I cannot be the only guy in the BangShift universe who’s stuck at home and cruising eBay looking to buy something. The more you look, the more you think, and the more you think, the more creative your car wants get. I have been entertaining the ideas of chasing down a car that I wanted to own when I was a kid, which was a Mitsubishi Starion. After seeing (and finding) some really nice examples for sale, I wanted to go back in time to see if my boyhood impressions were accurate about these cars. I remember them looking cool and running pretty good as well. They were a sports car from a company that people didn’t expect on from and they looked bitchin’ by the time their production run was over.
I ended up finding this video of a brandy new 1983 Starion getting reviewed by MotorWeek. While the styling is not as aggressive or cool as the later cars, it does show that these guys made a good car and one that was priced to hit the young sports car enthusiast right between the eyes. There are elements of this car that may be a little more slick looking than the later examples but the reality is that the chunky body panels and semi-futuristic look of those cars in the 1980s is what grabbed my attention as a kid.
The 1983 Starion was turbocharged and it was a mover. You’ll see it getting slung around the slalom, the drag strip, and the byways in this video. Watching the dude dump the clutch and turn the tire all the way through first gear on the way to a 17-second run is kind of funny but this was 1983 and the turbo-revolution was on. I am not sure how the turbocharger made such a run in the early 1980s and then went back into hibernation for decades. We’re now back in another turbocharged renaissance in the OE world. Interesting, right?
Welp, I’ll be over here in my office trying to spend money if anyone needs me.
