My thoughts on the pre-production model from the USA – US0000

White turns to black....

The beginning is inextricably linked to the end….

I bought my Lancer back in 2009 (2008 model year), one of the first models in Austria. This Mitsubishi has always been my dream car, ever since I first saw it in a car magazine. And it still is. That's why it hurt all the more when the 10th generation Lancer series came to an end. That was 10 years ago now.

At that time, I also became aware in Austria that the Final Edition was being built, but since it was only sold in America, Japan, Canada and Australia, the fact that it even existed faded into obscurity in the years that followed.

Of course, I was already aware of the special features back then, but they were unattainable.

Years passed, and while searching for various parts for the Evo X, I stumbled across a Final Edition emblem with the serial number US1240. I thought, wow… I spend so much time online and had never seen an emblem like this for sale. So I bought it. Now my interest was rekindled, and I started looking for Final Edition parts like this. So I began searching in Japan…

And indeed, I found an emblem at an auction that still had 4 hours to go. Since it wasn't too expensive and there were no other bids, I joined in.

And after 4 hours I was the proud owner of a peculiar emblem, US0000. I was familiar with emblems US0001 – US1600, etc., but I had never heard of US0000 before. So I googled it.

And I couldn't believe my eyes, there were tons of pictures of it online… It was the white press model, produced exclusively for the unveiling of the Final Edition in 2015. A thousand thoughts raced through my head… How did it get that emblem? Were there multiple versions? And was this really happening right then and there?

I was incredibly excited about it for the next few days… but when you think about it further, you also start to wonder… How does an emblem that was in the USA end up in Japan? My first thought was that once production started, the emblem was removed, given a different number, and the US0000 emblem was sent back to Japan… You have to figure that out somehow, right?

But then I came across an article by Maggie Stieffvater, an American journalist who herself drives an Evo X.

I read and read… And I slowly began to understand that the pre-production model US0000 had been deliberately scrapped by the authorities… Oh my God… I started to tremble… because I knew this was the Holy Grail of this generation. How does one come to own an emblem from a car that was officially scrapped somewhere in America…?

And I, a mere fan from Austria, just bought one of these… From Japan??? And more questions upon questions…???

This was the beginning, where I looked to see if I could gather all the special parts of the Final Edition for my Lancer….

Because this story touched me so deeply, I'm dedicating my car to the scrapped white Evo US0000.

So that he can mentally get back on the road.