20 fastest cars of the ’80s

It’s all in the 0-60…

0-60 is a fascinating metric.

It’s often used to rank cars, yet it’s one of the least consistent measures in the industry. Each car’s time varies based on a wide range of factors including its tyres, the surface of the road it’s on, the person behind the wheel, and the altitude the test is carried out at.

It’s also a bit of a minefield for journalists, but we’ve used 0-60mph data provided by enthusiast site Zeroto60Times to rank the quickest cars of the 1980s, counting down to the fastest.

We’ve limited the scope of this story to road-legal cars sold in Europe, so you won’t see the Buick Regal GNX (which logged a 4.6 secs time, beating the Chevrolet Corvette) or the insanely quick Group B-spec cars, though some of their street-legal counterparts make an appearance. Enjoy!

20. Ferrari Mondial T – 6.0 secs

The first of many Ferrari models on this list is the Mondial T, which was built from 1988 to 1993.

As the final evolution of the 1980 Mondial 8, it gained a more powerful 3.4-litre V8 that was installed longitudinally behind the passenger compartment and bolted to a transversally mounted gearbox, hence the T suffix. It didn’t stand for turbocharged.

This unusual layout improved its handling, too.
 

19. Lancia Delta S4 Stradale – 6.0 secs

Unsurprisingly, some of the quickest performance cars of the 1980s were rally machines toned down just enough to be considered road legal.

Lancia’s Delta S4 Stradale vaguely looked like the hatchback it shared its name with, but it was a completely different car with a tubular frame, composite body panels, and a supercharged engine. Its competition career was cut short by several major accidents, however.

Lancia nonetheless built a batch of street-legal, Stradale-badged examples to homologate the car in Group B rallying. It detuned the engine to around 250bhp, down from at least 450 in the 1985 race car. Production figures are wildly inaccurate; they range from 45 to 150.

18. Peugeot 205 T16 – 6.0 secs

Jean Todt helped transform Peugeot’s humble 205 hatchback into a Group B-spec rally car called the Turbo 16.

Engineers knew that fending off competition from Audi, Lancia and other rivals meant making the car mid-engined, so the T16 shared very few parts with the regular-production 205; even the GTI was in a completely different league.

Here again, homologation requirements forced Peugeot to build a small batch of road-legal rally cars. Most sources agree Peugeot built the 200 units required by the FIA.

17. Lamborghini Jalpa – 5.9 secs

Lamborghini positioned the Jalpa as its entry-level sports car between 1981 and ’88. Designed by Bertone, the Jalpa was powered by a 3.5-litre V8 that was initially tuned to 255bhp.

It certainly didn’t match the bigger, more expensive Countach in the panache department but it was more accessible and far easier to drive.

Approximately 410 units of the Jalpa were built until Chrysler, which purchased Lamborghini in 1987, killed the model. It was the last V8-powered Lamborghini until the Urus arrived a few years ago.

16. Maserati Biturbo 430 – 5.7 secs

Introduced in 1982, the Maserati Biturbo is one of the quickest, most underrated, and most unfairly maligned cars of the 1980s.

It was created to increase the troubled Italian brand’s sales by taking it into new segments of the market without diluting the performance it was known for. It largely succeeded, and while it never achieved BMW 3 Series-like volume it largely kept Maserati afloat during the ’80s.

1985 brought four-door and convertible variants of the Biturbo, while 1988 ushered in a redesign credited to Marcello Gandini and upgraded engines across the board. The upmarket 430 model received a 2.8-litre V6 that was twin-turbocharged to 250bhp, an impressive figure in an era when many motorists in Europe still settled for 50 horsepower or less. Production of the Biturbo ended in 1992.

15. Porsche 944 turbo – 5.7 secs

Porsche released the 944 as an evolution of the 924 in 1982, and it expanded the line-up with a turbocharged model in 1985, though it had started testing prototypes (notably at the 24 Hours of Le Mans) in the early ’80s.

Adding a turbocharger to the 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine increased its output to about 220bhp. Approximately 25,000 were made, and over half of those went to America.
 

14. Ferrari 328GTB – 5.5 secs

Ferrari fine-tuned the 308 into the 328 in 1985. Offered with a fixed top or a targa roof, it looked a lot like its predecessor (it notably kept long air scoops on both sides), but it benefited from a 3.2-litre V8 rated at 270bhp and an improved interior that could be ordered with a growing list of comfort features.

