So long my love

Thus closes another chapter of my life.

What. A. Floozie.

You know how California women are. They get around. It's like that village bicycle, you know? Everyone has had a ride. Speaking of rides, lets look at the village bicycle of the West Coast.

Meet the 1989 Chrysler Conquest TSi currently owned now by one Mario Zumbo. She's quite the hooker of car.

You might be asking yourself, why does this beauty of a fiji blue car deserve to be called a slut? Easy. She's been passed around friends more often than a football is in a game of tag team. It's life of modifications started out with the SQC member Mech, who sold it to Jason, who sold it to Trevor, who sold it to Mario now. Friendship is a beautiful thing. Speaking of beautiful though, check out the list of modifications it has.

-89 Conquest Fiji blue SHP 97k Miles
-KDM full hard pipe kit.
-KDM 3 inch exhaust with flew pipe
-KDM modified intercooler
-TEP Griffin aluminum radiator
-3 wire o2
-Brand New NGK Spark Plug Wires
-Greddy electronic boost controller
-Cobalt autometer gauges( Boost,Oil Pressure, Oil Temp, Voltage)
-ACT xtreme pressure plate with the street disc. Lightened flywheel, new clutch master and slave, steel braided clutch line.
- Short throw shifter
-Turbo xs RFL blow off valve
- AMC Non jet valve head and Ajusa head gasket
-krank vents
-A/C has been eliminated.
-MK1 gauge overlays
-1st gen MAS DSM
-steel braided lines. oil, coolant, ABS elimination, turbo feed. Almost Every line under the hood is braded
-trilogy hood shocks
- steel braided brake lines all the way around
-ABS Eliminated
-S16G Turbo
-AEM Uego Wideband
-Nardi Suede Steering Wheel
-Areomotive Fuel Pressure Regulator
-Custom Powder coated Valve cover( Metallic Purple with some Flake in it)
-7in in the front 8in wheels in the rear( Poweder coated black)
-Almost Brand new Khumo Tires all the way around
-Restored 83 Tail Lights. Taken Apart, Cleaned, painted, and re-glued

- GReddy front strut bar

- Mookeeh Full-body coilovers, ST front and rear sway bars

I personally dig the purple valve cover. It adds a taste of insane class. The interior of the car is relatively stock, save for a Nardi steering wheel, supplemental gauges to keep an eye on all important life works of the engine, and a head unit. Check out the AC control relocation.

With a car so low though, some of you may be wondering how the airdam is going to fare. Well, it's well known amongst Starion/Conquest owners that at stock ride height, your airdam is at significant risk of getting flat out annihilated. So, how do you THINK that airdam did?

One week after the photos were taken, a pothole decided to play tag. Looks like it won. Remember the slammed flat body from the earlier post? Guess where this demolished air dam is going to be resurrected? That's just how this club rolls.

Speaking of rolling, I've always liked this closing shot of the friends- Jason in a boosted Dodge D-50, the fiji, and Scotty's palermo painted white Starion ( you are still going to the deepest level of hell for doing that )

I wonder how Mario feel's knowing that his Princess Peach had been around the block.

Just a sneak peek

Sneak Peek at the restoration of Derek Venable's flat sider ( you can follow along with his thread in the restoration section of SQC ). Follow it's progress along here.

http://www.starquestclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=101388

I think it's safe to say, I'm a wheel hooker

Never would of thought I'd start a collection of wheels. About 2 years ago, for a measly $100, I picked up 4 16x7 white Ronal R9s

I never really did much with them, and once briefly ran one in the rear when an OEM rim bent in a retarded happening. For what it's worth, running a 7" wheel on the back of a Starion widebody, looks really funny. Think of those cartoon like southern belle's, with the wide hipped dresses, and tiny little legs. Looks about the same. Anywho, about a year or so ago, I ran across ANOTHER 4 more Ronal R9s, this time 2 were 16x8 and 2 were 16x9. One of the 16x8 had a bent lip, but I went with it for $200. Hey, you can't pass up opportunities on finding hard to come by rims!

Then, by pure luck, I found the set of rims that years ago I tried to get. Back in 2006, I saw a set of ROH Snypers on a Palermo Grey Starion. It looked clean and yet stately aggressive. At the time when the member sold the rims, well, I essentially missed out for not seeing them for sale. The other day I was up visiting the mechanic shop that rents from my boss ( who for what it's worth, is the only person I'll have faith on ever doing anything on the Starion without me being present that doesn't own one or has owned one ), when we were talking about the 92 Cobra sitting outside with 04 SVT rims. I had asked him why he had a random white clip in his shop and he says " c'mon, I'll show you." We go into the building next door and I see a wrecked 92 Cobra, in addition to just a stripped down rolling chassis of another fox body. Talking back to the rims, he said this " ... yeah man, I want to put those SVT's on this one once I finished with it and then sell these rims." I looked and just about peed my pants. Wouldn't you believe it, ROH Snypers. I called dibs.

Fronts are 17x8s and the rears are 17x9s.

Tires are going to kill my wallet.

(photo compliments of gtxthunder )

It's gotta hurt to ride this low

How his air dam has survived this far, I will never know.

Meet the 1986 Mitsubishi Starion ESi-R, owned by Robert Gordon, aka Kommeuppance as he is known throughout the forums. Being one of the pioneers of going as low as you can go on a Starion, I saw it only fitting that his car have first honors. Also, with the recent fact that it made front page on JNC, along with Speedhunters, one more certainly could not hurt!

To get the car even lower, SHP struts were cut with Tokico strut inserts from an MR-2 used to get the car down. This modification has since caught on amongst the starquest crowd for those who want their cars even lower.

He has a how to write up on his website, http://www.driftability.net/.

