Fezza F40
Porker 959
Lambo Countach
Vette ZR1
What makes a car 'King' of late 1980s supercars is a bit of an ambiguous question (verdict dependant on your individual priorities, eg)
Seeing as other posters are nominating various fancy not-listed competitors ... so why not this as my personal 'underdog' favourite?
From a quick search:The Aussie supercar
"The Giocattolo (Italian for ''toy'') was Australia's bravest attempt at a supercar ... and its most memorable failure.
In 1986, car enthusiast Paul Halstead ploughed millions earned from computers into his obsession, hiring ex-Formula One engineer Barry Lock to design a special car using the Alfa Romeo Sprint body.
The front-drive Alfa was reworked to take a Holden Group A V8, mounted amidship and driving the rear wheels. Some body panels were Kevlar [plus rear floor & 2 bulkheads in carbon fibre].
Called Giocattolo Group B, the unusual car wasn't priced as stratospherically as the European supercars of the era.
It had astonishing acceleration for its day, covering 400 metres from a standing start in 12.9 seconds. Top speed was an electronically limited 250 kmh.
Halstead and Lock managed to produce 15 of the well-appointed coupes before going to the wall. Customers wanted something a little more stunning than a remodelled Alfa for their $92,000." [elevated price of final editions - still less than base 911]
Also quoted @ 0-200 km/h in 11.1 which appears to be quicker than either ZR1 Corvette or even the fastest Countach variant
220 kw and a very torquey 500 nm from the well proven heavy-duty Holden V8 in mild 'emissionised' tune (miserable 8.5 compression!)
In naturally-aspirated form this engine could in those days be easily - and cheaply - improved to reliably output over 400 hp while still retaining full 'daily driver' usage. In 'sprint' tune with stock albeit race-prepared internals it could rev to 9,000 rpm
One famous street-driven example (pics #1, 2 ,3 below) was twin-turbo'd to produce about 1,000 rwhp. At the time it was far & away Australia's fastest street-registered vehicle
Would doubtless prove to be at least as durable & trouble-free, and probably far more so (not to mention practical, or cheap to service) than any of those other high-strung and/or high-complexity nominations. These cars were also designed to have sufficient ground clearance for typical Australian dirt-road use which led to them being considered by the Queensland Highway Patrol (pic #6 below) and were personally endorsed by this bloke - recognise him?)
When converted to US Dollars, its AU$ price tag amounted to approx one tenth of the then-current USD list price of a Countach!
Is the only car I am aware of that included a flask of (Bundaberg) Rum in the factory toolkit! (as the manual advises 'for when all else fails')
youtube of standard model
15 second youtube of the twin-turbo car
Last edited by nota; 08-28-2008 at 12:59 PM.
they may have got this idea from Alfa (in this case Autodelta) themselves..
Here is a Sud Sprint with the V6 before the rear axle...done in 1982
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
Audi Ur Quattro
Lancia Delta Integrale
Lancia TE 037
Alfa Romeo GTV V6
www.secondaryperspective.blogspot.com
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
The Porch for me. The F40 is a bit too racecar-ish, the Countach ruined itself through the years, and the Vette is not supercarish enough. The 959 was a Veyron of its time. Ish.
the two people that voted for the corvette probably hasn't seen a map of the world before
it was actually me who killed vasilli zaitsev, heinz thorwald, carlos hatchcock, and simo hayha
I voted for Countach
www.secondaryperspective.blogspot.com
I guess there is 2 or 3 supercars in the late 80's that went it to production in the 90's such as the Jaguar XJ220 and XJR-15 and the Cizeta Moroder V16T
but my favourite supercar from late 80's is definately the modified 911 from Ruf, the CTR YellowBird
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