What's the Best '80s Sports Car?

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

In that time period, I would think that very few, if any, thought of the Civic as anything other than a cheap to own and run, throwaway economy car.

I swallowed the bile, and voted GTI over 1st gen CRX because...because...it was a better car. There. I said it. I feel like eating soap.

I still own my 82 Z28 I bought new, and it appears like it will be first round fodder, but it was a much, much better sports car than the Mustang. Mustang was a better stunt and (some years) drag car, but the Camaro, stock for stock would eat its lunch on a twisty track.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I still own my 82 Z28 I bought new, and it appears like it will be first round fodder, but it was a much, much better sports car than the Mustang. Mustang was a better stunt and (some years) drag car, but the Camaro, stock for stock would eat its lunch on a twisty track.

See, this makes sense to me, too, but when you look back at the actual tests, the comparisons were much closer. In those days, Ford had a history of showing up to tests with VERY specific Mustang 5.0s—usually stripped cop car coupes with no a/c and manual windows. Half the time they would shred their tires to do it, but somehow they managed equal lap times to the Camaros. While the F-car should have been constantly better, I think it does say something about Ford's willingness to keep the pony wars alive any way they could until they built an off-the-shelf Mustang capable of defeating Fisher Body's finest.

I've never owned an F-body or a Mustang, but I've heard buys at Waterford hills, Mustang owners here, telling me how much harder it is to make a Mustang go around corners compared to the F-body cars.
Personally, I think the GTI is the first hot hatch. I know Honda had FWD cars that would scoot, but they were still economy cars, designed and built to be such. The GTI was built to be a hot hatch. That being said, the GLH-S gets my vote because turbo and Shelby.
And I've owned a GLH (2 actually) and a GTI ('86 IIRC) and the GLH was much, much more fun. With a GLH could could throw a few dozen dollars at it and significantly reduce your lap times, the GTI would take a lot more money to make meaningful differences.
When is round 2?

Hungary Bill wrote:

JG Pasterjak wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: I still own my 82 Z28 I bought new, and it appears like it will be first round fodder, but it was a much, much better sports car than the Mustang. Mustang was a better stunt and (some years) drag car, but the Camaro, stock for stock would eat its lunch on a twisty track.

See, this makes sense to me, too, but when you look back at the actual tests, the comparisons were much closer. In those days, Ford had a history of showing up to tests with VERY specific Mustang 5.0s—usually stripped cop car coupes with no a/c and manual windows. Half the time they would shred their tires to do it, but somehow they managed equal lap times to the Camaros. While the F-car should have been constantly better, I think it does say something about Ford's willingness to keep the pony wars alive any way they could until they built an off-the-shelf Mustang capable of defeating Fisher Body's finest.

Pre-emptive, or maybe paranoid, or just touchy after a bit of abuse over the last few years:

I feel I may have to defend something here, based on the 3rd gen F car and Fox Mustang being so very much better than that which was available before. My 82 was 500 lbs lighter and 10 inches shorter than the 81. It had huge spring rates, big sway bars, cornered flat, and was a glorious drivers car. I will freely admit that it less than 3 months old when I voided the engine warranty with a little help from Comp cams and Edelbrock...145 hp peak at 3500rpm sucked.

Those cars are seen as a bit of a joke now. Mullet wearing hooligans, etc, all the jokes, but they were a fairly serious piece in their day. I cut the springs a bit in mine, ran BFG Euro TA tires, and consistently was in competition for ftd with all the "proper" slalom (excuse me, autocross) cars. Yokohama ended that for me, with the whole 001R revolution. I'm still a bit bitter about needing special tires for parking lot fun.

My tastes, and the world, have moved beyond those days and those cars, but everytime I think of it sitting in the storage container waiting for its third engine, better brakes and a headliner, I can't add "Sell the old bucket" to the list of things to do with it. I take my SRT4 or B13 SER out sometimes to make sure its still there.

JG Pasterjak wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: the GTI started the hot hatch craze

We always say that, but is it really true? Serious question. Can anyone think of a car pre-GTI that made people believe that "sporty" and "compact fwd" could be mentioned in the same breath? Is there an argument to be made that the Civic started the fire and the GTI fanned the flames? Always fun to fact-check conventional wisdom from time to time.

When did the Civic S (Black or red only)show up? 83, sometime there...to my knowledge, that was the very first time anybody seriously gave Honda any props as a hot car. Rabbits from 75 were not much heavier, had more motor, fuel injection, and didn't have crankshafts made out of Chicklets. Hondas rep grew through the 80's. VW's was already there, partly because everybody and his dog had been tuning aircooled for decades.

First hot hatch was VW.

I voted but I pretty much want to forget the late 70s and 80s ever happened as far as cars go. Those were dark years and you do not have to look any further than this list of "best" to prove it.

Toyspyder wrote: I voted but I pretty much want to forget the late 70s and 80s ever happened as far as cars go. Those were dark years and you do not have to look any further than this list of "best" to prove it.

I dunno. My '85 MR2 still ranks as my favorite street car that I've owned. Not fastest, but most fun to drive.

Toyspyder wrote: I voted but I pretty much want to forget the late 70s and 80s ever happened as far as cars go. Those were dark years and you do not have to look any further than this list of "best" to prove it.

