Long time Mopar fan, never looked at the Jap side until I needed a new daily and saw the ansrwer to my problem at Mopar Mayhem last month, a mate rocki up in a neat '72 Galant with the standard 4G33, standard 4 spd.. ..in fact everything was standard bar the new wheels, as this was a rust-free dent-free one owner Galant originally sold in 1973 from the Chrysler dealership in Ayr, far north Queensland. How do I know? In the glovebox was the original owner's manual, sales manual, sales brochure, Chrysler advertisements, and servicing logbook showing a legitimate 42,000 miles on the clock. I went home while the bug lay dormant within me - meanwhile the owner won a trophy at the Dyno shootout on Mopar Sunday for a tyre chirpin' 51.1rwhp
By this time I had heard wind of what kind of offer he'd accept for the Galant, and decided on my trigger number. A couple people flaked out and wasted his time, I swooped in for the kill and now I've got a damn good little Jap-Chrysler. So far it's been easy to drive despite an almost hilarious lack of gadgetry for a Japanese car of its era (electric nothin', shit I ain't even got a crystal radio up in this bitch) but can be limited at the top end by the 4spd. My plans are to keep it dead original, with maybe the addition of NOS wind deflectors and a couple other touches you'll see as I keep you updated. Why spoil a good thing?
There are PLENTY of original spares and replacements that came with it to keep it real i.e. hubcaps etc, including another 4spd tranny and a spare 4G33.
It's tempting though to see another mate for his re-co'd LA Lancer 5 spd (he wants a slab, will throw in two MORE 4G33s / 4G32s - did these things grow on trees or something?!) and/or change the diff gearing down. I have noticed the Galant even with only 51.1hp doesn't have trouble chirping the tyres through 1-3 gears if given a bit of stick!
![Image](http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/524546_4379928334055_120616151_n.jpg)
Apart from the recent addition, I'm a full-size-car kinda day. But I think you guys could get me to appreciate the lightweights. What I do know:
Astrons go hard - back in the day, we bought $100 Sigmas (..and Geminis, and 120Ys, even the odd 200B or Bluebird. I almost cringe now, thnking about it) to thrash around Kwinana, TIG locker diffs where applicable. Astron 2.6 was THE engine of choice!
Scorpions are ok.
I have always liked the styling of the Starion and have one in my Forza 4 garage (if I'm playing a game, it's Forza Motorsport).
And that's about it.