Car and Driver Tested: The 13 Quickest Cars of the 1980s

As with the 1970s, turbocharged Porsches once again crushed the competition in the 0-to-60-mph acceleration metric during the Reagan years. General Motors had a strong-and boosty-showing, too, with three of its brands and one of its properties represented on this list, all of which were quicker than the Ferrari 4.9 Superfast that topped our 1950s rundown. We aimed for a nice, round group of 10 cars, but ties dictated that we include 13.

Be sure to also take a spin through the quickest cars we tested in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’90s, and in the 21st century so far.

September 1986

Just pulling up to Richard Templer's driveway is enough to send quivers of anticipation up and down this reporter's spine. Ordinary suburban houses don't have wrought-iron gates standing guard against the riffraff. Ferrari dealer Rick Mancuso gives the 400i's urgent horn a toot, and the formidable barrier parts by remote control. READ MORE >>

September 1985

What We Said: “Tickle the throttle and the small [twin-turbo] V-8 answers back with a forceful whisper. There is no braggadocio exhaust blat; instead, you hear filtered deep breathing on the intake side. The speak-softly voice seems sworn to keep the big stick a secret. . . . This little Ferrari feels as if it would be perfectly comfortable delivering kids to school or picking up the shirts at the laundry, at least until you drop your right boot. Then a 747 rolls up from the rear and leans against the bumper with four engines’ worth of takeoff thrust. . . . As if it were trying to make up for its inability to break through the three-miles-per-minute barrier, [this] red rocket saved its trump card for the last event. . . . If there is such a thing as handling perfection, it comes as standard equipment with the GTO.”

September 1985

What We Said: “There is fast, and there is faster than fast. The Testarossa is the latter. Top speed: 181 mph. Not a hypothetical or theoretical 181 mph, not a beer-claim speed, but a real rocking, socking, reproducible, you-want-it-you-got-it 181 mph. . . . [In] the engine bay behind your back, it houses the heart of hearts, a great twelve-cylinder. The 4.9-liter all-aluminum design springs spiritually from the 3.0-liter boxer that brought Ferrari three Formula 1 World Championships. . . . At 181 mph, the Testarossa is still in its element: a little busy and quite noisy, but squirming from cheek to cheek no more than a well-mannered nine-year-old on an uncushioned pew. . . . [The] prodigious engine is perhaps the sweetest in our experience. Even nearing its 6800-rpm redline, it never feels as if any of those 48 valves in there were about to pop. Somehow you feel oil more than anything else, all so smooth and slick the whole thing seems to be made of oil itself, oil just thick enough to lubricate everything and just thin enough to keep everything whirring freely.”

June 1981

What We Said: “It will deftly dispatch that other paradigm of performance, the Porsche 930 Turbo, into your mirrors with little more than a heavy Gucci on the right pedal at the right time. So when cocktail conversation turns to quick cars, take your pick-quarter-mile, 0 to 100 mph, top speed, it matters not. The Boxer is quicker, faster, better at inhaling road through its long, low nose than anything else you’ve been able to buy here in recent history. I would not say it’s a fantastically fun car to drive, however. . . Since your view of the world is cloistered by a low roof, a steep windshield, and flying buttresses out the back, you quite naturally assume there’s ambush traffic out to get you behind every blind corner. The Boxer demands a heavy hand to force it around the entrance ramps, hairpins, and cul-de-sacs of life at appropriately illegal speeds-but you sit back where there’s no hope of reaching the top of the steering wheel, so you can’t generate much leverage. . . . What one really needs to appreciate this car fully is a mirrored driveway. That’s the only way to drive a Boxer without missing the best part: looking at it.”

September 1987

The road to Payson. Grand, sweeping arcs through the sagebrush. A fresh Arizona morning, warm and bright, the sun's anger still hours away. The dirty lumps on the horizon are the Mazatzal Mountains, far distant for a normal machine. But at 130 mph, in a tiny white Porsche pellet, time and space are compressed by quan­tum factors. On the road to Payson, nor­mal measurements do not apply. READ MORE >>

April 1986

What We Said: “The hulking black Grand National pictured here will scream from 0 to 60 mph faster than any other car made in America. Is 4.9 seconds fast enough? It is if you want something quicker than a Lamborghini Countach (5.1 seconds), a Chevrolet Corvette (5.7 seconds), a Porsche 928S (5.7 seconds), a 944 Turbo (6.0 seconds), and the hottest Mustang or Camaro. The GN even outsprints two of Ferrari’s blue bloods-the Testarossa (5.0 seconds) and the GTO (5.1 seconds). . . . [W]hat’s important about this Regal is the kick you get from having such a deep well of power at your disposal; the way the world gets yanked backward when the boost boils over; the way the rear tires lay down long, beautiful streaks of black when you tromp the throttle. . . . There are other nice things to say about life with Grand National. This time around, there’s actually some poetry in the chassis. The steering is crisp, the lane discipline good, and the ride well balanced. The most serious of car guys will find nothing to sneer at here.”

