It’s easy to forget that Chrysler’s dalliance with Mitsubishi stretched well beyond the days of 70s econoboxes and 80s trucks. This Plymouth Laser is a desirable turbocharged example that is equipped with a manual transmission and low miles. To find these cars in any form is rare; to find one that hasn’t been modified and otherwise trashed is near impossible. Find this 1990 Laser RS Turbo here on eBay listed for $8,500 with the option to submit a best offer.
The seller says he is the original owner, another anomaly about this Laser. These have typically seen so many owners by now that their handiwork is almost indistinguishable from one to the next. Exhausts, intakes, lowered suspension, aftermarket stereos – the Fast & The Furious years were not kind to these Lasers, also know as an Eagle Talon or Mitsubishi Eclipse. This one sports clean bodywork and is otherwise stock aside from some aftermarket wheels.
Those wheels are a bit of a shame, too, since the RS’ came with some pretty mesh-style basketweave alloys. Maybe the seller has the set in his garage on snow tires. The interior presents well, especially for beige and in the mouse-fuzz style cloth that was all the rage in the early 90s. The Eclipse/Laser/Talon always had a jetfighter-inspired cockpit, with controls that turned towards the driver. Of course, what we like the most here is the desirable manual transmission.
The Laser in turbo trim came with a Mitsubishi-derived 4G63T, of which much has been written in the pages of sport tuner press. They are sensitive engines, with earlier generations of the engine subject to the phenomenon known as crank walk (Google is your friend – six bolt versus seven bolt has been written about extensively). Still, they tend to be fairly reliable / robust motors if not abused, and this example’s stock condition should be a good affirmation of that. I’d expect this one to appreciate modestly over the years if left stock.
We’ll never see the likes of a car like this again.
I was fortunate enough to get one of these from Plymouth for the 1989 One Lap of America, with a budget to get the car and team around the country. We won a couple of the competitions outright, and finished third overall, even after a disaster of max points at an offroad segment.
The car was indeed fast. It seems to me that it posted 2nd fastest time at a drag strip, behind a skunkworks station wagon with a GNX driveline installed.
The real drawback was space, as in 3 occupants for 10K miles in 10 days. The back of that wagon was looking pretty good halfway across the country! I’d still love to have this car though, if only for the nostalgia of having driven it in competition. That silly trim attached to the nose would have to go!
Note for those who are not familiar: The Laser is a FWD car. The Eagle Talon and Mitsubishi Eclipse variants were AWD, and it is those which have ordinarily fallen into the hands of “tuners” until they are beaten to death. The 4G63T motors are legendary, with high output capabilities if properly massaged.
Just located a white 1990 Mitsubishi Turbo awd being sold by the original owner and still stock in the Los Angeles craigslist. Rare to find an original owner awd and still stock for $5500 with a five speed.
Crank walk issues were on the later second generation models 95 and up when they went to engines with parts sourced and assembled in the USA. First generation JDM engines were tanks.
As a former Mitsubishi tech, these engines were jewels to work on. Timing belts are easy to replace and 60,000 miles was the recommended maximum. This one has less but it would be a good idea to replace the belt just from a time factor. The 4 cylinder engines that were used after these just sucked. Totally ruined the Eclipse when the 1991-style 2.0 was replaced. The 1991 seats were great too.
Don’t know the real number, but i co-piloted with my buddy in his wife’s and 145 mph on the dial and the road got really,really narrow, at night, on a two lane highway. Ahhhh how dumb we are in our youth.
I traded a real lemon of a Merkur Xr4Ti on a ’91 non-turbo 5 speed. Even coming off of the exratty, I thought it was quick enough. It had hubcaps that looked just like the alloys, so saved a few bucks there. Very nice bright blue color.
It dropped the timing belt with just a tick over 50K. I was really nervous that the warranty had expired, but it was covered up to 60K. Dodged a huge bullet there.
It was a great car, very fun to drive. Someone is going to enjoy this.
Forgot to mention that mine was an Eclipse, not a Laser.
The bright blue color was called Amazon blue. It was a wild color for sure. A bit too wild for me so I got the Maranello Red one. 1991 Eclipse GSX. Still have it!
This generation was pretty cool for the time. I knew a few people who owned them and they never had a bad word to say about them.
I’m surprised that this didn’t sell.
I had a 93 Talon AWD and a 94 Eclipse FWD GST. Not all Lasers were FWD and not all talons and eclipses were AWD. Awesome cars!
ALL Lasers were FWD. Even the RS Turbo version.
Eagle Talon and Mitsubishi Eclipse could be had FWD or AWD.
The Plymouth Laser was available with AWD from model year 1992 to 1994; the facelifted version.
Well I’ll be darned. Missed that.
They sold so few of them… Must be a tough to find car now!