1980s supercars

Just read all this.
🙂

My word, there were some ugly cars in the 80’s.

SM from the 70’s, from the 90’s an NSX, but many 80’s supercars seem a bit crass now.

Porsche, Lotus, Ferrari and Lamborghini all had some classy stuff, but those later eggbox Countaches are ugly.

79:

80’s:

gofasterstripes – Member

AND THIS WHY IS THIS NOT HERE ALREADY

Because this is STW and everyone is a) old and b) contemptous of things that younger people like.

The 80’s were a bit naff, though.
The decade that brought us the ra-ra skirt, remember?

Because this is STW and everyone is a) old and b) contemptous of things that younger people like.

Back up Grandad, I ain’t old!
I like frisbee, but frisbee /= supercar.

Seems a lot of people are getting confused by the terms supercar and super car.

Northwind – Member

Because this is STW and everyone is a) old and b) contemptous of things that younger people like.

a) Not saying I’m not old, but I’m still in my 30’s and b) how is a car that came out in 1989 notably more youth centric than the F40 which came out 2 years before it and was produced to 93. Even the Countach was produced till 1990.

Just ask yourself. What would a grid girl want to be driven back from the circuit in?

I’ve not read the whole thread, but given a Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth from 1987 is going for £100k here, I’m not sure what is now considered a supercar from the 80’s these days!

Oh labelling…. I guess a ‘supercar’ in the 80’s is a ‘hypercar’ today, which is why some people are getting their knickers in a twist. Let’s face it, when that Cosworth ^ was out, I was around 14 and compared to my parents second hand Allegro 3dr estate thing was pretty bloody super 😀

This is sort of the total opposite to the Cosworth. Supercar brand, spec and pricing, but has aged strangely well, and you could (almost) drive it to the shops without anyone noticing you! Aston Martin V8 Vantage Sagato.

I’m not a car snob at all, but Ford Sierras and Nissan Bluebirds aren’t what I’d consider supercars.

I see the word as meaning real top-end sports cars, as we started out on here.

Maybe we need another thread? “1980s mentalhatchbacks” anyone?

TheGingerOne – Member

I’ve not read the whole thread, but given a Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth from 1987 is going for £100k here,

That RS500 has had a complete restoration, which no doubt bumps up the value and makes it attractive to people buying it as an investment. Fast Fords have gone silly in the last decade….but again is a MK2 Escort RS2000 a supercar?

I’m not sure what is now considered a supercar from the 80’s these days!

Maybe if you have to construct an argument as to whether it is a Supercar then there’s good chance it’s not.

Okay, MR2’s were bad enough but Skylines?

C’mon, if you don’t know what defines a supercar go away and find out before embarrassing yourselves further. Great cars they may be but supercars they are not.

As for that Jalpa, Phil Collins drove one in Miami Vice, ’nuff said. Then again, it was Lamborghini’s highest selling V8 when it was canned, genuinely surprised you don’t see more around.

squirrelking – Member

C’mon, if you don’t know what defines a supercar go away and find out before embarrassing yourselves further. Great cars they may be but supercars they are not.

And why not? People get confused on godzilla, it’s not a saloon car that was modified to go racing like say the RS500 or that people found unexpected performance in- it was designed from the ground up for class A racing- it supplied the engine size, the 4wd, the chassis was built around the tyre regs.

The only reason it didn’t enter the imagination over here at the time was that it just didn’t run here- but it won literally every Japanese touring car race it entered (against a couple of cars mentioned elsewhere in this thread), won Spa 24 hours (humping a long list of Carrera 2s), dominated australian group 1 so completely that they banned it. Supercar. Had a spinoff rwd variant that likewise dominated drifting (which at the time, meant nothing to us over here)

And then…

jimjam – Member

b) how is a car that came out in 1989 notably more youth centric than the F40 which came out 2 years before it and was produced to 93

Gran Turismo and Fast and Furious 😆 Which probably sounds laughable to some folks but then how many posts have mentioned Miami Vice?

An awful lot of the cars in this thread are just completely of their time, it’s hard to imagine them catching much attention today. But the US and UK saw almost nothing of the R32 til 3 years after it was discontinued. And likewise the R34 was never homologated for the US and didn’t catch the imagination in the west til after it was discontinued- in fact til after the entire skyline gtr lineage was dead.

People get confused on godzilla, it’s not a saloon car that was modified to go racing like say the RS500 or that people found unexpected performance in- it was designed from the ground up for class A racing

The base model Skyline was a 4-door saloon, roughly equivalent to a Vauxhall Senator. The GTR was the top of the pile, with every high-tech thing thrown at it, bit like the Lotus Carlton. A very impressive car, I’d love to drive one, but basically a tarted up taxicab, bit on the bland and ugly side IMO. Definitely not a supercar. The modern GTR is a different beast entirely.

It’s still not a supercar though as there is no real exclusivity to it. Just because it can beat supercars doesn’t mean it is one.

43,937 R32 GT-R’s produced. Not Mondeo territory but more than the 4987 Renault 5 Turbo’s, 5545 RS Cosworths, 13140 Sapphire RS Cosworths, 2049 Countach’s, 337 Porsche 959’s, 1311 F40’s etc. etc. put together.

What we just need to agree on is that it is a supercar if it WAS a supercar in childrends heads and magazine terms in the 80’s, rather than now being seen as a supercar due to it’s exclusivity and\or the passage of time turning something that was out of the ordinary / top of the range into a collectable classic

hols2 – Member

A very impressive car, I’d love to drive one, but basically a tarted up taxicab,

See, that’s exactly what I was talking about. Total mince.

squirrelking – Member

It’s still not a supercar though as there is no real exclusivity to it.

Ironically, they actually are pretty exclusive over here just because of the import status- and their almost total unavailability in the states probably cemented their status, but that’s by the by. It was built to race then just happened to sell, would it have been more of a supercar if nobody bought one? That’s pretty backwards.

As for numbers, there were 560 nismos initially- 560 not 500, because they were planning to do the usual homologation bullshit of doing the bare minimum then pretending they’d sold them, but accidentally sold all the cars and so had to commission some more.

I wouldn’t spend £100k on a Ford Sierra, even if it were someone else’s money. But there’s a huge nostalgia market, clean Mk2 Golfs go for silly money, as do Peugeot 205 GTIs etc.

Apologies for detailing the thread.

Holy hell am I enjoying myself today. Passed the import test with no troubles and I’ll have done around 300 miles by the end of the day.

Sadly I have to leave her off the road till I get my real Dutch plates in a couple of weeks from now 🙁

Love n peas n miles n ‘ting.

Sam

gofasterstripes

Put your money where your mouth username is then.

Does that mean I need to buy a faster car or paint stripes on this one? I think she looks quite fine on her winter wheels there, so she’ll remain as she is 🙂

The username actually comes from my helmet hair, which is somewhat permanent!

Anyway, there’s been some lovely cars posted in this thread 🙂

I think I’d like put forward a 7 litre twin supercharger V12 Lister Jaguar, how’s this:

Phwaaargh¡

gofasterstripes – Member

Apologies for detailing the thread.

Holy hell am I enjoying myself today.

Gay.
Mate of mine had a Honda Beat with a 240BHp 2.2l Accord Type R engine shoehorned in.
And she was a bird.

It’s got to be the F40 Koenig – that was just bonkers

Oh we did the Lister already. Well, maybe you can vote again with every forced induction system fitted.

>Gay
I thought we’d established the thread is supposed to be about retro cars not retro “humor”

Another post, though I gather it was only a concept:

Such pretty clean lines, makes those bewinged Lambos look like a novelty ice scraper 😉

Eeer, sorry to bring this back up but I casually looked at the wiki for “supercar” and it says:

A supercar is a luxury, high-performance sports car or grand tourer.

The term is used in marketing by automakers for unusual and expensive vehicles, and has been used to refer to at least four different sorts of cars:

Limited-production specials from an “elite” automaker

Standard-looking cars modified for power and performance

Models from smaller manufacturers that appeal to enthusiasts

One-of-a-kind “showcase” project vehicles built by custom car retrofitters (usually extensively modified collectible muscle cars or grand tourers updated to the latest “streetable” racing technology).

So, it seems the definition is pretty broad!