Group A Mitsubishi Colt Starion Turbo

[BILTEL]

Does anybody have any pictures or info on the Group A Starions? I've heard of several tales on how they did well in Japan and that they flew for the first few laps on any Silverstone event that Dave Brodie entered.

[KA]

Originally Posted by BILTEL

Does anybody have any pictures or info on the Group A Starions? I've heard of several tales on how they did well in Japan and that they flew for the first few laps on any Silverstone event that Dave Brodie entered.

The BTCC Starion programme ran from mid-1983 to 1985, with a single car for Dave Brodie. A second car ran at a couple of races in 85 (the GP supports) for Vern Schuppan and Kunimitsu Takahashi, plus an appearance at the TT for Brodie/Schuppan- started from pole and finihsed 5th I think.

Mitsubushi UK pulled the plug on support for the programme at the end of 85, and a car appeared occasionally for Brodie in selected BTCC rounds, particuarly the GP supports in 86/7. I think there was at least one race win in 86, also another TT outing, shared this time with Barry Sheene- the car backed by Philips on this occasion. I think the last appearance for the Brodie Starion was the last round at Silverstone in 87, when it was leased by historic racer Chris Aylett.

Factory-backed cars ran in Japan and Australia as well up to 1988- Brodie appeared at least once in Japan and at Macau, I think in Japanese-run cars. There were also several privateer Starions in Australia, and I think one in Germany around 1985-ish, in what became the DTM

The Starion returned to the BTCC in 1990, in non-turbo form-one car built to the new 2-litre BTCC regs, run by John Maguire Racing for Mark Hales, with Firestone sponsorship (Firestone had backed a production saloon Starion programme for Hales previously- the Starion had been a fairly popular car in production saloons, notably in the hands of Colin Blower)

Ive got photos of the Brodie/Sheene car at the 86 TT, and the Mark Hales
car in 1990- they're not great pics, but I'll scan them and post them later

[BILTEL]

Superb!!

Thank you, you're very well informed. I've got a Japanese video of the cars running in Japan. BBR supplied some trick parts including magnesium wheels. The wheels weren't very strong and were replaced after 1 round. This ties in with the video.

I look forward to the pictures.

[T-Man]

in the DPM (which became the DTM in 86) Robert Friedrich jr. entered a Starion for the 84 and 85 seasons.

There are a couple of strange things about that car.
- Its the only LHD Grp. A Starion I know of.
- It also had a cooling opening on the hood, which none of the other cars seem to have.
- A big "boxy" thing which was most likely the part where the License plate should be attached to

It was a solid performer, but nothing to special.

[KA]

Until I find my pics, I've found these on the Frank de Jong Touring Car history site-

Brodie/Sheene, 1986 TT- as I remember they had car problems at the beginning of the race, missed the start and finished many laps down
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...lverstone.html

the German car at the Nurburgring, 1984- I don't know anything about this one...
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...%20Sprint.html

Bathurst 85
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...0Bathurst.html

[GBRM]

I think you'll find the main problem was a little light, called the boost light, kept disappearing or re-appearing when it shouldn't and then the Sierra Cosworth appeared *legally* and that killed the Colt.

[KA]

Originally Posted by GBRM

I think you'll find the main problem was a little light, called the boost light, kept disappearing or re-appearing when it shouldn't and then the Sierra Cosworth appeared *legally* and that killed the Colt.

I remember there being a fair amount of this in Porduction saloons, and not just with Starions... There was some fuss about the presence of an intercooler on the BTCC car at some point I think....?

[Al Weyman]

You will see a couple out in CTCRC racing this season if you are interested, not sure if they have any BTCC history though although I do know one of our lads is bringing out the ex-ETCC Toyota Supra (maybe that one in the picture) with us in 2008 as he told me at the club do last weekend.

[rallycrosscraig]

didnt one of these in production saloons regularly get accused of running too high boost but this could never be proven until finally the scrutineers discovered a hidden boost controller, wired up to the cigarette lighter or something similar?

no wonder the Capri's couldnt catch them!

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

You will see a couple out in CTCRC racing this season if you are interested, not sure if they have any BTCC history though although I do know one of our lads is bringing out the ex-ETCC Toyota Supra (maybe that one in the picture) with us in 2008 as he told me at the club do last weekend.

Sorry just been corrected by the owned the Toyota is an ex-Prod Saloon!

[chunterer]

The 2.0 turbo Starion was a great little car that, if Colt Cars Japan had given Colt GB and Dave Brodie some more financial and mechanical ,support the car would have absolutely cleaned up in BTCC prior to the Sierras arriving on the scene!

