Pity the turbocharger. Today, nobody seems to care about it; it’s as ubiquitous as tire valve stem caps. Virtually any car or truck you buy comes standard with some sub-two-liter engine packing at least one if not two blowers and pumps out over 200 horses and gets 35mpg.
That wasn’t always the case. Once it was the magic cure-all for performance during the dark days of the malaise era, offering extra power for seemingly little pain at the pump. Just the world TURBO took on a magical power that transcended the automotive world.
Any of you own a hairdryer or room fan with those letters emblazoned on it? You aren’t alone.
The exhaust-driven blower was an innovation to be celebrated on any car that featured it under the hood. It was almost illegal to produce an early eighties car with such aspiration and not put at least a few TURBO logos on it somewhere. However, some cars were more TURBO festooned than others.
In much of the talk of classic Japanese sports coupes, the poor Mitsubishi Starion (and rebadged Chrysler Conquest) gets forgotten. This slick replacement for the Sapporo (also controversially branded as a Dodge Challenger) only came with a four cylinder, which seemed on paper to put it at a disadvantage next to its better-known competitors like the straight-six Toyota Supra and Datsun Z (which was later a V6) or the twin rotor Mazda RX-7. Ah, but the Starion had the magic power of TURBO, and it was going to let you know that, though it did so in rather subtle and odd ways. One version of the Mitsubishi coupe had nearly fifty TURBO logos that, surprisingly, many people might have missed.
When it debuted in 1982, the forced induction version of the Starion had your typical-for-the-eighties rocker panel area logo on the side to tell the world that you was about to hit the boost:
By 1984, Mitsubishi became shy for some reason backed off on the Turbo broadcasting…
…and relegated the TURBO logo to the door handles (as you can see in this Collecting Cars listing), where only the driver and passengers would know about your secret performance weapon.
They even put in what has to be the most subdued TURBO markings ever on a car; you can barely read the ones on these headrest supports.
For 1986, the Starion sprouted big Porsche 944-style fender extensions for a much more aggressive look. By now, seemingly none of the external TURBO markings remained, but on the inside the logos went viral. The question was, where did they appear?
No, it’s not the seat upholstery. That’s just unmarked black leather.
No, Mitsubishi chose to put TURBO insignias on the seats belts. That’s right; you can throw your turbo Z-cars and Supras out there all day, but did THEY have TURBO on a reel that appeared every time you buckled up? I think not.
How many logos could there be? Well, up front I can see like five there (plus one TUR), so assuming that this thing would need to retract to around twice that length we’re talking about ten logos, times two sides of each belt, times passenger’s belt for a total of at least forty TURBOs.
That’s not fifty though, right? No, but you’re forgetting about the BACK SEAT. That’s right, the pitiful 2+2 rear perches also give you TURBO branding which has to push that total TURBO count way past the fifty mark. Regardless, it has the competition left in the dust as far as Turboness goes. Hands down.
Am I wrong? Is there a car out there that packs more pure TURBO logo power than this mighty Mitsu? Let me know.
topshot source: Bring A Trailer
always loved the starion
My first new car, an ’87 Mirage Turbo had diagonal red lines on its black cloth seats, and between the lines was red lettering saying TURBO TURBO TURBO TURBO TURBO TURBO TURBO… a thousand times. It was far and away my least favorite thing about the car. That fabric wore through to bare foam in about three years also.
Oh that has to exceed the Starion, I’m counting 22 visible on the driver seat (so 44 on the front), and on the steering wheel. It’s also on the back seats with is easily another 15 each for another 30. Plus it seems the rockers and hatch, that’s an easy 78 turbos.
Colt2d.jpg (1245×731)
Turbo is a lot cooler than “ABS” or some of the other lame badges GM put on their 80s cars.
The cutoff seatbelt “TUR” is actually short for “TURD.” It’s an Easter egg to make sure you’re paying attention.
I always thought the star quests were awesome looking cars
They were truly mitsu-bitchin’.
Yes, I had that hyphenated word on my license plate frame.
Ignorant people would ask me where the button was. You know, the turbo button.
