Fast Coupes Of The Eighties And Nineties

[cerb4.5lee]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Sticks. said:

I remember thinking these were quite cool in the late 80s

I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.

In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.

It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.



The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.

Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.

I still adore those Audis now.

My brother in law had a Rover 216 Coupe, and I always thought that it drove well to be honest, and I really liked the engine in it. It wasn't quick, but it felt eager enough I thought.

[Turbobanana]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.

In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.

It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.



The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.

Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that. There is no doubt that the Audi is the better car, but is the Rover ugly? To me, the Audi looks like it started off a bit bigger but got left under a running tap and eroded at the edges, like a bar of soap.

[blue_haddock]

Turbobanana said:

lowdrag said:

Apologies - the memory fades. But whichever engine it had, it was still rusty, even in the showroom. And I think it was already over one year old yet still unsold.

Do you ever wonder, "What if...?", though? What if you'd just asked the dealer to replace the headlights and haggled hard? Did you miss out on the most characterful, engaging ownership prospect?

Regarding overage stock: nothing unusual in my experience. Where I sold Peugeots in the early-mid nineties we couldn't get rid of 205 / 309 GTis to save our lives. Same with 106 Rallyes: nobody wanted them. We were allocated dealer stock, and if it didn't sell or dealer transfer by a particular point in time we had to adopt (pay for it), which made it much harder to transfer between dealers.

The flip side was that, occasionally, I'd end with one as a demonstrator: I had 2 205s (1.6 and 1.9), a 309 and a 106 Rallye (the first series, with the white steel wheels). A little later the same happened and I got a 306XSi and an S16. I accidentally sold the 605 SVE 24V the day before we had to adopt it, otherwise I'd probably have ended up with that, too.

A friend on mine is a pug nut and he bought a 306 Rallye that had been sat unregistered in a compound for many years, its basically sill brand new with just over 300 miles on the clock and is often used (sparingly) for roadtests.

https://www.evo.co.uk/peugeot/202647/peugeot-306-g...

[CKY]

blue_haddock said:

A friend on mine is a pug nut and he bought a 306 Rallye that had been sat unregistered in a compound for many years, its basically sill brand new with just over 300 miles on the clock and is often used (sparingly) for roadtests.

https://www.evo.co.uk/peugeot/202647/peugeot-306-g...

Lucky man, certainly a rare find nowadays. Reading that article, it's amazing how slow the quoted 0-60mph time is for the 306 GTI-6 - struggling to think of another car i've driven that feels that much quicker than "0-60mph in 8.5 seconds", the variants I drove felt like they could have done that in reverse! Bloody quick cars for their day, nice ride and handling balance for a road car too.

[blue_haddock]

CKY said:

Lucky man, certainly a rare find nowadays. Reading that article, it's amazing how slow the quoted 0-60mph time is for the 306 GTI-6 - struggling to think of another car i've driven that feels that much quicker than "0-60mph in 8.5 seconds", the variants I drove felt like they could have done that in reverse! Bloody quick cars for their day, nice ride and handling balance for a road car too.

As the story goes Peugeot used to understate the 0-60 on all their sporty cars to get them lower insurance classes, any actual timed sprint always gets them a fair bit quicker.

Its why the saxo vts was 'quicker' than the 106 gti despite being nigh on identical.

[Dapster]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Sticks. said:

I remember thinking these were quite cool in the late 80s

I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.

In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.

It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.



The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.

Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.

Dont be too hard on yourself! I worked for Rover for a while in the mid 90s and the Coupe was a decent car - the earlier 220 Turbos were wild and rather unruly, but the facelift cars with the oval dash were decent - especially with the later VVC engine. Rover were making decent cars then - the Concerto based 200/400 was a decent steer, the K series engines superb. The Coupe was a better car than a Probe or Calibra in my view - not E36 318iS good, but they were good cars.

The Audi Coupe was wonderfully built but not exactly a handler, even the hot S2.

[Yertis]

They suffer from being heavy, worse in i5 versions I think, weight out front etc. But the i5 sounds lovely so gets a pass.

S2 has a hard ride.

[texaxile]

The colt Starion came in 2 guises during the 80’s, slim body 2.0 with 170bhp, wide body 2.0 with the same engine but different injection and inter cooled and wide body 2.6 with around the same Bhp as the 2.0 but unleaded and a chunk of torque.

I had a 2.0 slim body, very futuristic interior with leather, loads of switchgear and a fair bit of power as well, plus they could be tuned to 230 Bhp with not much fuss. RWD, LSD mediocre handling they were a rare sight on uk roads even then. I sold mine to get a lancer turbo, which I still own.
Once tuned up they were very quick for the day and mine could hold its own against a standard cosworth or 3.0 senator up to around 80. God awful “lift off under steer” though and horrifically poor brakes.

There’s a couple for sale at the moment, a slim body and a wide body on eBay.

[Rob 131 Sport]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Sticks. said:

I remember thinking these were quite cool in the late 80s

I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.

In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.

It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.



The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.

Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.

Unfortunately as with my Rover 827 Vitesse, this is something that you’ll never get over.

