Why the DSM was important for tuners

The import movement mainly started with the Honda. People started to modify everything from the Honda Civic to the Honda Accord and then later the Acura Integra. These cars offered the flexibility to do lots of modifications in a trial-and-error basis, find out what worked, and then improve upon it. The import movement started off as a joke in many eyes, but later proved to those who didn't believe that the import cars could have small engines but create a lot of horsepower and dominate their classes in drag racing, autocross and road race time trial events.

Many die hard Honda enthusiasts loved the VTEC technology their engines offered, and stayed pure with the all motor build. Others wanted even more power, and built heavily forged engines that had large turbos strapped to them pumping upwards of 30 PSI of boost to generate insane horsepower numbers. The problem is that these platforms were getting expensive, and with the modifications required to support such boost levels, not all had the know how or stomach to take their cars to that level.

In comes the DSM.

In 1989 Mitsubishi, in collaboration with Chrysler, came out with what they called the DSM, or Diamond Star Motors cars. These included the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser. These cars offered technology not before available in this category or price range for sport compacts. Available with 4G63 turbo engines and all wheel drive set these cars apart from the rest of the pack, and quickly generated a lot of interest from both import and domestic enthusiasts. Here is a timeline of these three cars:

1989 to 1994 Eagle Talon (First Generation 1G)
1995 to 1998 Eagle Talon (Second Generation 2G)

1989 to 1992 Plymouth Laser (production ended with the 92 year)

1989-1994 Mitsubishi Eclipse (First Generation 1G)
1995-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse (Second Generation 2G)

This collaboration was just what the import scene ordered. It brought together both import and domestic fans, and gave them a platform that would dominate for a decade and beyond. Import fans typically chose the Mitsubishi Eclipse, and domestic fans chose the Eagle Talon (for some it didn't matter). Both had the same 4G63T engines which were cast iron bottom ends with aluminum heads, double over head cam, and factory turbo. The earlier generations had a stronger 6 bolt crankshaft and in mid 1992, Mitsubishi switched to a 7 bolt crankshaft. For the first gen cars, they featured a Mitsubishi 14b turbo that would prove to be very capable. Second generation cards were moved to a Garrett T25 which had faster spool, along with higher compression pistons.

With little modifications, these cars could create almost double the power over stock. For many, the speed secret was a boost controller (often manual boost controller), a full 3" exhaust that went from the turbo o2 housing back to the muffler, a Walbro 255 high pressure fuel pump with 550cc injectors, and some kind of fuel management like an APEXi AFC. For added power, many people ported the turbo manifold, turbo exhaust housing and o2 housing to allow more flow through the turbo.

Now that the car was making more power, you needed a clutch such as the popular ACT 2600 (now known as the ACT Xtreme Duty), and you would be set. With all wheel drive propelling you to under 4 second 0-60s, your car (usually 1Gs) can now run mid 12s, and beat just about anything on the street.

With more serious modifications such as a larger turbo, and supporting mods for that, people were running an 11 second quarter mile on pump gas and street tires, able to replicate the times over and over again.

In about 1999, people starting taking their customization of these cars to the next level. Until then, the Mitsubishi Eclipse was available as a convertible, called the Eclipse Spyder. From the factory the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder was only available as a front wheel drive model, with or without a turbo engine. However, it was also the start of people taking the all wheel drive system from a GSX and putting it into a Spyder creating an AWD Spyder.

The rise of the DSM and its easy modability pushed rivals such as Honda and Nissan to generate more power from their cars, therefore creating an import performance scene that turned from show to go. It also brought Subaru to bring us the Subaru WRX, and Mitsubishi to continue it's dominance with the Lancer Evolution in 2003. The Subaru vs Mitsubishi rivalry reminded me of Ford vs Chevy and brought a lot of fun and excitement into automotive performance.