When you think of the ‘80s, you don’t hold the cars of that time in high esteem. The malaise era may have ended, but it left cars with stifled engines, which in hindsight was good for the environment, but bad for horsepower. The new horsepower measurement metrics also lowered numbers further down, giving people cause for thought.
The oil crisis also left people reeling, so most were wary of any car that had a sports or muscle tag to it because this meant they would guzzle gas. So all in all, the ‘80s was the time of the weaklings, the cars with less power, enough comfort, and good fuel economy.
This means that most people think of the sports cars from the ‘80s as weak, and they would not be completely wrong. On the flip side, the good thing about these ‘80s sports cars is that they are likely to last you a lifetime and come with some really good looks and easy maintenance.
10 The Chevy Corvette C4 Was A Blitzkrieg
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So yes, using a German military term to describe a purely American car may be a bit of a stretch but that is what the 1984 model year C4 did. It went about restoring the good name of the Corvette, which had been dragged through the mud in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
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The V8 was back and while it was not what a Corvette should have a jet, performance-wise, it was still way better than before. These Corvettes looked good if a bit sedate but were built to last considering they were not meant to be ridden very hard.
9 The Fox-Body Ford Thunderbird?
When we say Fox-body Ford, you must have thought we’d mention the Mustang but nope. For 1983, it was the ninth-gen Thunderbird that came to be Fox-bodied, much like the 1980 T-Bird. But it now rode on a shorter wheelbase, with a wind-tunneled shape that made people dub it the Aero Bird.
It was innovative and rather ahead of its time, with a 2.3-liter turbocharged inline-four engine that made more power than the V8s. This bird could fly and unlike the muscled and affordable ‘Stang, the T-Bird did it all with style. And came very reliable.
8 The Competition Killing Audi Quattro
The original Audi Quattro of the ‘80s was scaring off competition in the rallies, it was simply that good a car and came riding on the then-newly introduced Quattro all-wheel-drive that made it stable at high speeds.
It was a superb sports car back then and fiercely loyal as a collectible now, only too happy to take on the newer crowd as soon as you press the pedal to the metal. It's an Audi and comes with a legacy of plushness as well as plenty of wins in the road and off-road races.
7 The Hero JDM Toyota AE86
What makes the Toyota AE86 so cool? It’s a small car, and rather simple in design and function but comes with enough revs to take you around the world in way less than 80 days. This is the car that Japan started drifting in, and in fact the drift hero, Keiichi Tsuchiya still has one of these around. And it is his daily driver.
The Toyota AE86 is less of a cruising sports car and more of an all-round track star, plus being a JDM, it comes with plenty of alterable insides. This means you can play around with it and make it as powerful as you can handle.
6 The Very Cool Chevrolet Monte Carlo
We all love ourselves a good Corvette or a Camaro. But one car that won Chevrolet rave reviews in NASCAR and other races was the Chevy Monte Carlo, even if it was rather stately to look at it. Think of it as the ultimate sleeper car.
This was old-school cool and came big and brash, with plenty of power under the hood. The Monte Carlo may sound reminiscent of a laid-back lifestyle but what lay under the hood was always ready to shoot like a bat out of hell.
5 The Ultimate Nissan 300ZX
The transition of the Datsun to the Nissan may have been rather forgettable but for the Z cars. And when Nissan hit the US market with the 300ZX in 1984, sports car fans sat and up and paid a lot of attention.
The sleek and long front houses a V6 turbo engine and came with pop-up lights, very reminiscent of European sports cars. But it drove quickly and with so much street presence, people craned their neck out of sorts to catch a glimpse of it. And it’s a Z car, so it is built to last the apocalypse.
4 The Tons-Of-Fun Mazda RX-7
The RX-7 was not the first car to carry a Wankel rotary engine, but it came with such good looks and so much awesomeness to it that it became a sensation. Along with that strange engine of its. The RX-7 may not have been the fastest car of the ‘80s, but it had to be the one with the most shock factor.
Call it the poor man’s Porsche, or the Japanese Porsche 924, the Mazda RX-7 still has its fans and there are plenty of examples around for you to own one. Without busting your bank. And if you know your rotaries, these engines simply never die.
3 The Frunky Toyota MR2
The Toyota MR2 came small and rather pointy in the right places and drove zippy and stylish. For good measure, it came with a frunk that houses a spare tire and room for a little bag, but also came with a rear trunk for more storage in case you wanted to take a longish trip.
The engine was responsive and gave its heart out on-demand, which made the glass-roofed MR2 a very special car. More so, after the Targa-top introduction in 1987 because for some, the removable roof was a bit much to handle. The MR2 makes a great and easy-to-maintain classic sports car today.
2 The Boxy Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2
When we call the Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 "boxy", we are not committing hara-kiri. Rather, we pay humble obeisance to its flat-six engine, housed in that gorgeous and memorable posh shape. The engine may sound more like a noisy hairdryer, but man can it blow.
The 3.2 Carrera came out in 1984 and replaced the 911SC with better tuning, beefier suspension, and a transmission that even a century may not be able to put a dent in. There’s a reason people buy a classic Porsche, and it's because it refuses to stay down.
1 The Thor-Like Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer
They called it the Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer. They should have simply called it the Mjollnir, as in Thor’s indestructible hammer-like weapon. The AMG Hammer could jet 375 horses and we are talking the ‘80s, where horsepower was a scary term.
For a four-door sports “family” sedan, the Hammer could zip 0-60 MPH in a flat five seconds. This makes it faster than plenty of the sports cars of today, and a darn sight more reliable as well. They don’t make the cars like the sporty classics of the '80s, and more’s the pity.
Sources: MotorAuthority, Autoweek