To most gearheads, the best and most legendary supercars will always be the big names, the ones capable of the fastest speeds or quickest acceleration. By that criteria, the '80s should be one of the best decades ever.
Putting things into perspective, the '80s gave us not one, but two supercars capable of 200 mph or more. Ferrari's F40 set the tone for the following decade, while another less famous carmaker cracked 250 mph. A slew of newcomers was joined also by older evolutionary designs that give a healthy dose of extra power from turbos were still capable of showing the new boys a trick or two.
Everything was bigger, and in many regards better in the '80s, supercar legends were born that still attracts admiration from gearheads today.
10 Ferrari 288 GTO
Rare, beautiful, and fiendishly quick, Ferrari's 288 GTO road-legal racer is only fractionally slower than the mighty F40, reaching 60 mph in 4.9-seconds, thanks to a largely identical twin-turbocharged V8 producing 395 hp. Originally intended for competition use where the GTO takes it Grand Turismo Omolagata name from, 288 GTO's never saw action in the FIA Group B due to safety concerns.
Essentially a reworked 308 chassis and body fitted with a de-bored 2.9-liter V8 augmented by a brace of IHI turbos. Other visible changes include wider wheel arches and fatter tires for improved grip, while most of the bodywork is formed from lighter glass fiber.
9 Lamborghini Countach LP5000 Quattrovalvole
Deeply Flawed but ever so special, Lamborghini's Countach serves as the perfect example of form over function. Its ultra-low wedge-shaped '70s era body screamed performance, provided you could fit inside and manage the heavy controls. However, on a purely drool-inducing score, the Countach is the undisputed king of supercars, even standing still it looks like you're doing 200 mph.
In reality, the Countach would fall short of the magic 200 mph barrier, even the later LP5000 QV's struggled in a titanic battle of mass, drag, and weight, where wings added downforce at the expense of speed. 185 mph was as fast as the Lamborghini could manage. Just as the appearance adds more to the legend than speed, so does the iconic 5.2-liter V12 mounted behind the cockpit, delivering 455 hp.
8 Lotus Esprit Turbo SE
Big engines and heavy chassis are not part of the Lotus formula, Colin Chapman did more for light-weight efficiency than most gearheads realize. Another '70s era wedge that lived on into the '80s, the Lotus Esprit built entirely from glass-fiber over a steel backbone chassis waded into battle with a tiny 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine.
Like David versus Goliath, the Esprit punched well above its weight, the tiny 264hp power output ensured a sprint to 60 mph in 4.7-seconds, matching supercars with double the cylinder count costing two-three times the price. However, the Lotus' trump card is easily its razor-sharp handling, setting the benchmark for all sports cars in the '80s.
7 Callaway Corvette Sledgehammer
Chevrolet thought they had the supercar market covered with the C4 ZR-1, topping out at 175 mph, easily a match for any '80s European supercar. Someone didn't tell Callaway, who added a bit more of everything, bolting on twin-turbos to the ZR-1s 5.7-liter to unleash 880 hp and 772 lb-ft of torque.
Save for a few styling tweaks for better airflow and a larger four-pipe custom exhaust, you wouldn't guess the Sledgehammer is a fully-fledged supercar capable of 254 mph, making it the world's fastest production car at the time.
6 Porsche 959
Porsche or Ferrari? Both delivered world-changing performance, Porsche came first with the technologically advanced 959, followed closely by the bare essentials Ferrari F40. On the face of it, there is little choice in terms of performance, both knocking on the door of 200 mph. Porsche, however, offers a more civilized driving experience.
Retaining a 911-esque design paid off, Porsche was able to both forward and reverse engineer the 959 for future generations of their iconic supercar. The 959 differs in a few key areas, all-wheel-drive made its first appearances, as did water-cooled cylinders. Equipped with a smaller 2.8-liter flat-six producing 444 hp in a lightened, wider 911-style body, Porsche recorded a maximum of 197 mph.
5 De Tomaso Pantera GT5-S
The other less known Italian supercar marque, De Tomaso often goes forgotten amid a flurry of exotic cars from the '80s, and yet the Pantera GT5S is right up there with the best in terms of performance. Penned by Tom Tjaarda under the Ghia styling banner, the Pantera is a two-seater mid-engined supercar built around a steel backbone chassis and Ford power.
Originally you could have bought a Pantera from your local Ford dealer until the two parties separated in 1975, leaving De Tomaso to continue both production distribution through to the early '90s. Ford power remained throughout its life, later GT5-S models, of which only 182 were produced, used Ford Cleveland 5.8-liter units producing 345 hp.
4 Ferrari F40
After Porsche's ground-breaking 959 stole the fastest production car title, it was Ferrari's turn. The Italian carmaker adopted a less-is-more approach, utilizing a boosted version of its 288 GTO engine in a light-weight minimalist body that took weight saving to another level, the paint barely covering its exotic carbon-fiber skin.
Stepping inside revealed another exercise in bare essentials, door handles replaced with simple straps, door cards deleted, as were carpets and anything else coming under the vague description of luxury. Ignoring the huge turbo-lag from its 477 hp V8 engine, Ferrari had successfully launched the world's first 200 mph supercar.
3 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
This is how the Brits approached supercars in the '80s; build a luxuriously appointed coupe, call it a grand tourer then lump a thumping great V8 in the nose and call it job done. For all the V8 Vantage's traditional wood and leather facade, the Aston was a proper supercar, packing a 430 hp 5.3-liter V8 under the hood.
Aside from a muscular V8 bellow under acceleration, you'd be hard pushed to tell from the acres of wood and leather how quick the big Aston gets into its stride. 60 mph comes up in 4.9-seconds and continues a headlong assault towards the horizon, topping out at 170 mph.
2 Ford RS200 Evolution
Not every supercar comes in a two-seater sleek wedge body, Ford's RS200 Evolution, thinly disguised as a road-going mid-sized coupe, proved there was another way to deliver huge thrills. Born of the World Rally stage, the RS200 was a fire-breathing turbocharged monster that exited for one thing only, to go fast over any terrain.
In doing so, it invoked the FIA's homologation rules, stating the same car must be availed for purchase through dealers. Going down the competition route gave gearheads a 2.1-liter turbocharged motorsport-derived tarmac chewing monster capable of near 170 mph.
1 Alpina B10 Biturbo
All of which brings us nicely to the Alpina B10 Bitubo, a subtly modified executive sedan with supercar shaming performance that leaves us asking what exactly is a supercar? Boasting a 3.4-liter straight-six backed by a pair of turbos kicking out 355 hp, or roughly the same as a Pantera GT5-S, the B10 isn't lacking in grunt.
More surprisingly, despite the added weight, the B10 hits 60 mph in 5.9-seconds and will go on to a maximum of 180 mph, faster than all but Ferrari's F40, 288 GTO, and Porsche's 959.