The Mitsubishi Starion Is A Japanese Porsche Fighting Legend! - [Chrysler Conquest] Road Test

[@robsawalker]

Turbo lag is all part of the driving experience of 80s turbo cars! I love these so much, and still affordable.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

It's definitely a part of the fun! Unfortunately they're not quite as affordable as they used to be but then again what is these days? -Lucas

[@crazyforcars]

Wow Lucas, I'm jaleous. This was one of me favourite cars in the 80s. Along with those other Japanese sportscars like the ZX, the Supra or the Evo. What an underestimated car. You must have had a lot of fun driving the Starion. Well presented.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

It was a lot of fun indeed. Thanks for the kind words! It's definitely one of the most underappreciated cars of its time. -Lucas

[@evo5dave]

Lucas is a great addition to the review team.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Thank you, Dave! I'm glad to be here :) -Lucas

[@gaspode505]

Just seen one yesterday. Once in 20 years 😂

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Well that's a good spot if you ask me! They're getting harder and harder to come by -Lucas

[@James-ld2jc]

Don't remember seeing one, but it is a lovely thing

[@robertcambareri1028]

Great review of a great and underappreciated auto.

[@nigelbond4056]

Lucas, your knowledge and analysis is great, a nice addition to the channel. At 6’3” I’d like to see you review a Daihatsu Copen for a laugh 🤣👌

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Thank you so much! The owner is a good friend of mine and he's a true fount of knowledge when it comes to these cars. As far as getting into a Copen goes, I used to own an NA MX-5 and I think that's about as small a car as I can practically fit in. Would love to give it a go though! -Lucas

[@gregroles69]

Great trip down memory lane, thanks!! They had horrible lag, at least my JA first version did. You were forever pulling out into traffic, holding them up, then tearing off like a wanker once boost finally arrived. I remember having to wait for bigger gaps! Mine wasn't intercooled, and had the horrible 2 injectors into the plenum. Space age inside, impressed the chicks no end. Was fun at the time, but not a car I miss.

[@markthoughtswithukrainemas2072]

I had one of these the exact one he was driving ,, best car ive had ,, i really loved it ,, FLAT OUT It would do 150 mph

[@MarcusShorrock]

Very good car,that one looks realy good,i had a 2ltr starion in silver for a long time and have regretted selling it ever since,would definitely buy other one if a clean one came for sale.fantastic car

[@HenriWisselink-qy6dl]

...mitsubishi starion widebody my dreamcar.🚘😍

[@allanmacbadger5692]

I had a 2.6 turbo wide body in around the year 2000, it was a very late 1989 UK car. It was slightly lowered and had some basic engine modifications, the UK Starion club reckoned it was about 220hp. Also I'm 6'2" and replaced the big Mitsubishi steering wheel with a smaller Momo lots more leg room and more direct steering. Pop up headlights were like candles in the dark, but I didn't drive it much in the dark so left that alone. All in all I thought it was a very good sports car.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Its shortcomings exist almost solely in the context of its contemporaries in my opinion. In a vacuum it's a great bit of kit! -Lucas

[@VirtualGuth]

A coworker of mine had one of these back in the day. Then he traded it in for a Dodge Stealth (otherwise known as the Mitsubishi 3000 GT). I must admit that I am surprised by just how well the Starion design has held up over the years.

[@daviddesmond6047]

My brother had a black skinny version, very rare and cool 80s

[@saxonuk14]

I remember it as the Colt Starion, before Mitubishi owned up to their products. I loved the looks at the time (I nearly bought a 2.6), but I don't think it has aged well as a look. Especially compared to the 944 or Supra A70 that were all around at the same time. Those I still think are beautiful.

[@richardorosso7377]

Nice review! I lusted after a narrow body back in the day, but ended up with Cordia Turbo instead still though it was a fun car and cut a sharp silhouette that Mitsubishi were good at in the 80s

[@fhwolthuis]

Beautiful car, although I think I like the original narrow body a bit better 👌😀

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

A valid opinion. All the race spec Starions were narrowbody too so perhaps you're onto something... -Lucas

[@alastairwatson3201]

A really well researched, considered and authoritative video. I enjoyed it a lot.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Thank you kindly! It was a blast to make too. -Lucas

[@pedward1313]

I seem to remember that it was also in competition with the Supra. I also remember (perhaps wrongly) that it was originally named the Mitsubishi Colt Starion.

[@georgepom328]

I just remember Clarkson racing about in one

[@justas525]

Yeah. He bought his for 1500 quid. And it performed flawlessly until he modified it 😂😂

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Me too! Sadly, the days when you could get into one for £1500 are long gone... -Lucas

[@craigtiano3455]

My US spec 1987 Starion had electric shoulder belts, which was a bit disconcerting for people who experience them for the first time. The steering wheel also included radio controls. The only issues I had with it was that it went through two turbochargers by the time the odometer read 80k miles.

[@constantinrenoir8273]

Very great job! For your next driving videos, it could be possible to fix a camera on the pedalbox to film your footwork and to include these shots in full screen please? :)

[@paulpavlou4493]

I brought a new 1988 wide body one in red with a black leather interior, I put into Brody Britain Racing who used to tune and race them, they tuned it and it went like stink, loved it .

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Sounds like a great time! It's the thinking man's 944 for sure :) -Lucas

[@daviddesmond6047]

Oh great review.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Thank you!

[@gaddmeister]

Yup. Remember these.

[@LesterLovesWatches]

I think yours is the last report to come from the 24 hour challenge. Will you be posting a round-up video? Thanks.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

We certainly will, stay tuned for 10am Sunday!

[@billm83army]

Nice, would have been good to do a walk around instead of talking and driving

[@andybowie8590]

It wasn't a grey import in the UK, it went on sale in may 1982 in mitsubishi dealers, the crysler tie up was the Americans looking for a small coupe (by their standards) and it was just a rebadged starion. It would be worth pointing out that narrow and wide body models weren't on sale at the same time, the wide body replaced the earlier narrow body car. I could prattle on about these cars all day, I've owned 13 of them starting with ESB 543X, a very early black 1982 car previously featured in a magazine test, it was mid 1985 when I bought it, still just 17 years old and paying half my wages out on a car loan for it but I didn't care, I loved it and was still driving them as daily's till 2005. Mostly sideways, so don't be scared to pop the tail out, it's the easiest drift car you'll ever drive, and I've had numerous 200sx and capris as well but the starion was a doddle to slide. Like most old Japanese stuff they're rare now and too much money for a toy, for me anyway, but I'd love to drive one again just to take me back. Lucky you

[@Joe-Skynet]

This car + Jackie Chan = Cannonball run 2

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

One for my watchlist then! -Lucas

[@ravster79]

Perhaps the successor to the Starion as a halo car was the 3000GT at least in the UK. I've emailed you guys in the past if you want to feature mine but no reply 😂

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

Well I've always wanted to drive one... -Lucas

[@ravster79]

@@ClassicsWorldUK is there a best email address for you?

[@joeseeking3572]

They weren't that rare here in the US, but they didn't set the world on fire either. We could get it as a Starion or a Chrysler Conquest with some additional luxo features - the leather you see here and de rigueur 80s electronic dash, etc. We only got 145hp however. I think it was a little crude compared to some of the competition, but cheaper as well. - and I could see it struggled with message. The real market was young men before they grew out of fender flares - and many of them were still feeling American V8 Mustangs and Camaros especially when they began producing some actual power once again.

[@ClassicsWorldUK]

It's nice to have an American perspective in the comments! Researching the differences between models offered in other markets is always a difficult part of researching these reviews.

[@sim6699]

Thanks for mentioning your height for reference.

[@apollosungod2819]

You have to be careful of the criticism because back in the late 1970s and 1980s and then the first couple of years of the 1990s, these Japanese Grand Touring Sports were for all intents and purposes, extremely AFFORDABLE (not cheap but high quality, reliable, robust but actually affordable compared to what happened after the early 1990s where all the flagship sports immediately shot up to $50,000 and then there were the evil insurance companies here in the U.S.A. just waiting to penalize you just for having one and pulling up sheets claiming that these vehicles were always being stolen or in speeding trouble violations or any BS excuse they pulled just to take your money every year... nevermind having to deal with some quota obsessed U.S. cop who will accuse you of speeding even if you really and honestly were not doing so but they claimed they had you on their speed gun trap, never show it and then you would have to appeal the damn ticket and they would break your several years of no issues just because they can or you manage to defeat the corrupt quota cops. The other major point I will say is that yes, there were some hearsay comparisons... specifically in the U.S.A.where if you tried to look up information on these cars in the late 80s and 1990s, you either would not find anything or you would be lucky to find an older mid 80s magazine or the few magazine articles that would mention stats and official comparison numbers as well as any professional racing participation and results while in U.K., Europe and Australia they had much more easier to find information. Also I will say you could be missing the point of the time of Mitsubishi Starion... first of all there is a common large displacement engine that came from Japan and was part of the first grey imports, the Sapporo and Challenger, the latter which ended up offending many American Dodge fans because the domestic Challenger was cancelled years before... that engine was a 2.6 liter four cylinder single over head cam engine but with a carburator and was apparently fairly goof for the body of the car model it was used for but in Japan the 2.6 and iirc 2.0 displacement were subject to their fuel economy tax systems so they had lower displacement engines and the 2.6 liter was used for North America while U.K. Europe and Australia may have gotten the 2.0 and 2.6 liter single over head cam engine that when the first Mitsubishi Starions came out with the intention of adding Turbo Charging, it added some power and additional fuel economy even though the first Turbo models were flawed in the "reliability" because of the procedures a consumer needed to understand just to use their car and most people were daft and would not bother especially in the second hand market. Next came 1985 and iirc 1986 where Mitsubishi finally implemented the INTERCOOLER however I recall that the intercooler was available in the 1984 Japanese models and note that the 1983 to 1985 Datsun 300ZX Turbo did NOT come with intercooler but certain Turbo magazines had discovered that you could add or mod the car without much fuzz. Basically the 1985 and the 1986 Mitsubishi Starion EX turbo Intercooled and the 1986 Starion Esi-R being widebody, turbo intercooled did max out the official power of the car model but note that the Nissan 300ZX got additional tuning and in 1987, Toyota released the Supra 3.0 liter D.O.H.C. Turbo Intercooled while Mazda also released the newer RX-7 GTU aka rotary engine plus turbo plus intercooler aka technology and power wars. The saving grace of the Mitsubishi Starion EX and Esi-R with intercoolers is the nature of the true reason for turbo and intercoolers... not just power but actually improved fuel economy which combined with the 2.6 liter SOHC engine and the 18.5 or so gallon tank meant that you could take long trips or if you were a skilled driver, you could make gas last over two to three weeks just driving to work... assuming you were not a lead foot... I can verify this also with the Supra 3.0 liter Turbo Intercooled as despite being turbo, the gas could last a loooooong time.. this a point often missed with people who tend to drag things down to only sports because at the end of the day other so called powerful vehicles would drink your gas tank just on idle or nevermind barely driving and you would be stuck at 13 miles to the gallon. The Japanese engineers worried about fuel economy, especially Toyota who had turbo charged models since the late 70s in Japan only like Datsun but it took them until the late 80s to do it worldwide and then by the mid 1990s the flagships shot to $50,000 and at that point those buyers had BMW and Mercedes Benz offering them nearly similar priced coupe saloons that were nice and luxurious but boring affairs.

[@paulwhiteford293]

I'd have a digit removed for that car!

[@bugattieb110ss]

I owned 5 of these over the years - including 3 wide-body cars. The only ones that are any good are the very early non-intercooled '4-stud cars'. The later 2.0 intercooled cars are woefully lacking in performance and suffer dreadful (dangerous) levels of turbo lag. The 2.6 Shogun-engined cars are even worse.

[@Cycle.every.day.]

Your comment doesn't read well , "i owned 5,but they're nearly all muck"

[@gregroles69]

Wow, I had a non intercooled 2.0 JA, and the lag in that was bloody awful. Went like stink once on boost though. I guess the far longer intercooled intake added to the delay?

[@WineAnt911]

Legend? LOL

[@ahmedislam2580]

more legendary than you