25 of 1983’s most memorable new cars

Winding the clock back 40 years

Ahh… the early 1980s. A simpler time when just sticking a bigger engine into a run-of-the-mill model resulted in some of the most iconic machines of what is now the modern-classic era.

Yes, now 40 years ago, the stratospheric rise in the reputation of German performance cars was well under way, and the expendable income from yuppie types – who wanted a company car to outdo their boss’ – would soon steer most car owners’ ambition. 

The 1980s would also see a vast leap forward in technology, most of which would find its way into the automotive sector, though emissions and the environment were barely considerations – for better or worse.

So, as these gems are now officially vehicles of historic interest (in the UK), let’s dig into 25 of the models that best represent the class of ’83.

1. Ford Mustang SVO & GT

Muscle cars were basically dead by the early 1980s. They’d been on life support for the majority of the previous decade, but successive fuel crises and the beginning of emissions measuring finally pulled their plug.

In the ’80s, mammoth naturally aspirated V8s were out and turbocharging was beginning to come in – blame BMW, Audi and Porsche, if you like. 

Meanwhile, Ford’s racing efforts were amalgamated into its new Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division. The first roadgoing model to carry these initials was the Fox-bodied Mustang SVO, revealed in 1983.

Deliberately designed as a more European take on the performance coupé, the Mustang SVO got a 2.3-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine making 174bhp – controlled via electronically managed boost and ignition. Oh, and ’83 also saw the introduction of the Mustang GT Convertible.

2. TVR Tasmin/350i 

Free from the EPA’s Clean Air Act of 1977, small-scale British sports-car manufacturer TVR could use almost any engine it could get its hands on.

The TVR 350i represented company boss Peter Wheeler channelling the ‘no replacement for displacement’ ethos. Ford’s ‘Cologne’ V6 had powered the 350i’s predecessor, but it just wasn’t cutting it. 

The former Buick now Rover 3.5-litre V8 was chosen as its successor, and as a result, a whole generation of petrolheads in the UK grew up knowing the burbling delights of this naturally aspirated ‘eight’.

A separate Lotus-like backbone chassis and glassfibre bodywork meant that 190bhp went a long way in the 350i – like 0-60mph in 6.3 secs and a top speed of 130mph kind of way.

It was just the first in a long line of models to use Rover’s V8, which kicked-off another TVR golden age. 

3. Honda CRX

The 1980s might have been the decade of German performance legends, but if there was a runner up, it was definitely the Japanese.

The Celica and Supra parted ways to become models in their own right, the MR2 refined mid-engined performance and brought it to the masses, and Honda was doing special things with front-wheel-drive coupés.

Any Japanese car fan will know why the two-door coupé version of the Civic, the CRX, is so much more than the sum of its parts would suggest.

The first CRX was a boxy delight that handled like a racing car and thrived on revs that would cause many a contemporary engine to go inside out. The turn toward Honda’s heroic future had been made. 

4. Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16

Think 1980s German executive saloon with a rev-happy four-cylinder engine, dogleg manual transmission, rear-wheel drive and a limited-slip differential and chances are you’re thinking of something BMW flavoured, right? Well, the M3 owes its very existence to this first go-faster 190.

The 190E 2.3-16 (never called ‘Cosworth’) was designed by Mercedes-Benz to go racing, but on gravel rather than Tarmac.

Realising the budget and development needed to compete in top-level rallying was getting silly, the 2.3-16 became a Touring-Car racing star instead.

Trading blows with BMW’s aforementioned M3 and Ford’s Sierra, the 190 struggled to dominate, but it was right in the thick of it. Today, it has become an easy-to-live-with performance legend that enjoys keen appreciation.

5. Toyota Corolla (AE86)

Whisper ‘AE86’ to any drifting fan and they’ll likely mutter about anime while going weak at the knees.

Yes, this is just a two-door Toyota Corolla but, in Sprinter Trueno Apex form (the one with an MR2 engine) rear-wheel drive and an optional limited-slip differential, it became a whole lot more special. 

Clearly designed for racing from the off, this crown-wearing Corolla starred in anime film Initial D, heroically dispensing with far more powerful machinery during a Japanese mountain street race.

Mastering the art of going slowly sideways was the AE86’s trump card – a long time before The Fast & the Furious reboots made it cool.

6. Audi 100 (C3)

Barely a year after the Ford Sierra had shaken Europe with its slick new aerodynamic body – even if it clothed conventional underpinnings – Audi pulled off the same trick in the tier above.

The 100’s wind-cheating (0.30Cd) was significant, but there was a lot more to this mid-sized exec than just that. It was Ingolstadt’s first truly successful breakthrough into the executive market, which to that point had been dominated by Mercedes-Benz.

