We had a pretty decent look at the solar eclipse from here, at noon our time yesterday. My social media feeds quickly filled up with photos of the almost completely eclipsed sun, and I managed to sneak a peek at it as well, through two pairs of sunglasses and a Pet Shop Boys CD that came in handy just in time.
Obviously, that serves as a reasonable backdrop to start posting content of old Mitsubishi coupes for the entire weekend. I will not limit it to only DSM offerings, but all of their good classic hits. And what better way to start the posts than with promotional material from 1990, for the Mitsubishi Eclipse?


 
I’m still very fond of the first-generation, pre-facelift Eclipse. Sure, it didn’t prove the most reliable coupe on offer, but the shape just does it for me. And it has those ever-so-crucial pop-up headlights.

 
Without a spoiler, the base model Eclipse looks extremely plain, but not too bad at all. Of course, the 1.8-litre, 92-horsepower engine was hardly as inspiring as the 2.0 4G63 with 150 horses, or indeed the range-topping turbo 4WD version with almost 200.

The Eclipse or its Eagle/Plymouth sisters were never imported here officially, so most of the Eclipses serving in Finland are German imports. They don’t really have that much rust, but the cheapest ones have lead a hard life. I hope there are some properly cherished ones left.
[youtube width=”720″ height=”480″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUKIVV5rHTk[/youtube]
As a finishing touch, here’s the original 1990 ad for the Eclipse.