Slowly recovering from an energy crisis that decimated the automotive landscape in the mid-seventies, and smack-dab in the middle of a time where design principles like 'tasteful' and 'subtle' and 'classy' were practically frowned upon; most of the cars made during the eighties are often better off forgotten. Fuel-mileage standards implemented in 1979 were the death of the big-block engine and for over a decade cars had been evolving away from the rounded, sexy lines of the sixties, towards the boxy, angular look that eventually became synonymous with the nineteen eighties.
As such, choosing my favourite ten cars was less about narrowing down my abundance of choices, and more about finding enough that were actually worthy.
Actually, as much as I knock the eighties, some decent stuff did manage to be produced. In fact, it was really only in America where things were so utterly bleak. Across the pond, they were still pounding out some pretty legendary cars.
1982 DeLorean DMC-12
Layout: Rear Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 2.8 L V6
Horsepower: 130 bhp
Torque: 162 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 2712 lbs
Top Speed: 109 mph
Zero to Sixty: 10.5 seconds
Ok, this car is actually pretty much complete shit. If it wasn't for Back to the Future, it's doubtful that anyone would even remember it today. That said, the ideas behind it were pretty good, in theory, and if it hadn't been for such poor implementation, this car could have actually been quite decent. But that's all just a small footnote in the car's very unique and turbulent two-year existence. It all began when the youngest General Motors executive ever, John DeLorean, the man who engineered the Pontiac GTO, Firebird and Grand Prix, left GM to start his own company in 1973, with the goal of producing his dream vehicle: a rear-engined, stainless-steel-bodied, gull-wing-door-adorned, rear-wheel-drive sports car.
Unfortunately, instead of the 200 bhp engine that he had envisioned during the car's early development stages, the production vehicle ended up with a mere 130 bhp, which massively hampered the performance of the $25,000 car (equal to about $60,000 back in 1981). As such, the many years of development and multiple engineering revisions, combined with the car's underwhelming debut, put the company in severe financial jeopardy. In a bizarre, you-can't-make-this-stuff-up, turn of events, DeLorean began trafficking cocaine in an attempt to save his company from bankruptcy. Needless to say, it didn't work, and even though he got off on a technicality (entrapment), it was still too late to save the doomed DMC-12.
1987 Buick Grand National GNX
Layout: Front Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 3.8 L V6
Horsepower: 276 bhp
Torque: 360 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 3472 lbs
Top Speed: 124 mph
Zero to Sixty: 5.4 seconds
With the Camaro putting out a mere 90 bhp with their base 'Iron Duke' engine in 1982, and the Mustang out-pathetic-ing that with a mere 88 bhp, it was clear that those once-great cars were now just a shadow of their former glory. Dodge was passing a little hatchback off as a Charger, and the Ford Thunderbird had mutated into something else entirely. Essentially, Muscle cars had gone the way of the dinosaur, and no amount of Jurassic Park-esque scientific breakthroughs were going to bring them back from extinction. That makes the GNX - a car from Buick no less - the only* true Muscle Car of the eighties.
*Actually the IROC Camaros and 5.0 Mustangs weren't too bad as far as muscle went, even if they were a little painful to look at.
1982 Ferrari 308 GTB QV
Layout: Mid Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 3.0 L V8
Horsepower: 240 bhp
Torque: 192 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 2778 lbs
Top Speed: 159 mph
Zero to Sixty: 6.5 seconds
Ok, Magnum P.I. fans, this one's for you. With the loud, Hawaiian shirts and a spectacular mustache behind the wheel, this might very well have become the most recognizable shape in Ferrari's legendary history. Although that is a bit of a shame when you consider how many absolutely stunning cars have rolled out of Maranello over the years. It's still a good looking car, don't get me wrong, it's just that it can't really hold a candle to some of the shapes that Pininfarina has wrapped around a chassis over the years.
1984 Ferrari Testarossa
Layout: Mid Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 4.9 L Flat-12
Horsepower: 390 bhp
Torque: 361 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 3320 lbs
Top Speed: 180 mph
Zero to Sixty: 5.2 seconds
Speaking of famous Ferrari body styles, if anything could give the 308 a run for it's money in the recognition department, it would probably be the Testarossa. Now, the Testarossa is a decent car and all, but that really is the biggest shame of them all. Because for all it's fuss and flair, it's probably the furthest* thing from the embodiment of the Ferrari philosophy that has ever done a lap at Fiorano. In fact, Enzo might actually roll over in his grave if he knew that more people recognized this as a Ferrari than the legendary 'P' cars that dominated LeMans in the early sixties. You see, Enzo Ferrari loved race cars, and he only ever built road cars - reluctantly - to meet homologation requirements or to subsidize the enormous cost required to develop race cars. The Testarossa was designed solely for the road, never to even sniff the surface of a race track. and as result, Enzo likely would have thumbed his nose at it.
*Ok, it's probably not the actual furthest thing from the Ferrari philosophy, at least the Testarossa had a V12 and only two seats, Enzo probably would have hated the new California, and any of the four-seater GT cars that have donned the Prancing Horse badge over the years a bit more than the 'Rossa.
