<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Everyone knows that the seventies was a terrible decade for cars. The combination of new pollution regulations, a bunch of fuel crises, and the determination on many manufacturers&amp;#039; parts to hold back on investing in truly new technology led to some truly heinous transportation devices. But as lousy as the seventies were, they only lasted 10 years. And then came the eighties. Today it&amp;#039;s easy to see in hindsight that the eighties represented an automotive renaissance. And we all know the cars that were in the vanguard of that blooming. Performance cars like the 1984 Buick Grand National that combined a turbocharger with computerized sequential fuel injection to set new standards for power and driveability from forced induction production cars. Family cars like the 1986 Ford Taurus that combined slick front-drive engineering with sleek aerodynamics and rugged construction. And luxury machines like the 1983 BMW 5 Series that changed what the world expected from a sports sedan. Add in the 1982 5.0-liter Mustang, 1983 Honda Civic CRX, 1983 Toyota Camry, 1986 Mercedes-Benz E-Class, 1984 Ferrari Testarossa and the 1987 Ferrari F40 and you have an all-star line-up of new cars. But a few eighties machines were good cars when new and have somehow faded, for whatever reasons, from our collective consciousness. They&amp;#039;re essentially unappreciated, but their innovations or performance mean they deserve more prominence. These cars aren&amp;#039;t necessarily classics, but they&amp;#039;re good enough to be remembered. 1985-1992 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z  When the third-generation Chevrolet Camaro (and its Pontiac brother the Firebird) was introduced as a 1982 model, it was an underwhelming machine. Sure it looked good and didn&amp;#039;t handle badly, but the engines were lackluster hacks off older designs. The base Camaro&amp;#039;s 2.5-liter &amp;quot;Iron Duke&amp;quot; four was rated at only 90 hp. The best V8 in the line, a 5.0-liter small-block, had a freakish Cross-Fire fuel-injection system and made a miserable 165 hp. Grim stuff. The 1985 IROC-Z may have looked like any other third-generation Camaro, but it was a much sweeter and more powerful beast. Redecorated with clean graphics, fitted with gorgeous five-spoke 16-inch wheels and tuned around massive Goodyear &amp;quot;Gatorback&amp;quot; radial tires, the IROC-Z would have been a hit even if it had that lousy four under its hood. But instead there was the 5.0-liter small-block V8 now wearing a brilliant tuned port injection (TPI) system that boosted its output up to a wonderfully flexible 215 hp. By 1987, a TPI-equipped 5.7-liter small-block was offered in the IROC and the car simply got a lot better. In comparison tests at the time, the TPI-equipped IROC Camaros were always quicker than their archrival, the 5.0-liter Mustang. They handled better too. But while the Mustang has become a legend \u00ADwith its dedicated cult of followers choosing among dozens of dedicated magazine titles and hundreds of websites, the IROC Camaro has become something of a punchline. It&amp;#039;s the car guys from New Jersey drive, in jokes about guys from New Jersey. It&amp;#039;s not fair. 1984-1991 Audi 5000 and 100  On Sunday Nov. 23, 1986, a report on the CBS TV news magazine 60 Minutes almost single-handedly destroyed Audi in the United States. Alleging that &amp;quot;unintended sudden acceleration&amp;quot; plagued the Audi 5000 midsize luxury sedan, the 60 Minutes segment devastated sales. It turned out that virtually all of that unintended acceleration resulted from drivers misapplying the pedals, but the damage was done, and Audi&amp;#039;s sales in North America wouldn&amp;#039;t rebound until the late Nineties. There&amp;#039;s no way to separate the Audi 5000 from the scandal that surrounded it at the time, but it was a groundbreaking car. Using neat tricks like flush-mounted glass all around and careful detailing, the front-drive 1984 Audi 5000S sedan boasted a drag coefficient way down near 0.30 (a wagon was also available). That resulted in a car that was exceptionally quiet, economical to operate and performed better than its 2.1-liter, 100-hp inline five would suggest. And the 140-hp 5000S Turbo was actually fun. Eventually Audi&amp;#039;s famed Quattro all-wheel-drive system was added to the 5000 line for 1986 as output of the turbo engine grew to 158 hp. In 1989 Audi renamed the North American 5000 the 100, which had always been the car&amp;#039;s name in Europe. Audi took a chance when it designed a car as radical as the 5000. And it paid off \u2026 until Nov. 23, 1986. 