CharadeSG: SG Archives: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Jackie Chan Edition

Our semi-detailed history report of the sole Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX Jackie Chan Edition that once roamed Singapore.

Get ready for a heavy pictorial as me and the rest of the writers dive in trying to make sense of this interesting unit that disappeared.

This car has caused up as a stir this week - started by Motorist bringing up the Mitsubishi's launch when describing the international fanfare generated by Dongfeng and its international star guest Jessica Jung launching the 007 sedan - and a fellow archiver altzzy bringing closure to many enthusiasts about the car's whereabouts.

Image credit: evolutionm.net

With that being said, let's start.

Bring yourself back to 2005, twenty full years ago when Cycle & Carriage invited Hong Kong star Jackie Chan to help launch the new Lancer Evolution IX (Evo 9).

For context as to why he would bother, Mitsubishi has had a partnership with him since the 1970s - seeing mutual growth with the rising star to financially back his subsequent movies in exchange with promoting their cars. Some of the most popular movies that sprung from this partnership includes Thunderbolt in 1996 - including much of Mitsubishi's golden era sports cars as the hero cars with the other Japanese manufacturers' sports cars also being included.

As for why Jackie Chan would want to visit Singapore, I'd joke that he had no reason to. Instead, he was present at the Alexandra Road showroom to launch the new Lancer Evolution, and also his own special edition of the already special saloon.

The Lancer Evolution Jackie Chan Edition is both a cosmetic and performative evolution over the standard model. There isn't a mentioned horsepower figure that I could find, but the car was quoted by a forum member to be able to clear the 0-100km/h sprint in 5.0 seconds flat. A normal Evolution is quoted around 5.5-6.0 seconds to do the same sprint.

The Jackie Chan Edition was not actually produced by the star himself but done by a company called Fire Sports Japan. Some of their insignia and branding is present on the car, but not many information is available for them on the public web. Fire Sports are not exclusive to Mitsubishi, and have worked on bodykits on other brands such as Toyota, Nissan, and others.

Image credit: www.firesports.co.jp

Its mentioned that Jackie Chan spent three years collaborating with the company to draft and craft the bodykit and engine bay mods to make it stand out from normal Evolution models. Most of the lettering and decals on the car were more to market Jackie Chan's dragon-themed brand of merchandise.

The car essentially features a full bodykit, with a customized front and rear bumper, sideskirts, door mirrors, headlight eyelids, bonnet, trunk and spoiler. Lots of these parts are lain in a carbon-kelvar-like finish.

Image credit: evolutionm.net

The interior is also just as ludicrous, with a heavy emphasis on yellow accents that mustardize the interior pieces and carpet outline. The front seats are also a unique piece that isn't seen anywhere else - a carbon kelvar reclinable semi-bucket affair that would probably be slightly more comfortable than getting stuck in a full bucket.

Image credit: evolutionm.net

There isn't a price found for the one that sold in Singapore, but old forum posts have mentioned that for Hong Kong models, the special edition would cost HK$600k (~USD$76.8k), whilst a standard Evolution would be HK$450k (~USD$57.9k).

Back to Singapore, the launch was more formally done in the Alexandra showroom, but another launch event was also held at Kallang Auto Centre at Stadium Link, featuring owner groups flaunting their old-gen Evolutions and similar firebreathing machines equipped with the three-diamond emblem in support of the event. Looking at you, Airtrek Turbo, Mirage, Colt, Lancer Ralliarts (now Efini will be happy with me mentioning those cars. He wants you to look at his family's one too.).

Not just was the launch and preview of the Jackie Chan Edition and fans' cars but a small gymkhana track for some demonstration runs.

Only fifty of the Jackie Chan Edition (by Fire Sports) would be made globally, and Singapore would receive the very first car. The 1/50. This unit should also be the press car as seen in most available photos, a black body color with gold accents. Many of these special editions seem to take on different iterations with some having the yellow accents or having other types of Jackie Chan insignia.

Peek the bonnet's identification number

It may be assumed that the original base of this car is a Lancer Evolution IX GSR or GT. The GSR and GT trim are the only sedan variants offered in a similar black shade, paint code X42. The MR and RS trims were not available with a full black paint color option. The paint code is dubbed Amethyst Black Pearl (for Japanese models, other markets may vary).

Of course, it may very well have been a unique color special only to the Jackie Chan Edition, but more likely than not, this car initially was a standard car before being modified into this special edition.

