eBay find of the Day: Clarkson's Cheap Car Challenge Mitsubishi Starion [w/VIDEO]
Jeremy Clarkson's Mitsubishi Starion - click above image for high-res gallery
Oh, yes. Think back to when you first really fell in love with Top Gear. For this author, it was actually the Cheap Porsche Challenge. But it may as well have been the Cheap Coupes That Aren't Porsches Challenge that came later. To refresh your memory a bit, May shows up in a hopeless smoking and leaking Jaguar XJ-S. Hammond brings a BMW 635 CSi, which is... fine, though a touch predictable.
But Clarkson shows up in an honest-to-goodness Mitsubishi Starion, complete with a muscular 2.6-liter turbocharged four and gaffer tape holding the rear louvers in place. The boys then bang the cars around the Millbrook Proving Ground before finally grinding the cars to dust in a grass track race. Better still, if you have the quids, the once was red, but now is Mitsubishi Rally livery Starion could be yours.
The seller actually sold the car to Clarkson, then bought it back after the segment was finished in 2005. As Jeremy points out in the clip, this is the last Starion ever registered in Britain. Not only that, but since the BBC show taping, the seller has rebuilt the engine, added a new clutch, redone the cooling system, retuned the suspension and even performed a little bit of body restoration. Still not convinced? Jezza signed the roof of the Mitsu, "this is the best car in the world, Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear." Very nice, and remember: Must Bash Hammond. Watch the Cheap Coupes That Aren't Porsches Challenge segment after the jump, and hurry up – you don't have long to get your bid in.
Gallery: Jeremy Clarkson's Mitsubishi Starion
[Source: eBay via Final Gear]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
inline6 10:37AM (8/06/2009)
All that's great, except that it lost the challenge to an early-80s XJS-HE driven by Captain Slow.
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A strolling player 12:11PM (8/06/2009)
Let's be honest, though. The numbers winner is NEVER the car you'd want to take home.
Remember when James won with an Austin Princess?
Bobmarley 10:39AM (8/06/2009)
Great car!
Somebody needs to buy this asap!!!...
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/cto/1260589092.html
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Yar 10:42AM (8/06/2009)
These challenges are the best part of Top Gear. Sure, super cars power-sliding 'round the track is pretty awesome, but everybody expects a Ferrari to be entertaining. These segments show that cars in general are awesome, even cheap ones.
Still makes me sick watching people kill off their old (and sometimes good) cars for a $4500 voucher.
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Kaveh 10:46AM (8/06/2009)
Oh, I remember he put a bigger turbo in it, and it kepted overheating during the race. I wonder if they kepted the turbo and put a bigger intercooler in it.
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nighttime__ 10:47AM (8/06/2009)
This was from my favourite episode of Top gear! 2nd only to the Vietnam special :)
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Shiftright 11:19AM (8/06/2009)
I loved these cars! In white, much like the '82-'86 Supra, they looked like Storm Troopers...
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StPaulGuru 11:50AM (8/06/2009)
To this day, I still miss my Chrysler Conquest (Rebadged Starion). I had a 88 that gave me nothing but problems, but I still loved how fast it was.
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Iwa 11:31AM (8/06/2009)
The Starions were such great cars, when I was a kid my mom had the Plymouth version. I have fond memories of her 1984 Plymouth Conquest.
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ndcart 11:41AM (8/06/2009)
Ahhh yes, I had an '89 white Chrysler Conquest in High School. This car was a little ahead of it's time, but man was it fun to drive. All my buddies seemed to think so too. I got reports from parents that my car was doing donuts in the local parking lots! :) To bad I killed three engines in it. Ending up letting it go after the last engine. None of the mechanics around here would even work on them anymore, due to how crappy the engines were. Did get it up to 130mph one day, and it was still going. Good times!!!
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Slick Johnson 11:50AM (8/06/2009)
Crack Pipe.
Wait, what?
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VeeArrrSix 12:57PM (8/06/2009)
+1
alfaBAT9 12:26PM (8/06/2009)
Still to this day, a fantastic looking sports car. The Fiero wishes it was this cool..
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Brad 2:31PM (8/06/2009)
I had quite a few Conquests as demos back in my early years. The first one was a '84 model with the Technica option package. It had a female voice for all of the reminders along with a bar graph for the tach, I think.
I had one of the first intercooled models before they came out with the Tsi with the flared fenders and different sized tires. Of course I had a few Tsi models also. One in black, one in bright red, and an automatic one in the maroon color the offered. The automatic one I hated because the reast were always manuals.
The worst thing about the Tsi models were those front spoilers. People were constantly breaking them on dips in the road and curbs. My brother broke two sets of spoilers on his demo.
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