One of the problems with cramming a large engine into a car that never came with one is that you have to re-engineer the whole car to make it fit. Think back to all of those rear-drive swapped front-driver GM Pro Street builds from the 1980s…how do you go from transverse front-drive to north-south rear-drive with a V8 in place of a four-banger? You get everything off of the firewall and you proceed to start making the space you need. In a StarQuest, you would think that there would be enough room, but there isn’t. These cars came with a turbocharged Mitsubishi four-cylinder, and there was no provision for a V8. Even if there was, Chrysler wasn’t going to actually do it. Iacocca wasn’t bothered to mess with anything rear-drive or V8 powered…he considered both living fossils in the modern world and wouldn’t upgrade them.

So, as of now, the Hemi-swapped Mitsubishi Starion that Uncle Tony’s friend “The Kiwi” is putting together for the Holley MoParty event that is going down in Kentucky later this year is in-process. The hot knife…gas ax…sawzall…whatever is being used to carve the Starion like a turkey has been put to good use and enough copper wire has been yanked out of the car to keep a tweaker happy for about five minutes, with another five minutes’ worth of joy still in the car. Sometimes, the shoehorn just doesn’t work…and that’s when you have to get drastic!