A VIN will be most preferable to deduce the original specification of the vehicle, as Mitsubishi VIN numbers can be decoded to determine the exact specification of the unit.

Results from a VIN decoder for a 2004 Malaysian-market Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo

The Jackie Chan Edition (JCE) was registered a year after the launch of the Lancer Evolution IX, being registered in 5 September 2006 (launch was May of the previous year). If this was your birthday or year of birth, may you survive another ten years unlike the cars in Singapore. The JCE kept two number plates that we were able to find - the initial registration supposedly being SGM1979D.

Unknown attribute. Please contact us via Instagram or others if this photo is yours. Thank you!
Unknown date.

The first owner traded the JCE Lancer back to Cycle & Carriage (C&C), where it was later bought as a pre-owned by the second owner who wasn't particularly caring about the significance of the car. A third owner eventually came around in the form of an older lady who was daily driving the car, seemingly unaware of what the car was.

One of the only known existing listings for the JCE is when the vehicle had three owners. The car by then was presumably "bastardized" by the second owner who if not the first, had stripped a huge amount of the special edition parts like most of the bodykit and seats from the car, plus removed much of the JCE exclusive engine parts in favor of an individualized build. There is still some JCE parts left, but not nearly enough to say it kept its glory intact.

I get it, most people back then were less bothered about keeping the originality of a car than it is now when enthusiasts are running around frantically realizing clean examples of enthusiast cars are getting evermore scarce - but modifying a super exclusive special edition into such a thing that a standard could easily do, I beg the question - why?

Image credit: SGCarMart
More photos in gallery below

Its relatively unknown (to us) what happened after June 2016 where the listing was last updated. Hearsay that maybe one or two more owners had it prior to its COE renewal, which it presumably was not renewed and vanished.

Up until a few years ago, the whereabouts for this JCE Evolution was largely unknown, but as a stroke of luck and some cross-referencing, it has been found that the car had since been exported to Santiago, Chile.

Image credit: Iquique Racing

As seen above, the plate number during expiry was SKJ7344D. An impressive feat about this whole debacle is the car had survived a grand trip over to its new homeland as far as ~16.4k kms from Singapore. The Lancer may have arrived in the country as early as September 2016 going by post dates from Iquique Racing, only a few weeks after the intended expiry date.

Image credit: Iquique Racing

In recent years, the car has made its rounds (or more accurately been discovered) around the internet, and is now owned by @piperuiizz. Its to be said that this JCE has not become a garage queen, and has impressively seen use in events. It isn't going to be the 1:1 condition that it was when it was brand new given parts are best described as needles in a haystack, but it has since been re-modified.

The original JCE Fire Sports bonnet is still retained as is the trunk, if not most of the exterior cosmetics. Orange paint is evidently still on the car even though the actual original shade would be black.

Image credit: @afrojoe.21

The livery is long gone, but the cosmetics have been left intact. The interior has been converted to left-hand-drive due to Chile's restrictions, but still retains most of the JCE components.

Image credit: @afrojoe.21

A key identifier that was mentioned above that will be confirmed now is the bonnet's identification. As Singapore's unit is No. 001 (no idea why it has three numerals when it was intended to be limited to fifty only), images of the bonnet will confirm that the bonnet is the same one when looking at photos of the imported unit in Chile.

Image credit: Lovende.cl

It beats being stripped out like many track builds, so huge respect from us. It now makes 450whp, which is blistering, further supported by a genuinely nice-sounding exhaust note. Take a listen.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by FELIPE RUIZ 🇨🇱 (@piperuiizz)

And alas, this is where and how the car resides now. I do strongly recommend you check out the owner's Instagram as he is still taking the JCE out for car meets, events and even drag racing it. It beats keeping it as a garage queen, and we're more than happy to see that this extremely rare example of a special edition hasn't turned into a halfcut like most of its standard counterparts.

And by the way, for this piece, we would love to make it more "community-driven" per-se, so if you have any photos of this car that you want us to also include and submit, please message and arrange with us. We're more than happy to include as much photos of this car as possible - please contact us with the handle below!

Thank you to @davidtingtank, @afrojoe.21 and @cozycoup for assisting with photos and information, this writeup couldn't be any more concise without the help of you (of course, the internal team too)!

~SatriaRX

Disclaimer: not all photos included in this pictorial are ours. If your image is inside without correct image attribution and you would like for it to be amended, please contact us. Conversely, if you have images that you own that you would like to see included (with attribution), let us know as well, all via @charadesg on Instagram. Thank you!