December 1989

What We Said: “The Lotus Esprit Turbo SE produces 264 hp at 6500 rpm-a 36-hp increase over the standard-issue 1990 Esprit Turbo. Of course, the SE package adds twelve grand to the sticker, which works out to $333 per bonus horsepower. But that’s okay. The outlay of extra cash gives you bragging rights to an engine producing 120 hp per liter-the highest specific-output piston engine available to American speed addicts. All that from a sixteen-valve 2.2-liter four that, in its minuscule mid-engine cubbyhole, looks about the size of the power-steering pump on a Ford LTD. . . . Drop the clutch at 5300 rpm and prepare to have your nose assume the proportions of a ten-pence coin. Sixty miles per hour is yours in 4.8 seconds, a half-second improvement over the non-charge-cooled Esprit we tested earlier. That’s also quicker than a Lamborghini Countach or a Ferrari Testarossa, never mind such moon-calf machinery as the Ferrari 328GTS. (Forgive us; you tend to feel smug in a car like this. At stoplights, you look straight ahead and ignore motorists gesticulating for your attention. Do these people expect us to waste fuel and burn rubber in a vulgar display of power? Okay, maybe just one more time.) . . . It isn’t until the turbo spools up at 3000 rpm that the Lotus feels as if it had just been fired out of the sixteen-inch cannon atop the USS Iowa. Unless you’re willing to perform Garlits-quality burnouts, do not enter into impromptu drag races that last only 100 feet or so, or your nephew’s jacked-up Z28 will put the Esprit SE on the trailer. Little of which matters, of course, on twisty two-lane country roads, as the Lotus snakes and slinks through corners like a ferret in a vineyard.”

February 1989

What We Said: “Step on the throttle and the engine responds with unexpected strength. This car has more low-end acceleration than any 911 in history, and it gets stronger as you rev it harder. . . . The most significant change is the addition of four-wheel drive. Ever since it developed the limited-production 959, Porsche has been convinced of the traction and stability advantages of powering all four wheels. . . . All of this mechanical wizardry makes the Carrera 4 feel different from any previous 911. The new suspension and driveline banish the 911’s penchant for tail-out antics during hard cornering. . . . [The] Carrera 4 will be the fastest 911 ever sold in America. We measured a top speed of 161 mph on a European version . . . This car also possessed rocketlike acceleration: it lunged from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds, hit 100 mph in 12.4 seconds, and covered the standing quarter-mile in 13.3 seconds at 104 mph.”

May 1987

What We Said: “If you’re looking for precision and sophistication in a car, don’t even consider the Buick GNX. In a world of sleek shapes and refined manners, the GNX is an ax-wielding barbarian laying waste to everything in its path. . . . Maximum boost has been increased to 16 psi, two more than the Grand National’s allotment, but a circuit in the engine-control computer still shuts off the fuel flow at 124 mph. The engine has enough grunt to push the GNX much faster, but Buick engineers feel the chassis wouldn’t tolerate much more speed without taking to the air like a Frisbee. . . . In 0-to-60 performance, the only car available in the U.S. that matches the Buick is the Callaway Twin-Turbo Corvette, and the only one that beats it is the Porsche 911 Turbo, at 4.6 seconds. . . . [W]hen the road deviates from straight ahead or its surface becomes rougher than a pool table, the GNX rattles and bounces like bolts in a blender. Clearly, the engine and the chassis are in separate leagues. What we have here is a great powerhouse of a motor looking for a nice place to live.”

June 1989

What We Said: “To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its muscle car, Pontiac is producing a run of 1500 special Trans Ams powered by a modified version of the lusty Buick turbo 3.8-liter V-6. This limited-production 20th Anniversary TA has also been selected as the pace car for this year’s Indianapolis 500. . . . Our test car scorched the drag strip with a 0-to-60-mph blast of 4.6 seconds and a quarter-mile run of 13.4 seconds at 101 mph. That means, as we go to press, that the turbocharged Trans Am is the quickest 0-to-60 sprinter available in any U.S. production-car showroom-at any price. . . . The turbo Trans Am instantly shoots forward like a runaway rocket sled. The roar from under the hood builds as the boost-gauge needle dances around the 16.5-psi mark. . . . [The] TA is wonderfully stable at the limit-although the engine’s surgy power delivery can make fine adjustments difficult. There’s just enough understeer to instill confidence, but you can easily kick the tail out by flicking the wheel or stepping into the boost.”

January 1986

What We Said: “Porsche Cars North America is once again importing the most potent member of its rear-engined family, this time under the 911 Turbo name. . . . Precious few cars could live through six years without so much as a facelift, but the 911 Turbo has done just that. This car has a sexier body than Madonna, and the years have dulled its charm not a whit. . . . But look out the first time you decide to scoot away from a light. First gear is as steep as the north face of the Eiger-it’s good for 50 mph-and there’s no heavy thrust down low. A cheerleader in a clapped-out Mustang II will have no trouble beating you across an intersection while checking her makeup. As a matter of fact, one did exactly that to us. Then the boost comes in as the revs go past 4500 rpm, the exhaust hisses like a very angry 3000-pound cat, and whoosh! you rattle the Mustang’s windows as you blow by. . . . It’s still hard work to drive very, very fast, but it’s much more forgiving now. Comparing this experience with our last 930 outing, in 1979, it’s clear that things have changed. The 930 was deadly in the curves and awesome on the straights, and the 911 Turbo is mellower in both areas.”

June 1989

The Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, unless we miss our guess, is going to cost some people at General Motors their jobs. You ask, how can that be? After all, is this not the Corvette from hell? The King of the Hill? The Ferrari-fighting world-class two-seater from the Motor City? A legend-to-be? Yes, it is that and more. But it still may cause heads to roll. READ MORE >>