Old cars that now look tremendous.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Stumpy Pepys wrote: Although the Ford Fiesta XR2 was one of the better-designed 80s cars.

I was in love with that car as child.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

WOM wrote: Lotta love for the boxy '80s BMW 318 (e30)

That was probably the last truly pretty car that BMW made. They've been getting uglier and fatter ever since.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Bored of Education wrote:

I don't think anyone will disagree that the Renault Fuego was a fine looking piece of '80s French engineering.

Good call, actually.

Seconded. I loved that design - particularly the all-glass tailgate and the black line from front to rear, which breaks up the car's 'mass' and makes it look sleeker.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

On the topic of French cars, there were a few Peugeots in the 80s that I thought looked pretty damn good, too:

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[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Smallcaps wrote:

Sorry which page? The link took me right to the latest post anyway.

First page (about two thirds in), and there may be something wrong with your browser. The link has the post number appended at the end.

Ah yes ta. It's an iPad and I have set OTF to show latest posts at the top, but I doubt that's much to do with it.

My step-dad had a Fuego in gold. Unfortunately he rarely went over 60. I always remember the little door-lock knobby things were clear.

[Bored Of Education]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Apparently, the Fuego was such a revolutionary design that you couldn't take it into car-washes. Don't ask me why, I just say some sign saying you couldn't.

Just had a chat in the pub with a MKIII Cortina owner about this thread and he mentioned this. It's a Ford Uren Savage which is an ordinary Cortina but with a 3-litre V6 engine in. A proto-Cosworth basically.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Wow! That's quite spectacular! Strange what a difference a few bonnet bulges and vents can make. ;-) I wonder what the handling was like? Spectacular too, I would guess. :-)

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

There was a 70s Ford which, from memory, looked a lot like the Mk III Cortina but bigger and a bit squarer, like a pre-Granada or something? Not that big square Zodiac design though.

Any ideas?

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

A few others.

The Honda Civic CR-X:





When I was younger and saw these driving around, I always said to myself "I want one of those, when I learn to drive". I just didn't realise it would be 2013 before that happened and thus the CR-X would be quite scarce and (I presume) quite costly to run, by then. I still think the proportions are great, though. The chunkiness of the rear end is both aerodynamically sound and allows for increased luggage capacity!
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The Toyota (W10) MR2:


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...And one for our transAtlantic cousins, the 1988 version of the Pontiac Fierro:



(Did Lotus or any other European 'chassis-tuning' company ever get their hands on this?)
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And talking of Lotus chassis-tuning, the Isuzu Piazza/Impulse is overdue for 'forgotten classic' status, I reckon ...at least design-wise! :


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Finally (and whisper it) how about the pre-facelift version of the Rover Sterling? Sleek, (quite) comfy and practical all at the same time (plus inheriting something of the SD-1's looks, too) :

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Sits wrote: There was a 70s Ford which, from memory, looked a lot like the Mk III Cortina but bigger and a bit squarer, like a pre-Granada or something? Not that big square Zodiac design though.

Any ideas?

You're not thinking of the Consul, are you, Sits?...

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[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Lovely photo, but that's Granada-esque (remember the Granada/Consul fastback/coupe? They were even rare at the time.

I'm starting to wonder if it was a non-British model as they weren't ubiquitous. Much closer in look to that Mk III Cortina upthread. I will keep digging. Unless it's all in my imagination of course.

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Right, it was a Taunus. And I realise you posted a couple only a page ago, just a different model I think. This is the back styling I'm thinking of, which is very Mk.III-esque:



although I don't remember it being a 2-door.

[Sam]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Stumpy Pepys wrote: I suppose there'll come a time when people get misty-eyed about cars from the eighties, but I'm still struggling to summon up warm feelings for the likes of the Ford Sierra, Vauxhall Cavalier and Austin Maestro.

Having just had a look through the thread, I'd say a good quarter or so of the cars prior to this post were from the '80s, weren't they?

