[Ming]

Did you know Mitsubishi made a "GTO"? Well, now you do...

1971 MITUBISHI COLT GALANT GTO MR:

 

[69nova]

God, I hate the placement of the side view mirrors on the fenders. Feel like I want to take a swing of a bat on them. Give the Japanese mfrs credit; when they realized what crappy styling they were producing, they hired California designers to do the job.

If it was truly called a GTO and sold in the US, didn't GM sue over the name?

 

[MelvinJ]

I'm pretty sure this was never sold in the US. It looks like the same body as the Dodge Colt of that time, but I don't think Mitsubishi even sold anything under their name in the states until the 80's. Anybody know for sure?

 

[Hudson]

The Mitsubishi 3000GT was sold in Japan as the Mitsubishi GTO as well. And if Pontiac could sue, wouldn't Ferrari have sued GM for use of the GTO name? It was theirs first.

 

[69nova]

With Jeep suing Hummer over what looked like their grill, I would think that copying a name would be an even bigger no-no.

 

[Hudson]

But to my point, "GTO" is a racing term (gran turismo omologoto) and was previously used in production by other companies before (and since) Pontiac. The grille is a trademarked symbol of DaimlerChrysler...but the argument in that case was that AM General's use of the grille dates before AMC spun AM General (and the HMMWV program) off, which means the Hummer grille came from the same Jeep heritage.

 

[paul8488]

Originally posted by Hudson@May 7 2004, 05:19 PM
But to my point, "GTO" is a racing term (gran turismo omologoto) and was previously used in production by other companies before (and since) Pontiac. The grille is a trademarked symbol of DaimlerChrysler...but the argument in that case was that AM General's use of the grille dates before AMC spun AM General (and the HMMWV program) off, which means the Hummer grille came from the same Jeep heritage.

i remember reading that another part of the argument was that the H1 had been out for years and jeep didn't complain; they only raised ther issue when the H2 came out. by then there was a solid precedent set.

 

[BigAls87Z28]

Originally posted by Hudson@May 7 2004, 02:59 PM
The Mitsubishi 3000GT was sold in Japan as the Mitsubishi GTO as well. And if Pontiac could sue, wouldn't Ferrari have sued GM for use of the GTO name? It was theirs first.

Ferrari did sue, but they lost. Its kinda hard to f with the largeset car company in the world, even if you are Ferrari.
Ferrari was pissed when Car and Driver (yeah, I said Car and Driver) said that the Tempest GTO could stick with the Ferrari GTO in a strait line. Now, the Ferrari GTO is like the Enzo of today. It was the car everyone measured there performance against. So you can imagine the coconuts Car and Driver had. Pontiac has sent a ringer H.O. 421 GTO, and that was enough free-press to jumpstart the GTO into the history books.

As for the mitsu GTO, like hudson said, the 3000GT VR4 in Japan was the GTO. You can see some people that "convert" there car buy putting the 3 letters on the back.

 

[Hudson]

Originally posted by paul8488@May 7 2004, 01:16 PM
i remember reading that another part of the argument was that the H1 had been out for years and jeep didn't complain; they only raised ther issue when the H2 came out. by then there was a solid precedent set.

The problem with the H1 vs H2 argument is that (as said earlier) the H1/HMMWV was designed by AM General when it was owned by AMC. The H2 was designed under the direction of GM, who has no connection ot Jeep and "the grille."

I can make arguments both ways, but I would have liked to see GM lose on that lawsuit...and lose on the GM v Avanti (Studebaker XUV) lawsuit.

 

[pupp1]

I knew there was one made. I didn't know what it looked like. I guess back in the day this would have been a nice import.

 

[Ming]

Kinda hard to tell, but it has a very distinct twin grille, too!