Ferrari made a turbocharged V8 available in 1986, but it wasn’t chasing performance. Instead, putting a 2.0-litre, 251bhp V8 engine behind the passenger compartment was a way to skirt a draconian Italian law that slapped a 38% tax on cars with an engine displacement of over 2.0 litres.

Enthusiasts who wanted the quickest – and fastest – 328 needed to order the naturally aspirated model.

13. BMW M1 – 5.4 secs

Built from 1978 to 1981, so barely eligible for a spot in this story, the BMW M1 was envisioned as a range-topping supercar that blended the best technology from Italy and Germany.

Lamborghini withdrew its participation in the project early on so the engineers in Munich finished the car on their own with the help of a latticework-like network of suppliers including Trasformazione Italiana Resina (TIR), Marchesi and Baur.

This convoluted manufacturing process created BMW’s first series-produced mid-engined car, and the first standalone M model. Power came from a straight-six engine, but the M1 was nonetheless quicker to 60mph than the Lamborghini Countach and the Ferrari 512BB.

BMW built 399 road-legal units of the M1 and 60 track-only variants. It did not spawn a direct successor, executives didn’t consider it a success, but variants of its engine powered a long line of cars.

12. Lotus Esprit Turbo – 5.4 secs

Lotus is known primarily for agility and lightness, not for jaw-dropping horsepower figures and straight-line performance, but it proved it could play in both courts when it turbocharged the Esprit in 1980.

It originally released a special, high-performance version of the series two model called the Essex Turbo Esprit that received a 213bhp four-cylinder engine and a long list of chassis modifications that kept the power in check. Lotus brought the Turbo model back when it introduced the series three Esprit in 1981, and it made the model even quicker when it unveiled the Peter Stevens-designed X180 in 1987.

In 2020, the Esprit Turbo is one of the most emblematic Lotus models of the 1980s, but it wasn’t 100% British. Its 2.2-litre four-cylinder engine shifted through a five-speed transmission provided by Citroën.

11. Porsche 928 – 5.4 secs

Like the aforementioned M1, the Porsche 928 traces its roots to the 1970s but its production run took it into the 1980s – and, in this case, halfway through the ’90s.

Originally developed to replace the 911 at the top of the Porsche range, it was the exact opposite of its intended predecessor. It was powered by a water-cooled V8 that was mounted in the front. Filling the 911’s big shoes required posting equally big performance numbers, and the 928 didn’t disappoint on paper and on the road.

Porsche ultimately chose to sell the 928 and the 911 side-by-side, and it gradually injected more power into both models during the 1980s. While it’s often overshadowed by its air-cooled, rear-engined sibling, the 928 remains a true Porsche and one of the most impressive German performance cars of the ’80s.

10. Mercedes-Benz 300E AMG Hammer – 5.1 secs

AMG alchemised the Mercedes-Benz W124 into the Hammer in an era when it operated as a small tuner that made built-to-order cars rather than as Mercedes’ volume-chasing performance sub-brand.

It was available as a saloon and as a coupé, and both were based on the 300E model, but they traded their straight-six engine for a V8 borrowed from the W126.

AMG offered four options during the Hammer’s production run. Early on, it installed a 5.0-litre V8 tuned to 340bhp, though it gave buyers the option of ordering a 5.4-litre version with 355bhp on tap. It quickly started using the newer 5.6-litre, which could be ordered with 360bhp or as a 6.0-litre V8 with 375bhp. All were sold under the Hammer banner.

Production figures are still a matter of debate among historians. Most agree 30 cars were built. Its success inspired Mercedes-Benz to team up with Porsche to create the 500E, which arrived in 1991.

9. Ferrari Testarossa – 5.0 secs

The Ferrari Testarossa was one of the quintessential supercars of the 1980s. Pininfarina created a design that was impossible to miss thanks to styling cues like pop-up headlights and an unusually wide rear end dominated by horizontal slats.

Its nearly flat decklid hid a 4.9-litre flat-12 engine tuned to 390bhp in early cars, though that figure dropped to 380 when Ferrari added catalytic converters in 1989.

In total, 7177 examples of the Testarossa were built from 1984 to 1992, when it was replaced by the 512TR. Ferrari introduced the model’s final evolution, the F512 M, in 1994.

