KIDNEY, ANYONE? A flatty Mitsubishi Starion to relive your Cannonball Run fantasies

When you say “Starion” most people remember the aggressively flared, turbo-charged sports coupe that pretty much defined 80s styling. The earliest incarnations of Starions, however, were not so in-your-face with its styling. Flat-siders are pretty much extinct these days, but one recently popped up on Craigslist New York, and it appears to have been pretty well cared for. 

Sure, the “flatty” narrow-body Starions had some techno age design indulgences like superb aero disc wheels, a taillight design traced directly from a blank sheet of graph paper, and a robotic flip-up headlight face, but in general they looked positively staid when compared with the “fatty” wide-body versions.

They also lacked an intercooler, keeping the 2.6-liter turbo four’s output to 145 horsepower, but these things are just so rare these days that it doesn’t matter. Besides, this example is said to have the totally 80s digital dash, though there is no photo of it in the ad, and a 5-speed manual transmission.

Although there are a few dings, which are disclosed in close-up photos in the listing, it appears to be nothing a skilled paintless dent repair guru couldn’t fix. The cracked leather on the seats is another thing, but you should be able to get a close match (it’s just plain gray). Clearly, the car has been cared for and not driven through too many New York winters if it has survived this long in this condition. The seller says it has just 101,000 miles on it.

It must also be said that this particular example in black is an almost exact duplicate of the car Jackie Chan and Richard Kiel raced, from a cabin more button-riddled than the control room of a nuclear sub, in Cannonball Run 2. This one probably doesn’t levitate, though.

At an asking price of $3,500 it seems like a perfectly reasonable buy for the Mitsubishi completist. For the full ad, see Craigslist New York.

Thanks to Martin K. for the tip!