Cars - Mitsubishi Starion

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	Cars - Mitsubishi Starion

The Mitsubishi Starion was a three-door, turbocharged four-cylinder rear wheel drive five-seat sports car that was in production from 1982 to 1990 throughout various locations around the world, and also marketed in North America as the Conquest under the Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth names. Although preceded by earlier turbocharged designs such as the Saab 99 (1978) and the Mitsubishi Lancer 2000 Turbo, it is considered to be one of the originators of the modern Japanese turbocharged performance automobile genre.

Background

The Starion's appearance in 1982 occurred during a period in which a number of Japanese Grand Tourer (GT) sports cars were increasing in popularity. It was launched to a marketplace against the other Grand Tourers of the era, including the Datsun 280ZX Turbo, Nissan 300ZX Turbo, and the Toyota Supra Turbo. The Starion's turbocharged four-cylinder engine enabled it to be competitive in almost every category.

Despite selling poorly, the Starion was received well by the motoring media who typically saw it as the harbinger of the turbocharger era.

During production, the Starion was produced in both a narrowbody and widebody design. The design proved durable, and few changes were made between models, with only simple improvements demarking the change from one model to the next. In the United States market, there was only one major change when the car was upgraded to the ESI-r (Conquest TSi) model, featuring an intercooler and five-bolt wheels replacing the four-bolt wheels it had inherited from the rear wheel drive Galant Lambda.

Without any obvious flaws, the design was not without drawbacks. At the time, Mitsubishi opted for the Mitsubishi Astron engine with a single-camshaft head (SOHC) rather than the dual cam head, and also for a throttle-body fuel injection setup which mixed the fuel with the air prior to entering the plenum chamber.

The design was somewhat unusual however, and didn't have widespread appeal. It may have been due to this factor that the Starion never brought Mitsubishi the success it desired in the marketplace to match the vehicles success on the racing circuit.

Production ceased entirely by 1990, and its successor, the GTO - was fitted with the mechanicals of the recently demonstrated Mitsubishi HSX Sports Coupe concept vehicle.

Many of the performance features of the Starion were integrated into later vehicles, and can be found in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution racing vehicles, in the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 and the Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Models

A number of models existed throughout the world during 1982 to 1990.

Australia - 2.0 L 4G63 engine. Australian vehicles were mostly similar to the European TURBO specification. The J codes below denote the model version, and are found on the Australian Vehicle Information Plates.

JA - 1982 - 1984
JB - 1984 - 1985
JD - 1985 - 1987

Japan - 2.0 L 4G63 engine, apart from GSR-VR which has 2.6 L 4G54 engine.

The Japanese Domestic Market had a large range of Starions to choose from.

GX - 1982-1983 (non turbo)
GSR-I,GSR-II,GSR-III, GSR-X, - 1982-1984
GSR-II, GSR-III,GSR-X,GSR-V - 1985-1986 - can be distinguised from the earlier starions by driving lights in the front bumper
GSR-V - 1986-1987 - some had Sirius Dash engine
GSR-VR - 1987-1988 (widebody)

The Roman numeral after 'GSR' denotes the vehcile specification. Some examples can be found below:

GSR-I - base model
GSR-II - power steering and electric windows
GSR-III - improved audio system, trip computer system, digital dash cluster, and air conditioning.
GSR-X - leather interior replaced the cloth, climate control, air conditioning, cruise control

United States - 2.6 L G54B engine.

Mitsubishi

LS
ES
ESI
ESI-R

Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth

Europe

EX - luxury version
TURBO - base model

With the exception of Australia, many models were available as either narrowbody or widebody shell styles.

Conquest

The Conquest was a version of the Starion sold by the Chrysler Corporation from 1983 to 1989. The Conquest was sold under both the Dodge and Plymouth names (much like the Dodge/Plymouth Colt twins) until 1986. Chrysler sold the Conquest under its own name from 1987 until 1989. The Conquest was replaced with the Eagle Talon/Plymouth Laser twins as the Starion was replaced with the Mitsubishi Eclipse. The Dodge Stealth can also be thought of as a Conquest replacement.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mitsubishi Starion ]

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Cars - Mitsubishi Starion

Background

Models

Conquest

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