Not only is his car slammed, he also sports the only LED dash cluster

Other necessary goodies can be seen here, such as the Prosport Gauges, carbon fiber overlay, a later 88/89 steering wheel, and some random radio.

Robert - when are we ever going to see a photo of your engine?

A look back, Part 3

Well I had fully enjoyed that stock engine. But, I wanted the bigger, better, faster engine out of the wrecked Conquest.

Not quite sure why that picture keeps posting upside-down.... this was all done at Jimmy's house, at his courtesy. There we discovered quite a few interesting tidbits about the engine.

For one, it had no head gasket forward of the #1 piston. Jimmy has the photo I believe, but basically, the missing piece was folded up and shoved down into the timing chain hole, and the block itself was sealed using blue RTV, something we were wonding why we saw sandwiched between the head and block. The bottom end had ARP main studs, but you have to leave one OEM stock to keep your oil pickup tube. Nope, oil pickup was bent, and then RTV'd into place... shoved her into the Palermo, due to time constraints for work, and much against Jimmy's advice as he was sure he heard the engine knocking. To me it seemed fine, and off into the night I went and enjoyed it in the months to come. Around 8 months later, while another local Starion owner was following me, we witnessed the catastrophic death of that G54B. To me, I was just downshifting from 3rd, into 2nd, when I pushed the clutch in and the RPMs died, hit 2nd, let the clutch out to a lound WABANG! and the engine sounded like a jackhammer. To Cregg, the local, it looked like I had just shot a 6 foot flame out the side of the car. It made it home, 4 miles later, but the damage had been done. The oil came out all sparkly glowy, and it was silver pretty much. No black. As depressing as it was, I was impressed at the engine's ability to keep running at it did for that long without locking up. Damn.

Time to find yet another engine. Oh, and for what it was worth, the original engine was now sitting in a car up in NC I believe, keeping it on the road. So, I lurked, and searched, and luck happened upon me with a couple ( the Burtons ) moving from Michigan to Texas and needing some extra cheddar. He was swapping everything from his Michigan car, which from what I recall, bent when it went up on a lift due to rust, to a rust free Texas car, that happened to have a fresh engine. $350 later...

I had myself a new engine. This time, I had a local do it for me as I simply didn't have the time with work and school, so Grant Barnes ( aka pure_insanity ) took it upon himself to do the install for a very reasonable rate.

So, off she went. For what it's worth, that lady in the pink hat is my mother. She put up with a lot of my antics when it came to these cars. One day, I came home from work to find this.

Yep. My mother had gone out and bought herself a 1987 Chrysler Conquest. The engine was rebuilt, and aside from a minor fuel issue that turned out just having to replace the fuel pump, it's a pretty clean car. Although, the entire engine bay was sprayed with bed liner. It was once a northern car, and the previous owner figured it'd stop rust... crazy ass northern folk.

But back to the car. I really began to enjoy the car, even with its electrical demons. Supposedly a previous owner had put a battery in backwards, toasting the ETACS, which resulted in wipers not working, and the previous owner rigging the wipers to a toggle switch, that eventually failed, and just... god I can't even begin to explain the random wiring found through out this thing. I love it though, some don't ( Kyle for example, he hated how the car would ground out when he tried to start it when he was removing the steering column to weld the coupler ). Of course, with my car running and all, far be it from me to pass up the local Atlanta car scene.

At the local Riverside Sonics Meet.

Saturday night BP car meet. The other Starion/Conquest belongs to another local, Cregg. The two red Evo8 RS' belong to a friend of mine, Jamil, and another Starion owner, his name escapes me at the moment though. His brother Cruz is the one who took the photograph, and between them, they own somewhere around 10 or so Starions....

Of course, Atlanta at night is a beautiful city, with an amazing skyline. There's one particular bridge that seems to be famous with photos, so I gave it a shot with my $50 digital.

If you happen to look very closely behind the front tire, you'll see, yes, a floor jack. To this day I still haven't installed any e-brakes, and that was to prevent the car from rolling back down the road!!!

Sadly, all was not well. Electrically speaking, the car keeps blowing the Headlight/Taillight fusible link, and we discovered what my never ending clutch pedal issue was. Crankwalk. Looks like the thrust bearing is dead on the engine, so shortly it's off to Kyle's so that the HOA can get off my back, we pull the engine, flip a bitch and see what the damage is. Here is currently how the beauty of a car sits ( it's a few months old )

Stay tuned for what comes next!!!!

A look back, Part 2

So, I chased after another one. This time, it was a 1987 Mitsubishi Starion, in a Palermo Grey color. It's a beautiful metallic color, for what it's worth. The way how light captures it with the lines of a widebody is simply amazing. For $1000, a trip to Charlotte, NC and back, and replacing a blown headgasket/cracked head, I was in business.

First time I had ever gotten this involved in a car. Took me almost 10 hours. Laughable, yes, but here's why. I had a cracked head, and a local guy, Hasan, gave me two heads. One was a cracked 83 head in the end, the other was a good but bare head. So, I had the springs of the 83 put in the good head. Well, when assembling the head, I had 83 springs, with mechanical lifters, and apparently a hydraulic cam. You get that thing fully assembled, go to start it up, to find it just cranking, and when you check, you have 0 pressure across all cylinders. I was stumped to be honest. But alas, we got her running. Also, during this time, before I had gotten her running, I ran into a guy on the local Atlanta car forum, ImportAtlanta, looking for a cheap turbo rwd car. People were were saying older Supra's, AE86s, RX7s, etc. I voted up the Starion, and offered for him to come take a look at mine in person, while not running, to see if he liked it. Much to his surprise, I wasn't black ( apparently I'm an e-thug yo! ), and about a month or so later, he had his own 1987 Mitsubishi Starion.

to be continued