Junkyard Find: 1984 Mitsubishi Starion LE
Many of us laugh at the Starion now, but it was considered genuinely badass by me and my high-school peers back in 1983 or 1984. It looked fast and mean and had the magical-in-the-1980s word “TURBO” on every possible surface.
Of course, it was also a flaky, breakdown-prone money pit, but it took a few years for that to become clear to everyone. Still, Starions show up in self-service wrecking yards to this day. Here’s a battered ’84 that I saw in the San Francisco Bay Area a while back.
It’s not enough to have TURBO badges on the outside of the car. You need TURBO seatbelts as well! If ever a car screamed for the legendary 2″ screen black-and-white in-dash TV, it was the Starion.
Mitsubishi was all about the futuristic technology back then. Thermostat-based HVAC systems were found in hyper-expensive Mercedes-Benzes and the occasional Detroit luxury car (where this feature didn’t work so well).
The 2.6 liter Astron four-cylinder engine went in many Mitsubishi and Chrysler machines during the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, you could get a Chrysler K-car with this engine and “Hemi 2.6” badges.
Wailing guitars, turbo whoosh, a magical princess, and Super Potential!
In New Jersey, the Starion was advertised with scenes from “Cannonball Run II”, and the “turbo seats” get a mention.
Mitsubishi brings The Turbo Age down to earth!
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I wanted one when they came out when I was a young buck. Msrp around $17k as I recall, so, not cheap. Back then, all Japanese cars were assumed to be excellent, and if anything, Mitsu was considered more cutting edge than other Japanese cars.
Ah, the miserable 2.555L Mitsubishi 4-cylinder! Revered at first, then hated for eternity. They must have shared head gasket technology with their 3.0 V6.