The Mitsubishi Starion 2000 Turbo, manufactured in the early 1980s and by 1984 it had arrived in Malaysia in very small numbers due to its high selling price and a lack of sport enthusiasts in the country.
It was a time when the Mazda RX7 Savana and the Nissan 280Z were the segment kings. Mitsubishi at the time had a good selling fastback which shared a similar DNA to this Starion. It was called the Cordia. There was also a Cordia Turbo…..but this we will keep for another article.
Back to the Mitsubishi Starion and its show debut on the big screen. Yes, this Japanese sports car made it to big screen in 1984 just after its launch in the movie Cannonball Run. Go to YouTube and find the move snippets and have a look at this car on the run.
So what was under the hood of the Starion? It is a rear wheel drive car with a 1997cc engine under the front hood. This Mitsubishi built engine produces a sensible 168bhp with 245Nm of torque. For 1984, this was fast and with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 7.6 seconds and a top speed of 220km/h even the Porsche 924 found its match.
Midway through the 1985 model year, a wide-body variant muscular version was introduced with wide fenders to cover wider wheels and tires. A Sports Handling Package, consisting of adjustable front and rear struts and 1-inch wider wheels, was offered for the last two years and boosted skidpad grip from 0.80 g to 0.85.
Other technological advances included an optional digital dash (which was the rave in its day) and anti-lock braking on the rear axle. Period features include motorized passive shoulder belts on the ’87-’89 models emblazoned with TURBO nomenclature.
Today finding a used one is already a tough task…..then finding one that has been treated well, even harder….so prices will be high and we reckon a well looked after original unit should be able to fetch RM40k plus and a ‘raped’ unit will sell for somewhere between ‘better avoid it’ and ‘I think I shall look at another Japanese classic’.
