Summernats Spotlight: Peter's 1985 Mitsubishi Starion

Of course, we’re all just as big fans of the true wild-elite builds or the latest and baddest burnout car, but sometimes catching up with entrants like Pete and his 1985 Mitsubishi Starion is a true treat. Now I’ll be the first to admit - as a fan of everything golden-age Japanese automotive, the Mitsubishi Starion isn’t something I’d ever really paid much attention to. We speak about the dirty old Nissans, million-horsepower YouTuber Supras and the rotor powered Mazdas all the time, but Mitsubishi’s little four banging pop-up headlight hot hatch is almost a forgotten icon.

That’s not to say it isn’t a bloody cool car, so chatting with Peter and spending a bit of time with the car up close really opened my eyes up to these little ‘80s Japanese cars. It’s not really something you’d be accustomed to seeing at Summernats, and Peter actually brought it to the show because his current project - a VH Valiant has fallen slightly behind schedule (as is the nature of project cars...).

Peter’s owned the car for close to twenty years, and picked it up for a few hundred bucks in much worse condition. He never set out to pick a Starion, but he was studying to become an engine tuner and needed something turbo and fun he could mess with. So began his journey with the car, and through hours of work and a few different iterations, the cars sits today as an extremely tidy, fun and drivable car.

Up the front lies a single-cam 4G63 turbo engine, with a forged bottom end that Peter reckons is capable of up to thirty pounds of boost. It runs RX-7 550cc injectors, and EMS 8860 ECU with a Garrett GTX2863 turbo. It’s a pretty stout little combination, which Peter says makes for awesome fun behind the wheel - he’s even done a few circuit days at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Check out our Summernats Entrant Spotlight feature below and be sure to subscribe to the Performance Garage YouTube channel for more content headed your way!