When it comes to designing and marketing sport coupes, automakers know it's a jungle out there. They all need to make their cars faster, sleeker and ever-more powerful than the competition does, and it's a never-ending battle. Which is why, upon hearing that the Chrysler/Mitsubishi Diamond-Star partnership was redesigning the
EagleTalon/
Mitsubishi Eclipse for 1995, the most appropriate response seemed to be: "What took you so long?"
But after we had a chance to drive the beefed-up, turbocharged 1995 all-wheel-drive (AWD) Talon TSi, we'd like to amend our response to, "It was worth the wait." In the turbocharged TSi and TSi AWD 5-speed versions, the talon's 2.0-liter, 16-valve DOHC 4-cylinder engine is powered by 210 unruly horses - a 15-hp increase over the +94 model - which more than makes up for the car's 200 lb. weight increase.
As well as the TSi and TSi AWD, the Talon is available in the base ESi.