1997 Mitsubishi Mirage RS

"Sweet Fiat-what's under the hood?""A peripheral port 13B turbo-it's the fastest Bambina in the universe, even quicker than the Millennium Falcon."

"That's a hardcore rotary-how did you fit it in?""The thing with Bambinas is they're Italian, so most of the parts just fall off when you get close to them, making extra room. Didn't you know that Fiat actually stands for Fix It Again, Tony?

"In these days of tough laws that govern what you can and can't do to your car, there are still those who can get away with just about anything. New Zealanders are keeping the dark art of engine transplants alive and very well-even for road-going cars, thanks to relaxed vehicle importation and tuning rules. As crazy as the above example sounds, it's the sort of conversation that goes on every day between New Zealanders-there's even one Kiwi who has shoehorned a 308ci V-8 into a tiny Fiat Bambina. In a fit of weak will I was convinced to go for a ride in it and learned that V-8s in European toy cars are quite fun and extremely dangerous. I also discovered that adrenaline is actually brown.

That type of conversion is strictly for the insane-pushing the boundaries of backyard engineering has been known to end in disaster. That's why many countries have banned this high level of modification. But a successful (read:mechanically sound) engine transplant is as satisfying as hearing Brooke Burke say something nice, like "Yes".

Chris Thompson hasn't heard the latter, but he knows all about the sweet satisfaction of beating the engineering fairies and getting it all to work. That's because the 19-year-old did it properly-and he's got a Lancer Evolution-powered Mitsubishi Mirage RS to prove it. The amazing hatch doesn't go much like its shopping basket siblings. They don't even talk to this '97 Mirage anymore-but are surely jealous.

This isn't the first time that an enthusiastic car nut has taken a Mirage and given it the benefits of Mitsubishi's gravel-gargling heritage. But there's more to this type of transplant than the old stick-a-big-block-in-the-hatchback approach that we've all seen and sometimes been guilty of. One of the more arduous tasks that Chris and his long-suffering mechanic mates had to tackle was rebuilding the rear end.

"A lot of work went into the body kit," the Christchurch local told us, "but even more so the chromoly tube rear end. It was a huge challenge to make it all work, but it was really rewarding the first time we dropped the car from the axle stands onto the ground," he said.