Also, the reason I was looking through it before posting was because I wanted to remind myself on which page I'd nominated the VW Golf Mk 2. And yet it turns out I haven't made any posts on this thread at all (have I got it mixed up with another thread, or have I gone mad? ursus?).

So, here we go. My dad had two of these, one after the other. The last three letters of the number plate on the first one read MAD. Fitting.



Of course, he'd have loved to own a G60.



Incidentally, he once told me how to tell when someone's taken a G60 badge and stuck it on the front of a normal Golf in order to make it look better than it is; the G60 has the square headlights, which no other Golf has. When I was about 18, he once caught a chap in our local out in front of his mates for having done exactly this, over a couple of pints in our local on a Sunday lunchtime. The look on the guy's face as his friends started smirking was priceless.

I think I'm right in saying the engine in the G60 remained the most powerful that VW had put into a Golf until the mk 5 W12, which was something like 600bhp. Bearing in mind how much heavier the mks 3 and 4 were than the mk2 that the G60 was based on, that's a pretty scary thought.

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

This is the Taunus 4-door I've been rattling on about. Yes i know it's a model. I suppose it's basically the same as a Cortina then, really. I'm done now.

[Bored Of Education]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Funnily enough, we were talking about Taunuses last night. I thought they were just Australian but apparently they had them in Germany.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Bored of Education wrote: Funnily enough, we were talking about Taunuses last night. I thought they were just Australian but apparently they had them in Germany.

Taunus is what the Cortina Mark IV and V were called in the continent. (The previous Taunus was related to but different to the contemporary Cortina).

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Pat McGatt wrote:

Funnily enough, we were talking about Taunuses last night. I thought they were just Australian but apparently they had them in Germany.

Taunus is what the Cortina Mark IV and V were called in the continent. (The previous Taunus was related to but different to the contemporary Cortina).

Here is my little rant about the Taunus.

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Clive is a man of style and taste, of course. I'd second most of his choices. Never was an MR2 man, though. The Isuzu was a design of Giugiaro's (he of DeLorean fame) called the Ace of Clubs which he shopped around. I was equally smitten with the CRX. They went like hell, too, but I never got around to getting one. Nearest I got to the experience was an Acura Integra GS. Equally light and quick.

The Fuego...Fuego fact fans...had an odd door latch. You basically slipped your finger into that hole (oo...er...) and lifted a very small latch. Not good in Canadian winters. A friend owned one. It wasn't a very sturdy car by NA standards.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

I remember some of Giugiaro's prototypes for Isuzu, from the late 70s - quite spectacular, they were!

There's actually a Piazza Turbo for sale on Ebay (UK) at the moment. Allegedly there's 48 or less left in the country. I'd love to get it (it's even an automatic) but I can't really afford such frivolous purchases, plus it's sure to need some doing up. I bet those turbos are fragile, for a start. I'd love to take it to car rallies, though - it'd be an unusual, low-key talking point.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

WOM wrote: ...It wasn't a very sturdy car by NA standards.

Were some of the panels plastic?

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

No, rust. Canadian roads are liberally treated with road salt from November to March. French cars - and British cars of that era - were notoriously unprepared for it. They had finger-sized rust holes in just a few years.

[evilC]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Ah. Y'see, I asked, since the original Espace was entirely fibreglass-bodied and I wondered (i.e. couldn't remember) if the Fuego was, too. I seem to remember that later versions of the Espace went metal, but the first one was fibreglass.

I never realised the Espace was originally made by Matra!

[Sits]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

I think one of the companies the Isuzu Piazza was hawked to was VW, as a Scirocco contender.

[WOM]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

The irony there is that Giugiaro did the original Scirocco, but not the one that looks most like his work. I really like the version you're referring to, though. It is amazing how influential his 'wedge' design was in the '80s.

[Bored Of Education]

Old cars that now look tremendous.

Most contributors to this thread will enjoy this, I think.