“jgtc was really only successful for rwd and awd cars”
taevion fto: hold my beer
yet another one of the obscure unicorns of JGTC
This specific model was a collab between Ralliart, HKS, and a company called Nova Engineering who teamed up to run this oddly FWD car in the 1998-1999 seasons of JGTC
this particular model is the 1999 model, driven by Akihiko Nakaya and the future 2007 Super GT champion Ralph Firman
Now usually a FWD car is an awful layout choice for racing, as you have not only bad weight distribution but also the fact you’re putting a lot of stress on the front tires with braking, accelerating, and steering and not to mention the risk of torque steer, especially with the single turbo setup this car had
However this would not stop the Mitsubishi FTO from scoring a 2nd place finish at the first round at Suzuka, and would fight for the championship until the 2nd to last race, taking 6th in the standings
in summary, the FTO GT300 was one of those oddball GT300 cars that teams often just ran because they could, and sometimes would see occasional successes (there’s also the fact this was in in Gran Turismo 2)