Mitsubishi Cordia GSR Turbo: striking the perfect performance car chord
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Mitsubishi Cordia GSR Turbo: striking the perfect performance car chord

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By DrJohnWright - 14 May 2018

The Mitsubishi Cordia did not provoke much excitement from the staff at Wheels magazine in 1983. A news story prepared by ‘Staff’ appeared in the April 1983 edition. ‘Cordia Coupe is out for Celica’s blood’ was the heading but the sub-heading prepared the reader for that sense of anti-climax: ‘This is the latest offering from Mitsubishi, a three-door hatchback which claims to break new ground in the coupe class. But does it?’

Even then, it was known that the Cordia Turbo variant was destined for Australia. In the meantime, we would get the far from exciting GSL with its 1.5-litre naturally aspirated engine and a pricetag of $10,750. With just 55kW of power at 5500rpm and 116Nm of torque at 3500, the GSL was no performance car and was slower even than the lacklustre Celica ($12,065) which had a 66kW 2.0-litre engine.

Until the arrival of the Turbo, the main interest aroused by the Cordia was its lower than average coefficient of drag, just 0.34 (the benchmark set by the 1982 Audi 100CD being a little less than 0.32, despite extravagant claims of 0.30). It was a finalist in the Wheels Car of the Year contest but never looked like beating the Mazda 626/Ford Telstar twins.

Interestingly, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) was already importing one of the fastest cars on offer in Australia, the impressive Starion. When the Cordia GSR Turbo  arrived in the first quarter of 1984, MMAL had two formidable turbocharged hatchbacks, either of which could out-accelerate any Holden Commodore branded ‘Holden’ rather than ‘HDT’. This gave MMAL a pretty exciting context into which to launch its radical Magna the following year.

The Cordia GSL had more going for it than the Celica and Nissan Gazelle. Not only did it boast superior aerodynamics, to most observers it was also more stylish, being generally more mid-1980s in appearance than late-1970s.

It also had a spacious cabin which would accommodate four adults in comfort. Despite the modest performance, there was at least one innovative feature, the so-called 4 X 2 Supershift manual gearbox first seen here in the Colt. In theory, this strange arrangement offered no fewer than eight forward gear ratios, thanks to its power and economy settings for each gear (a separate lever could be moved between Economy and Power). There was also an optional three-speed automatic transmission. Alloy wheels cost extra.

Standard features included an asymmetrically split/fold rear seat, adjustable steering column and air vents set into the B-pillar to cater to rear seat occupants.

MMAL offered a ‘convenience’ options pack with speed-sensitive power steering, electric windows and exterior mirrors and a wash/wipe system for the headlights.

During 1985 the Cordia GSL acquired a 70kW 1.8-litre engine and could no longer be seen as underpowered, even if its power to weight ratio of almost 15kg per kW was only about average. Until the early 1990s, a ratio of 10kg/kW was a benchmark for a strong performer; the 1990 Corolla SX made 100kW and weighed about 1030kg.

But the revamped Cordia GSL tends to get overlooked because the GSR Turbo had preceded it to market.

This may look like just another magazine cover but it tells the story of a difficult time for lovers of fast cars.

The cover of the April 1984 edition of Wheels is one of the magazine’s most memorable of the 1980s. ‘Performance Lives’, it cries in bold white type above a photograph of an understeering red Cordia Turbo. Then comes the line: ‘Cordia Turbo • 200 km/h • 15.9 sec 400 m •$13,500 •and here now’. Believe me, those numbers were borderline incredible; just a few months earlier the Nissan EXA had set a new small car performance standard and its figures were nowhere near these!

But hindsight suggests we should have taken more notice of the cover photograph which was probably worth at least a thousand words. Understeer was the blight of most front-drive cars, including the formidably rapid Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo. In 1984 MMAL had two prospective Group E production race cars in its lineup, but it was the rear-wheel drive Starion that proved far and away the most popular.

The Mitsubishi Starion hit the Australian market in 1982 and challenged performance benchmarks. But the Cordia Turbo was quicker again, at least through the standing 400 metres.

The front-wheel drive versus rear-wheel drive controversy was beginning to rage. In racing circles, it was already widely felt that if you were going to enter a front-driver in circuit racing, you really needed a limited slip differential to minimise wheel spin from the more lightly loaded front wheel, especially at circuits such as Oran Park, Amaroo Park and Winton. It’s fair to suggest that around most tracks, a Starion prepared to Group E specs would be quicker than a Cordia Turbo not equipped with a limited slip differential.

Unlike the Starion which got disc brakes all round, the Cordia Turbo persisted with drums on the rear, another obvious disadvantage for racers. (There was no Bathurst 12-Hour race for Group E cars in 1984, but I’m thinking how much earlier you’d have been on the picks in the smaller car than the Starion down Conrod in those years before Caltex Chase!)

I had the privilege of being one of Wheels magazine’s road testers and spent plenty of time driving a Starion in a group comparison test it won, beating the newly launched Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX-7, Alfa Romeo GTV6, and Celica-based Toyota Supra. For me, the outcome was ‘a case of when your heart says Milano but your head says Mitsubishi’. I remember, too, testing a Cordia Turbo in company with a VK Calais V8 and noting the Mitsu’s severe torque steer. The car I drove had unassisted steering and I felt sure the optional power steering would minimise this issue.

The power steering had just three turns lock to lock rather than the manual steering’s 3.6, so it was preferable on this criterion also.

