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Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic

Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic

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Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic
Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic
Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic
Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS AutomaticMitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic
Lot number 117
Hammer value N/S (est. £3,000 - £5,000)
Description Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo GLS Automatic
Registration WAG 586X
Year 1981
Colour Warm White
Engine size 1,997 cc
Chassis No. Y700207
Engine No. 4G636AN0484

You’ve got to hand it to the Japanese: from a standing start in the late 1960s they went on to become the largest car producing nation on earth by the late 1990s.

They also taught the UK car industry a painful lesson in the dark days of the 1970s, humbling our own shoddy products with the comparative excellence of theirs. Superbly reliable and luxuriously equipped, cars like the Toyota Corona and the Nissan Bluebird made our own Marina and Allegro look like the second raters that they were – especially if chucked together on a Friday, when the disgruntled BL workforce were more anxious to get to the pub than to ensure that the bolts were screwed down tightly.

Cars rolled off giant transporter ships at Southampton with oriental details that amused and interior fabrics that amazed. Soon Toyotas, Mazdas and Datsuns were flying out of the showrooms as the Brits played catch up.

The 1981 Mitsubishi Colt Sapporo in the sale today survives as testament to those times. Superbly equipped with four electric windows that drop away to reveal a pillarless coupe, it had power steering, alloy wheels and a radio cassette as standard. The cabin-operated boot release mechanism revealed capacious storage more than able to swallow a bag of golf clubs.

It was powered by a 2-litre straight-four with a hemispherical cylinder head, chain-driven single overhead cam and eight valves, producing 101bhp and driving the rear wheels with a 5-speed manual box as standard and a 3-speed auto as an option. Top speed was 108mph with a 0-60 time of 12.8 seconds and front discs/rear drums to bring it to a halt.

Uncommon even when new, this Sapporo has had just three owners from new, the last of whom, a Mr Wilson of Berwick-upon-Tweed, bought it on his retirement in 1984 to tow his caravan. A pair of his driving gloves, a period Krooklock and a second number plate for the rear of the caravan remain in the boot today. By 1996 Mr Wilson had given up driving and the big coupe, now with 77,000 miles on the clock, was carefully laid up on axle stands where it was to remain until late last year.

Recently serviced and recommissioned for sale, the Sapporo now has an MOT and was driven 100 miles to the sale. The jumbo cord interior has survived really well and is nicely clean, the rest of the interior has all the original features intact. Outside, the bodywork has fared really well with just the odd touch up here and there and it does look good in its Warm White paint. The engine bay is as found, looking predominantly leak free, the only unoriginal fittings appearing to be a new battery and a new fuel filter, the only items that aren’t covered in a layer of the last millennium’s road dust!

With a selection of old tax discs, service books and instruction manuals, this handsome period piece is now looking for a fourth owner to take over where Mr Wilson left off. With Japanese classics just beginning to appear on the collectability radar, it could well prove a canny buy at the sensible guide price suggested.

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