When it ran cleanly even relatively early in its Group A life in 1984 it easily matched the Rouse and TWR Vitesses on pace but was ever so fragile. The last truly competive outing the Starion had anywhere was probably in The Brode's hands at the '87 British GP event where he had a tremedous battle with Sytner's new BMW M3 for much of the race and kept eventual winner Win Percy's Rouse entered Cosworth in sight for much of it too.

As KA referred to Brodie also ran abroad, he was part of a 2 car team at Macau with Kevin Bartlett in '84 and possibly also '85, alhough Schuppan also had outings.

Bartlett was the main Starion exponent in Australia. I don't know if his car was built from scratch or whether it was sourced from Brodie or from Japan. I think Gary Scott and Japanese Touring car regualr; Akahiko Nakaya also pedalled cars in both ATCC and Enduro rounds in Oz too.

[GBRM]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The 2.0 turbo Starion was a great little car that, if Colt Cars Japan had given Colt GB and Dave Brodie some more financial and mechanical ,support the car would have absolutely cleaned up in BTCC prior to the Sierras arriving on the scene!

When it ran cleanly even relatively early in its Group A life in 1984 it easily matched the Rouse and TWR Vitesses on pace but was ever so fragile. The last truly competive outing the Starion had anywhere was probably in The Brode's hands at the '87 British GP event where he had a tremedous battle with Sytner's new BMW M3 for much of the race and kept eventual winner Win Percy's Rouse entered Cosworth in sight for much of it too.

As KA referred to Brodie also ran abroad, he was part of a 2 car team at Macau with Kevin Bartlett in '84 and possibly also '85, alhough Schuppan also had outings.

Bartlett was the main Starion exponent in Australia. I don't know if his car was built from scratch or whether it was sourced from Brodie or from Japan. I think Gary Scott and Japanese Touring car regualr; Akahiko Nakaya also pedalled cars in both ATCC and Enduro rounds in Oz too.

Brodie would have been a bit more successful but he didn't help himself with various "technical" irregularities.

Colin Blower was great in Prod Saloons, it seemed financially BF Goodrich did a great deal with him and financially he could have gone into Touring Cars but didn't for "some reason" and then there were people like Graham "Skid" Scarborough and Andy McLennan, both very good in Prod Saloons (and Andy in Classics) who dabbled in Group 1 but never quite happened.

From my memeory and letters I have the whole Colt Cars thing in the mid '80s was and could have been very good but it seemed Colt were a little slow to react and cars were a bit short in supply.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Bartlett was the main Starion exponent in Australia. I don't know if his car was built from scratch or whether it was sourced from Brodie or from Japan. I think Gary Scott and Japanese Touring car regualr; Akahiko Nakaya also pedalled cars in both ATCC and Enduro rounds in Oz too.

KB prepared and drove the works Australian Starion's in 1984 and 1985.

In 1984 he ran a car in production car racing (as Australia didn't go Group A properly until 1985, Brian Sampson also did this with his private Starion, as did Colin Bond with his works Alfa GTV6), and upgraded it to Group A specs for the 1984 Bathurst 1000 where he shard with Peter McKay (There was a Group A class in this event), though he ran into scruiteneering issues as he presented the car in 1985 specs, which wasn't legal.....

In 1985 Bartlett continued with a single car in the ATCC, but despite an attrition-assisted 3rd at the opeing round at Winton, the car was quite uncompetitive, and the team pulled out mid-season to regroup.

They reappeared at the Sandown 500 with two cars, for Bartlett/McKay and Peter Fitzgerald/Brad Jones. The same pairings combined at Bathurst, Bartlett/Mckay coming home in 9th. The other car crashed out on Mountain Straight on lap 1 after an altercation with Alf Grant's Commodore.

After 1985 Mitsubishi Australia withdrew their support. Kevin Bartlett would continue running a private Starion at various touring car races in Australia though throughout 1986 and 1987.

Brad Jones ran two rounds of the 1986 ATCC, in from what i can gather was at best a 'works blessed' entry, though for the Bathurst 1000 the Japanese works team ran the cars for himself & Akihiko Nakaya.

It gets abit murky after that as far as the works involvement Mitsubishi had in Australia, cars were run in 1987, 1988 and 1989 in what appeared to be at worst semi-works efforts, though some might be better informed to comment on this

[BILTEL]

This is fantastic!!!

[Jesper OH]

http://starion.mrbdesign.com.au/main.html This is a link to pictures of group A Starions. Never seen the wide body version before. The caption says Sallard, and I'm guessing Oran Park.

http://amagawa.hp.infoseek.co.jp/88-GroupAR6.html from the All Japan series.

I think the Starion is a case of a missed opportunity, since it had the basic fundament of the later Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth. From Australian sources I get the feeling Mitsubishi was overtly slow in homologating new parts, and gradually the Starion got left behind.