The 100 came with a number of engine options from an entry-level 1.8-litre four-cylinder through 2.2-litre petrol and diesel five-pots – the latter, the first of its kind in a road car.

The 100 also spun off a few even more upmarket siblings, namely the 200 and 5000. Due to its refinement the 100 was awarded Car of the Year in 1983.

7. Nissan 300ZX (Z31) 

Cars that talk will always be futuristic, especially those with awful, tinny synthesised voices from the early 1980s.

Here we are recalling two that talk and the first is the not-very-well-known Z31 ‘Fairlady’ Z. Incidentally, this Datsun’s only mildly intrusive voice warnings chimed in if you tried to drive off with the handbrake on, left a door ajar, had low fuel or left the lights on. 

More exciting than its audible nanny function was the Z31’s VG30E and VG30ET V6 engines – naturally aspirated and turbocharged respectively.

Japan’s first mass-produced V6 engine powered the top-flight Z31 Turbo to 60mph in 6.7 secs and onto a terminal velocity of 155mph. Big numbers indeed for the early ’80s.

8. BMW M635 CSi/M6

Super GTs weren’t really a BMW thing in the early 1980s. The firm had barely established itself as a sports saloon maker. Then Porsche went and released the 928, and BMW fancied a slice of its market share. 

The obvious candidate was the 5 Series-based 635CSi and with the M1 in your stable, there was an obvious path to greatness by pillaging the supercar’s engine. The same trick would be played to create the first M5 – and we all know how well that went down.

Three years before that, the 6 Series was the testbed and with an M1 powerplant, the new ‘M6’ – really the slightly clunkily titled M635CSi – caused Porsche more problems than it had anticipated.
 

9. Fiat Uno 

There’s little evidence left now, but millions of first-generation Unos rolled off Fiat production lines around the world. In its day, the Uno was praised for its innovative design, practicality and affordability.

It certainly sold like hot cakes, with 40,000 UK buyers in 1988 choosing the then five-year-old Fiat over stiff competition. It even beat the Peugeot 205 to European Car of the Year honours in 1984 (crowned in December 1983).

The Uno effectively replaced the antiquated Fiat 127 and beat several other makers to the boxy hatchback craze, including the aforementioned 205, Opel’s Corsa A (Vauxhall Nova) and Nissan’s Micra.

There was even a Turbo Uno, which fully exploited this chuckable little Fiat’s great chassis. Shame it seemed to be built from discarded baked bean tins though – very few Unos have stood the test of time. 

10. Chevrolet Corvette (C4) 

We know there wasn’t a 1983 Chevrolet Corvette (C4). Officially, the model was pulled from production at the last minute, yet 43 pre-production C4s were made in 1983. We know that’s stretching this list’s criteria to breaking point, but bear with us, there’s a good reason…

Of those prototype Corvette C4s made, all but one was crushed. This one escaped due to the crusher operator apparently having bought a new pair of boots – no, really.

It started raining heavily as he got to the last car and, meaning to crush it the following day, he clocked off early to avoid trashing his footwear in the sodden car park, so the story goes. The next day the hire firm had taken back the mobile crusher he was using and the last ’83 Corvette was spared. 

The only 1983 Corvette C4 survives to this day. After spending years in the entrance to the factory, it’s now on display in the Corvette museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

11. Volkswagen Golf (Mk2)

Enthusiasts might fawn over the Giugiaro-designed original, but the follow-up Golf is objectively better in every other way. True, the Mk2’s in-house design lacks the crisp Ital edges of its predecessor, but its rounded angles are more aerodynamic and have a distinctly ’80s charm of their own. 

Mechanically, the Mk2 was an evolution of the original with some significant improvements in safety, ease of maintenance and performance – the latter would see a GTI with an extra camshaft engine and even a supercharger.

Four-wheel drive was also added to the mix along with ABS in the homologated Golf Rallye. Launch year Mk2s – known as Type 19s – have front quarter windows and unique trim, making them even more collectible today.

12. Alfa Romeo 33 (and Arna)

Alfa Romeo’s model range desperately needed modernising by the early 1980s. Relying on the Sud since 1971, a new model was well overdue by 1983.

That ‘replacement’ was the Alfa 33, which in truth was a Sud that had received a makeover – the 33 relied on the Sud’s floorpan, chassis and running gear, with only a few minor modifications to its suspension and braking.

Worse was still to come for Alfa fans in ’83 as the fruits of the infamous Alfa/Nissan deal came ‘good’ with the release of the Arna.