 

There was no question that in a straight line the Cordia would leave the heavier Starion well behind, at least until you were approaching the double-ton. Being so light, it was incredibly quick off the line, provided the driver was ready for the strong torque steer. In his road test, Mike McCarthy writes in the aforementioned 1984 edition of Wheels:

The Cordia Turbo beats big brother across the 400m mark by about two-tenths of a second, and is almost a full second ahead to 130km/h. The fact that the Starion runs a bit faster than the Cordia Turbo flat out – 210km/h against 200 – is only academic. Much more telling is the Cordia Turbo’s ability to out-accelerate the Starion through the rolling-start ranges as well as the standing start sprints.

The Turbo’s 1.8-litre Sirius-based turbocharged engine bears no relationship to the 1.6-litre Saturn in the original GSL, aside from the fact that both are Mitsubishi units. Compare the outputs. The Turbo exactly doubles the GSL’s 55kW, while making an impressive 210Nm of torque. It even had some 37 per cent more power than the naturally aspirated 1.8-litre version. The Turbo’s power to weight ratio was an exceptional 9.4kg/kW.

 

Perhaps surprisingly, the Turbo’s five-speed gearbox was essentially a tougher version of the 4 X 2 of the Colt and Cordia GSL with an extra ratio but no power/economy gearlever (so a tally of five easily accessed ratios rather then eight less accessible ones):

The first four ratios are equivalent to the 4 X 2’s Power range. When the Turbo’s shifted into fifth slot the box stays in fourth but the dual-range gearset is switched from Power to Economy positions.

Much beefier anti-roll bars at both ends, as well as re-rated springs and dampers further differentiated the Turbo from the GSL.

Halogen headlights, a unique front bumper with bib, a rear spoiler, the alloy wheels and Turbo decals differentiated the Turbo from the GSL. But, no question, the former was Superman to the latter’s Clark Kent.

That April 1984 Wheels cover lives on in the memory because of its succinct accuracy. Performance Lives. In his review of the Starion for Classic Garage, Joe Kenwright mentioned how the Cordia Turbo foreshadowed the twenty-first century hatch. So, looking back, it now seems odd that such a hot car would have had what now look like tiny wheels and tyres. The rims were 14 inches by five and the tyre size 185/70. But it really was the beginning of a new thinking about high performance.

Younger readers may be tempted to laugh at maximum power of 110kW. But the key to the Cordia Turbo’s performance was power to weight. More than three decades later, a standing 400m time of 15.9 seconds remains impressive, especially for a relatively inexpensive motor car.

The Cordia lineup got a facelift to usher in the unleaded engines, but the Turbo lost a massive 20kW.

The Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo weighed just 1030kg without the optional power steering ($360) or air-conditioning ($750). Now try to imagine an equivalent twenty-first century sports coupe – say, a Hyundai Veloster Turbo – that somehow had its weight reduced to this level but rode on 19-inch rims with 245-series rubber and made 250kW rather than 110. No question, current cars offer the best power to weight ratios we’ve ever seen but this is far more due to the enormous increase in engine power rather than low weight!

Back in 1986, few Australian car companies had much of a photography budget and it often showed!

Performance Lives? Well, sadly, in the Cordia Turbo’s case, not for very long. That famous Wheels headline referenced the re-emergence of quick cars after the long hiatus that followed the introduction of the anti-pollution measures in ADR27A on 1 July 1976. Ten years later came more bad news for performance enthusiasts: unleaded petrol.

The Cordia was facelifted with a more striking grille being the key change but the unfortunate news was the downgrade in power from 110kW to just 90, a drop of 18 per cent. It was among the hardest hit cars on the market. The Pulsar ET lost just three kW to 74. The Saab 900 Turbo 16S went from 130kW to 118. The poor little 1.8-litre Camira, which had made 83kW at 6200rpm in 1985 leaded guise – a huge gain over the 1982 JB 1.6’s 64 at 5800, meaning Holden’s struggling small car finally had a decent turn of speed – was rated at just 62.8 at 5400 in unleaded guise, a drop of almost 25 per cent!

The Cordia was a good looking car even without help from a photographic model.

While the facelifted Cordia Turbo would languish on in the market until mid-1989, its glory days were long gone. But in the 1984-86 time frame, this stylish little Mitsubishi coupe was pretty much on its own. And even after the switch to unleaded fuel and with just 90kW, it still had the measure of the Pulsar ET (discontinued in 1987).

They were difficult days for the Australian economy with sky-high inflation. The Cordia Turbo which had come to market with 110kW and a pricetag of $13,500, not only lost 20kW but went up in price by a staggering $10,285 (to $23,785) in four and a half years. When it was launched there was no way MMAL could meet demand. Interestingly, another Mitsubishi product in high demand was the Magna SE, especially if the chosen colour was Heather (an appealing light metallic silver/mauve/pink).

Looking back with the hindsight of decades, it is easy to decide that the Cordia Turbo deserves to be acknowledged as the most significant small turbocharged car of the 1980s, setting a new standard for budget-priced performance. It cost $14,610 with air and power steer in mid-1984 when a 5.0-litre SS Group Three Commodore was $19,550 and a Saab 900 Turbo commanded $29,710. Or, to look at it another way, a Turbo without options cost less than two grand more than a GSL with air and steer. And wouldn’t you just love to have a Cordia Turbo for track days?

A tastefully modified Cordia Turbo is surely a desirable machine.
Mitsubishi took advantage of the non-availability of the Holden Commodore V8 (during the changeover to unleaded fuel) by selling a large batch of white Cordia Turbos to the NSW Police.
Original press image of the Cordia GSR Turbo.