Roshake 77 found and posted a car with a controversial name, the Starion. Controversial because of the many urban myths that it was intended to be called Stallion, but that got lost in translation, and ended up as Starion. I threw gas on the fire by finding a horse head in an early Japanese market tv ad for it. It seemed to support the myth, but after all these years, I’m still not too sure.
Who cares? What we do care about is having one of these found on the street, and in Budapest, no less.
I just remembered where I first saw one of these: on a display in an airport in Japan, when I went there on business in December of 1981. It had not yet been presented in the US, although I had seen pictures.
The Starion came out right about when Mitsubishi was at the height of its presence in the US, having opened its own branded line as well as still selling its cars as Dodges and Plymouths (Conquest, in the case of the Starion). Heady times, for Mitsubishi.
The only engine for US-bound Starions was a turbocharged version of the 2.6 L four, while most of the rest of the world got a turbo version of the smaller 2.0 L Sirius four. Power levels, which ranged from 160 – 197 hp, were roughly similar for both engines, but not surprisingly, the 2.0 was higher revving while the 2.6 had more torque down low.
Here’s my CC on the Starion, or is it Stallion?
One possibility is that there’s no letter, L, in Japanese language and that letter is “impossible” for native Japanese speakers to pronounce correctly. There’s the video of street interview where Japanese were asked to pronounce the English names and words, including the ones with letter L.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ids82u3qJgE
That didn’t stop the Japanese manufacturers from using the names and words with L such as Toyota Celsior, which is pronounced as Serushio.
When transcribing the Latin alphabet into Japanese characters, L is often transcribed into R.
Interesting fact. Japanese people are NOT actually retards. They know that both “L” and “R” exist. And it is quite possible for Japanese to pronounce those letter sounds, though it’s a challenge, as those sounds don’t exist in Japanese. Furthermore, in addition to having access to books and dictionaries, Japan is full of native-English speakers who get paid to proofread and edit translated stuff.
I think it’s much more plausible that it’s just one of those weird Japanese naming things, like calling a sports car “Fairlady”.
These were quite nice on the inside with good ergonomics and futuristic details, but I have a hard time getting past how it looks on the outside. Good basic sport-coupe shape spoiled by too many vents, scoops, and lines going in every direction. I knew several people who had Starions, one as recently as 5 years ago.
I’d never heard about the Stallion name thing, but I doubt a “mistake” could get past as many people as it would need to without detection. However, given the horse-head logo in the Japanese ad it seems entirely plausible to me that this was done intentionally. Someone comes up with “Stallion” name, quickly finds out Japanese people have a hard time pronouncing it, then decides “Starion” is better anyway (easily trademarkable worldwide whereas somebody somewhere is probably using “Stallion” on some automotive-related product that would block its use in that country). This is exactly what Toyota did (in reverse) with the Camry – “camry” is Japanese for “crown” which of course was a long-running Toyota model and the first car they sold in the US. Except it’s really pronounced more like “kam-huri” but that pronunciation was difficult for Anglophones so they just simplified it to Camry.
No link to the CC. Interesting to see one in what I imagine would be an unusual place.
It’s fixed now.
It’s interesting to see one of these in European trim, with wheels that I don’t believe were available in the US, plus the European lights, etc. I liked these, and I appreciate the design more on the versions such as this one without the ground-effect packages.
I’ve occasionally seen a Chrysler Conquest driving around near where I live, but haven’t been able to catch a picture of it yet… it’s the only example I’ve seen in quite some time.
Peak ‘80s styling right here, love these but especially the wide body ones. As rare as these are I think the Cordia might be even more sparse on the ground nowadays!
Havent seeneither in a very long time there was a Tredia in regular use in Napier when I lived there but Sarions and Cordias are rare Cordia turbo were issued to traffic cops here starting a trend on Mitsubishi patrol cars that ended with the V3000 in the 90s.
I had had 88 conquest back in the day strong runner loved that car