The Mitsubishi Starion is a sports car which was manufactured and marketed by Mitsubishi from 1982 until 1989 — with badge engineered variants marketed in North America as the Conquest, under the Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth brands. It is a two-door coupé with a fastback design and seating for four passengers. The Starion's straight-four engine is mounted in the front and drives the rear wheels, with some models being turbocharged.

The Starion was one of the first modern Japanese turbocharged performance automobiles with electronic fuel injection.

Overview

Mitsubishi began marketing the Starion in 1982, during a period in which a number of Japanese grand tourer (GT) sports cars were available, including the Nissan Z cars, Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra and to a lesser extent, the Honda Prelude, Isuzu Piazza and Subaru XT.

The Starion was marketed in the US as the Mitsubishi Starion and badge engineered variants of it were marketed as the Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler Conquest. In the UK it was sold as the Colt Starion.

It was manufactured in two body configurations, a narrowbody and widebody; the narrower style complied with Japanese exterior dimension regulations taxing larger vehicles and engine displacement exceeding two liters. Only the narrowbody was offered through the 1985.5 model year.

The introduction of the widebody also split the car into two ranges: a non-intercooled lower-horsepower car using the narrow body style and a high-performance intercooled widebody. In most markets, widebody cars were given the label of Starion ESI-R or Conquest TSi. Markets that never received the widebody had the ESI-R label, these cars had similar performance as the widebodies. Widebody cars were offered in 1986–1989 model years in the US.

The Starion was featured in the 1984 movie Cannonball Run II, with Jackie Chan at the wheel.

Name

Mitsubishi says "Starion" is a contraction of "Star of Arion" — and refers to both a star and the mythical horse, Arion.

The cover of the original Japanese Starion sales brochure, published by Mitsubishi (May 1982) carried the text: "the name STARION — derived from the combination of star and Arion, Hercules' horse in Greek mythology, symbolizes a sense of the universe, and of power and high performance."

Several sources attribute the name to struggles by Japanese engineers to pronounce the word stallion. An early Japanese television commercial for the Starion closed with a logo of a stallion's head with the word "Starion" below it. One translation of the voiceover says the name refers to a star and the mythical horse, Arion. The Mitsubishi Colt and Mitsubishi Eclipse featured equine names, with the Eclipse named after the champion racehorse.

Design

thumb|Rear view of earlier, narrow-bodied Starion

thumb|right|A Mitsubishi Starion Turbo

The Starion uses a traditional front-mounted engine with rear-wheel drive layout. Many came with a limited slip differential and anti-lock brakes (single channel, rear wheels only) as standard features. The entire chassis was derived from the previous high-performance variant of the Mitsubishi Sapporo or Mitsubishi Galant Lambda sports coupé, with a MacPherson strut suspension and sway bars that were fitted to the front and rear. For model year 1987, Mitsubishi introduced a passive restraint system for front occupants which featured automatic shoulder belts.

thumb|Chrysler Conquest

Mitsubishi

  • Base - 1983
  • LS - 1983-85
  • LE - 1984-87
  • ES - 1984-85
  • ESI - 1985.5-1988, intercooled
  • ESI-R - 1986-89 widebody, intercooled

Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth

  • LE
  • TSi - 1986-89 widebody, intercooled
  • Technica - 1985-87 narrow body with digital dash cluster

Verified by ** MCA-Chrysler Motorsports of America (10/01).

Europe

2.0 L G63B engine with MHI TC06-11A turbocharger, apart from GSR-VR which has 2.6 L G54B engine with TC05-12A turbocharger.

  • EX II - narrowbody with intercooler
  • EX - luxury version
  • Turbo - base model

With the exception of Australia, many models were available as either narrow-body or wide-body shell styles.

Motorsports

The Starion was a prominent competitor in motorsports up to International level during the 1980s and performed well on the circuit in Group A and Group N races of the era. Andy McLennan driving a Simmons Drums sponsored Starion was very successful, picking up many race wins and a Monroe championship, this against the semi works car of Colin Blower. Starions from Dave Wolin's Team Mitsubishi, with turbocharged 2.6 L G54B engines built by noted Lotus engine guru Dave Vegher, captured the prestigious "Longest Day of Nelson Ledges" 24-hour endurance race four years running from 1984 through 1987. Team Mitsubishi Starions also won the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) U.S. Endurance Championships three of those four years, competing against the fully factory-backed (Wolin's team was only partially sponsored by Mitsubishi) efforts from Chrysler, Audi, Nissan and Mazda. Although not commonly seen in modern motorsports, a number are still raced on both circuit and in special stage rally events, usually by privateers.

Starion 4WD

thumb|The Starion 4WD was never fully developed, due to the cancellation of [[Group B|Group B]]

The Starion was not very successful off-road, but found victory in Group A World Rally Championships and Asia Pacific Rally Championships during 1987 and 1988. An all wheel drive version of the Starion was also produced for Group B specifications (one of the few Japanese automobile manufacturers to enter this class), but after an encouraging start as a prototype, it was not homologated before the FIA banned Group B cars for safety reasons. The Starion was converted to all wheel drive by adding a strengthened transfer case from a Pajero behind the transmission. This configuration allowed the engine to be situated well back in the chassis, for improved front/rear weight distribution compared to the Audi Quattro, whose configuration required the engine to be far forward in the car. Although the wheelbase did not change, the use of regular headlights rather than the production model's pop-up headlights allowed the nose to be six inches shorter, as well as saving several pounds in weight. Further weight was saved by the use of carbon fiber for the driveshafts, sumpguard, and lower arms of the suspension, and fiberglass for the hood (bonnet), tailgate, door skins, fenders, bumpers and spoilers,