This paired the utterly forgettable styling of Nissan at the time with Alfa’s notoriously flaky mechanical components. If only some bright spark involved had realised that it might have worked better the other way around…

13. RUF BTR

Most who’ve experienced a Porsche 911 usually don’t think it’s lacking in performance – but Alois Ruf Jnr isn’t ‘most people’. He took Porsches and turned them from civilised, easy-to-live-with sports cars into feral beasts.

The first model to gain Ruf fame – beyond customer-converted 911s – was 1983’s Ruf BTR.

In Road & Track magazine’s independent ‘World’s Fastest Cars’ contest in 1984, a BTR won outright, with an astonishing (for the time) top speed of 186.2mph.

Three years later, having covered a further 211,000 trouble-free miles, the car returned and apparently beat a Ferrari 288GTO and Testarossa, Lamborghini Countach 5000 qv and a Porsche 959 to top its own record with a blistering 187mph.

14. Peugeot 205 

The 205 was, quite simply, one of the finest French machines on four wheels.

Achingly pretty styling – often wrongly associated with Pininfarina (it only did the cabriolet version) – the neat in-house penmanship, attributed to Gerald Welter, changed Peugeot’s reputation forever. 

Although it had dabbled in the small-car market before, Peugeot up to the early 1980s had built its reputation by making large, dependable saloons.

The 205 with its trendy looks, practical layout and vast array of engine options proved a monster hit and moulded Peugeot aspirations for decades to come.

Add to that a GTI version widely regarded as one of the greatest hot hatches of all time and you’ve a home run.

15. Chevrolet S-10 Blazer

GM’s first American-built pick-ups began with the Chevrolet S10 and GMC S15 in 1982. Just a year later, the iconic Blazer was added and, for the first time, SUVs really broke through into pop culture.

The compact Blazer was cool and numerous films, TV shows and music videos throughout the 1980s never let you forget it – remember Arnie commandeering that gardener’s S10 to try and outrun the T1000 in Terminator 2? 

Primarily still work ‘trucks’ of course, a wider breadth of owners started seeing these machines as lifestyle products, for better or worse…

The S-series Blazer shouldn’t be confused with its full-size K5 Blazer cousin – that was more for soccer moms. The small SUV was inherently more attractive to young families and even well-heeled college kids, the numerous special and sport editions playing to this new demographic.

16. Ford Ranger

And here’s the S10’s main rival… Coincidentally, also Ford’s first small American-built pick-up truck, taking over from the Mazda-made Courier.

Though the Ranger wasn’t the Blazer’s direct competitor, its chassis would spawn not one but two compact SUVs, one of which (the Explorer) was famously mauled by a rampant dinosaur in Spielberg’s 1993 box-office smash Jurassic Park – the other was Ford’s short-lived Bronco II. 

Back to the Ranger, and it managed to be a runaway hit in the USA from its inception almost up to its demise in 2011.

Buying trends for progressively larger SUVs and pick-ups eventually killed it off, but not before its 29-year production at Minnesota’s Twin Cities assembly plant led to sales numbers that saw it appear in rural towns all over America.

17. Austin Maestro 

In terms of easy jobs, the Maestro had one of the least tricky in automotive history. All it had to do was be better than its predecessors, the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro.

Obviously, it managed that feat, but it was also an impressive machine in its own right. In an era of stiff competition from GM’s Astra, Ford’s Escort and Volkswagen’s Golf, the Maestro still stood up to scrutiny.

Made in Cowley, where today BMW Minis are churned out, the Maestro was a Rover Group clean-sheet build. Its neat styling came from the pen of David Bache, whose credits to that point included the Rover P6 and SD1.

The Maestro’s good looks were backed up by genuine innovation, including a synthesised voice emitting from the dash and a trip computer. There were even sporty MG and Turbo versions that gave the Continental hot hatches a run for their money.

18. Renault-AMC Alliance 

With fuel prices doubling in the US since the 1979 crisis, there was more emphasis in 1983 on economy (or gas mileage) than ever before.

There also wasn’t a lot of cash in the coffers of most American manufacturers – underdog AMC was on the breadline. Its answer was a deal with Renault, which was after better access to the US market. Win-win? Not quite.

The Alliance – possibly the most appropriately named model in history – was an extensively reworked Renault 9 but all the same, with nearly 80% of its components made in the USA, was classed as a domestic model.

Customers were big fans of its 1.4-litre fuel-injected engine and its exceptional frugality. Even Motor Trend magazine was won over, awarding it its Car of the Year award in 1983 – though it’s fair to say, competition wasn’t especially strong.

