1991 Plymouth Laser RS Turbo
This was the car where everything really started to come together. I bought it in January 1993 with around 15,000 miles on it, and it quickly became more than just transportation. There was something exhilarating about feeling the turbo spool up and push me back into the seat, and I went back to the same store I’d bought AMSOIL from to make sure this car had the protection it needed from the heat a turbo can produce.
Around that time I joined an online group for Eagle Talon, Mitsubishi Eclipse and Plymouth Laser owners called Club DSM. I was one of the first three to help start the local chapter in Orlando, and before long we had our own corner of a parking lot where we’d gather weekly, talk about our cars and sometimes head to the local track together.
This was when I really started modifying the Laser. The turbo, suspension and exhaust all received upgrades, often using parts from new companies just breaking into the import scene and making names for themselves in magazines and race series. Not long after, a fellow club member and I met an AMSOIL Dealer who encouraged me to become a Dealer too so I could buy at wholesale, access the full product line and offer it to other club members.
That changed everything. I joined, moved the Laser over to AMSOIL’s top-tier oils and fluids, and began converting every major component to products I’d never seen on parts‑store shelves. It stopped being just “my turbo car” and became the testbed where I learned how much difference the right lubricants make when you’re pushing a car beyond stock. I even started setting up a booth at local events with the Laser on display, introducing AMSOIL—still an obscure name to most in the import world—to anyone who stopped by.
In October 1999 the story took a turn when a lean condition with my modifications damaged the engine. By 2001, after seeing how much work it would take to bring it back, I decided it was time to move on and sold the car. I later heard the new owner repaired the damage and had it running better than ever. I still have magazines that featured the car, and I rarely see a DSM on the road now. Every so often I look at the old shop manuals and think how nice it would be to feel that familiar boost again, even from a stock one, and remember the chapter that car helped write.
