Fast Coupes Of The Eighties And Nineties

[PomBstard]

Turbobanana said:

Dapster said:

PomBstard said:

You make an excellent point - I’ve seen this at a few local car meets/shows…

Is that a road car with decals? Looks like RHD and no cage. Race cars were all lefties

The back seats and number plates rather give the game away. In fairness, PomBstard never claimed it was a racer, just that he'd seen it at shows.

Everything looks better in JPS livery.

As pointed out, the car I posted is a tribute - it’s RHD, rather than LHD. Sounds good too!

And, yes, I have also just caught myself browsing the classifieds….

[PomBstard]

Has anyone put up the Performance Car from the late-80s - Coupes Uber Alles? I think M635, 928S4 and 420SEC - not really in line with the OP, but we have just had a full page of only E24s…

[Stick Legs]

PomBstard said:

Has anyone put up the Performance Car from the late-80s - Coupes Uber Alles? I think M635, 928S4 and 420SEC - not really in line with the OP, but we have just had a full page of only E24s…

E24’s are worthy of a their own page.

[Yertis]

AC43 said:

It was the semi-trailing arms that gave them the death wish. Not the "I will definitely kill you if you change your mind in a corner" swinging arms of the Beetle, true. Just the "I might well wipe you out if you back off at any point" thing.

I didn’t realise semi-trailing arms were such a hazard.

[Regbuser]

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

[AC43]

Yertis said:

AC43 said:

It was the semi-trailing arms that gave them the death wish. Not the "I will definitely kill you if you change your mind in a corner" swinging arms of the Beetle, true. Just the "I might well wipe you out if you back off at any point" thing.

I didn’t realise semi-trailing arms were such a hazard.

Because they pivot at, say, 45 degrees they introduce s lot of camber change. Which reduces they tyre contact patch.

[Turbobanana]

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

Love these, but love the HPE more.

Mid-eighties, I'm a car valeter between school days. Was asked once to clean a Beta Coupe Hi Fi (special edition) that had been sold by a doctor to pay his legal fees after he was caught in a compromising position with someone under age. There were, genuinely, footprints on the inside of the windscreen.

[AC43]

Turbobanana said:

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

Love these, but love the HPE more.

Mid-eighties, I'm a car valeter between school days. Was asked once to clean a Beta Coupe Hi Fi (special edition) that had been sold by a doctor to pay his legal fees after he was caught in a compromising position with someone under age. There were, genuinely, footprints on the inside of the windscreen.

One mate of mine has an early HPE into which he dropped a later 2.0i engine. It was a great drive. Another mate ended up in Volumex coupes for many years. These days he's got a Mk1 coupe to play with.

There were a couple of restored VX's doing the rounds a couple of years ago and getting great reviews. Tempting as a useable modern classic.

This isn't one of them but still interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FljJoxIGL_M

[Dapster]

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

An friend of mine had a very early chrome bumper sypder when we were at school in the late 80's - it was a 1300 but made a lovely rasp and was as cool as hell. Her old man owned the Alfa dealership in the town and it was a tatty part ex - rusty, blue smoke on the overrun, leaky roof, smelt like wet dog, but it was a great car and more instruments than a Boeing 737!

[s m]

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

Love the look of these but even the supercharged ones weren’t fast for the quoted output based on experience. Even the roadgoing Lancia 037s with 50% more power were never quite as quick as you’d think for the power/weight. Usually forced induction has a lusty feel to the delivery as with an R53 Cooper S

[wjs1968]

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

I had a 1981 2 litre non injection chrome bumper in classic bathroom blue as my Dad liked to call it - huge fun and I always wondered why you'd buy an RS2000 when for the same money you got a peach of a twin cam, disc brakes all round and more importantly proper coupe styling rather than a bit of plastic riveted to the front.

[DodgyGeezer]

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

I came awfully close to buying a VX coupe - for some reason never did, to this day I'm not sure whether I regret that or not. As has also been mentioned they really weren't as quick as they 'should' have been.

Would an answer be to drop in a Mini R53 lump (sacrilege, i know)

[LuS1fer]

Superchargers use power to generate additional power, turbochargers utilise free power.

[s m]

wjs1968 said:

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

I had a 1981 2 litre non injection chrome bumper in classic bathroom blue as my Dad liked to call it - huge fun and I always wondered why you'd buy an RS2000 when for the same money you got a peach of a twin cam, disc brakes all round and more importantly proper coupe styling rather than a bit of plastic riveted to the front.

Looking back I can tell you why a 19/20 yo me would have chosen the RS - performance and handling - plus still nimble and plenty of fun
A 40 yo me might well have chosen the Lancia but it was more of a cruising GT car than a sports saloon/coupe. It didn’t really want to be thrown around so much
Running the RS was much easier/cheaper for spares back then too - as you’d expect of a cheaper/more popular car

[Yertis]

Here’s mine. It even has ‘coupe’ written on the bootlid, for avoidance of doubt.

[PomBstard]

This just came up for me to watch, looks like this is the thread for it…

[Yertis]

Enjoyed that

[AC43]

wjs1968 said:

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

I had a 1981 2 litre non injection chrome bumper in classic bathroom blue as my Dad liked to call it - huge fun and I always wondered why you'd buy an RS2000 when for the same money you got a peach of a twin cam, disc brakes all round and more importantly proper coupe styling rather than a bit of plastic riveted to the front.

A lot of the local lads where I lived built Escort rally reps to do endless circuits of the high street.

My crowd all bought Alfas and Lancias and drove round the highlands and borders, to Mull and Skye and eventually France and Italy.

One of the likely lads once tried to race my mate's GTV6 in his Escort. He ended up on his roof in a field. I also pissed off a bloke in Capri 3.0 in a 1.3 Sud on a bumpy twisty b road. I could see his car bucking and heaving all over the place as I left him for absolute dead. It was always fun to take on the guys with the cart springs at the back and the boat anchor up front.

[PomBstard]

Yertis said:

Enjoyed that

Have another…

https://youtu.be/2ArA6VIBchk?si=1dKed2YSo0ZIWHIN

[Turbobanana]

Yertis said:

Here’s mine. It even has ‘coupe’ written on the bootlid, for avoidance of doubt.

You might have washed it first