Cars of the seventies and eighties that you still like the look of

[Chris S]

Far too many to list, but a Silver Shadow Mk1 is right up there. Such an understated, beautiful car which just whispered class. Unlike the horrible modern Rollers.

Jeremy Clarkson said that they looked like they'd be styled by Huggy Bear.

 

[raleighnut]

Former colleague in the 1980s had a Saab 99 Turbo with polished ports, various bits done to it and as he described it...Water injection , effectively intercooling I assume.
It was ridiculously fast, he would leave a r/a locally, accelerate hard to the next certainly less than a 1,/4 mile and be exceeding 100mph.
The 99was a beautiful car...

The water injection was into the inlet manifold, it was to stop pre-ignition and 'stratify the charge' allowing higher compression and/or higher boost pressure. It was only a tiny amount of water atomised very finely, rumour has it that they noticed the cars gave more power on damp cold days so they tried to replicate that artificially by increasing the humidity of the incoming air and cooling it slightly but that may be just a rumour, it worked though giving an extra 6-8 BHP

 

[Drago]

The main power gain was indirect, as it permitted higher boost pressures than cannot be safely managed without. This is why when the tank is empty on an Escort Cossie Homologation Special models the engine crops the available boost and you lose about 15 ponies until it's refilled.

 

[rogerzilla]

The Mazda MX-5 just squeezes in as an 80s car. The first generation had perfect styling, at least in JDM or US form. The poverty-spec UK version deleted the tiny chin spoiler, which it really needs to get the side view right.

 

[gbb]

The water injection was into the inlet manifold, it was to stop pre-ignition and 'stratify the charge' allowing higher compression and/or higher boost pressure. It was only a tiny amount of water atomised very finely, rumour has it that they noticed the cars gave more power on damp cold days so they tried to replicate that artificially by increasing the humidity of the incoming air and cooling it slightly but that may be just a rumour, it worked though giving an extra 6-8 BHP

Ah yes, I remember now, exactly as you say.
The flip side, and Saab owner at that time conceded, all the mods he had done made the car really really fast...but actually quite unreliable, he often had running issues with it.

 

[Cavalol]

The craziest neg camber on a mainstream car was probably on the rear of a Calibra 4x4 Turbo. A fussy thing to look after - the tyres on all corners had to have near-identical tread depth, and even then the transfer boxes were fragile. Mind you, they were mostly driven by hooligans!

The I remember the problem with the Cavalier 4x4 turbo with the tyres having to have matching tread depths. I recall speaking to a bloke who was tearing his hair out with his, and Vauxhall actually came to his local dealers, changed the tyres for matching ones and he said it cured it on the spot.

I suspect quite a few got a 2WD conversion, jut like LandRover Freeloaders did, but they were for a different reason!

 

[raleighnut]

Ah yes, I remember now, exactly as you say.
The flip side, and Saab owner at that time conceded, all the mods he had done made the car really really fast...but actually quite unreliable, he often had running issues with it.

The Turbo was never reliable for the first 2-3 years, we used to have a few come in with 'wastegate' pressure problems and the clutches weren't really up to the job, more a torque problem than the extra power. The EMS was a better car

 

[StuAff]

Porsche 959.

This just popped up on YT…

 

[Reynard]

The "latent heat of evaporation" of gasoline is pretty impressive. I had read that the intake stacks of Indy cars would form coatings of frost, but it was seeing my brother's truck that brought it home.

350 CID Chevy, aftermarket intake manifold, 4-inch spacer under a 650 Holley.
Florida. Summer. >100 Fahrenheit.
100 yards from the beach.

Sitting there idling, engine temp 180F, hot air blasting back from the radiator and fan, frost formed on the carburetor spacer. You could put your hand on it and feel how cold it was.

Really high humidity can do some crazy things. You've seen aircraft contrails? You can also see them at the shooting range if it's muggy enough; subsonic bullets will leave a streak of fog behind them as they go downrange. Doesn't seem to happen with supersonic bullets for some reason. I would have expected it to be the other way around.

A friend had a Kawasaki ZX-10 Ninja. I was browing the service manual and noticed the British-spec Ninjas had spacers with electric heaters. There are places in America where those would have been handy.

Mmm, but Indycars run on alcohol-based fuel. Down on the fenceline, it stinks like a student bar on a Wednesday night. Plus, racing fuels are (or were) usually cooled so that either a) they could get more in the tank or b) increase the fuel flow rate for marginal gains at pit stops.

 

[mickle]

I was lucky enough to own 50% of one of these once upon a time. 1986 5litre V12 auto. Bought it for £9k and sold it for £14k a few months later. And in that time it consumed approximately £5k worth of petrol! 😄

It was beautiful from any angle. You cant beat a bit of Pininfarina.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I was lucky enough to own 50% of one of these once upon a time. 1986 5litre V12 auto. Bought it for £9k and sold it for £14k a few months later. And in that time it consumed approximately £5k worth of petrol! 😄

View attachment 758806

View attachment 758807

It was beautiful from any angle. You cant beat a bit of Pininfarina.

WOW
and then another WOW on top of that

 

[Reynard]

I'm afraid it doesn't float my boat, but then Ferraris (except for perhaps the Daytona) generally don't.

 

[Conrad_K]

Mmm, but Indycars run on alcohol-based fuel. Down on the fenceline, it stinks like a student bar on a Wednesday night. Plus, racing fuels are (or were) usually cooled so that either a) they could get more in the tank or b) increase the fuel flow rate for marginal gains at pit stops.

That varies according to the rules over the years. There's a reason they call the pits "Gasoline Alley."

 

[Gunk]

This just popped up on YT…

Watched that last night plus the review of the utterly gorgeous new S/T. I was a fan of his when he used to write for Autocar years ago, probably now the best car channel on YT.

 

[Gunk]

I was lucky enough to own 50% of one of these once upon a time. 1986 5litre V12 auto. Bought it for £9k and sold it for £14k a few months later. And in that time it consumed approximately £5k worth of petrol! 😄

View attachment 758806

View attachment 758807

It was beautiful from any angle. You cant beat a bit of Pininfarina.

I remember when a 400i was about 12k, no one wanted them