Group A Mitsubishi Colt Starion Turbo

[Redzone]

Also, one thing that has always bothered me, was that they had a dash 12V widebody version in Japan, in narrow and wide configurations, these cars had a lot more power and revability than the normal starions, but for some reason were never homologated even though that engine was developed originally for the group B rally cars. Typical Mits, they still had that stinking single point injection!! The dash widebody cars were only a small production run though of 25 cars.. They did make a large number of GSR-V dash narrowbody cars though.

[Redzone]

Some more detail pics of the number 5 Nakaya car:

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=558

[GTRMagic]

So where has it been sitting to gather so much surface rust underneath?

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by Redzone

The widebody car was tested at Oran Park track back in the day and supposedly found to be slower than the narrowbody cars, i think this might have had a lot to do with the fact it was a 2.6 car and carried weight penalties accordingly!

I was there the day they tested it. I can't remember why i was there or who i was with, but i remember the car. It looked very impressive and I remember looking forward to seeing KB race it. I don't know if they ever did. Was it a 16v twin cam?

[Redzone]

Nope this car was a 2.6L turbo with single point injection.. There is a rumour it was raced in group A in Macau but i dont think that's ever been proven..

Steve who i mentioned previously almost bought the car from Mr Saillard but backed out when he upped the price at the last minute..

The Nakaya car has been sitting in mitsu's museum i believe, not sure about the surface rust!

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Redzone

Nope this car was a 2.6L turbo with single point injection.. There is a rumour it was raced in group A in Macau but i dont think that's ever been proven

Never come across this info before. If it did do Macau it would surely have been the engine in normal bodied chassis?

Don't recall a wide body car competing there.

[BILTEL]

All good pics!!!!!!!!

[Redzone]

nakaya car interior:



saillard car interior, note manual windows in a widey!!



nakaya car detail:



nakaya car cage:



craig's car at bathurst 12 hr earlier this year:

[Redzone]

Mark Boxsell's site:

http://starion.mrbdesign.com.au/

has some interesting info down the bottom about group A starions, stating that the saillard widey was a jap build, which makes sense looking at the interior shot and comparing it to the Nakaya car interior shot..

[darren2012]

was Dave Brodie planning to do the 1986 European Touring Car Championship with Barry Sheene as co-driver possibly Kevin Bartlett joining the team for the Spa 24 hours as the third driver with Brodie and Sheene or if Brodie were to get a sponsorship deal for a 2 car full season ETCC assault with Bartlett and Nakaya in the second car with Colin Blower doing the BTCC possibly doing 3 ETCC races the 2 British rounds with a third car with Brad Jones co-driving also co-driving with Sheene and Brodie at Spa while Bartlett and Nakaya would be joined by Brad Jones at the Spa 24 hours

[KA]

No idea what Brodie's original plans for 1986 were, but they were left high and dry in the end.

There certainly seemed to have been an effort to ramp up the scale of the Brodie Starion programme in 1985 with second cars at the British GP support and the final BTCC round, the TT entry (and IIRC the TT entry list featured two Starions, although only one showed in the end), plus the trip to Fuji and Macau at the end of the year.
Could the intention have been either a two-car BTCC team, or a full-time ETC entry for 1986?

Sheene had also been left without a drive after Toyota GB pulled their backing of the Hughes Celica Supra, but presumably any plans with Brodie would have depended on a sponsor to finance it- something that didn't really materialise until Philips came on board for the TT.

It certainly seemed surprising at the time that an almost full-season programme that had been a front-running proposition, second only to the dominant Rouse XR4Ti in '85 should turn into nothing more than an occasional entry when Brodie could scrape together some sponsorship in 1986/7...

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by Starion 1990

I now have the car exactly as it last ran in the BTCC.

I'm working on this car for rFactor, what power did it make and what did it weigh in 1990?

[Redzone]

Bit of an update, i had a chat with KB a few weeks ago about starions. He ran the 2.6 widebody in testing at oran park but as we suspected it was slower than the narrowbody cars due to the 150KG weight penalty that it carried. Why they didnt at least homologate the 2.0 euro spec widebody is beyond me, they sold thousands of them, so they would have been eligible.

The Delcourt/Moore LHD customer car from bathurst 85 was used by KB at Amaroo in 86, however it was sold overseas afterwards, the yellow hella car must have been one of the ralliart livery cars repainted, i suspect this one became the sutherland mitsubishi dulux car, that's only a hunch though. I am on the trail of the silver car, I now have the contact details for the apparent current owner, if it all comes together there may be a group A gemini for sale! It has been modified from group A spec but has apparently not been cut up.

Bob Riley apparently has a car in a shipping container, also the Sutherland car is still owned by the dealer principle of Sutherland Mitsubishi. I'm hoping to head to MCM this year in sydney and maybe have a look and take some pics. It's a shame these cars are locked away, maybe they will be out on the track again one day!

ps the Coltspeed car is owned still by Ron Masing, his son was racing it in historic group A but blew the engine up, and it's been sitting unrepaired for a couple of years now...