I’ve told this story before but here goes again:
In ’87 Mom was looking to trade in her Pontiac Phoenix for a Chrysler New Yorker. While we were on the lot I wandered off and saw this sleek white sportscar with maroon velvet interior, a speedometer that went up to 150mph, and it said “TURBO TURBO TURBO” all over the seatbelts!!! Long story short, 11yo me managed to talk Mom and Dad into that Conquest and the rest is history. Later my dad bought a black one, wrecked that and gave it to me and went out and bought a red one, so at that time we owned 3 StarQuests.
Also, that ’86 from the BaT listing has an ’88-’89 front chin spoiler.
I’m jelly. I unsuccessfully attempted to get my dad to buy all sorts of fun cars, with the last being a 1993 FD Rx7 in red.
At the dealership we looked at before that they had 2 Fiat X1-9 Bertones sitting next to the New Yorker. I tried to talk Mom into that but she pointed out we wouldn’t all fit in a 2 seater. I pointed out that they had 2 on the lot, she could drive one and Dad would drive the other and all 4 of us would fit! It seemed perfectly logical to 11yo me but she didn’t go for it. Luckily the Conquest was a 5 seater.
Perfect logic!
Yo dawg I heard you liked turbos…
The headline could use another TURBO at the end.
the headliner could also use turbo written on it
Put those seatbelts in a Saab 99 TURBO for ALL THE TURBO!
I was in high school and very poor back then. I really liked this car and just did not understand why more people did not buy more of them or other cars like the Dodge Omni GLH and GLH-S.
I also thought they were cool. I miss zippy little coupes being a normal part of each company’s offerings.
Totally, I am starting to shop for my kid’s to replace their kia soul and there is just no any fun little hot hatches anymore.
Do you want a Rav4 in light gray or dark gray….
shutter, no thanks, too boring.
You get a turbo and you get a turbo. You all get Turbos!*
*(Turbo logos that is)
Oh Mitsubishi, how far you have fallen! ????
Have they fallen this badly outside the states also? Tis sad their line is what 2 cross overs now?
I had to check the internet and found:
Haha yeesh yeah shows you how unrecognizable they are when they sell 4 vehicles but they all seem the same. At least with something like Fjord (couple years ago it was different for them and I couldn’t tell an escape from an edge) I can tell the difference between their current lineup. But most brands yeah I cannot tell the difference between their small/mid size cross overs.
And now cars that don’t even have a turbo have turbo badging.
Looking at you, Porsche Taycan…
A bit like the new Mercedesses with the stars everywhere..
Can we count the infamous turbo tattoo that’s actually an alternator?
Only if he drove one of these.
As the resident Starion/Conquest expert ’round these parts, I’ll add my two (federally discontinued) cents:
Starion’s were the graphically intense of the twins separated-at-ocean. They also had large TURBO script across the top of the rear glass for a few years here in the states (can’t remember which years). Graphics packages were widely varied based on the continent of purchase.
1985.5 saw the introduction of an intercooled turbocharged setup, which of course warranted a whole new graphics package including new TURBO Intercooler side moldings. I believe the widebody 1986 was the last time you could get those door handles with the TURBO script.
The absolute worst part about all these TURBO badges, the actual turbo boost gauge didn’t actually read boost pressure! I can’t find the reference right now, but basically it only reads out the MAF sensor airflow. Most guys rig an actual boost gauge in its place since it’s not accurate in the slightest.
For other Mitsubishi madness: in the early 1980s, Mitsubishi actually copied the BMW 2002 Turbo’s reverse air dam script for their Colt Lancer EX 2000 Turbo rally homologation, which was the first car with the now-venerable 4G63 (albeit SOHC).
I think if I found that out after buying, I would firebomb the car and the dealer who sold it to me. There’s false advertising, and then there’s that crime…
I had a boss that would walk over to my desk, reach down and hit the turbo button on my PC and say “there, you should be able to get your work done faster now.” I always thought that was passive aggressive perfection.
Not only passive aggressive, it actually made the computer slower. It lowered the clock speed from 8MHz (or faster on clones) to 5Mhz for 8088 emulation. This was mostly for games that were frame limited by the clock speed of the processor, as things like PFS Write or Lotus 123 didn’t care what frequency your CPU was running at.
