IMSA race Starion and SCCA & Pike's Peak race Mighty Max
Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:11 pm
My good friend/Mitsubishi addict, Airbats/City Hunter, found the Team Mitsubishi Mighty Max for sale locally here in Oregon... of course we had to go and check it out.
So bad ace, he couldn't resist buying it.
It came with some spare parts, which were at a shop not far away. We then learned that the shop owner, Fred Lux, was THE guy who built the Coors Racetruck Challenge trucks for Team Mitsubishi/Dave Wolin, which they also took to Pike's Peak. He also built the IMSA Starion for the same team as well as quite a few other Mitsu's.
We ended up BS'n with him for hours, before even looking at the engines we were supposed to pick up haha. His shop workers might have liked the disruption we caused because they started taking smoke breaks to listen to the stories. I could tell he was also a Mitsubishi addict, he liked to use the term "cheap speed" in talking about the turbo vehicles. We had discussed about modifications for Starions vs what they did back then. He also told us stories of the glory days, how stingy Mitsubishi was, as well as adventures and exploits... Mitsubishi lovers must be cut from the same cloth lol.
One of his first "claims to fame" was a story about the one of the race trucks, crashing through a pile up at high speed at Pocono raceway. One of the big national papers printed a caption that read something like "Mitsubishi truck crashes and turns into ball of flames flying down the track", in the picture they printed, his name on the truck was just barely visible. A proud moment, he joked.
Here is one of the pictures he has, almost center stage, amidst the pictures of race Vipers and Vettes he's built over the years:
The mythical Starion in IMSA class, among the pictures of Eclipses he'd built, right behind a giant trophy for a Viper race.
Here's a picture from Dave Wolin's site:
Fred Lux, window side at Road Atlanta 1988.
His shop now builds Vipers and Porsches for a national race series, I forgot which, as well as robotics for police and government. He still campaigns a Mitsu in the ChumpCar series, a twin stick turbo Mirage.
He also showed us this "drift" big wheel they take to race events, which they like to park next to the line up of Ferrari's or Buggati's, and steal the show.
And here he is demonstrating it for us, out in the front of the shop lol.
It was great to hear the stories, and see how laidback the man was. Just wanted to share with ya'll. Maybe my friend will post up more about his new racetruck and some more about the legend of Fred Lux and Team Mitsubishi.
In the meantime, here's a refresher about the Starion from current owner Chad (also a local Oregon member):
So bad ace, he couldn't resist buying it.
It came with some spare parts, which were at a shop not far away. We then learned that the shop owner, Fred Lux, was THE guy who built the Coors Racetruck Challenge trucks for Team Mitsubishi/Dave Wolin, which they also took to Pike's Peak. He also built the IMSA Starion for the same team as well as quite a few other Mitsu's.
We ended up BS'n with him for hours, before even looking at the engines we were supposed to pick up haha. His shop workers might have liked the disruption we caused because they started taking smoke breaks to listen to the stories. I could tell he was also a Mitsubishi addict, he liked to use the term "cheap speed" in talking about the turbo vehicles. We had discussed about modifications for Starions vs what they did back then. He also told us stories of the glory days, how stingy Mitsubishi was, as well as adventures and exploits... Mitsubishi lovers must be cut from the same cloth lol.
One of his first "claims to fame" was a story about the one of the race trucks, crashing through a pile up at high speed at Pocono raceway. One of the big national papers printed a caption that read something like "Mitsubishi truck crashes and turns into ball of flames flying down the track", in the picture they printed, his name on the truck was just barely visible. A proud moment, he joked.
Here is one of the pictures he has, almost center stage, amidst the pictures of race Vipers and Vettes he's built over the years:
The mythical Starion in IMSA class, among the pictures of Eclipses he'd built, right behind a giant trophy for a Viper race.
Here's a picture from Dave Wolin's site:
Fred Lux, window side at Road Atlanta 1988.
His shop now builds Vipers and Porsches for a national race series, I forgot which, as well as robotics for police and government. He still campaigns a Mitsu in the ChumpCar series, a twin stick turbo Mirage.
He also showed us this "drift" big wheel they take to race events, which they like to park next to the line up of Ferrari's or Buggati's, and steal the show.
And here he is demonstrating it for us, out in the front of the shop lol.
It was great to hear the stories, and see how laidback the man was. Just wanted to share with ya'll. Maybe my friend will post up more about his new racetruck and some more about the legend of Fred Lux and Team Mitsubishi.
In the meantime, here's a refresher about the Starion from current owner Chad (also a local Oregon member):
-Robert
Lime Rock 1988
This IMSA RS 1988 Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R actualy started out it's life in 1984. That's right, it's an 84 chasis. It was a daily driver for Mitsubishi Vice president Dick Recchia in 1984. Later it was purchased by Dave Wolin for Team Mitsubishi to be converted to a race car.
Dave Wolin built all the race cars for Team Mitsubishi in the US and his cars were raced all over the world, including the Parisi-Dakar ralley. He has a breif list of his acomplishments on his own web site at www.davewolin.com.
This car was striped to a shell and every single part inclding the unibody chasis was acid dipped to remove all the undercoating and paint. It was then handed over to the race building team for a major build. It took Wolins small crew 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for 3 months to build this car. Parts that weren't painted white were all zink coated and lightend where ever possible. According to Dave, this car is 500 pounds lighter that a show room stock car.
It was the first and only Starion to be built in this fashion. It was entered in the 1988 IMSA "International Sedan Series". This class required the use of a stock motor and drive train, but thats the only sinlgle stock item on the car. Despite the stock motor internals there were a few liberties taken when building this car. They include a slightly modified fuel computer and a straight through side exit exhaust was used. It is rated at 177 HP in show room stock form, this motor is at about 220 HP according to Dave. It has had the balance shafts removed and the jet valves were eliminated and welded up, it is also balanced and blueprinted. The rest of the motor and drive train is all stock.
One special thing about this car is that it is the ONLY US Team Mitsubishi Starion in existance, all the prior year cars were striped when they reached the end of thier useful life and the parts were used on the next years cars. There is evidence of some of the previous cars body parts being used in this car like red paint showing through in a few places. All Show Room Stock cars in 1986 and 1987 were red. This represents the last Starion built so it is the only one left. Dave told me he estimated it to have cost about $100,000 to buiild, if you look at all the small details you can easily see he under estimated that figure. It is an extreme example of the best you could do to a Starion.
This car was only raced in 4 events so it is still in pristene condition, it even won most of those races. I am currently working on a complete restoration, it will look the same as it does now but be in pre-race condition. I'll most likely race it at Portland International Raceway and occasionaly in some of the tracks in California when I finnish the restoration. After this car was raced in 1988, it was retired and has been on jack stands ever since. The Starion program was droped at the end of 1988 for the new Mitsubihi Eclipse program. Soon after the Eclipse program began, Mitsubishi cut it's race programs due to funding issues.
Mitsubishi completely dominated the "Show Room Stock" series of racing, taking home more first place finnishes than all other teams in 1986-87. This series consisted of taking a bone stock car straight from the dealer and putting a few safety items on, then taking it straight to the track. Dave told me the primary reason for it's success was the large fuel tank, excelent cooling system, and rock solid engines. Especialy in the 24 hour races, large fuel tanks means fewer pit-stops, nad efficent cooling extends the reliability. Some cars were equaly fast and good in handeling, some had similar fuel capacities, but this car had it all. In all the races the team ran they never lost a single motor, This includes the 24 hour races. When they first enterd the show room stock class in 1984, the won every single race that year!
