2000 Mitsubishi SSS

Created at Mistubishi’s Cypress, California design studio, the SSS concept reflected the company’s “Geo-Mechanical” styling philosophy. This was the third in a series with the bold design, and was created to combine the driving pleasure and passenger comforts of a sport sedan with the packaging versatility of an SUV. Mitsubishi was developing a whole new vehicle category - the "enhanced utility sedan" in a shape like nothing else on the road. Powered by Mitsubishi’s 3.5-liter SOHC V-6, mounted transversely, the SSS was built on a front-wheel-drive platform with 4-wheel independent suspension for sophisticated ride and handling. Functional touches of the SSS include parallelogram-hinged doors that minimized the space needed to open side doors, high intensity discharge (HID) front lighting, LED lighting system in the rear, and a dual front bumper system (one low and a second one higher) that decreased the possibility of nosedive under a larger SUV in a rear-end collision.

One ssstylish sssedan

The SSS is Mitsubishi Motor's "enhanced utility sedan," a concept car created by the company's 26-year-old lead designer, John Hull, at its design center in Cypress, Calif. He designed the vehicle on a computer, then translated the model directly into milled forms for both the interior and exterior, skipping the clay-model step. According to Hull, this gave him more control over the finished car and let him complete the project more quickly.

The SSS uses parallelogram-hinged doors thatslide forward or aft to minimize space needed toopen doors. A blade manifold headlight systemuses high-intensity (HID) technology for morelight on the road than with conventionalheadlamps. Dual front bumpers — one above theother — lowers the risk of nosediving under alarger SUV or truck in rear-end collisions. Aneight-step paint process gives the car a milledmetal look. On the inside, a center-consolecomputer and mouse puts driver data on thewindshield through a heads-up display (HUD).Folding down the rear seats opens enough cargospace to stow two full-size mountain bikes in astanding configuration.