So, what got you into Starions?

[enthuzed]

Encouraged by NXTIME, after my comments about the Starion disease that JDSTAZ45 has contracted, I have posted this up.
It seems there are more than a few of us on here who suffer from this ailment. Especially if you posted in http://forums.austarion.com/viewtopic.php?t=5120
This post is for us to learn and appreciate what it is about these cars that got us into them.
It might have been an instant love for them, based on something you read or watched, or a more gradual thing before it took hold...post it here.

[thrash]

top gear, season 6 episode 2.. the cheap coupe challenge with the staz, the v12 jag and the beemer 635.

i always loved the v12 jags and the 6 series beemers, and wanted one of them.. but at the time I wanted to buy something of the kind, I didn't have the money for a jag or a beemer, and I also wanted something turbocharged.. and then this episode of top gear landed on my computer and I went out and bought a starion.. well.. a lemon starion, cos I knew that little about cars at the time

[enthuzed]

You've seemingly come a long way then Thrash, well done.

Yes, these cars do teach! Well, here's my story:

Pic from this site (under pictures)


I bought this car in May 2002 with the intention of competing in motorkhanas, and an eventual goal turning it into a rally car. I wanted a small and quick rear wheel drive, and something that didn't need lots of money poured into it to make it a fast car. In my mind, its "huge" factory 125kw of power was still far more than the standard Geminis and Escorts I was motorkhana-ing and autocrossing before it. And I was tired of fixing the Escorts all the time.

I'd owned a number of turbo cars in the past (a couple of Holden's VLs, an MR2 and a WRX) I was certainly excited by the potential reliable output it could produce for a small outlay. Knowing I was going to spend some time doing lower speed stuff and that also suiting up on a hot day for autocrosses can be uncomfortable, the power steering and air conditioning were going to come in handy.

I did actually own one of these previously for only a matter of weeks, I bought a champagne coloured one with a blown head gasket and fixed it, but during that time realised that car wasn't a good starting point, so I sold it and bought this one. The deal was that in buying this one, I had to take a non-running silver one with it. That has proven very useful, I still have the majority of the silver car, as I figured rallying requires things like rear quarter panels, etc.

If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have cut up the silver one, I've seen some in far worse condition that I would have fixed - it had a small tap on the front guard and the engine had spun a bearing and needed the TBI looked at.

I fitted this white car with a factory LSD from a JB and a hydraulic handbrake that works off the standard lever yet still uses the cables so it's fully legal. It totally transformed the car, and my competition results! And I loved driving it sideways!

At the same time back then I purchased the FISA homologation guide and checked out Schedule J of the CAMS manual for rollcage specs, but never got around to setting it up for rally use. Mainly because I when I wasn't driving it at motorkhanas I was using it as a daily - for about 5 years.

The car had done laps of Winton and done the occasional khanacross, even towed the odd garden trailer! But it was most at home digging at a dirt khana or shredding some tires at a concrete/bitumen one. The truth is I'd had more fun in that car than virtually anything else before it, because of it's predictable handling and nimble chassis, despite it's width as a small car. And the fun of it being a turbo. It was almost bullet-proof, most of the time I got to treat the car with almost contempt at an event and then still drive it home afterwards.



It had been pretty reliable until the last couple of years with the major issue being a worn out bottom end, and prior to that a cracked head from a blown radiator hose, the fuel pump and the alternator. I did flog it pretty hard for 8 years and the suspension and steering did start getting ordinary too.

Given that I owned two Starions at that time, it was not a big deal to have an extra vehicle and bits lying around one every now and again, I had space so I would buy other cars if I wanted bits, and I always planned on doing upgrades.

This meant buying other Starions that came and went, then an L300 van got purchased for the head and manifold and other goodies (yes I bought well and made money on it) but then the disease really took hold. In 2007 my partner moved out (so so happy!) and I filled the spot in the garage with a rarely used Starion rally car (even happier!). I'd first seen this car about 3 years prior lying unfinished in a bloke's backyard. I've since redone a lot of things on it including an entire engine rebuild.

The thinking was that I should have a car dedicated to motorkhanas, rallies and autocrosses and the daily Starion more as a backup car for khanas if required. I didn't want to lose any Championship points if I broke my car mid-season! And a different car means a different class and therefore points not going towards the Championship. Me, competitive? No way!!

Given that I had the rally car and the "daily", I thought I would be cool to do some track time at Sandown, Phillip Island etc too. And it couldn't be a rally car, it had to be a dedicated circuit car. So of that meant having three Starions. I did a deal with Mitsumadness and collected another white rolling shell (what other colour do you want a racecar?) as the basis for this purpose. It's a very slow work in progress.

Around then a 3 wheeled HG Galant came up at the right price (it was smashed, and was delivered without front suspension) and I collected all the TC bits and sold the rest and made a couple of dollars on the deal.

After a massive hail storm combined with engine troubles from the replacement donk, I figured I should cut my losses and sold my original white car to Panda. I already had a JB I could use as a replacement "daily" and so started swapping the good bits. It now gets used for motorkhanas and so forth.

There ya go!

