Friday, October 31, 2008

Friday Fun Thread: Good Foreign Cars of the 1980s

If it's Friday, it must be time for another automotive fun thread. When I started doing these "top ten" lists a while back, I wasn't clear that I was starting with American cars only, and received numerous suggestions for good, bad, or ugly cars from around the world. I had split the list into American and foreign intentionally - I could milk the subject twice as long... :)

So here's my list of the cool foreign cars of the 1980s. The list centers on cars available in the United States only, not what's available in the country of origin - hence why the Nissan Skyline is not on the list. Enjoy!




1. 1984 Ferrari Testarossa - I love this car. This is literally at the top of my "lottery car" list - a first-year "Red Head". The styling, even today, is fresh, clean, and fast looking; the rear-engine, rear-drive set-up defining supercars for decades to come. And it was Sonny Crockett's car in "Miami Vice" - how on earth could you get any more 1980s cool than that?

2. 1985 Lamborghini Countach - everything about this car, from the wild scissor doors to the wiiiide rear tires to the ginormous rear fin screamed speed. This car absolutely defined fast for the 1980s, starring in such memorable 1980s movies as "Cannonball Run" and "Rain Man".

3. Porsche 928 - It was in "Risky Business", Tom Cruise's break-out movie. This was the car that inspired the line "Sometimes you gotta say, 'What the fuck'." This was Porsche's first V8-powered car, a large, lumbering beast that heralded a new direction for Porsche, their breakaway car that would help them shed the last ties to Volkswagen. Except that no one wanted the automatic-transmission, front-engine V8 Porsche, preferring the rear-engine six cylinder turbos instead. It's still darn cool.

4. 1983 Toyota Celica GTS - hey, it's the first manual transmission car I ever drove. It was also the last generation of rear-wheel drive Celicas before they went to FWD in 1986. Sadly, this was the time-frame when Japanese cars were manufactured primarily out of compressed rust, so very few examples remain...

5. 1983 VW GTI - I'll admit to bias here; I owned a 1986 GTI that was quite possibly more fun than should have been allowed - I used to hit offramps at insane rates of speed just to get the inside rear wheel off the ground in the turn. I also had about five or six friends who owned GTIs of varying ages, most of whom rolled their GTIs at some point (although one crashed head on into a tree at 40 MPH and walked away from it unscathed...). The GTI is also responsible for popularizing the term "pocket rocket". Well, as it pertains to cars, that is...

6. 1981 Datsun 280ZX - When I bought the aforementioned GTI, I had taken out a personal loan to buy a car after leaving college (I gave my old Buick to my sister for her first car). I took out this loan because I had fallen in love with a 1981 Datsun 280ZX for sale nearby. The Datsun sold before I could nail down the loan, so I wound up with the GTI instead. Such is life.


7. 1988 Honda CRX - what's not to like about a teeny little two seater that got 40 MPG on the highway and tore up the autocross track? 1988 saw a re-styling of the Honda line to include flush headlights, bringing a cleaner look to the dated inset bezels Honda had been using (to be fair, pretty much EVERY car manufaturer had the inset headlight bezels in the 1980s).


8. 1988 BMW 325iC - I have to admit to a bit of nostalgia for the '88 Beamer convertible, as a buddy of mine had one back in the day and it was a fun car to cruise the beach in (major chick magnet, which given my mullet at the time was well-needed...). It's a classic shape that looks as good now some 20 years later.

9. 1983 Ferrari 308GTS - Ferrari is the only manufacturer to get a double listing, as there was no way I could pass up the 308, the car driven by "Magnum P.I.". The 308GTS is, I would argue, the car that comes to mind when someone speaks the name "Ferrari".

10. 1986 Mercedes 300E AMG "Hammer" - how can you not love a big, fat, heavy four door luxury sedan that can accelerate from 0 - 60 MPH in 5.4 seconds? SRSLY! Mercedes, the "Cadillac" of the European luxury car market (meaning they're for the, um, advancing in years set), stuffed a 5.5L V8 monster into a 300 series and the super-sedan was born.




Well, there's my list of the best foreign cars of the 1980s. As always, feel free to critique, debate, or add your own favorite car(s) in comments.

That is all.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had a (considerably older) Beemer in Germany in the mid-90's... nothing particularly spectacular about that car other than when you looked down at the speedo-meter and realized you were humming along at 160km/hr (that's about 100m/hr)and you were not even pushing it.......

Anonymous said...

I would add the Toyota Supra to that list. Not sure about the models sold in the states, but the overseas version was a screamer.

Anonymous said...

I had a friend with a Honda Prelude, and that car was one of the most fun ones that I've ever driven.

And what 80s era metalhead doesn't get warm fuzzies from a white Lamborghini Countach?

Unknown said...

Gee, I stopped at the first two..but I agree in that the Testarossa comes first.

And not even a nod to the Back to the Future Delorian. *lol*

For me, I've wanted a VW Bug, original, and a convertible one.

Briefly owned a 1980 Honda Prelude. Fun little car while it lasted. Too rusted to get thru inspection in CT. *bah* Ran great...

Then there was the Pontiac Fiero, Pontiac Grand-Am/Prix, and the Bonneville. Guess I liked the Pontiac styling in those days.

I also remember having a hot wheel of some funky Peugot that was really cool.

Mike W. said...

How could you forget the 1st Gen Toyota MR2 or the 3rd Gen MKIII Toyota Supra?

Though the Supra did have the infamous BHG (blown head gasket) issues that came with the 7M-GTE. Solution? Swap out to the JZ series motors.

Mike W. said...

Oh, and yeah the Pontiac Fiero. My 1st car. Spun that thing twice in the rain. 2nd time we never got it running right again and gave it away.

Sigivald said...

Yeah, Yeah, the 300E AMG.

Let's talk 560SEL (sure, 7.1 seconds, but the long-wheelbase 126 is a much larger car than the 124 - and if you got the SEC coupe instead, it was 6.8.

I have a thing for big sedans, though.

(Me, can't stand Ferraris or Lamborghinis.

Overpriced, overhyped, ugly, not that fast, and horrible [ugly, uncomfortable, tiny] interiors.

I mean, have you seen the interior of a Countach? Imagine actually having to drive the damned thing!

Were I mad enough to spend over 100,000 dollars on a relatively-unreliable Italian car, I'd at least get a Maserati, and gain comfort and style.

I believe a new Quattroporte is cheaper than a used Countach* and goes faster**.

[* At least one I'd trust to drive more than the distance between the point of purchase and the nearest Lamborghini mechanic.

** Than the normal Countach, not the ultra-top-end one. But for the price difference, if you could even find one for sale, the Maserati could be made faster than it.]

Fast for 1985. Slower than a commonly available fast mass-market sedan, today.

Still ugly as sin, the lot of them. I don't think I've seen a non-ugly Ferrari since the America.)

Ride Fast said...

One, two and nine. Still classic and I would just love to have all three,

If only one, then No. One.

Old NFO said...

Nice cars, but I'm an old fart... Ferrari Daytona and Fairlady 240Z Now THOSE were some cars :-)

Mike W. said...

BTW those Datzuns can be CRAZY fast if you stuff a 2JZ-GTE from the Supra into em (or even the smaller 1JZ)

I actually prefer the 240Z to the 280.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3qOWw2s-QM

Anonymous said...

My very first ever NEW car was a 1981 Celica Supra, auto trans, straight-six, fuel injected with AWESOME. LOVED that car! Had 120K miles by 1988 when wifey (barely)totalled it - about $500 less damage, ins. would have repaired it.