8. Ferrari GTO – 4.9 secs

Ferrari’s GTO is the model that the F40, the F50, the Enzo and the LaFerrari trace their roots to. Although it looked like a 308GTB on steroids, it was developed on a largely blank slate to compete in Group B rallying.

It never competed in the series, but 272 road cars were built and quickly sold in 1984 and 1985. It was powered by a mid-mounted 2.8-litre V8 that was twin-turbocharged to 400bhp.

7. Aston Martin V8 Vantage Zagato – 4.8 secs

Italian coachbuilder Zagato helped Aston Martin spur interest in its V8 during the second half of the 1980s by giving the coupé a much more contemporary design. It wore boxier lines, rectangular headlights, and a sharper rendition of the British firm’s heritage-laced grille.

It was a new kind of Aston Martin that helped blaze the path the company followed during the 1990s. What didn’t significantly change was under the bonnet: power came from a mighty 5.3-litre V8 that developed 430bhp.

Aston Martin made 52 coupés and 37 convertibles between 1986 and 1990. Selecting the drop-top (which was called Volante) lengthened the 0-60mph time to 5.2 secs.

6. Porsche 911 turbo – 4.8 secs

Launched in 1975, the first series-produced Porsche 911 turbo (called 930 internally) performed a 5.2-sec sprint from zero to 60mph.

It was one of the quickest cars of the 1970s, and it helped prove the benefits of turbocharging to the entire industry, but Porsche wasn’t satisfied with resting on its laurels.

It gradually made the 911 turbo more powerful, notably by increasing the flat-six’s size to 3.3 litres in 1978, and it managed to shave its acceleration time by several tenths of a second during the 1980s.

5. Audi Sport quattro – 4.7 secs

Audi as we know it in 2020 is built on the success of the Sport quattro. Its models weren’t particularly quick or spectacularly sporty to drive until its engineers created a four-wheel-drive system that was light, refined and user-friendly enough to put in a road car.

It developed the quattro system for rallying, and it won numerous events with it, but homologation requirements put about 220 road-legal coupés in the hands of regular motorists, though some historians claim Audi ended up building fewer than 200 units.

Enthusiasts who couldn’t afford the Sport quattro could purchase the standard quattro, which was essentially an 80-based Coupé fitted with permanent four-wheel drive. It looked like a rally car, but it wasn’t quite as quick as one; period road tests peg its 0-60mph time at about 7.3 secs.

4. Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV – 4.7 secs

Lamborghini regularly updated the Countach with design tweaks and mechanical upgrades during its unusually long production run.

Its quickest evolution, the 5000 QV, arrived in 1985 in response to the Ferrari Testarossa with a 5.2-litre V12 that featured four valves per cylinder. 631 QVs were made from 1985 until 1988. For context, Lamborghini built about 2049 examples of the Countach between 1971 and 1990.

3. Ferrari F40 – 3.7 secs

In hindsight, the Ferrari F40 was one of the first hypercars. It was appreciably quicker than the firm’s tamer models, it made very few concessions in the name of creature comforts, and it looked as quick as it was. And, while it competed in races all over the world, it was primarily developed as a road car. 

Ferrari often stressed it didn’t develop the F40 in response to the Porsche 959. It created the car to celebrate its 40th birthday, and it would have built it even if the 959 had never existed. In all, 1315 were built between 1987 and 1992.

2. RUF CTR – 3.7 secs

Whether the RUF CTR deserves a spot on this list is a point of debate. It’s based on the Porsche 911, so it wasn’t developed by the company from the ground up, and it was built in extremely limited numbers. Most historians agree only 29 examples were made from 1987 to 1991.

We’ve chosen to add it because, like AMG’s Hammer, it stands proud as one of the best performance cars of all time. Its 3.7-sec time was made possible by a 463bhp twin-turbocharged flat-six, figures that remain spectacular even 33 years after its launch.

Put another way, it was quicker and more powerful than a 2020 911 Carrera.

1. Porsche 959 – 3.6 secs

Many of the quickest cars of the 1980s came out of Ferrari’s Maranello factory, but the record holder was built on the other side of the Alps in Stuttgart, Germany.

Originally developed to compete in Group B racing, the Porsche 959 became one of the most impressive road cars of the 1980s thanks in part to a twin-turbocharged flat-six engine, four-wheel drive and composite materials that kept weight in check.

345 examples of the 959 were built between 1986 and 1993.