19. Porsche 944 Callaway Turbo 

If you thought the turbocharged 944 arrived in 1985, you’d be right… and wrong. The factory blown 944 did land that year, but an industrious US firm took it upon itself to unofficially do Porsche’s R&D for it two years before.

Callaway Cars, in conjunction with Porsche, converted between 20 and 38 customer 944s to forced induction at a whopping cost of $8000 each. 

The cost was due to the 2.5-litre Porsche engine having to be stripped and almost totally reworked to handle the 10-13psi of boost (via an optional dash controller).

The compression ratio was lowered and the fuelling was totally reworked. The end result was a thumping 285bhp – 35 more than the factory 944 turbo. The extra grunt got the 944 Callaway Turbo to 60mph in just 5.9 secs.

20. Honda Accord

The second-generation Accord arrived with little fanfare, even in its native Japan – in the US, it was almost totally overlooked.

However, by the time the facelifted Accord was launched in 1983, models for the American market were now being made in Marysville, Ohio, Honda’s first car factory on US soil. The Marysville plant remains a major local employer in the town today.

There aren’t many exciting facts to be found about this pre-VTEC era Accord, but that’s largely the point.

This Honda model has always been a dependable, economical and practical small saloon that quietly went about providing transport for those who just needed to get from A to B.

That said, it did feature innovative electronically controlled, multi-port fuel injection that could unlock an astonishingly frugal highway mileage of 62mpg (52mpg US).

21. Ford Thunderbird (9th gen)

Customers and press alike were not kind to the eighth-generation Thunderbird – looking at it, we can see why.

The sleeker and much sexier ninth-gen Thunderbird turned around the model’s reputation, built on the same Fox-body platform as its predecessor – and its Mustang sibling also featured here. 

The new-for-’83 T-bird got several new engines, designed for economy rather than outright performance. The straight-six was out, replaced by a more modern 3.8-litre ‘Essex’ V6 – not to be confused with the British V6 of the same name.

More exciting was the 142bhp (soon to be 156bhp) 2.3-litre turbocharged, overhead-cam four-pot. Together with a five-speed manual transmission, this went some way to redressing the Thunderbird’s tarnished reputation among driving enthusiasts.

22. Land Rover 90/110

The Defender in all but name really arrived in 1983 when the Series III Land Rover received coil-sprung suspension.

Though the official now famous moniker wouldn’t arrive until 1990, the essential components of the Defender were in place seven years before in the ‘County’. These new Series IIIs were more commonly referred to as the 90 and 110, to differentiate short- and long-wheelbase versions.

No Defender-type Land Rover is refined, but it’s fair to say these 1983-on Land Rovers were less likely to cause motion sickness. Off-road however, these machines were, and remain, near peerless.

23. Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

Though nowhere near as collectible, or as exciting, as its Buick stablemate (GNX), the Monte Carlo SS comfortably outsold the Grand National.

Introduced in 1983, like the GNX, the Monte Carlo SS took inspiration from the track, with an aerodynamic nose and small-block V8, common to NASCAR at the time. 

Unlike the technically advanced Buick, the Monte Carlo SS relied on the good old-fashioned tried and tested big V8 up front, driving plenty of grunt to the rear wheels.

That grunt might have been low compared to the muscle-car heyday of the late 1960s, but that 305cu in (5.0-litre) unit was enough for a relatively brisk 0-60mph time of 8.2 secs.

24. Maserati Biturbo S

A new and baffling era of derivative model Biturbos and Quattroportes arrived in 1981. The famous Italian firm was desperately in need of a new range and it certainly got its money’s worth from the Biturbo range.

The first truly exciting model – of which there were many – was 1983’s Biturbo S. The usual pair of blowers was fed cooled charge air by two new intercoolers, which facilitated matching NACA ducts in the bonnet. 

Weighing just 1086kg (2394lb) with 202bhp of boosted V6 bulge under the bonnet, the Biturbo S could hit nearly 140mph and got to 60mph in 6.5 secs. Quick by any standard, rocketship fast in the early ’80s.

25. Nissan Skyline 2000 Turbo RS

The sixth-generation of the Datsun/Nissan Skyline was launched in 1981, but things didn’t start to get interesting until the arrival of the 2000 Turbo RS in 1983.

This ‘Newman’ Skyline – so called in its native Japan because actor and racing driver Paul Newman was the face of its advertising campaign – might not have had a GT-R in its range, but that didn’t mean it took a sabbatical from the race track. 

Newman’s connection with the car often involves confusing him with racing one, which he didn’t – at least not in victorious Group 5 Japanese Silhouette Series form, that was down to Masahiro Hasemi. The wild wings and scoops of this series have gone on to heavily influence the wild Bosozoku car culture in Japan to this day.