Was he laughing when he said it? My boss would be dumb enough to think that was really a thing.
Nothing says productivity like TPS reports turned in on time.
Ah! Yeah. It’s just we’re putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that’d be great. All right!
So THAT’S what the turbo button is for!
So you don’t have to come in on Saturday. Or Sunday.
What? Of course you do! We fired Frank and Hank so we need you to take over their TPS reports!
And before you ask no, you do not get overtime. Your an exempt salaried employee. A raise? In THIS economy?
Not right now, Lumbergh, I’m kinda busy. In fact, look, I’m gonna have to ask you to just go ahead and come back another time. I got a meeting with the Bobs in a couple of minutes.
Uh, yeah, we’re gonna need to move your desk downstairs into Storage B. Since you’ll already be down there, it would be great if you could get a can of pesticide and take care of the cockroach problem we’ve been having in there, m’kay?
Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler…
Your stapler AND your matches. You can have the matches back just as soon as the eight figure insurance policy I took out on the building kicks in.
I’m keeping the stapler though.
The “turbo” button on mine only turned on the green light above the turbo button.
Way, way back on my first software-based computer program for Mfg Engr writing instructions to the shop was on a custom-built system (this was in 1980 +/- a couple of years at Boeing Aerospace). Some bigwig came though and as the button was being pushed asked “what does this button do?”. It shuts down the system (you dolt). To reset we had to have two people pushing buttons and switches on two floors on the phone to each other.
Loved the Turbo in my 1990 Probe GT. When that thing spooled up you were in for a ride.
But I don’t remember if it had any.turbo logos on it. Surely it must have.
I had a ’89 Mazda 626 Touring with the turbo engine (same one as in the Probe and MX6) and it had one tiny sticker on the back informing you it was a turbo, I dimly recall maybe the Probe had something similar? At the time I thought it was pretty cheesy I entertained scraping it off and grabbing a Turbo badge off of a junkyard Saab to replace it. Fortunately never did and stupidly sold the car too soon. With the open diff I accidentally smoked the tires more than once on that car, in champagne paint it was quite a sleeper. I remember a truck full of rodeo bros wide eyed anger when at a stoplight drag I not only roasted the front tire(s) but left their truck in the dust racing to the next light.
Those 2.2 turbos were incredible. My mom actually had the NA version in her 88 626. It wasn’t a dog, but boy did those turbos wake that engine up.
I once beat a Porsch of the era in a totally legal and in no way sketchy street drag between lights. Dude was shocked.
That’s awesome I’ll bet he was pissed haha. One other foolish exploit, but on a wide flat stretch of freeway in rural Montana coming out of a mountain pass so subtle downhill I was able to get the Mazda up to an indicated 126 mph, that thing could pull. Always wondered if that motor’s hp was a bit under rated.
I seem to recall reading that it actually was underrated at 145hp and 190 lbs of torque. It really did feel like a hell of a lot more and yeah, breaking the front wheels free was easy peasy.
I traded that car in on a 2000 Jeep XJ and got peanuts for it. Should have kept it in hindsight. I did end up hanging onto the Jeep for over 20 years though.
Ha you and I have similar taste in cars, while not a replacement for the Mazda I owned both a ’89 XJ and a ’96, the ’96 was a 4.0 w/ 5mt in dark green that I stupidly traded in on a Hyundai at my then girlfriend’s urging. Definitely is in my personal pantheon of best cars I’ve owned.
I loved my XJ. It was hands down the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned. I put 220,000 trouble free miles on it that includes some serious offroading and regularly towing trailers. All I ever did was change the oil and filters and change the transmission fluid every so often. I finally decided to sell it because all the plastic in the engine bay was brittle to the point it would shatter if you sneezed on it. It still ran perfectly so I got a great price. Still miss it sometimes.
I now have a new dream car. Turbo’d every kind of way and it’s glorious.
You can buy decals. I wanted to turbo up my CRV but my wife wouldn’t let me. She also pointed out that anonymity is part of the reason we settled on that dumb car. So I live vicariously through you–go forth and turbo!
