[urq] Conquering the Conquest

[Jeffrey Goggin]

 > No, definitely rear-wheel, and didn't Dodge have it's version too?

I know I'm late to the party, but Chrysler had the Conquest, Mitsubishi had
the Starion, and Dodge didn't have anything.

While the styling of these cars is questionable from some angles, they were
pretty quick in stock form -- especially the '89 and '90 "R" models, which
also came with 8x16 front and 9x16 rear wheels! -- and they handle fairly
well, too.  Back in '90, when I was autocrossing a factory supported Beretta
GTZ rather seriously at the National level, the Conquest/Starion twins were
impossible to beat.  Unless the course had several long left turns (or
better yet, a 360-degree circle), in which case the oil pump pickup would
suck air and trash the main bearings 15 seconds later ... happened several
times to people I know and/or competed against, but the cars were all still
under warranty and the manufacturers gave them new engines under warranty.

Anyway, like their successors, the Talon/Eclipse twins, these cars can be
modified to go quite quickly for not much money.  They can also be quite
costly to repair when they break, as used parts are getting hard to find
these days, especially front end bits as it seems almost all of them are
wrecked in the front, not the back or sides.

Jeffrey Goggin (who came awfully close to buying one in '91 as an autocross
car -- if you can't beat 'em, join 'em -- but ended up in a Nissan NX-2000
instead and changed classes.  Not very quick, but it sure did go around
corners well...)
Chandler, AZ