Austarion

No Starions were ever assembled anywhere outside of Japan, Todd Motors who went onto become Mitsubishi Motors NZ only assembled the run of the mill vehicles like L200s, L300s, Galants, Lancers, Cordias, Tredias, Mirages etc while the specialty stuff like Sapporos, Starions, GTOs were all imported build up from Japan. I'm glad MMNZ chose to sell the Euro-spec models as opposed to the Aus-spec models.

Also the DASH engine was a Japanese market engine only, and quite short lived in the Japanese market produced in fairly small numbers. My father got ahold of one in a complete E15A Eterna front cut in the early 90s when someone kindly ran his '87 Sigma GSR-X out of oil and screwed the engine. The DASH engine was then fitted, and I eventually got the car off him in 2002, only to be written off 8 months later by a drunk driver crashing into me.

NZ never built/assembled Starions, all are Japanese built.

Robert I thought those wheels were made in NZ and have never left?

Edit: Beaten by DG lol

yeah those wheels were made by Gavin Bateman, he custom makes barrells or just outers etc.

I have to wonder, if that black US spec has been sitting on trademe for nearly 12 months at $10k, will someone pay substantially more for the white one? I am seriously looking into it, after I missed out on a certain red widebody (thanks Mike, you prick :P)

And the DASH-engined widebody Starions have a different chassis code: A184A (as opposed to the narrow code of A183A and the regular widebody code of A187A). They were built before the 2.6 JDM widies and were a very limited number (around 50, I think). Last one I saw for sale in Japan was for around 2 million Yen.

But is that black one a conquest?

Im fairly sure that every one out side usa would rather have a uk or jap spec rhd widebody and would probably pay more for it

I just checked his posts on SQC, he never mentioned being in NZ when he was trying to get a GP going. His location states TN (Tennessee, USA). I did check his IP addy though and it does come back from NZ... ha, interesting that he omitted his location.

Our 1983 to 1987 narrowbodies have the a187a chassis code as well as the widebodies...

-Robert

Silver widey with a DASH motor :drool:
Anyone actually know of or own a factory DASH powered widey?

dirtygalant wrote:yeah those wheels were made by Gavin Bateman, he custom makes barrells or just outers etc.

I have to wonder, if that black US spec has been sitting on trademe for nearly 12 months at $10k, will someone pay substantially more for the white one? I am seriously looking into it, after I missed out on a certain red widebody (thanks Mike, you prick :P)

Yeah tough one, I can't agrue at the price on the black one I think its fair enough although I'm not interested in it. So I would pay a premium for the white one, known history being NZ new makes a big difference especially at resale time also the 4g63 factor.
Chances of getting that spec are few and far between and searching for and importing one + compliance of a rusty car from the UK is a scary thought.

Robert. I find it very strange that JDM and Australian (and UK??) cars have the chassis codes A183A, A184A and A187A but in the USofA, they are all A187A.

Could you please show me evidence of this as I am intrigued, if it is actually true?

As for the white 4G63 NZ widey, is this car from Japan or the UK?

Price isn't too bad so far...

NXTIME wrote:Robert. I find it very strange that JDM and Australian (and UK??) cars have the chassis codes A183A, A184A and A187A but in the USofA, they are all A187A.

Could you please show me evidence of this as I am intrigued, if it is actually true?

As for the white 4G63 NZ widey, is this car from Japan or the UK?

Price isn't too bad so far...

In Australia the codes are FA183A or FA183M. The F designates Australia
and the 3 designates the 2L. JA and JB models have these same codes.
Don't know about JDs but my guess is they'll be the same, someone else should be able to confirm.

If the number is A187A, then the 7 indicates it's the 2.6L donk. Which explains the code for US cars.

The JDM code for the GSR-III is A183A, there is no letter before the first A. I speculate that the NZ codes would be the same as the Japs because back then most of their cars were directly from Japan anyway.

Don't know about A184A but my guess is it's the Dash engine.

NXTIME wrote:And the DASH-engined widebody Starions have a different chassis code: A184A (as opposed to the narrow code of A183A and the regular widebody code of A187A). They were built before the 2.6 JDM widies and were a very limited number (around 50, I think). Last one I saw for sale in Japan was for around 2 million Yen.

Not quite.

A182A = 2.0 narrowbody non-turbo with live axle - very shortlived.
A183A = 2.0 narrowbody turbo, regardless if it's DASH or not
A184A = 2.0 widebody, regardless if it's DASH or not
A187A = 2.6 widebody

I am unsure what the 2.6 narrowbody code is, perhaps A186A.

The DASH widebody was made up til 1987, at least there are Jap brochures around showing models up til then. The 1986 and 1987 DASH models made 175hp instead of the 200hp of the 1984 and 1985 models, for some reason.

NXTIME wrote:Robert. I find it very strange that JDM and Australian (and UK??) cars have the chassis codes A183A, A184A and A187A but in the USofA, they are all A187A.

Could you please show me evidence of this as I am intrigued, if it is actually true?

As for the white 4G63 NZ widey, is this car from Japan or the UK?

Price isn't too bad so far...

The white one is a widebody sold brand new out of the showroom, first registered in New Zealand, which would be incredibly rare for a widebody, considering we had only narrowbodies up until then. Even though it was sold new in NZ (therefore making it a domestic market model), it is actually a clone of the Euro/UK spec Starion, being build up in Japan and stamped witht he same 17-digit chassis code which all models destined for export outside of Japan are. ie JMAA183AMJZ400456 etc

All the other widebodies in NZ have either come in as used imports from the UK/Ireland, Japan or the USA.

Ah shit looks like someone has hit the reserve on that auction! Bugger!

Here's some excerpts from our 1986 model year factory service manual:



7 is indeed the code for the big block. We never got the small block motor in a Starion.
G would be the model year, in this case 1986.
Z would be the manufacture plant, Okazaki Japan. (All hail the motherland!!)


Here it shows 3 different chassis codes.

R would be an automatic chassis (wider trans tunnel).
N would be a manual chassis.
S is narrowbody.
FG is widebody.
L I'm guessing is left hand drive.

-Robert

Also of note, "187" is slang for murder because of California code section 187, which defines murder.

Starion's inborn trait towards other cars perhaps?? Haha...

-Robert