How on earth possessed you to buy an old man ugly Rover when you meant to buy a cool Renault 19 16v.

[cerb4.5lee]

Rob 131 Sport said:

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Sticks. said:

I remember thinking these were quite cool in the late 80s

I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.

In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.

It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.



The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.

Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.

Unfortunately as with my Rover 827 Vitesse, this is something that you’ll never get over.

How on earth possessed you to buy an old man ugly Rover when you meant to buy a cool Renault 19 16v.

I was personally a massive fan of the Renault 19 16v, and I remember test driving one for one of my mates(who ended up buying it).

However, my brother in law got banned(with me sat alongside side him), for doing 84mph in a 30(completely mental granted), in his 1992 Astra GSI, so he needed something a bit more sadate going forward...so that is how he ended up in a Rover 216 Coupe.

[Dapster]

5 In a Row said:

spoodler said:

reddiesel said:

Have we had the Subaru SVX yet ? I only ever met one person brave enough to part with his money and that was Stephen Conway who owned the Jewellers shop in Milton Keynes Shopping Centre . Some years later running into him driving a Mercedes SL500 I inquired after the Subaru . After a litany of failures most involving the Gearbox and a difficulty in sourcing parts he claimed to have traded it for "ten bob" against the Mercedes .To give him his due he was philosophical about the experience . Anyone have any experiences of the SVX , there cant be many of you ?

When I had my Subabru pick up, there were a few folk in my circle that were into other Subarus. One had a Leone coupe, there were a few variants of the Coupe based on the same running gear as the pick up and saloon. Another chap was well into his SVX coupes. I don't know how they stacked up when new (probably badly and expensive), but as an older, interesting choice, they were a fantastic car. Fast, powerful, very competent, well appointed and charismatic with the indestructible feel of that era of Subabru... Also, without doubt, full of Quirky Subaru charm. I'd have one tomorrow in preference to many a much lauded rival - if I had good reason to own something as modern.
Chances are tho' I would find myself a '70s GLF in preference...

There was a guy up around Pitlochry who - I was told - had several SVXs. I saw one of them once when it came to a local Subaru garage for servicing.

Spotted this tatty one near Basel in Switzerland last year. On Bern plates. (By the way when I say "Basel" in my head it comes out as "Basil" but only the way Sybil used to say it when bking Mr Fawlty!)

[CKY]

Rob 131 Sport said:

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Sticks. said:

I remember thinking these were quite cool in the late 80s

I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.

In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.

It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.



The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.

Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.

Unfortunately as with my Rover 827 Vitesse, this is something that you’ll never get over.

How on earth possessed you to buy an old man ugly Rover when you meant to buy a cool Renault 19 16v.

Dodged a bullet not landing in an E36 318is to be honest, not bad cars to commute in at the time but in showroom trim about as exciting as a 2 day old rice pudding. Had some fun in a 'tomcat turbo' 220 coupe, definitely don't remember anyone saying that was 'old man ugly' - I think the 200/400 series were unfairly tarred with the brush the 800 series deserved as being truly ugly and old man-esque in their driving characteristics. Never bothered me fortunately as it usually meant secondhand prices were nicely lower than some of their 'cooler' competitors.

Another 90s coupe I remember fondly is these (particularly in 5 cylinder trim), one hell of a noise and they certainly went well in a straight line! Often wondered how the drivetrain would have performed crammed in to a Punto bodyshell, no idea if anyone ever did that particular engine swap..

[AC43]

Dapster said:

5 In a Row said:

spoodler said:

reddiesel said:

Have we had the Subaru SVX yet ? I only ever met one person brave enough to part with his money and that was Stephen Conway who owned the Jewellers shop in Milton Keynes Shopping Centre . Some years later running into him driving a Mercedes SL500 I inquired after the Subaru . After a litany of failures most involving the Gearbox and a difficulty in sourcing parts he claimed to have traded it for "ten bob" against the Mercedes .To give him his due he was philosophical about the experience . Anyone have any experiences of the SVX , there cant be many of you ?

When I had my Subabru pick up, there were a few folk in my circle that were into other Subarus. One had a Leone coupe, there were a few variants of the Coupe based on the same running gear as the pick up and saloon. Another chap was well into his SVX coupes. I don't know how they stacked up when new (probably badly and expensive), but as an older, interesting choice, they were a fantastic car. Fast, powerful, very competent, well appointed and charismatic with the indestructible feel of that era of Subabru... Also, without doubt, full of Quirky Subaru charm. I'd have one tomorrow in preference to many a much lauded rival - if I had good reason to own something as modern.
Chances are tho' I would find myself a '70s GLF in preference...

There was a guy up around Pitlochry who - I was told - had several SVXs. I saw one of them once when it came to a local Subaru garage for servicing.

Spotted this tatty one near Basel in Switzerland last year. On Bern plates. (By the way when I say "Basel" in my head it comes out as "Basil" but only the way Sybil used to say it when bking Mr Fawlty!)

