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!

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But a car I'd like to see in a sim?

KITT.

(Off-topic)
Some years ago I had fun driving K.I.T.T. Pontiac Knight Rider mods for GTR2 (AFAIR conversions from GTA-5). The mod pack included both the standard V8, a turbine version and super pursuit versions besides K.A.R.R. versions.

Edit: Oh found the source, dunno if rules allow me to share since it's not on the RD download section but from the approved German e-sport racing site.
 
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When it comes to racecars, music and movies, then yes; it was the best decade. But the best streetcars are the ones from the 90's.
 
I just bought an '86 Porsche 944 with only 27k miles (on Bring a Trailer) that still smells new, for no other reason than this was the car I wanted as a teenager. In 1985, I had a BMW 318i and these 944's totally kicked my ass going up and down Lookout Mtn TN. It is considerably more involving and interesting to drive than my 2018 BMW M6, despite being no faster than an average FWD econobox these days. My 8 year old kid constantly begs to go for a ride (no airbags, so he can finally sit in the front!). Even my wife loves it. These cars had character, and you have to drive them. No TC, no ESC, no automatic transmission. I forgot how raw cars of this era felt.
1986_porsche_944_1631224619a99efdacce5748f3DSCF5069-scaled.jpg
 
Very Nice! Mine was originally a 2 litre laser. But now pretty much the only thing that remains are the body panels, glass and carpet :roflmao:
The big question is, what does the windscreen banner say??:cautious:
LOL, it says Motorsport.

When I purchased it, she had blue door mirrors, and a cosworth style whale tail!
 
It was the first car I fell in love with, then came 1972 Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4 from the show Miami Vice...
Yes! I loved that car in the show, and was heartbroken when they blew it up... until he got the white Testarossa!

Fun little side note, the car they used for production was actually a C3 Corvette chassis with a Daytona body kit. I bought and built the official model kit, and the model actually had the Corvette chassis and V8 engine rather than being a proper Ferrari Daytona.
 
The 80s were certainly a great time for car fanatics, amongst other things, although I was no longer a kid. The cars I dreamed of in my childhood were from the 60s and 70s: non-aero GP cars, Porshce 911s of all flavors (gee we still have new ones don't we), Ferrari v12s with wire wheels, Ford GTs, Dodge Charger Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds, great stuff. Some I've had the pleasure of driving, some not yet! Drove the 911s and a fine old 912 ('68 or '69, don't remember) in the 80s, so I guess that counts. Fun remembering all the good times!!
 
The 70s were the best for both Europe and America. Not so good for Japan. No electronics. No emissions regulation BS. Just pure mechanical magic, the sound of carburetors and the smell of unburnt gas.

Then came the lame 80s. Fuel crisis. Weird styling. Emissions BS.Safety BS. Increase in weight. Bad performance. Oddly, the 80s were probably the most spectacular time for motorsports, with the exception of motorcycle racing which picked up during the 90s.

Things started picking up from the 90s and on. Fuel injection actually worked (most of the time). We got ABS and better handling. Motorsport got better although a bit less EPIC. I loved Group B and Group C racing.

Objectively though, i think the best decade for cars was this last one. We got turbo's on pretty much everything.Even Diesel cars actually became "fun" to drive.
Everything handles well. Everything feels solid and well built and has good standard equipment. Styling got improved dramatically over these last 10 years. Even small hatchbacks got lower and wider and more aggressive.
 
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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.
The first official unofficial "supercar" was the Miura. I think that car already did the whole "Imagination of children and car enthusiasts" thing.
 
My dad drove Mercs throughout the 80's and so they became my fav car as a kid. We drove down to Germany every summer and bought a new Merc from or around the factory down there. He had 7 in total (the 80's was good, lol). He also had an orange 911 turbo but didnt do much driving in it because he was working 24/7 all year around to retire earlier and to build a house hehe, but the Porsche was thus also one of my favs as a kid.
 

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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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