Chrysler And Mitsubishi Sold A 195-HP Rally Coupe Nine Years Before Subaru
Chrysler and Mitsubishi are two names that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to be associated with one another. But for a brief period in the 1990s, they were. Not only did that joint partnership work surprisingly well, but it also helped create some seriously underappreciated performance cars. What made those performance cars special? Well, it was a bit of input from one of the most exciting motorsports on earth.
Rallying Has Been A Great Breeding Ground For Creating Brilliant Street-Legal Sports Cars
In the time rallying has been around, it has become one of the best breeding grounds for developing high-performance cars and components for street-legal use. Many of the world’s greatest automakers (including Fordd, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota) have used the unique challenges of rallying to create brilliant rally cars whose characteristics translate into street-legal vehicles. Sometimes, those street-legal vehicles actually are basically street versions of those rally cars — they were homologation specials, built specifically so that their automakers could take something incredible to the rally stages.
The Subaru Impreza WRX STi and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Are Usually Credited With Bringing Rally-Bred Performance To The Streets
Of all the special cars that have come out of the world of rallying, some of the most famous have to be from Subaru and Mitsubishi. The Subaru Impreza WRX STi and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution both first appeared in 1992, and both owe their existence to the demands of the World Rally Championship. Subaru pushed that to the ultimate extreme in 1998 by creating the Impreza WRX STi 22B, a 2-door high-performance coupe that’s often regarded as the best rally homologation special of all time.
While the Subaru Impreza STi 22B is great, it was far from the first performance coupe to come out of technology intended for the rally stage. Mitsubishi not only created a rally-derived sports coupe years before the 22B existed, but it also helped spawn two other identical pocket performance monsters.
The First-Generation Mitsubishi Eclipse, The Eagle Talon And The Plymouth Laser Beat Subaru To The Rally Coupe Game
Anyone who’s a fan of the Fast & Furious franchise knows all about the first-generation Mitsubishi Eclipse. It first appeared in 1990, and was a sporty coupe that was genuinely affordable to the masses. Of course, because of that Fast & Furious connection, most people only remember it. The other two models that came along with it (the Eagle Talon and the Plymouth Laser) are often forgotten. That is a real shame, as all three of those cars are identical to each other and therefore just as capable as one another. The only thing that is truly different among these three cars is the badging and the aesthetics. Under the skin, they all use exactly the same platform and mechanical parts. This includes them having the same engines, which is going to become really important later.
This Sporty Trio Was The Result Of A Joint Venture Between Mitsubishi And Chrysler
Why do these triplet coupes exist in the first place? It’s down to a joint venture that was formed between Mitsubishi and Chrysler. This joint venture was called Diamond Star Motors (DSM), and it was formed in 1985. The entire reason why it was formed was so that Mitsubishi could get around some protectionist import legislation in America. At the time, there were voluntary import quotas that not only severely limited how many cars Mitsubishi could sell in the US, but also limited Chrysler’s access to efficient compact cars it could badge-engineer to sell to American customers.
By creating a new company based in America and moving manufacturing for US-market cars to America, those quotas ceased to be a problem. Mitsubishi could sell as many cars as they wanted in North America as long as they built American-market versions of those cars there, and Chrysler could work directly with Mitsubishi to develop new cars.
This arrangement did not last in its original form forever. Mitsubishi sold its stake in DSM to Chrysler in 1991 due to financial troubles. The Plymouth Laser also ended up being discontinued after 1994, due to poor sales. But the Mitsubishi Eclipse and Eagle Talon continued through the ’90s, developing in sync with each other. The Mitsubishi Eclipse also survived as a model until 2011, although those later Eclipses were almost completely different.
Packing An Absolutely Brilliant Turbocharged Engine
As previously discussed, all three of these D-platform coupes had exactly the same engine options. The top-of-the-line when it came to those was the 4G63T. This is a 2-liter turbocharged inline-4, producing 190 hp in front-wheel-drive models and 195 horsepower in all-wheel-drive models. Those all-wheel-drive versions are the true performance monsters out of the sporty triplets. The Eagle Talon TSi AWD was recorded with a 0-60 mph time of just 6.6 seconds.
This turbocharged engine and all-wheel-drive system is where the rally engineering in these cars comes through. The 4G63T was also used in the first generation of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Its use in the Lancer Evolution helped to give rise to some incredible builds that included heavily modifying the engine. Tuners quickly discovered that these engines were so robust they could handle 1,000 hp or more, and plenty of people wasted no time in making that happen. Combined with that rally car-style all-wheel drive, any car equipped with this engine and powertrain is capable of outrunning even supercars.
Embarrassing More Prestigious Cars For A More Affordable Price
That impressive 0-60 mph time for an affordable 1990s sports coupe (the all-wheel-drive version of the Eagle Talon TSi retailed for around $16,500 in 1991) made it a real contender against more prestigious and expensive cars. In fact, it could outright embarrass some of the more prestigious European options. It was on a par with the Fox Body Ford Mustang GT in terms of its acceleration, and it could actually out-accelerate the E30-generation BMW 325iX. The latter is especially impressive when you consider that the BMW cost twice as much as the Eagle Talon TSi AWD.
These Japanese-American Triplets Are Known To Have Some Reliability Issues
These cars may be impressive in general, but they are not perfect. The non-turbocharged 4G63 engines are known to have major reliability problems. Certain 1996-1999 cars with these engines can suffer from thrust-bearing wear on the crankshafts (known as “crankwalk”). They can also suffer from ECU capacitor leakages, and rust on the rockers and strut towers. These reliability issues should not be a deterrent, as there is still strong aftermarket support for parts and repairs. But it is worth keeping in mind if you are considering buying one of these.
These Cars Can Still Be Bargains On The Used Market
As noted, these cars were never particularly expensive to begin with. So, they’re often still quite cheap to buy on the used market. This low-mileage 1992 Eagle Talon TSi sold for $14,250 in August 2025—not necessarily the cheapest option available, but certainly affordable enough for the average enthusiast to acquire a great example of one of the turbocharged variants. If turbocharged performance is not a priority, a 1.8-liter base-model Eclipse can be had for a remarkably low price. This 1992 example, also with low miles, also sold in August 2025 for just $3,750.
Tastefully Modified Examples Are Starting To Command Collector Car Values
As cars favored by the tuner community, these are among the few where tasteful modifications can actually increase the used value. Modded examples can be so valuable, in fact, that they’re fetching the kind of prices you’d expect collectors to pay. As an example of how extreme this can go, one modified 1992 Eagle Talon TSi AWD sold for $46,000 in September 2022. Another modified Talon TSi AWD (a 1990 example this time) sold for a more reasonable $26,000 in February 2024.
Sources: Bring A Trailer, Eagle, JDB Buy Sell, Mitsubishi, MotorTrend, Plymouth
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