[JDSTAZ45]

I suppose when you compare other motoring enthusiasts such as Ford and Holden admirers, you can say my passion for the Mitsubishi Starion is normal.
I wouldn't go and out and pay upwards of $50,000 for a piece of Australian Muscle car history that realistically performs below average.
However, it does have the raw appeal and nostalgia going for it.
A Starion with a few tweaks, lowered and a set of Simmons has virtually the same appeal. The car looks exciting and still does today especially in race form!

German engineered cars or Maseratis or new performance cars are out my price range, and in particular, the up-keep of them!

In the past, I've always steered clear from V8's and preferred the 4&6's. I was a fan of the RS2000 with its webbers and quick shift box that would out perform the V8's in their day. The Starion basically did this as well and it was simple progression to prefer the Starion that handled and braked well with that extra zip.
Over time I had a few Starions that were resprayed and tidied up for whatever reason, and enjoyed the thrill it gave me to see it restored.
So, basically I keep chasing that feeling....

[starionc]

For me it was a mate of mine that got a Nissan ET Turbo to "impress the ladies" LOL
When that didn't work and he lost his ex to another ET owner rofl He went and bought a Starion
We were 18 at the time and I'd only ever seen 1 other starion before that, A near new JB that one of the hot girls from year 12 drove from time to time!!!!!!
So my mate (inspired by that car) and needing a better car then the other guys ET, found a nice JA................. That was it for me, so in 91 I got my first JB :pimp Show room condition and by far the nicest car of all.

So as a young apprentice, it drained my small bank acc and had to be sold :glare: That was in 1993!

I looked at EVERY Starion for sale for almost 10 years before getting back into them with 2 JA's for the price of one. 15 odd Starions later and still mad as a nutter about them. Including building my JA Rally car
See this post http://forums.austarion.com/viewtopic.php?t=13633

One day I'll have a Wide body Starion as a weekender :D :D

[ProZac]

I can remember a Starion being the first car I ever saw driving down the road and thought to myself "Shit, I _WANT_ one".... And that was that.

[Lunacy]

I almost bought a white 1984 GSR3 when i was 16 (1996), that had white 3 spoke racing rims, intercooler and a car phone! I thought it went well, and with only a 2k pricetag was right up my alley.
Unfortunately when my parents got the mechanical check done it had a few oil leaks and needed a bit of work, so that ended that dream (as they were paying most of maintenance and insurance)
That one just made me want another so bad, as i loved the shape, performance, and looks it gets from people.
Since then i always wanted another, and bought a red gsr3 in 2000, that i managed to blow up doing burnouts in my driveway one night, after failing its warrant check with copious amounts of rust.

Since then ive got the current one, and the blue GSRX i sold a couple of years ago, and hopefully will have a widey in the future :)

[GormzZ]

To be honest, i had never heard of, or seen one of these types or cars until i bought the one i got. Mine was purely a impulse buy as i had my daily car as is and my project car.. Dad pointed it out to me when it popped up and thought it would be something to put some coin down on as he knew i was looking for a rwd car preferably turbo to soon take on into the sport "drifting". So many thoughts going through my head at the time of it coming close to the end of its auction... we put down my first and final bid to see what would happen.. and bam i jumped out've my seat as the last 10 seconds finished and i had won the car, it was mine. Ever since that day.. no doubt it had a different shape to the most sports car's i've had or seen... but now its growing on me.. and with such a awesome base with no major issues wrong with it.. i can only keep bettering the old girl! Now she will just keep going forth and basically bring the old girl back to life so it doesnt need to see the wreckers or in someones backyard rotting away. I will one day trying and invest in a widey as soon as i done some research after buying the car i instantly wanted one haha.. thats my story.

[Firebrand]

I was friends with Bryce (Lunacy) when growing up and remember his old red beast, also remember seeing a silver/maroon interior one in pieces at pick-a-part around the same time, must have sown a seed in my mind, and at some point I decided I wanted to get a Starion, spent ages looking for a good one and finally brought my one, drove it back from Christchurch to Wellington, was my first turbo car also.

Have owned it for 3 years now, drove it down to Dunedin full to the brim with stuff when we moved here two years ago. Also picked up a parts car a while back (full of rust) which was quickly stripped and sent to scrap when we decided to buy a house, the parts have been keeping my good one going pretty well.

Currently it's parked up in my driveway and I'm working through a 2 page list of repairs, improvements and tidy ups over the winter, it is still in pretty good shape and has been more reliable than some much newer cars I have owned..

[1320ft]

For me, I cant remember the 1st time, but I have always just wanted one. I'm an 80's mitsu nut (I love sigma's and cordia's aswell).

And I have always wanted to turn one into a drag car, because no-one else here has done it.

For me, alot of it's appeal is that 80's wedge body shape! I also like nee love 3rd gen F-Body platforms (Camaro, Trans-Am, Firebird etc)

[kiwieurospec]

I was actually looking for a GSR Lancer which were still about $13000 at that time, did a deal on one and when I went to sign up they knocked $2000 off my trade in so I told them to shove it.
I had an Eterna with the dash engine which was my first fwd or turbo car and had spotted the same Sirus Dash 3x2 sticker on the back of a Starion. Logic said a two door rwd version would be the go but I found a mint NZ New version (not dash) at a local car yard. The deal was done.