I used to laugh at 318s on the company car park. People must have been so desperate to get behind the badge that they ignored the fact that it was just a posh Cortina. Skinny tyres, plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea shooter exhaust, semi-trailing arms and bouncy castle dampers. Optional a/c and optional ICE. WTAF?

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

CKY said:

Another 90s coupe I remember fondly is these (particularly in 5 cylinder trim), one hell of a noise and they certainly went well in a straight line! Often wondered how the drivetrain would have performed crammed in to a Punto bodyshell, no idea if anyone ever did that particular engine swap..

Another car I very nearly owned. I was 26 at the time, went to the local Fiat dealer and spent some time looking at one and sitting in it. Despite the dealership being deserted and me making my very best "talk to me and I will buy one" face, nobody was interested in talking to me.

In the end I went to the local Subaru dealer and purchased a brand new Impreza Turbo instead. We also ended up buying a brand new Fiat Punto from an entirely different dealer as they completely messed up our order with them.

I was very tempted to take a photo of me standing in front of both cars and send it to them with a letter saying they had missed out on £30K of business (back in 2000) because they were so useless.

Edited by ThingsBehindTheSun on Thursday 27th June 13:25

[C5_Steve]

I've only owned one car from the 2000s, but I have a strong affinity to 90s coupes.

My first:




Current:

[Turbobanana]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

CKY said:

Another 90s coupe I remember fondly is these (particularly in 5 cylinder trim), one hell of a noise and they certainly went well in a straight line! Often wondered how the drivetrain would have performed crammed in to a Punto bodyshell, no idea if anyone ever did that particular engine swap..

Another car I very nearly owned. I was 26 at the time, went to the local Fiat dealer and spent some time looking at one and sitting in it. Despite the dealership being deserted and me making my very best "talk to me and I will buy one" face, nobody was interested in talking to me.

In the end I went to the local Subaru dealer and purchased a brand new Impreza Turbo instead. We also ended up buying a brand new Fiat Punto from an entirely different dealer as they completely messed up our order with them.

I was very tempted to take a photo of me standing in front of both cars and send it to them with a letter saying they had missed out on £30K of business (back in 2000) because they were so useless.

Edited by ThingsBehindTheSun on Thursday 27th June 13:25

Whenever I hear a story like that, my first thought is always "You didn't actually want a FIAT Coupe at all, you wanted a Subaru". It wouldn't have been too hard to find another, less useless FIAT dealership to try. I believe there's around 100 FIAT dealers in the UK, to about 70 Subaru.

[Mr Tidy]

AC43 said:

I used to laugh at 318s on the company car park. People must have been so desperate to get behind the badge that they ignored the fact that it was just a posh Cortina. Skinny tyres, plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea shooter exhaust, semi-trailing arms and bouncy castle dampers. Optional a/c and optional ICE. WTAF?

What did you have at the time?

I bought a 1991 Sierra Sapphire 2.0GLSi (so a later Cortina) in 1993 and it had plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea-shooter exhaust and no A/C, although it did have the 4-speaker stereo with the joystick!

You needed to buy a 2000E to get standard A/C and leather seats.

That's how cars were back then.

I replaced it in 1997 with a 1989 Mercedes 190e that also had plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea-shooter exhaust, etc. but was a much better built car and it had 4 electric windows rather than 2 plus an electric sunroof - luxury!

[cerb4.5lee]

Mr Tidy said:

AC43 said:

I used to laugh at 318s on the company car park. People must have been so desperate to get behind the badge that they ignored the fact that it was just a posh Cortina. Skinny tyres, plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea shooter exhaust, semi-trailing arms and bouncy castle dampers. Optional a/c and optional ICE. WTAF?

What did you have at the time?

I bought a 1991 Sierra Sapphire 2.0GLSi (so a later Cortina) in 1993 and it had plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea-shooter exhaust and no A/C, although it did have the 4-speaker stereo with the joystick!

You needed to buy a 2000E to get standard A/C and leather seats.

That's how cars were back then.

I replaced it in 1997 with a 1989 Mercedes 190e that also had plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea-shooter exhaust, etc. but was a much better built car and it had 4 electric windows rather than 2 plus an electric sunroof - luxury!

I would've preferred a V6 being honest over the 4 cylinder for sure with the 2000E. However...I had so much want at the time for the 2000E though for definite. The spec was ace on those for me big time back then.

[cerb4.5lee]

AC43 said:

I used to laugh at 318s on the company car park. People must have been so desperate to get behind the badge that they ignored the fact that it was just a posh Cortina. Skinny tyres, plastic wheel trims, cloth seats, wheezy 4 pot, pea shooter exhaust, semi-trailing arms and bouncy castle dampers. Optional a/c and optional ICE. WTAF?

I think that we must be related to be honest, because I've always felt exactly the same as you regarding that as well for sure.

[B'stard Child]

Turbobanana said:

Rumdoodle said:

A few years ago, I replaced this

with this

and it's epic.and nobody noticed.

FTFY.

deserved more recognition IMO

80's coupe for me has to be



^ that one is dead now but over 15 years I had a lot of fun with it