Austarion

Anyone walked into a parts shop and requested a coil for a Starion, and presented with one of these? I even got told that someone had obviously put the wrong one in my car??? What are they?

that's a newer type of coil, they are usually epoxy filled instead of oil filled like normal coils.

As long as the correct type is used (ie designed for ballast resistor or not), they will work fine in place of the usual coil.

They are just more compact coils, they form the basis of the coils used in individual coilpacks (like on VR-4/Evo engines).

The Bosch GT40R-T is the same type as that one and will do the same trick as a GT40 coil.

If you're going to use one of those, make sure your tacho still works with it.