Two For The Road: Technically Impressive (but not really popular)

[drifand]

Short entry for this pairing. This time we have the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 (1994), and a Pentel TECHNOCLIC PN105-D (1983). Aside from the color scheme, I thought the 3000GT (which was sold as the GTO overseas in Japan) had some similarities with the technically excellent TECHNOCLIC, but somehow never won the hearts of the buying public.

The GTO had a slew of impressive stats:

• Full-time 4WD , with a 45:55 front/rear torque distribution
• Four-wheel steering (4WS) , with the rear wheels steering in the same direction as the fronts at medium/high speeds
• Electronically controlled suspension (ECS)
• Active aerodynamics , moving both the front air dam and rear spoiler at speed
• Active Exhaust , allowing the driver to select different exhaust characteristics
• Four-wheel ABS

And of course, the TECHNOCLIC had its otherworldly styling, unconventional clip, slider instead of a button, and a (semi?-) automatic lead advancing mechanism.

In use however, the GTO felt heavy and sluggish, like it was ‘all grip and no joy’. And I’ve never really seen anyone gush over the TECHNOCLIC either…

[Thomas]

I actually like the Technoclic a lot…not so much for its technical capabilities or engineering, but because of what an interesting wart of a product it was for Pentel during those years. Whatever they were trying to do with it, I applaud them for taking the swing.

There was a time when I thought I had all the colors. Then, of course, I discovered there were more…some of which I’ll probably never come across for sale.

[drifand]

Yesss… ‘interesting wart’ is pretty apt!

[Ras]

I guess they were similar in being born in an era full of GOATs hence overshadowed