Got me thinking after looking at the Vauxhall Heritage Centre thread.
I love 80's cars. They had enough tech to be reliable, start in the mornings, and rack up big mileages if looked after, but weren't so complex that you couldn't fix them yourself if they did go wrong.
OK, rust was still an issue with many marques, and security and crash worthiness weren't a patch on modern stuff, but on the flip side they were light, and in the case of many performance versions, left it very much up to the driver to get the best out of them. A 205 GTI had a level of tail happiness that no modern manufacturer would risk in today's litigious world, but if you knew what to expect, you could enjoy yourself in a way that a current hot hatch simply won't allow, and at far more realistic speeds for your license and the safety of other road users.
All the hot hatches of the time were tremendous. Golf GTI, Peugeot 205 GTI, Astra GTE 16v, Escort RS Turbo, all of them fast, furious and slightly wayward if pushed too hard. But there was a rawness and a thrill to them that you just don't get with the modern, heavy, sanitised, albeit quicker on paper equivalents. There were no punitive emissions regulations to meet, fuel was cheap,
A nostalgic rant perhaps, but I still find it hard to get excited about many modern cars by comparison. Do you have a favourite era, and if so, why?
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