1981-1992 Toyota Cressida  The first Toyota Cressida appeared in 1978 and was severely handicapped by its insane, florid styling. But the Cressida was redesigned for 1981 with razor-edge styling that let buyers appreciate the sophisticated machine that lay beneath it. Powered by a 2.8-liter SOHC straight six rated at 116 hp, the big, rear-drive 1981 Cressida featured a nearly impregnable unibody structure. Sure, some of the interior was a little over-the-top even by early-eighties standards, but it was all so beautifully built and rugged. The Cressida got even better when a DOHC version of the six was packed under the hood for 1983 and the solid rear axle was ditched in favor of a trailing-arm independent system. Two more generations of Cressidas were produced before Toyota canceled the car after the 1992 model year. Want to know why Toyota felt it could compete against Mercedes-Benz and BMW when it introduced the Lexus division in 1990? Because the Toyota Cressida had already proved that it could. 1981-1984 Nissan Maxima (810)  The story of the Nissan Maxima neatly parallels that of the Toyota Cressida. Datsun (that was Nissan&amp;#039;s name over here back then) introduced the oddly styled, rear-drive, 810 model as a 1977 model. But awkward as it looked, it was a sweet car to drive with its all-independent suspension and the same fuel-injected 2.4-liter SOHC straight six that once powered the 240Z under its hood. But it wasn&amp;#039;t until the 1981 model year that the 810 hit its stride \u00ADas the Maxima. Looking like it has been styled by a cleaver, the still rear-drive 1981 810 sedan (a wagon was also available) didn&amp;#039;t differ much from the first-generation car in general specification. But it was such a clean design that it attracted attention from buyers who wouldn&amp;#039;t even consider the previous 810. And the best 810 of them all, at least during 1981, was called the Maxima. By 1982 the 810 name was gone, the Datsun name was on the way out, and the car had become the Nissan Maxima. By current standards 120 hp seems modest, but when paired with the standard five-speed manual transmission back in 1981 it made the Maxima a sports sedan. And it was a huge hit. The Maxima switched to front drive and V6 power for 1985 and it&amp;#039;s still produced today in that general form. 1984-1985 Ferrari 288 GTO  To many there&amp;#039;s simply no greater Ferrari than the twin-turbocharged 1987 F40. But the F40 would never have been around if there hadn&amp;#039;t been a 288 GTO. Ferrari developed the 288 GTO in the early eighties to meet the FIA&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Group B&amp;quot; rules and possibly go rally racing. It was, like the original 250 GTO of the early sixties, a true homologation special-\u00ADbuilt to go racing. Clearly the 288 GTO was based on the then-current midengine 3.0-liter V8-powered 308 GTB. But unlike the 308, the 288&amp;#039;s 2.8-liter DOHC 32-valve V8 was mounted longitudinally in the chassis and sported two intercooled turbochargers. Those turbos were enough to push engine output up to about 400 hp. While the 308 GTB&amp;#039;s doors, roof and window glass were retained by the 288 GTO, the wheelbase was stretched and fenders widened. The 288 GTO looked like a 308 GTB with muscles. Ferrari only built 272 of the 288 GTOs\u2014five of which were Evoluzione models that previewed the F40. And when the F40 debuted, the 288 GTO was forgotten. It&amp;#039;s tough to think of any Ferrari as overlooked or underrated. But the 288 GTO comes close.   --&amp;amp;gt;  1984-1996 Chevrolet Corvette (C4)   There are still plenty of fourth-generation (C4) Corvettes running around. You see them with paint splotches on their giant front hoods, with cheap, decades-old window tints peeling away and their suspensions drooping. The C4 is the Vette no one cares about right now. And it deserves better. As the 1982 model year wound down, the C3 Corvette had become a joke. The C3 had been around since 1968 and slowly devolved into a boulevard cruiser unworthy of being called a sports car. It was an open question whether GM would replace it with another half-serious machine, let the Corvette die altogether or step up and build a true sports car. The C4 was, if nothing else, a true sports car. There was a lot wrong with the first C4 when it went on sale in March 1983. The digital instrumentation was stupid, the suspension was brutally stiff, the Doug Nash &amp;quot;4+3&amp;quot; manual transmission needed a sledgehammer to shift, the Cross Fire\u2013injected 5.7-liter small-block V8 only made 205 hp, and it took a block and tackle to successfully lower one&amp;#039;s self over the high side sill and into the car. But on the racetrack it was an