Second time today I get to mention it! Judas Priest’s classic album Turbo (and hit single Turbo Lover) is named precisely b/c of that era’s turbo labeling ubiquity. I think Rob Halford has said he owned a vacuum with TURBO on it.
Perhaps the only thing more mid-80s that a turbo logo would be a pair of medium gray parachute pants.
Parachute pants…. there was a style that came and went very quickly.
You reminded me of a crush back in college who looked stunning in parachute pants. Unfortunately she had a boyfriend who was a bouncer.
In high school, I had two pairs of parachute pants, one red one black, and both with zip-off legs to turn them into shorts. Of course I swapped one leg from each pair for a hair metal approved red/black look.
The best part, however, was that my high school banned wearing shorts, which was incredibly stupid in Texas in the early-mid eighties due to both the heat well into fall (e.g., yesterday’s high in Austin was 101F) and the proliferation of miniskirts that were not banned. Pants with only one leg aren’t shorts, right? All but one of my teachers agreed.
This is gold. Great story.
I do feel a level of nostalgia for all the things that were on 90s cars when growing up.
TURBO! DOHC! EFI!
Cars could do with a dose of fun again.
Agreed. Twin Cam remains one of my all-time favorites; manages to sound both techy and performance. I do give Tesla some props though, as Dual Motor is a pretty cool badge.
Ford did it better a century ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Trimotor
Thats a lot of engines for not many passengers. It makes you wonder, what is the most number of engines for regular passenger travel? Private, special conversions, or nearly empty flights don’t count.
1920’s engines weren’t very powerful or efficient so this was more for safety than anything, especially for routes over water.
I see your DOHC and raise you 16v…
OVERDRIVE
I miss how 70s/80s rock lyrics would often invoke overdrive and shifting into it as something dramatic and cool, when instead it’s the exact opposite.
I got super excited when I saw a vehicle with OVERDRIVE on the back, as it was one of the mail-away Omnibots from the gen 1 Transformers. Overdrive was a red Ferrari which meant it had to be fast like that one. I was very disappointed when I realized how wrong that was.
The R30 Skyline Turbo RS-X nailed it. Big blocky, contrasting third color on a 2-tone car that can’t even be confined to a single body panel per side.
That poor thing. Looks ok from the outside, but a Honda swap? So much missing and unoriginal interior.
I do love me an iron mask DR30, and while I lament the loss of the FJ20 that was in there to begin with, I’m not sure how readily available parts are for them anymore so I can see the K swap.
However, that car is barely concealing so many sins. So much damage and rust just painted over, that ECU install amongst others.
But yes, the stickers on the side have always been glorious and needed to be reinstated.
The perfect car to drive while wearing TURBO sunglasses smelling like a million hp with that Fabrege turbo cologne.
It’s likely Johnny Carson appeared as Floyd R Turbo more than 50 times in the 30 years and over 6700 Tonight Show broadcasts. The exact number is unrecorded. Does this count?
You just completed the circle by reminding me of “My Name is Earl” and his atonement for selling a lemon after affixing a “Turbo” badge.
The Porsche Taycan Turbo has infinitely more (or, mathematically undefined) turbo badges than it does turbos.
Does that count?
Ahhhhh divide by zero error!!!
I AM NOMAD! STERILIZE! STERILIZE!
You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!
Taycan Turbo. What the F. So “Turbo” is a state of mind now or something?
Well, we do live in a world where “coupe” now can mean vehicles having more than 2 doors…
And fastbacks need not be fast. Some of them got back.
You can thank Rover in 1962 for that 😉
It’s also offered in Turbo S and Turbo GT versions, depending on how much you want to spend on a turboless turbo.
They even added “Equipped with the distinct Porsche Electric Sport Sound” to them… I wonder if that distinct sound includes the sound of a wastegate blowoff valve whistling?
How fun would “Equipped with the distinct Porsche Electric Sport Sound” badges, or for that matter rear-window decals, be? Not as fun as a ’90s JDM Toyota with “The mainstream of our days is in the style that is simple and traditional” on the spare tire cover, but pretty damn fun by German standards, surely?