Cars - Eagle Talon

Home > Listing Index > Cars > Eagle Talon

	Cars - Eagle Talon

The Eagle Talon was a sports car sold by the Eagle division of Chrysler. The Eagle Talon often outsold its cousins, until Eagle's demise in 1998. The Talon is popular in the aftermarket because of its very potent 4g63 turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine also used in the Mitsubishi Evolution which is capable of 400+ hp on stock internals. The 1990-1994 are the most popular amoung aftermartket tuners due to the extensive abuse and high hp thier motors are capable to withstand. The 1995-1998 are also popular with aftermarket tuners. While their motors are also strong, many suffer from a problem called "crankwalk." This problem is only cured by swapping in a motor from the previous generation. The motors are differentiated by thier "6 bolt" or "7 bolt" designations, refering to the number of bolts connecting the flywheel to the crankshaft.

Overview

The Eagle Talon was one of three model names given to a sports car that was manufactured and sold by Chrysler and Mitsubishi in a collaborative project known as Diamond Star Motors (DSM) between 1990 and 1998. The Talon was sold under the Eagle marque, a brand developed by Chrysler to compete with Japanese imports in the late 1980s from the remnants of American Motors which was purchased by Chrysler in 1987. The other two names were Eclipse (sold by Mitsubishi) and Laser (sold by Plymouth, another Chrysler brand). Note that both the "Eagle" and "Plymouth" brand names have been discontinued.

All three vehicles were built on the same platform at DSM's manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois. All three vehicles were mechanically identical (when comparing the same option level) including engine, transmission, and drivetrain. Cosmetically, differences between the three was limited to wheels, availability of colors, and minor trim pieces. The primary way to establish the identity of an Eagle Talon is its two-tone body color - the 'greenhouse' (roof, pillars, door-mounted mirrors) was always black regardless of the body color.

The basic characteristics of the Eagle Talon are:

Two doors
Hatchback
2+2 seating (2 front seats and 2 marginal, fold down rear seats)
Four option levels (from lowest to highest): DL, ESi, TSi, and TSi AWD
front-wheel drive (FWD) for all option levels except for the top option level, which had all-wheel drive (AWD)
5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmissions
Two-tone color combination as described above
Hood bulge on the left, or driver's, side of the car in order to provide adequate clearance for the camshaft sprockets/timing belt cover on the 4G63 engine (note: the DL did not use this engine and therefore, although it had the bulge, did not need it).

1st Generation (1G)

The first-generation Talon/Eclipse/Laser was produced from model years 1990 to 1994. The Laser was discontinued in 1994, so it only has a first generation. This era of DSM vehicles is commonly referred to as the first generation, or 1G for short.

There were four models of the Talon:

base or DL
ES
TSi
TSi AWD

There were four models of the Laser:

Base
RS
RS (Turbo FWD)
RS (Turbo AWD)

The base model was front-wheel drive and home to a low-power 1.8 L engine. The RS model sported a naturally aspirated 2.0 L Mitsubishi 4G63 engine. The TSi/RS Turbo and AWD (all-wheel drive) models were powered by the same engine, with the addition of a turbocharger to boost performance significantly. Note that the RS Turbo AWD Laser was not available until the 1992 model year.

The Laser Turbo was on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 1989, and the Talon and Laser Turbos made the list for 1990 through 1992.

Production numbers

1991: 29,853
1992: 29,911
1993: 27,360
1994: 27,680

2nd Generation (2G)

The second generation Eagle Talon was introduced in 1995 simultaneously with its Mitsubishi Eclipse counterpart (the Plymouth Laser was not continued into the second generation). Mechanically, the Talon and the Eclipse were practically the same. The engines were carried over from the first generation models with only modest increases in output.

From a design standpoint, the differences between this car and its Mitsubishi equivalent were somewhat more substantial than exhibited between in the first generation. These differences were most obvious at the rear of the car. For example, the rear fascia of the Talon featured a bumper cap with a dip in the middle to allow for a high-mounted rear license plate; rear light clusters incorporating amber turn signals (the Eclipse used red turn signals); reverse lights as part of the main rear tail light assembly (the Eclipse's reverse lights were mounted separately and lower around the mid-mounted license plate); and a sickle-shaped rear spoiler for the TSi and TSi AWD version mounted at the base of the rear window that was painted black regardless of body color (the Eclipse used a body colored, conventional spoiler mounted on the rear deck). Other diffences included the cool air intake beneath the front bumper which did not have a body colored splitter (minor difference) and side skirts that were more bulbous on the Talon.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Eagle Talon ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Eagle Talon; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Cars - Eagle Talon

Overview

1st Generation (1G)

Production numbers

2nd Generation (2G)

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay