Mitsubishi Starion: The harbinger of "Evolution"

Back when car design was beginning to take on a sharp and angular look, while Japan was rapidly increasing its car production, surpassing the USA and becoming the world's largest car manufacturer, many American buyers, instead of the recently troubled American cars due to the fuel crisis, were opting for new Japanese cars, since they clearly outperformed the Americans when it came to reliability and affordability.
By the time Japanese automakers introduced the Toyota Celica-Supra and the Nissan 300ZX, Mitsubishi also entered the market with its own GT, and today we'll talk about it specifically, the Mitsubishi Starion!
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

[@aaronb1320]

Current owner of JA #007 (Australia) checking in. Great video!

[@jackyboy2593]

Great video! It’s quite sad to see how far Mitsubishi has fallen in the last decade, compared to the motoring powerhouse they were in the 90s. They were so big back then that they almost bought Honda!

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Much appreciated! Yep, pretty sure Mitsubishi were the turbocharging pioneers in Japan, since they even produced their own turbochargers, came a long way to slap the name of an Eclipse onto a SUV...

[@JA3182762]

I loved my 1986 Conquest! It would get sideways when that turbo kicked in! It had turbo printed all over the seat belts and it had tape deck controls on the steering wheel! So rad.

[@harbingerofkharma]

The Starion was one of the coolest cars in CannonBall Run II driven by Jackie Chan and "Jaws"

[@briankay4713]

Very good ....not enough Mitsubishi content on here .... Great history on the beautiful Starion ....those wide bodies are gorgeous .... Keep it up

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Thanks! I figured that this car isn't spoken about as much as it needs to be, imho this car is incredibly underrated, given how much did it influence Mitsubishi as a company

[@nater86zx]

Very well done video. You deserve more subscribers!

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Glad you liked it! All but a matter of time! 😁

[@trevorspiro945]

I’m British and had two of them, the first a sort of metallic gold/silver and four years later white with caramel interior. Both were extremely reliable, comfortable to drive, but lacked air conditioning (which I had installed after market). They were also economical. Only my Honda NSX was better!

[@andrewweltlich9065]

Starion/Conquest are my favorite cars. I've owned 2 of them. They are just so cool looking.

[@scottl.6721]

I also had 2, 1987 black then I upgraded to 1988 yellow with HKS exhaust and eibach lowering springs (best car I ever owned)...

[@andrewweltlich9065]

@@scottl.6721 I had a mostly stock 89 and an 89 with a 2JZ-GTE swap. The 2J made that car scary fast.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

2J-swapping a Starion? Sounds crazy, I like it, they even put V8s in these🤩

[@davidhinkson8856]

I always thought the later cars with the flared wheel arches like the Porsche 944 looked better. But I haven't seen one on the road in years.

[@martyloo]

Really enjoyed this video. Excellent research and nice production vslues. Learned some cool stuff about Mitsu

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@andybowie8590]

I loved these things. Between 1985 and about 2000 i owned 8 UK spec starions from an '82 to a late '88. I had an original 1982 mitsubishi brochure which said the name came from the 'star' constellation of 'orion'. I've heard many people say it was a mispronounciation of stallion but thats one of those stories that has no truth behind it. Early UK cars had a non intercooled 2.0 engine making 168bhp and from '85 they got an intercooler and 177bhp. Very late UK cars got a version of the 2.6litre engine making a little more torque than the the 2.0 but less power which was weird. All the UK spec cars had lsd as standard making coming sideways out of corners part of the ownership experience. In '87 we got the wide body, with its Staggered wheel sizes and wider arches. I sold my last starion, an 88 wide body with rare (in the uk) factory air con and with a garret t3 conversion, custom exhaust, a load of other mods and a private number plate plus an absolute ton of spare parts that I'd collected over the years for £2000. I recently saw a starion sell for 25 grand.! Can't even remember the last time I saw one on the road but I'd buy one in a heartbeat and re-live my youth if I had the spare cash to buy one. Enjoyed the video anyway, brought back many memories of sideways fun.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

So far I'm genuinely impressed by how loyal the Star-Quest community is, I have yet to see one more devoted to their cars, 8 Starions is crazy, and I love it😁

[@Audfile]

When i was a kid, a neighbor pulled up in one of these, brand new, minty, red red red. It was a jaw dropper, nothing like it. Nothing.

[@DoctorJay184]

It was interesting to see a photo of my old car at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="286">4:46</a>

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Even more interesting for me to see a viewer commenting about finding their old car in the video! What are the odds?🤩

[@flea4061]

My Dad had one. It had a digital dash. Everyone loved that car. I learned how to drive a manual on it.

[@misstania5887]

Amazing! Thanks for your videos.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Thanks for your frequent commentary!

[@dhc8guru]

I had a 1984.5 US Starion. It had the same features as the 85 model year like limited slip diff, G-lateral rear skid control but it was a narrow body. I had to shop parts at both Dodge and Mitsubishi because depending on who supplied the parts, buying at the other dealer could mean double to triple the parts price. It was a good reliable car but part costs made it not worth owning long term.

[@averyparticularsetofskills]

_THAT_ ... was Awesome I'm a huge Conquest Starion fan and I learned a few new things watching this but aside all that, your flow editing and narration was on point ! Good Stuff ✌

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Thank you! Glad you found out something new about these cars!😁

[@ralphharrison6622]

id love to have one of these! im a celica guy first and foremost, but this was def an underestimated car.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Yep! You really don't hear about them as much as they deserve to be heard of

[@pattyjay9999]

I had a teacher in high school Mr. Fleming had a silver 87 Starion.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

He was definitely the coolest teacher out there, that's for sure!😎

[@GreenCrim]

The death of the group B Starion led to the Galant VR4. The reason the 6 bolt 4G63 has such big intake ports is because it was designed with the all out power of group B in mind. After a rule change Mitsubishi transferred the Galant drive train with changes / improvements into the smaller Lancer.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Yep, Starion was essentially a test for the technologies, later implemented in the Evo

[@vidtech2630]

STALION / STARION

[@shanemac5199]

My mates mum bought one brand new, hit a kangaroo and it went straight through her windscreen.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Oh man, It's a shame🥲

[@paulyokoyama7162]

The Galant Lambda was not a hatchback. You can see it had curved rear glass and a trunk. It also did not have irs and had a solid axle instead.

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

Might be me, but I don't remember mentioning Galant Lambda as a hatchback, I said "compared to the regular hatchback" referencing Mitsubishi Starion, as for the suspension, I'm pretty sure it did feature irs in the top, "GSR" models

[@mrspandel5737]

The Galant Lambda did indeed have independent rear suspension, but only on the GSR Turbo model. Same for the 4-Door Galant Sigma Turbo. And the Starion is based on a shortened Galant Lambda GSR Turbo chassis.

[@paulyokoyama7162]

@@mrspandel5737 I stand corrected. We never got the GSR here in the US.

[@garnerblair5179]

Also notable that Mitsubishi licensed the dual balance shaft system to Porsche for their competing ...and similar looking 924/944 .

[@RedLine_Car_Show]

In fact, they originally wanted to release the Starion a slight bit earlier, ahead of the whole "wedge-y" competition, (Porsche 944 came out in 1982) but they ended up releasing it when this wedge design became the norm in contemporary sports cars 🙁

[@garnerblair5179]

@RedLine_Car_Show they can bring that car back anytime and I'd take one . They can go ahead and bump it to 3 liters this time.

[@peterkiro2132]

I tell u wat Mitsubishi, if u don’t made any more hero car I’m gonna buy a Toyota supra 😊