“Gorilla: Metropolitan Police Department Squad 8″ must have been a great show. Not that I have ever seen an episode, and without subtitles I wouldn’t catch most of the finer points of the action, but we’re talking about a Japanese police action show that was sponsored by Mitsubishi and Toshiba. A sure-fire recipe for brilliance right there.
The show starred such fare as a Debonair V and a short-wheelbase Pajero, but the coolest thing was a black Mitsubishi Starion with gullwing doors. How awesomely ’80s can you get?

[youtube width=”720″ height=”480″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec1j4Pan7p8[/youtube]
Frankly, I’m addicted to the intro seen above. The levels of cool displayed in it are all but unreachable today, and the black Starion just looks completely boss. And there are some firearms, beer and helicopters, obviously.

 
The Starion also doubled as a mobile command center by the looks of the dashboard, with Toshiba’s finest mounted in there. The cars used in filming were built by a Mitsubishi subcontractor, and two Starions were used – the electric doors didn’t work perfectly, so they used the other when the other was broken. There were a few gullwing-doored customer cars built as well, and one created by a private person from official parts.
And yes, sources differ whether the name of the show was “Gorilla” or “Guerilla”, with a little but crucial difference there. I decided to go with the former, just for the weirdness of it.