In Japan Mitsubishi took three outright victories – first at Tsukuba ’86 and the two opening rounds of the ’87 championship. I’m surprised that no privateers ever entered the Starion in Japan, at least to my knowledge.

Jesper

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by racer69

KB prepared and drove the works Australian Starion's in 1984 and 1985.

They reappeared at the Sandown 500 with two cars, for Bartlett/McKay and Peter Fitzgerald/Brad Jones.

Brad Jones ran two rounds of the 1986 ATCC, in from what i can gather was at best a 'works blessed' entry, though for the Bathurst 1000 the Japanese works team ran the cars for himself & Akihiko Nakaya.

Thanks racer69, Jones is the guy I was thinking of not Scott. Gary was Nissan driver wasn't he!

[William Dale Jr]

No, you were right. Scott was dropped by Nissan at the end of '86 when they had the problem of three talented drivers not fitting into two seats, despite the fact that he had been that year's Bathurst pole-sitter. He was then picked up by Brock for an abortive ATCC season, missing several rounds after destroying the hallowed #05 Commodore during testing at Lakeside, before being let go by the team before the final round of the ATCC. Scott then took over lead driving duties in the factory-supported Mitsubishi squad as Brad Jones fell out of favour.

[chunder]

Dont foreget also that Hales drove an atmospheric Starion in the 2 litere formula, and that one was the wwide body car that would ahve been an awesome turbo car.

I think that Mitsubish were one of the first manufactureres to use ECU's to copntrol a lot of the engine, their Lancer 2000 in WRC was certainly the first car to do so. hence you can maybe understand why teh BTCC cars were so unreliable, the engine and probably tyhe electronics were no doubt similar.

I do think that the wide body car could have been an awesome BTCC car, but didnt they go big capacity later on with a 2.6 litre low boost car or something?? (on road that is)

[Jesper OH]

The 2.6 was even homologated in group A. #A5317 was the 2555 cc x 1.4 = 3577 cc Starion 2600 Turbo (A187A). This would have made it a 1185 kg car in '87 - a 150 more than the 2.0. By 1988 this would have been 1260 kg, so no wunder this version wasn't excatly videspread. Actually I have never heard on any competition use of this car.

Jesper

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunder

Dont foreget also that Hales drove an atmospheric Starion in the 2 litere formula, and that one was the wwide body car that would ahve been an awesome turbo car.

The Hales 2-litre 'widebody'- Brands Hatch 1990

[chunder]

Cool i remember that car, was probably the best Mitsu ever did in BTCC the Lancer was awful and teh Galaant was not too bad, I think there were a few rounds where the Starion was on good form, wasnt it 1990?

Starion was also a handy rally tool, Pentti won a few rallies in a Ralliary one and the Grou S 4wd car was decent car in South East Asia I think? Maybe a lot of teh Lancer/Gamant development work was done on that car too?

[Al Weyman]

I also heard from a reliable Japanese source that the car was in fact a Colt Stallion (which make sence when you think about it) but our japanese cousins could not pronounce the word 'Stallion' welly well and it was introduced as the Starion, now how true this is I don't know but it is as I was told :-).

[Al Weyman]

I raced against the one entered in ModProds a few times owned and raced by a variety of people and I do know one thing, it had a tendancy to step out voilently from the rear if the power was put in a tad too quickly and I see it go off a few times. I remember just sitting on its tail and hussling the driver a bit knowing full well what would happen and it invariably did, thank you :-).

[bdwoody]

al you are dead right there i saw the very same car do the same thing at lydden chased by a pug 205.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr

No, you were right. Scott was dropped by Nissan at the end of '86 when they had the problem of three talented drivers not fitting into two seats, despite the fact that he had been that year's Bathurst pole-sitter. He was then picked up by Brock for an abortive ATCC season, missing several rounds after destroying the hallowed #05 Commodore during testing at Lakeside, before being let go by the team before the final round of the ATCC. Scott then took over lead driving duties in the factory-supported Mitsubishi squad as Brad Jones fell out of favour.

Thanks William, I thought my memory was playing up!!!! (correction, no, it is!) I remember reading reports and seeing highlights on telly and formed the impression that Gary was a good driver but got shafted by this team and that and it kinda fell away for him career wise. The Mobil HDT thing was a disaster I guess, but he was certainly quick in the Skylines and the Starion IIRC?

And chunder you make some interesting comments on the 'atmo' cars which unfortunately never really made any impression in the BTCC. I thought at the time that Ralliart /Mitsubishi UKmight get behind the Galant and develop it more for Class 2/Super Touring but they didn't bother and therefore it was a backmarker even with Mark Hales skills at the wheel. Shame but they always fancied rallying more than racing.