1989 Lotus Esprit Turbo SE
Layout: Mid Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 2.2 L Inline-4
Horsepower: 264 bhp
Torque: 261 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 2690 lbs
Top Speed: 159 mph
Zero to Sixty: 4.9 seconds
Smack-dab in the middle of a list that's chalk-full of testosterone and manliness, here I go ruining all my street cred by shamefully admitting that this car first came to my attention because of the movie Pretty Woman. Yes, it's true. Revoke my Man-Card if you must, but please stop laughing. I've explained many times already that as the youngest sibling growing up, I was at the mercy of my sister when it came to which movies that we watched in our one-television-home. As a young, budding car enthusiast, drooling over the Esprit was all I could do to make it through such trying times.
1983 Porsche 930 Turbo Flachbau
Layout: Rear Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 3.3 L Flat-6
Horsepower: 330 bhp
Torque: 318 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 3126 lbs
Top Speed: 173 mph
Zero to Sixty: 4.6 seconds
A lot of the cars that have endured for so many generations had their biggest mis-fires during the eighties (see: Corvette, Chevrolet). And while most people turn a blind eye, and choose to ignore or forget said cars, in the case of the Porsche 911, I remain loyal. The 911 has never been a particularly pretty car, but during a time when most cars were down-right ugly, Porsche's decision to never drastically change it's flagship car paid off. Sure, they added the whale-tail, which has eighties excess written all over it (although I've always kind of been partial to it myself, and technically it was spawned in the seventies), but for the most part, the 911 emerged from the decade unscathed. In fact, I'm not just tolerant of the 930 generation of 911, I'm actually a pretty big fan of it. Especially in Slantnose trim (although 'Flachbau' is much more fun to say).
1984 Ferrari 288 GTO
Layout: Mid Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 2.9 L V8
Horsepower: 400 bhp
Torque: 366 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 2557 lbs
Top Speed: 190 mph
Zero to Sixty: 4.9 seconds
To the untrained eye, the 288 probably just looks like a minor upgrade of the 308. A body modification here, a little extra trim there, maybe a couple engine tweaks and a new set of rims. Nothing special. But for those people that know, they see one of the first and rarest Ferrari supercars ever made. It was a homologation special (and only 272 were ever built) designed to compete in the Group B Race Series. Without it we might never have seen the likes of the F40 a few years later. Personally, I like the look of the 308's front end a fair bit more, but everything from the front wheels back looks so much better on this car. If only they could have combined the two, if might stand today as one of the greatest Ferrari's ever.
1982 Lamborghini Countach LP500S
Layout: Mid Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 4.8 L V12
Horsepower: 375 bhp
Torque: 302 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 3285 lbs
Top Speed: 186 mph
Zero to Sixty: 5.6 seconds
Over-the-top, unrestrained, and all flash. Even though it was spawned in the seventies, from an automotive stand point, few cars better capture the feel of a decade than the Countach does. It's pure nineteen eighties. And much like the eighties, it's complete shit. I mean, this is just word-of-mouth, obviously - I've never had the pleasure to sit behind the wheel of one myself - but from everything I've ever seen/heard/read it's pretty much a nightmare to drive. And although there's something refreshing about it's completely unapologetic design, if I'm honest, I do kind of prefer the cleaner, more simple lines of the original LP400 from the seventies. But I didn't want to put the same car on two lists, and it would be a near-crime to not include a car that's the very definition of the decade on a list of cars from the eighties.
1986 Porsche 959
Layout: Rear Engine, Four Wheel Drive
Engine: 2.8 L Flat-6
Horsepower: 450 bhp
Torque: 369 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 3197 lbs
Top Speed: 195 mph
Zero to Sixty: 4.1 seconds
I used to absolutely love the 959 growing up. I still do, but perhaps not with the same fervor that I once did as a young boy. To a child, it was mostly about what looked good on a poster up on your bedroom wall, but it turns out that the 959 wasn't just a car that looked good, it was a heck of a performer, and also very groundbreaking as well. The mandate of the 959 was innovation, and it was by the far the most technically advanced car ever made at the time. Most notably, it was the first use of all-wheel-drive in a supercar, and laid the groundwork for the viability of such systems in high-performance cars, which continues to this very day.
1987 Ferrari F40
Layout: Mid Engine, Rear Wheel Drive
Engine: 2.9 L V8
Horsepower: 478 bhp
Torque: 425 ft lbs
Curb Weight: 2425 lbs
Top Speed: 201 mph
Zero to Sixty: 3.8 seconds
I haven't had much good to say about the eighties so far, have I? Well, that's because, honestly, if these lists weren't divided up by decade, and I was just doing a single 'favourite cars list', not a lot of these eighties entries would have made the cut. Until now. Simply put, the Ferrari F40 is one of the greatest cars ever made. If you want comfort and options, you've come to wrong place; the F40 didn't even have floor mats or a radio. This car was all about being driven. Floor mats were unnecessary weight, and the roar of the engine was a far more glorious sound than any stereo could ever provide. Sure, that meant you could see all the raw welds, which gave the interior a bit of an unfinished look, and to save even more weight, they used plastic instead of glass and you didn't use traditional handles to open the door from the inside (you pulled on a simple wire mechanism instead). It might all seem a little unnecessary, perhaps even overly-obsessive, but what it resulted in was one of the best power to weight ratios ever, and a car that still holds up to this day as one of the very best.
Honourable Mentions:
1981 BMW M1
1987 Porsche 928 S4
1986 TVR S
