• Paging Brian O'Conner to the Fast & Furious white courtesy phone: It's a turbocharged Eagle Talon on Bring a Trailer!
• Few of these cars survived the sport-compact craze.
• This one has just 30,000 miles, making it an ideal '90s collectible.
Twenty-three years ago, on movie screens all around the world, an Eagle Talon went 150 mph in a parking lot. In retrospect, it kinda seems implausible. But in terms of cultural impact, we're still feeling the echoes of that first Fast & Furious film today. Family. Coronas. And yes, Chrysler-Mitsubishi coupes built in a factory in the improbably named town of Normal, Illinois.
Talon! Arguably the best-named of the Diamond Star Motors (DSM) trio—the others being the Plymouth Laser and the Mitsubishi Eclipse—this Eagle-branded coupe was a potent performer in its day, and not just on-screen. This last-of-the-breed 1998 Eagle Talon TSi AWD with the desirable five-speed manual transmission is up for auction on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). This is real-deal turbocharged compact performance, the closest we got to a Lancer Evolution at the time.
More than 25 years after this car rolled off the showroom floor, the Talon's styling still holds up. The asymmetric hood bulge, the blacked-out roofline like a fighter-plane canopy; even the rear spoiler isn't over the top.
Of course, what really made the Talon so appealing is underneath. Factory-rated output is modest at 210 horsepower, but the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder 4G63T engine made its name in the tuning world for being capable of huge numbers. Slap on a bigger turbo, get more fuel in the combustion chamber, and watch your rivals disappear in the rearview shouting, "Monicaaaaa!"
Or don't. What makes this particular Talon so special is that it hasn't been messed with by a bunch of would-be Dominic Torettos. A set of Tein coil-overs has been installed to dial in a little lower ride height, but there's no tacky fiberglass body add-ons or hacked-up engine modifications to be found. Most Talons didn't survive the era of ham-handed backyard tuners when they were on their third or fourth owners. This one has just 30,000 miles on the odometer, and appears to have successfully avoided any tomfoolery
You could get away with a little subtle engine tweaking for more performance, but as it stands, this Talon is a collectible survivor from when sport compact performance was nearing its peak. The Normal factory now turns out Rivian EV pickups and SUVs, either of which is faster in a straight line even than a boosted up Diamond-Star coupe