How times have changed!

[BillWS6Formula]

Was clearing out a closet and unearthed an old copy of Road & Track from 1986! Made for an interesting little trip down memory lane LOL. Here are some cars and their 1/4 mile data from the mid 80's - widely recognized as the dark ages of automotive "performance"....


These were the Sports Compact Cars back then!

Chrysler Laser XE.....16.2@82.0mph
Dodge Omni GLH......17.2@80.5mph
Honda Civic S...........18.2@76.0mph
Honda Prelude Si......16.8@83.0mph
Dodge Colt Turbo.... 16.8@82.0mph
Toyota Corolla GTS..18.6@79.5mph
Toyota Celica GTS....16.5@85.0mph
Golf GTi.....................16.9@79.0mph

"GT's"

Mitsu Starion...........16.0@87.5mph
Toyota Supra..........16.8@83.0mph
Porsche 944............16.6@85.0mph



Budget 2 seat "Sports Cars"!

Alfa Romeo Graduate....17.6@76.0mph
Bertone X1/9................18.5@73.0mph
CRX Si...........................16.7@82.5mph
Mazda RX-7 GSL...........17.4@80.8mph
Pontiac Fiero GT............16.2@83.0mph
Toyota MR2...................16.5@83.0mph


Some higher priced Iron....

Porsche 944 Turbo........14.8@97.0mph
Porsche 911 Carrera.....14.0@98.5mph
Porsche 928S................14.7@97.5mph
Jaguar XJ-S V12.............16.3@89.0mph
Ferrari Testarossa.........13.6@105.0mph
Lambo Countach S........14.1@104.0mph
De Tomaso Pantera.......14.8@99.5mph
Maserati BiTurbo............15.6@91.5mph


Now I now why my then one year old Toyota GT seemed fast back then! :D

[REdOX]

Congratulations! Now we all know how old you really are! :P

[BillWS6Formula]

hehehe...who's your daddy? :D

[trapdowner]

how sad that a countach only did 14.1 in the 1/4 and the new camaro kills it......

[BillWS6Formula]

In the same issue there was an article on the Ferrari Mondial running the 1/4 in 15's at 90ish trap speeds...dark days for sure...

[REdOX]

Cars were really heavy back then as well.

[Maelfyn]

Was that because of all the new emission laws? What's the story :p ?

[Maelfyn]

And why is the Supra slower than the Celica ?!~! lol

[NSX_GTR_LM]

There was some ghey shet goin on with cars in the 80's man. Look at the vettes, totally pisses me off. Kinda the dark ages or something for cars ya know?

[SlasherX]

see? i can beat a celica GT-S!

*cough* 1986 *cough*

;)

[Nerf Herder]

I'd already lost my virginity by 1986.

[00 scrub]

hey, don't bash 80's cars, at least don't bash grand nationals :)

[2002GT_Celica]

This is awesome, if I ever see a 1986 Supra, I'll be sure to race it, since I know I could probably give it a good run for it's money. LOL. :)

[BillWS6Formula]

Maelfyn wrote: Was that because of all the new emission laws? What's the story?...And why is the Supra slower than the Celica ?!

Well emissions was certainly part of it, but they were brought in way back in the early 70's and led to the start of the "dark ages". Couple that with newer and more stringent CAFE fuel economy regulations, aging platforms, insurance pricing (ANY thing with two doors back then was automatically a "sports car")....and well car "performance" was not a high priority. With improvements in new designs and the ability of newer and faster onboard ECMS to both increase fuel economy AND performance and things slowly started to change for the better. Plus the market began to change and demand more performance from "performance" cars - "yuppies", remember those? *L* Well they did have a fair amount of money to spend, and back then most of them wanted power and style in their cars. The SUV craze had not yet begun.

The Supra which gave those figures was the last of the old "Celica Supra"'s, rwd with a 2.8 V6 giving around 160hp or so. Not much to propel was as a relatively heavy car. But it was still one I lusted after back then *L*. The Celica GT-S tested was the first year of the new fwd Celica's, with a DOHC 2.0L giving 135hp. It was much lighter than the "Celica Supra" as well, also helping make it faster.

NSX_GTR_LM wrote: There was some ghey shet goin on with cars in the 80's man. Look at the vettes, totally pisses me off. Kinda the dark ages or something for cars ya know?

Vettes from the mid 70's until the introduction of the C4 ('85) were pretty sad performers compared to standards today. Even with the C4, it took a couple years to put up some good numbers. But remember EVERY thing was slow back then! *L*

00 scrub wrote: hey, don't bash 80's cars, at least don't bash grand nationals

Yep, there were a (very) few bright spots...the GN was one. 5.0 Mustangs were another. :)

Just makes you appreciate a little more just what we have to pick from out there today! :)

[AkUmA]

i sure if these cars are still hitting the roads, they arent pulling those numbers anymore. maybe add a sec or two. unless they were hardly driven, and were taken care of. eheh in 10-15years well be laughing at cars touching 14's... some people already do..:gap: