I am getting my car around christmas time hopefully(I know it is a long time away).But I figure i will have about 5000 to spend.I have been looking around and I noticed that the fastest thing I could get would be a turbo awd DSM.

I wanted to know if there was a specific year that would be better.I have also heard rumors about reliability and want to know if they are expensive to fix or not.

Any constructive input preferably from past experience would be very appreciated.

 

I wouldnt say expensive to work on just time consuming. Unless you pay someone else

 

The reliability is no worse than any other car in stock form hell the stock engine assembly of a 1G is good for 11s in the 120mph range reliably but not for no 100000 miles. There arent very many engines out there that you can double their power output on stock internals while maintaining any kind of reliability.

One of the biggest keys to reliability is knowing the fine line between abuse and driving/pushing the car hard. Another thing knoweledge is power literally having a good basic understanding of why you need what and how everything functions together as in part matching for your intended use is very important as well.

If you are new to all this then you are in for one hell of a learning curve. Just as these cars and engines can lay some pretty impressive numbers with a bunch of small cheap mods/bolt ons they can also be destroyed just as impressively.

 

So would you suggest this as being a good car to learn about turbos with? I know I cant do it on my own i would need help from someone.

 

The DSM crowd is a good group of people finding tech help shouldnt be a problem DSMs are mechanical boot camps you enter a boy and leave a man!!

Personally I think they are fairly easy to work on compared to other cars it comes down to your own mechanical skills commitment and $$$ for what you learn and end up with.

Whether its a good first turbo car Id say yes but it really depends on you.

 

Thanx better help than I thought I would get.Now obvioiusly AWD would be recommended. Is there a specific year and does Eagle and Mitsubishi really make a difference.

Also what is the stock 1/4 mile time on a awd 1st gen?

 

a bone stock virgin 1G with an average driver probably about a 15.0 learning the AWD launch can drop that time quite a bit lower.

No real difference in the Mitsu Eagle or Plymouth other than cosmetic differences parts between them all interchange.

Im not a specs junkie for what year has what benefit but I think the 92-93 range is probably the best they should have the four bolt rear from the factory as well as the 6 bolt 4G63 engine.

Dont let that be the sole factor in picking one though parts interchange between years is pretty easy.

 

The best year mechanically is early to mid 92. They have the 6 bolt engine (changed to 7-bolt with weaker rods during that year) 4-bolt rear end (much more durable than the 90-91 rear ends. I dont know the exact time they changed during the year but its pretty easy to tell the difference if you get under the car. Go to www.vfaq.com and there are pics of the difference between the oil pans the 6/7 bolt engines have. BTW the term 6/7 bolt engine refers to the # of bolts that bolt the flywheel to the crank. As for the rear end all 92s have the 4 bolt rear end.