There were a few gems in the 80s, I just think they missed them in this list. I mean, seriously... an econobox Civic with 80 hp made the list, but not a Grand National? Celica Supra, Z-car, MR2, Fiero, Suby XT, Delorean, TR7, 928, 5.0, BMW E24 6-series, BMW E30, all really cool cars from the 80s. Certainly not up to par with today, but very GRM.

JG Pasterjak wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: the GTI started the hot hatch craze

We always say that, but is it really true? Serious question. Can anyone think of a car pre-GTI that made people believe that "sporty" and "compact fwd" could be mentioned in the same breath? Is there an argument to be made that the Civic started the fire and the GTI fanned the flames? Always fun to fact-check conventional wisdom from time to time.

The GTI made its debut in 1975 (according to Wiki). The Civic wasn't sporty, then. Granted, that covers a time before the survey. However, the CRX was, remains and always will be butt-ugly in my opinion.

The GTI didn't come to the states until 1982 (as a 1983 model) Back then the sportiest Civic you could get was the 1500 S----not exactly a barn burner, and not even remotely close to the GTI's capabilities.

An argument could be made for the ORIGINAL hot economy car--- the Mini Cooper---- but not many were sold here.

In reply to Joe, I always considered the Mini Cooper to be the original. If not for that car, would the GTI even exist?

Of course isn't the correct answer the Gremlin X?

The Mini wasn't on the list, and the survey didn't specify that it was regional to the North American market.

The mini would have wuned it all.

388 votes for the 1st gen MR2? Have 388 people on the internet ever even DRIVEN an MR2? Doubtful

Should have put it against e30 M3, which is a more fair comparison without the baggage of the early ETAs dragging the 3-series down, haha...

All what's winning makes sense to me aside E30 vs MR2. If E30 beats the MR2 I will be legitimately angry lol. No way a 318i or 325i is a better sports car than a MR2. The MR2 is LITERALLY a sports car by any classic definition. An E30 is a sporty car and not all of it's trims is that.

JG Pasterjak wrote: Fine, we'll do a second list featuring the Renault GTA, Merkur XR4Ti, Twin-stick Mitsubishi Mirage and Ford EXP. Happy now?

You'll need 2 slots for the 2 generations of EXP. To be fair it was the CRX two years before there was a CRX, it just wasn't as good of a CRX as the CRX.

Is it over? How does one view the results?

kanaric wrote: All what's winning makes sense to me aside E30 vs MR2. If E30 beats the MR2 I will be legitimately angry lol.

No way a 318i or 325i is a better sports car than a MR2.

Lots of opinion there. E30 has a far more decorated motorsports pedigree than MR2 does, both in the 80s and still today. Just go to any autocross, rallycross, stage rally, track day, Chumpcar race, etc....

The MR2 is LITERALLY a sports car by any classic definition. An E30 is a sporty car and not all of it's trims is that.

quite a doctrinaire viewpoint considering what people on this forum take to the track, lol....

Is sportscar = looks neat and has 2 seats? or is sportscar = good at motorsports? If the MR2 is the classic definition of a sportscar, so is the Fiero. Would anyone here call a stock Iron Duke Fiero "sporty?" (ok, don't answer that, this is a strange place).

e30 is more of a "sportscar" than a GTI, Rabbit, CRX, or Civic Si....all of which are just souped-up FWD econoboxes (several of which I've owned over the years, so I say that will all due respect). At least e30 is RWD. Complain about those others if there's a complaint to be made.

But the poll is bogus anyhow. They've cherry-picked "performance" models of certain cars (like the Shelby GLH, rather than just the Omni line overall, or the GTI rather than the whole Golf line), but the e30 just gets "3-series" (including the slow/non-sporty ones, and with a photo of douchey yuppies standing next to it) when it should be the e30 M3, the true "sportscar" in the range.

Plus, technically the poll's actual title says nothing about sportscars.....it just says best cars of the 80s......

oh also, I'm arguing for the sake of arguing. I would tend to agree that the MR2 is a good definition of a real sportscar, and I'm a big fan. But it's an imperfect poll, so I'm voting e30 anyways because I prefer that sportscars are defined with respect to their motorports heritage, not because of how they look.

And we're into round 2.

E30 has a far more decorated motorsports pedigree than MR2 does

Has nothing to do with it being a better "sports car". That Volvo 850R has a lot of wins as well. Is it a better sports car than a MR2? No.

The E30 was produced in massive numbers is why people use it now. Hardly any AW11s out there in compairson.

Like I said if it was M3 you might have something. It's not though.

In reply to irish44j:

I was going to try to draft up a witty reply about e30 koolaid, etc. but...

YOU'RE ALL ASSHATS, THE IMPULSE TURBO IS THE ONLY ANSWER

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to irish44j: I was going to try to draft up a witty reply about e30 koolaid, etc. but... YOU'RE ALL ASSHATS, THE IMPULSE TURBO IS THE ONLY ANSWER

No motorsports wins and people are not using in junkcar racing so it's clearly inferior lol. /s

WHY WERE WE NOT GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO FILL OUT BRACKETS AHEAD OF TIME?!!? this is grm's answer to march madness and the opportunity was completely missed. sigh

In reply to kanaric:

Idk, the LeMons guys were all over mine when I sold it