Yo doc great job your doing......how many vote's are we allowed.?

 

Edit..its ok doc ive sussed it out ..one vote each. cheers.

Edited 4 February, 201412 yr by O.C.D.

RS Turbo for me

Bet no-one had one of these - I owned a Citroen Visa GTi 115ch - Same as a peugeot 205gti in terms of running gear just not as pretty but great fun to drive.

My third car was a Fiesta Supersport

 

Not the fastest hatch by any means, with its 1.3 twin choke engine, but it is definitely up there with the best looking

 

I loved the stripes and tartan interior

 

 

My cousin had an escort rs turbo but it just didn't handle as well as other hot hatches of that era. I test drove loads of hot hatches and eventually came to either the Dihatsu Charade GTI or the 309GTI.

 

I settled on the 309 and loved it and never regretted it. I always wanted a 5dr 309 GTi Goodwood but they were rare and back then always demanded a premium.

 

My 309, wish I still had it, it was great fun. It left me with a Mongoose exhaust/K&Ni/Piggyback ecu/kent high lift cam/lowered (forget which springs they were), none fitted in this picture.

Polo GT G40

Daihatsu Charade GTti

barrel of laughs, 1 litre,3 cylinder turbo engine, with loads of lag and would do 0-60 in less than 8 secs. Pretty quick for the 80's.

 

My friend is restoring 3 of them at the moment, cannot wait to drive one again.

Another curve ball, on looks anyway (never owned one)

HS2300 Chevette

 

And a bit bigger

Manta GTE (albeit the Manta 400 saloon was better looking)

 

 

 

 

My mate Richard had a rally prepared HSR, roll cage and everything and stripped out, bloody fast but his M1 325 was more scary, he had it for 2 weeks before selling it, ( he said he would die in it if he did not, as in the wet when accelerating it spent more time sideways) I had a M1 and 2 xr2 wanted a GTI but could not afford them as I had 8 years of motorbikes so had to start again on no claims 

Forgot about the Daihatsu Charade GtTi. I wanted one of those when I passed my test. I thought being a 1.0 would make it cheap on the old insurance but i wish! I ended up with a Fiat Uno 45s instead. Absolutely manic litte triple in those, sounded the business.

 

I always had a soft spot though for the late 80s Astra GTE 16v. it looked unassuming and did not handle but the engine was a peach. Vauxhalls did make great engines back then, much better than Fords. I remember when dad chopped his Sierra 1.6 GL in for a Cavalier SRi 130. That thing did not look much but I remember it really seemed to shift.

 

Vauxhall engines used to be great. Remember being in my cousins Cav 130 SRI doing a silly speed on a certain road. Now they are just dreary apart from the new Astra VXR

Bet no-one had one of these - I owned a Citroen Visa GTi 115ch - Same as a peugeot 205gti in terms of running gear just not as pretty but great fun to drive.

 

I only ever saw one of these, a white one at a car auction.  It had the strange 115ch stickers on the side and the twin headlights and it looked the business, albeit in a strange Gallic kind of way.  Never saw another one.

As I thought might happen, it's a close run thing between the 205 GTI and the Mk2 Golf GTI.

Strada Abarth 130TC I had one

 

 

 

 

 

My mate had one of these in metallic grey.  He'd had a Peugeot 205 1.6 GTI before, so was used to quick cars, but the performance of the Strada blew him away.  Even at 100mph, when most hot hatches were starting to run out of steam (due to their horrendous aerodynamics) , this thing just kept going and going.  One of the few cars from back then that would feel quick now.

 

However, it drank like a fish and rotted like a very rotten thing.  Sadly.

I was always a fan of the "warm" hatches, things like the Fiesta 1.4S (basically an XR2 with a lower powered engine, handled like a dream), the Nova and Astra SR, Golf Driver and the Peugeot 205 XS and GT.  It's probably because owning one of those seemed achievable back then, due to the fact that the insurance companies just saw them as normal cars, rather than what they were - lower powered sporting hatches with sports suspension and similar looks to their bigger brothers.

Reading this thread I think I was most surprised by the Maestro Turbo - 150bhp and 0-60 in 6.7 seconds would give a Mk3 Octavia VRS a run for it's money (in a straight line anyway).

Forgot about the Daihatsu Charade GtTi. I wanted one of those when I passed my test. I thought being a 1.0 would make it cheap on the old insurance but i wish! I ended up with a Fiat Uno 45s instead. Absolutely manic litte triple in those, sounded the business.

 

I always had a soft spot though for the late 80s Astra GTE 16v. it looked unassuming and did not handle but the engine was a peach. Vauxhalls did make great engines back then, much better than Fords. I remember when dad chopped his Sierra 1.6 GL in for a Cavalier SRi 130. That thing did not look much but I remember it really seemed to shift.

