I'm outta here. Starting Monday I'm no longer the editor of Sport Compact Car. Instead I'm a reader, just like you. But before I go, I want to tell you about my new drift machine.
It's a 1987 Mitsubishi Starion Turbo. I know it's turbocharged because TURBO is written on the backlight, up and down the seatbelts, and on the steering wheel. Welcome to the 1980s.
After lusting for one of these rear-wheel-drive cars since they were new, I spotted a well-preserved example on the 405 Freeway one night on my way home from the office. I followed the guy for a few miles, admiring the car's geometric lines, bulging fenders and deep-dish wheels. It looked great.
When I got home, I decided to see how much turbo Starions, which were sold from 1986-1989 as the Starion ESi and the Chrysler Conquest TSi, were selling for, so I logged on to eBay and typed "starion" in the search box. I found cars selling for $1,000 to $3,000. Even I can afford that.
Next stop, Google, which is where I discovered www.starquestclub.com. There I found more information about Starions than I really wanted to know and a very long list of classifieds. A few e-mails here, a phone call or two there, and the next thing I knew I was on the Interstate 5 northbound headed for Jon Walton's house in Pebble Beach. The guy had a clean and mostly unmolested red, five-speed Starion he wanted out of.
Long story short, I bought the damned thing, if for no other reason than to piss off my wife. I handed Jon, who happens to be an SCC reader, $2,000. He handed me the key to the car, four boxes of spare parts, a Chilton's manual and a hood-scooped hood from a silver 1983 Starion.
The hood, the manual and the boxes of useless junk, like a seized air-conditioning compressor, went in the bed of my buddy Ed's pickup. He would haul them back to L.A. for me in a few days. The Starion and I, however, headed south immediately.
Although it's a longer route, I decided to take Highway 101 the entire way for two reasons: the cooler temperatures along the coast, and 101 has fewer middle-of-nowhere-never-see-another-car-for-two-hours stretches than I-5.
Turned out I didn't have to worry. I bought a good car. It tracks straight, pulls hard in all gears and everything but the oil pressure gauge works. Even the gas gauge is accurate, and the original sound system-cassette player and all-gets the job done. I stopped every 75 miles or so just to check things out. I made it back to L.A. in six hours, safe, sound and smiling.
Since that August day I've improved the Starion a bit. In went a set of Sparco Milano seats from our old Toyota Matrix project car and a leather-wrapped Grant GT steering wheel my buddy Ed had just pulled out of his Chevelle. Then I replaced the clutch master cylinder and installed a Drift Spec shift knob from RAZO and a new set of Tokico Blue dampers. I also spent an afternoon painting the scooped hood flat black and bolting it on.
But the biggest improvement I've made was courtesy of the guys at 9-Second Racing. They hooked me up with an RPS clutch, which I had my friend Tatsu at Tokyo Automotive in Placentia, Calif., install with a lighter (by 12 lbs.) aluminum flywheel from Clutch Specialties in Fullerton, Calif. Now proper burnouts are no problem. When I bought the car it wore spankin' new Yokohamas. They're not so spankin' anymore.
I haven't taken the car drifting yet, but I plan on teaching a few Silvia pilots a thing or two before springtime. I figure I'll live with the Starion's cast-iron single overhead cam lump until it eats itself, which shouldn't be that much longer. Then it's 4G63 time.
Maybe SCC will do a hybrid how-to on that swap, and I could follow along. That is, if I renew my subscription.Late.