What is an Eclipse CT?

The Eclipse CT was a cabriolet (convertible) concept model of 1G DSM that may have been shown in Europe in the 1990s. It was never mass-marketed, and DSMers had to wait until the 1995 model year before a convertible model was introduced.

Information on the CT is extremely limited. It is not known for certain if the car was ever built at all, aside from a bare few concept cars. However, according to Johannes Schweidler, the car may have been marketed in 1994 in Germany. All of the available literature appears to be in German, which supports this conclusion. However, it was also made in the 1990-1991 body style (with pop-up headlights) which would have been unusual for a DSM marketed in 1994. He also never saw one, which indicates they might not have been sold after all.

This car may have been the precursor to the 1996 Spyder convertible. Kris Kjelstrup also mentions a 1G convertible concept car on display at the DSM plant. Mark Luttrell has also confirmed that a hand-assembled commemorative Eclipse CT was on display in a Mitsubishi factory in celebration of the one millionth car produced there; unfortunately, photographs were prohibited.

If we assume this display concept is an Eclipse CT, we can conclude from posts that the CT was a FWD car. It also seems likely that it used the turbocharged 4G63 engine, as well, since concept cars tend to pack a lot of power.

Unfortunately, some of the on-line information on the CT has already become unavailable. For an idea of what the car is/was like, take a look at these technical drawings.