 

 

 

A memory of mine was driving my Astra SR on a 70 mile round trip just to see the digital dash on the Astra GTE 16v it was the first time i had ever seen a digi dash and i was amazed. I could be very wrong but was the Astra GTE 16v one of the first cars to have a digi dash back in those days...............Memory, just brilliant.! 

Reading this thread I think I was most surprised by the Maestro Turbo - 150bhp and 0-60 in 6.7 seconds would give a Mk3 Octavia VRS a run for it's money (in a straight line anyway).

 

I never realised that the Maestro Turbo was that fast!  Typical Austin Rover (or whatever they were called that month), they finally made a decent car out of the woeful Maestro and then only produce a limited number of it, whilst still piling out base model Maestros with metal bumpers.

Sadly I spent most of the 80s in boring Service Engineer Company Cars - the highlight of which was a Cavalier SXi.

 

When we started our company back in 94 I ran a 205 XS until I had decent No Claims History, 8 years ago I finally ran a car from the 80s / 90s that I wanted as a shared 3rd car with the Mrs a late run-out edition Golf GTi 16V.

 

I remember the R5 Turbo, the company that I worked for in the early 90s had one on the fleet, the laugh was it had the fan mod applied to fix the fuel evaporation issue (one cooling fan ran all the time the car was running) subsequently the head programmer that ran it - was sitting in traffic and smoke started pouring out from under the dash. It turns out that the mod didn't include any fuse protection for the fan - so when the fan burnt out it set part of the loom on fire.

 

Was a riot in a straight-line, I borrowed it one weekend (as it had a tow-hitch) to tow a small caravan down the M3 to my Mum's, that was a laugh at the drag load kept the thing on boost all of the trip. 

I owned a Nissan Cherry ZX turbo......stop laughing,..it was a bit scary. Silver with a black bottom and "Turbo" in orange.

 

 

I didn't own one but had several rides in one. All I remember is that it seem to accelerate like a normal 1.4l engine until the turbo kicked in and then it would scare you to death.

My mate had one of these in metallic grey.  He'd had a Peugeot 205 1.6 GTI before, so was used to quick cars, but the performance of the Strada blew him away.  Even at 100mph, when most hot hatches were starting to run out of steam (due to their horrendous aerodynamics) , this thing just kept going and going.  One of the few cars from back then that would feel quick now.

 

However, it drank like a fish and rotted like a very rotten thing.  Sadly.

Sounds like mine

 

I had mine modded the old fashioned way. ie lots of money spent on the engine for a very modest power gain (no turbos in those days). But it sounded fantastic, way better than the equivalent fords of the day. It used to sneeze when it was cold and the big blue flash that came back out the carbs would make me smile as it lit up the front of the car and surrounding walls on the cold dark mornings.................and also make me wonder if one day the car might actually catch fire

Edited 5 February, 201412 yr by Lady Elanore

I never realised that the Maestro Turbo was that fast!  Typical Austin Rover (or whatever they were called that month), they finally made a decent car out of the woeful Maestro and then only produce a limited number of it, whilst still piling out base model Maestros with metal bumpers.

0 to 60 in 6.7secs.    Yes they all did that , but sadly only once in their  lives each    The clutch or turbo would let go and often the car ended up in the ditch.

 

It seems the little Pug 205GTI is the runaway winner here.

We've missed another daft one nissan march super turbo.

Box shape micra twin charged wide body kit unfortunately jap market only

Nope, it hides in plain sight. Three of us couldn't find the one on the typ-81, we ended up ringing the previous owner. He laughed and said "I knew you were going to ask that, it catches everyone out"

Intrigued now. Where is it?

Like the votes for the Lotus Talbot Sunbeam considering how few were produced worldwide (less than 1100 IIRC).

Put that into the equation when considering number of votes and numbers built.

The 80's were definitely a good time to be driving, less traffic, no speed cameras I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and got to drive many of the hot hatches around at the time. My first new car was one of the first XR3i's delivered to a dealer, he rang and said the transporters arrived and come and pick a colour, ended up with a graphite grey. Kept that for two and a half years and then read the road test of the R 5 turbo in what car. The local Renault dealer had just received a pearlescent white one and I px the ford for it.

It threw of the fan belt after a week and I had to do the 'stockings trick' to get back from Stratford on Avon to Lichfield, it was a really well sorted motor for it's day and that's what I voted for   That was swapped for a 309 GTi 1.9 and then I moved to something bigger with a 405 Mi 16. During that time I also put some miles on a few others including RS 1600i, XR2, Astra GTE 1800i, 205 GTi 1.9 but it was the 5 turbo which stands out when I look back.     

Edited 19 February, 201412 yr by Laurie61