I thrashed that car (which I still own) for 2 years and 40,000miles. So when it was time to get a newer car I couldn't bring myself to sell it (and it was worth nothing) so I imported a Silvia about 2001. A Silvia (s14) had better performance but not the driving position or the feeling of a sports car so I built up a S15. After a few years of that I couldn't justify a car of that value to drive 4kms to work + there was nothing to replace it with. It so happened and widebody showed up on trademe so I did the only thing I knew how to do I bought it and sold the Nissan and have never looked back.

I think I eventually sell one of them likely the widebody but will always have one around.

[Lunacy]

I think I eventually sell one of them likely the widebody but will always have one around.

1st in line :) :beer

[redzone]

When I was 7 years old, I saw cannonball run 2, decided on the spot that one day I would own one of these cars that could levitate, turn into a submarine, had afterburners & would play video games against me

[FST4RD]

Mate had a Cordia that had a 2L 8v motor in it, was stupidly fast. The motor blew up in it so we put a DASH motor that had a hot cam, balance shafts removed and a few other goodies in this sub tonne car. Was hard to drive as you could spin up the front wheels in 3rd just by putting your foot down! In the wet 4th gear traction was just a dream
Well long story to short he's a FWD man and I'm a RWD man so I got a DASH powered GSR-V. Loved that car so so much. Had a few to many cars at the time, and unfortunately one had to go, and that one had to be the Starion.
Couple years later and I am now the proud owner of the rangiest Starion in existance! Just ask Zac and Jas about it. We still don't kow how the engine runs as most things aren't even plugged in, wired up or even there! Zac and myself have managed to remove most of the "added in" wiring and other little jems from the previous owner! LOL
This car is going to be "El budgo track car" with my sponsors being so far Jas and Zac, mainly for parts and time spent helping me with it!
Love this car and it's not going anywhere this time!

[MitsuMadness]

For me it's a long story, but I'll try and keep it not toooo long -

I always liked performance cars, and was looking at getting into doing rallying. I had had Datsuns that I used to take out and set myself time trial sections with mates, and practise about twice a week and built a car that I wanted to enter into rallies.

After a while of doing this, I started to get a bit tired of the dust and dirt in everything, clogging everything, etc.

I remember one particular weekend of our own amateur dirt rally where none of the key locks worked, I had to kick the boot in to get it open, and the fuel system got clogged etc etc all because of all the dirt in everything, and I had grit in my mouth for almost a week. After that I wanted to look at what tarmac events were around that still had the fun that I liked about rallying. Basically I had grown up with my dad usually taking most corners sideways in the wet in his Pajero 4x4 with a rear LSD, and also many mud and dirt family 4x4 trips. So I had a deep rooted love for sideways driving and cars.

After looking at Motorkhanas, and then also discovering in 1999 a new sport starting to be an actual sport called drift racing, I decided I wanted to look into both these types of events, and also realised I wanted a bit more power to be able to do these asphalt based events. Obviously many people have been driving sideways for years, and 'drifting' including myself (not that I called it drifting), but just the fact that it was starting to be made into an actual motorsport category excited me.

This all went on hold a bit due to money and doing Uni, but after a bit my daily car became a Mitsubishi Cordia, because I was interested in getting into the turbo cars. I did enjoy that, did an engine swap etc, fun car, and it did teach me about turbo cars, but I also decided that after that, I ALWAYS wanted a rear wheel drive car.

From there I spent two years looking through every kind of car I could think of that would be appropriate as a daily car, and also could do motorkhanas and drift events. I knew I didn't want to do the same path everyone else was going down, with the Nissans - Silvias and Skylines. I wanted something different and interesting. I weighed up suspension styles, weight of cars, engines, handling, and also overall cost of cars (cheaper car means more money to spend on improving it and less concern over bending bits). I found the Nissans were a bit heavy, even the well balanced 180SX came out heavier than the Starions. It ended up being between an old 240Z or 260Z, or a Starion. At that stage I had actually never seen a good looking photo of a Starion, and thought they were extremely ugly! But also the 240 and 206 Zs were a 6 cylinder engine, and at the time I was thinking also about fuel usage if I was driving every day (not that I care about that anymore!) and also engine weight.

SO at that point I decided the Starions were the way to go, even though I found them pretty ugly. I had a friend with one in pieces and a VR4 engine in pieces that he was going to build into it. I bought it off him, and bought a cheap small caravan to put all the parts in (since we were about to buy land and build a house), and there began my Starion dreams!

I since found many photos of nice looking Starions and have actually fell in love with them as a car, but I'm very happy that my original decision was based around their handling, lightness, smallness, suspension setup, and various things like that. I know they're a bit out of date, and not perfect in that regard, but I am always keen to show how competitive and well designed they are.

My first white Starion project actually never went anywhere, because shortly after that I picked up a complete running JB, with a good LSD in it for $1000, and I took that straight into doing drift events. The first white one is actually the one that Enthuzed mentioned that he now has.

Since then I've owned a fairly large number of Starions, and plan to continue to do so!