instant sensation, completely dominating most every showroom-stock or production-modified road race it entered. And by 1985 the C4 got much better with the adoption of the tuned-port-injected 230-hp L98 version of the 5.7-liter small-block and a significantly softened suspension. Compared to its contemporaries, the C4 was always a dominating performer. And even today it&amp;#039;s a car of towering ability. It deserves to be recognized as such.  1983-1988 Ford Thunderbird   After a misbegotten redesign for the 1980 model year, the awkward and boxy Ford Thunderbird was languishing. Once a glamour machine, the T-Bird was now an also-ran in the midsize luxury sweepstakes. If Ford had killed the T-Bird, not many people would have missed it. Instead Ford redesigned the Thunderbird for 1983 and threw caution to the wind\u2014almost literally. While the &amp;#039;83 T-Bird rode on the same &amp;quot;Fox&amp;quot; chassis as the boxy &amp;#039;82, the body covering it was rounded in every conceivable way. It wasn&amp;#039;t so much beautiful as it was futuristic and aircraft-like. It was an instant hit with the new Turbo Coupe version attracting many enthusiasts. Ford&amp;#039;s success with the &amp;#039;83 T-Bird emboldened it to go forward with the equally aerodynamic and daring &amp;#039;86 Taurus. And the bullet shape of the T-Bird proved very effective in NASCAR stock car racing.  1984-1993 Mercedes-Benz 190E   (Photo by MATEUS_27:24&amp;amp;amp;25/flickr) With its 3 Series, BMW pretty much had the small, entry-level luxury-car market to itself through the seventies. Mercedes-Benz could not let that situation persist. To many in the early eighties, Mercedes&amp;#039; reputation for engineering excellence and intimidating road presence seemed too big to be crammed into a small sedan. Would a small Mercedes be a real Mercedes? The 1984 190E (known internally at Mercedes as the W201) proved that what made a Mercedes a Mercedes wasn&amp;#039;t size. From the three-pointed star atop its grille shell to the fluted lenses of its taillights, the 190E felt and looked like its bigger brothers. Initially the sole gas-fired powerplant available in North America was a 2.3-liter four making 113 hp, but that soon changed with the introduction of the 167-hp 2.3-16 model that capped that engine with a Cosworth-designed cylinder head for 1986. Six-cylinder engines went on sale with the 1987 models. Eventually it evolved into today&amp;#039;s C-Class. If the Mercedes 190E hadn&amp;#039;t been a good product and solid sales hit for its maker, the BMW 3 Series would have had the small luxury market to itself. That&amp;#039;s never good.  1986-1989 Hyundai Excel   By every reasonable measure the first Hyundai Excel was awful. A front-drive, five-door hatchback engineered around a cast-off Mitsubishi platform, it was rough around every edge and powered by a rackety 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine that only made 86 hp. But it was a new car that could be had for just $4995. But that 1986 Excel wasn&amp;#039;t just the first of this model, it was the first Hyundai automobile of any sort sold in North America. And it sold spectacularly well\u2014a stunning 166,882 units in the U.S. alone during 1986 alone. It set up Hyundai for the success it&amp;#039;s having today.  1986-1992 Mazda RX-7   In between Mazda&amp;#039;s unexpected and brilliant first-generation &amp;quot;FB&amp;quot; RX-7 (1978\u20131985) and its legendary and brilliant third-generation &amp;quot;FD&amp;quot; RX-7 (1993\u20131995) there was the nice, capable but not brilliant &amp;quot;FC&amp;quot; RX-7 (1986\u20131992). But not being brilliant shouldn&amp;#039;t keep a car from being appreciated as, in the context of its time, being one of the best. The second RX-7 brought with it several significant developments, including an independent rear suspension, rack and pinion steering and a new turbocharged model. Even a convertible was offered starting with the 1988 models. Normally aspirated models started the model run with 146-hp available from the company&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;13B&amp;quot; rotary engines, which grew to 160 hp in 1989 models. The Turbo models started with 182 hp and grew to 200 with the introduction of the Turbo II model for 1989. Unlike the first-generation RX-7, which could seem primitive and raw, the second one was always smooth, composed and thoroughly modern. It was also better built than the first RX-7 and far more practical in daily use than the more narrowly focused third-generation car. But it seems sweet-naturedness can take a car only so far.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6389/forgotten-classic-cars-of-the-1980s/>