo Omologato. At the time, Mitsubishi had two sporty personal coupes for sale, both based on the A5 Galant. On one end of the market was this smaller car, limited with a range of 1.4 to 1.6 liter engines. There even was a performance oriented 1.6 GSR with things like a limited slip differential and such. Slotted above the FTO was the larger Galant GTO, which stood for Gran Turismo Omologato. These cars were further upmarket, and carried 1.6 to 2.0 liter engines (again including a 2.0 GSR variant).
Pictured below is a pre-facelift 1600 GSR from a Japanese market catalog: