For the Best Offroad/Highest Power/“I didn’t like those tires anyways” award: The 1984 Lightstar Charon
For our fourth pint sized review, we have the Lightstar Charon. This one confused us, when we opened the shipping container from Lightstar, we had sworn they had sent us the full blown race car. Aggressive knobby tires, a mostly barren interior, the only tale tell that this was in fact the road version is that it came with a full carpet, some sound deadening, and lacked a full roll cage. With a truly angry 2.8l engine delivering devastating 311hp(net), the Charon commanded, neigh, demanded you to drive it side ways on the dirt, control was retained at all times thanks to the expertly tuned suspension and progressive steering linkage which reduced steering input based on vehicle speed, which was wisely not based on drive line speed, but the wheel speed average by having the the ABS sensors perform double duty.
The truth be told we spent more time acting like hooligans while driving the Charon than anything else. While we commend Lightstar for developing a unapologetic rally car, we feel they could have had a much better performing sports car if they not focused to heavily on off-road performance.
