The Kia Forte is a throwaway car in North America. But in Southeast Asia, almost nothing can be justifiably thrown away if it's of some use. Around there, you simply improve on what you have to work with until you have what you desire.
What if what you desire is something to rival the looks and the speed of a well-sorted European sports coupe? Like, say, a BMW M2, for instance. Well, you'd typically need a pretty big budget. But if you have the shallow pockets of a frugal DIY guru, you can't do too much better than a customer at Yung Lee Auto repair and tuning in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, managed with this first-generation Kia Forte.
This little shop helped this daily driver crank out loads more power than the pitiful gas or diesel engines this car could have left the factory with. To preface, the first generation (TD) Kia Forte was a global car sold everywhere from South Korea to China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, and of course, Malaysia. In these markets, they are called the Kia Koup in their two-door form.
In North America especially, Fortes equipped with the Theta II GDI engine were known for having coil plugs seemingly made out of the same polymers we Yanks can still legally put in fake nacho cheese. Seeing both of their aptitudes in melting convinces us of this. That's just one of a slew of other reliability issues attributed to the Forte, but it's arguably the most notable.
The best, if not the easiest or quickest solution to this problem comes in the form of a JDM icon loved the world over. It's a Mitsubishi engine, though it's one indisputably different than any engine Mitsubishi's ever created before or since. A four-cylinder, two-liter 4G63 engine with the much-required single big turbo.
Photo: Yung Lee Auto
It's a thoroughbred prizefighter of an engine that's a part of the larger Mitsubishi Sirius engine family dating back to the mid-1970s in Japan and famous for powering the iconic Lancer Evolution from 1992 until 2007. Using a custom-fabricated adapter bracket, this Malaysian tuning shop's customer managed to snug this relatively large engine into the comparatively tiny engine bay of their plucky little family car.
What results is something that would have once blended into any global traffic jam transforming into something profoundly more striking and noteworthy. There isn't a ton of information out there regarding the internals of this mad machine, but there are some visual clues in photos and videos that point to what else lies inside this thing.
Based on comments in their own YouTube video on this Evo swapped Kia, Yung Ling Auto group claims, "It was using 4G63 transmission,". Of course, we pardon their English, but this could mean a number of different things, as a few different transmissions have found their way mated to this peppy four-pot engine.
Based on the H-pattern on the gearstick, we can surmise it's the five-speed manual transmission out of a late model Lancer Evo. Because the Forte (Koup) is a front-wheel-drive vehicle, one can only assume one stomp of the right foot in this thing is sure to send one on a one-way trip to the mythical Torque-Steer City.
Photo: Yung Lee Auto
Other goodies include twin red started racing bucket front seats from Bride of Japan. Considering many Lancer Evolutions left the factory sporting similarly trimmed Recaro racing buckets, a similar setup looks absolutely wicked. We'd be wrong not to also point out the wicked 18-inch, black-painted alloy wheels that conveniently tell their exact size right on the inner rim.
It's all brought together with a custom body kit. We only wish we had any way of learning more about who exactly made it. With only 105,563 kilometers (65,593.8 mi) on the odometer as of the car's first video back in 2018, this engine and the car it's attached to have plenty of miles left ahead of it. It may fall a bit short of a budget BMW M2, we must admit.
But if you've conceded to the nasty habit of judging people before they even step out of the driver's door, we could understand why you'd probably lend more credence to the builders of this custom Kia-Mitsu hybrid. Instead of someone who forked $40 grand or more for an equivalent BMW. It's a classic case of Built vs Bought. Who's side are you on?
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