Cars From Your Childhood - Was the 80s the best decade?


Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari F40, Zakspeed Capri – these were the posters I had on my bedroom walls when I was a kid in the 80s.

What were your dream cars?

For me, the 80s was one of the best decades for cars – as well as music and movies.

Yes, sometimes they may not have driven as good as they looked – but my god they looked great!

From my perspective, cars were iconic: posters were for sale in most shops, you could buy toy cars of almost any car, almost every other advert on TV seemed to be a car. Who remembers a Peugeot 405 driving through flames to “take my breath away” – my dad worked at Peugeot at the time, so maybe it’s just me!

Cars caught our imagination, and that’s why so many iconic television series and films used recognisable cars – We Tom Selleck driving a Ferrari 308 GTS in Magnum, the A-Team driving around in a GMC van, the V8 Interceptor in Mad Max, the Bluesmobile in Blues Brothers, Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, the Ferrari 250 GT California in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Batmobile from Batman, General Lee, KITT, and of course the DeLorean.

As well as so many iconic cars across media, we had so many cars available to various walks of life.

Hot Hatches

It was such a great decade for cars, we’d seen the birth of hot hatches in the 1970s, with the Renault 5 Alpine and the Golf GTI – but it wasn’t until the 80s that hot hatches really took off!

We had the Mk2 Gold GTI, the Peugeot 205 GTi, Renault 5 GT Turbo, The Vauxhall Astra GTE, Ford Escort RS Turbo, Lancia Delta Intergrale, Ford Fiesta XR2, Citroen AX GT and so may others. Even the likes of Mazda, Talbot, and Suzuki made hot hatches.

Yes, I might be writing about these cars from a United Kingdom point of view, so were hot hatches prevalent in your countries?

Fast Saloons

We had the E30 M3 – which is probably my favourite M3 ever, we also had both the Sierra and Sierra Sapphire Cosworth, and someone decided to throw a V12 in a XJR-S. There were loads of fast saloons during the 80s, I’m sure I’ve missed loads or maybe even your favourite car of all time?

Super Cars

Super cars have been around since the 1950s, pretty much when Mercedes released the 300SL, however in my opinion it wasn’t until the 80s that these cars caught the imagination of children and car enthusiasts.

We had the Ferrari 288 GTO, Porsche 959, Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari Testarossa, RUF CTR Yellowbird, Ford RS200, Lotus Esprit Turbo, and of course the Ferrari F40. I think I had a picture of most of these on my bedroom walls.

Racing Cars

Where do I start? The Audi Quattro, Nissan Skyline R32, McLaren MP4 (numerous versions), Lotus 98T, Williams FW11, BMW M1 Procar, Zakspeed Capri, any Group C car, the list could go on and on.

There’s too many to mention and I literally could talk about iconic 80s racing cars all day. I loved that there was insane turbos on some of these cars, I loved that aerodynamics took a giant step forward in this decade and I loved that BBS wheels were on pretty much everything!

Can another decade rival the 1980s for cars?

The great thing about most of these cars, is that they are available for you and I to drive today in a racing sims. Yes, I love driving modern day race cars, but for me there’s something special about stepping (virtually) into so many iconic cars of my childhood.

What cars would you like to see in a sim?
About author
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

Comments

Hi for it was the 90s glory days of group c and the great gt cars.
By i tink nothing can beat the fantastic 90s Btcc with such action,close races, cant believe new games cant revive that again would be fantastic and sucess i brlieve, still wainting for a new Toca.
 
'Can another decade rival the 1980s for cars?'

The 60s: 250SWB, 250GTO, 330P4, AC Cobra 289/427, GT40, 908/917K, DB4GT /GT Zagato, Jag MkII(my dad had one 40 years ago), E Type etc.

And I want to see an Aston DB4GT (not the Zagato) in AMS2 or in AC:)



Cheers
Robin
Yes,! I was born in the mid 80's but I grew up dreaming of 60's roadsters and race cars instead. I guess I was born a couple decades too late
 
The 80's were the most memorable years, my entire wardrobe consisted of Iron Maiden Ozzy Guns & Roses & Metallica T shirts with ripped jeans and eye liner.

The best car from my childhood would've been my brothers Chevy Nova
it was the most putrid vomit green color but it was soooo loud badass and fast!

It was the first car I fell in love with, then came 1972 Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4 from the show Miami Vice...
 

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Premium
When I was a kid I only knew two things for sure:
  1. When I am all grown up I am going to figure out how large the universe really is.
  2. Once I have figured out the above it's time to buy the car of my dreams: The General Lee from the TV Series The Dukes of Hazzard. (Warning, don't click the link as the rabbit hole will open up)
View attachment 512098

One day you shall be mine #01

And to answer your question Damian. For me the 80s was the best era for almost everything: cars, culture, civilization, music :inlove:, movies, TV and even the first brilliant video games.

Then again the 90s were pretty damn good as well :)
And did you? Actually buy the car? So how large is the universe really?
 
I was never born in the 80s myself but the '86 Aston Martin V8 is definitely a personal favorite of mine from that decade, alongside the Opel Manta 400.
 
Premium
After such a question I have to restrain myself not to go completely wild. But since we can't reach SimRaceGP at the moment, I have a moment ....
When I was about six years old (sometime in 1970) I got a book with car pictures. That's where my interest in cars started. Unfortunately I can't find the book anymore, but what I do remember are pictures of the Lotus 49. That is still my favorite F1 car. I even have a clock on the wall with a picture of it on the dial.
In the 1970s, all my money was spent on toy cars. I relive that time a little bit by visiting a populair website for downloading cars regularly and choosing a car.
My favourites:
F1:
Ferrari 312 (1975) (I've seen almost all F1 GPs live on TV since 1975)
Tyrell P34
Lotus 78 / 79
McLaren MP4/6
GT:
Ford GT
Porsche 917
Porsche 936
Other:
Ford Capri (the first one)
Opel GT
Volkswagen Golf (the first series, my first car was a VW Golf)
Datsun 100A sherry (yes the one from "My Summer Car", it was my father's first car)
Lambourgini Countach
Mini Cooper (the 60's one, not the modern one)

Well, the list is much longer, but enough for now.
 
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I was a teenager/young adult during the 80’s, but I am not nostalgic when I think about that decade. Reagan and Thatcher? Yuk! Pastel colors and skinny leather ties? Yuk again! The music was awful (Culture Club? Hair metal? New Wave? ewwwww…) compared to the amazing 70’s. As for the cars, there isn’t a car that I can think of that really inspires me, except maybe the Formula Ones of 1987-1993 and the Le Mans prototypes.

I often say that I was born 10 years too late. I missed out on Formula 1 in the 60’s and 70’s. I never got to see Led Zeppelin, Genesis with Peter Gabriel or Yes and King Crimson in their best years. ;)
 
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Damian Reed
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Shifting method

  • I use whatever the car has in real life*

  • I always use paddleshift

  • I always use sequential

  • I always use H-shifter

  • Something else, please explain


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