BRIAN CARTER BRINGS BACK A CAR
THAT WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME
BACK TO THE FUTURE
By Josh Hachat
Photographs by Devin Dees
The moment he parted ways with his
first Mitsubishi 3000GT, Brian Carter
knew he had made a mistake.
For almost a decade, Carter had to
live with the regret of parting with
the iconic Japanese car. But a little
more than a year ago, things came
together and Carter bought another
one, and this time he’s determined
not to let it go.
“The 3000GT is one of those cars that
most people don’t want to mess
with,” Carter said. “I had one as a
teenager through my early 20s and I
regretted getting rid of it from the
moment I did. Now that I can have
another one and build it right, I
decided to get another one and see
how far I could take it.”
Carter seems to be on a good path
in his new 3000GT, despite the more
than 100,000 miles on it. He has gone
as quick as 11.1 second in the quarter
mile, with trap speed times almost a
full second quicker. Carter also posted
a career-best speed last November
at the WannaGOFAST event in Florida.
Now, he’s set to make some major
changes to the car to with some big
goals in mind for 2018.
Carter talked with STREET/RACE Mag-
azine about what is going to keep
him busy this year, why he has such
an affinity for the 3000GT and his
memorable weekend at WannaGO-
34
STREETRACE
FAST in November.
First off, I know you’re excited
about your 3000GT. What kind of
changes have you made to it, while
still keeping the street car aspect to
it?
All kinds of stuff (laughs). I switched
to a bigger twin set-up at first, and
then I decided to go a single turbo
set-up. I wanted to get that build
nailed down and made sure every-
thing was good to go, so I left the
stock block in. That’s what I was
running in the half-mile, the stock
block, so I didn’t want to turn it up to
a certain point and didn’t want to
blow the stock block, just having fun
with it and make sure everything was
working out right. Now I’m putting
in a stroker and aiming for 1,200-
1,300 horsepower. It was making
around 750 hp previously, but with
the stroker that’s going in, I’m going
to a 3.5-liter, adding heads and cams,
pistons and rods, and everything to
support hopefully 1,200-1,300
horsepower.
So with all of those changes, what’s
the goal for this year as