After its birth as a sporty 2-seater, then decades as a heavyweight cruiser, the Thunderbird had to define itself in the ‘70s and ‘80s as more of a mid-sized, mid-priced luxo-coupe. In the mid-‘80s, it hit upon a...

High-performance may as well have been a four-letter word for much of the 1970s, but the Ford faithful were soon rewarded for their patience by 1982 with the mid-season arrival of the new Mustang GT. Ford...

The highly workmanlike full-sized (SJ-Series) Jeep Wagoneer first came to market for model year 1963, long before Jeep was a Chrysler owned brand. It evolved into the generally more comfortable and luxurious...

Shown as a concept vehicle at the 1987 Frankfurt Motor Show, the BMW Z1 drew such viewer acclaim, that buyers pressed for a production model. BMW duly and quickly complied, with the Z1 first available for sale in...

Known as the E23 by BMW, it was an instant classic when it was introduced, and it was one of the firm’s most aggressive steps into the realm of high-luxe motoring for the era. It was aimed to compete with the...

The R107 Mercedes-Benz has been popular since it debuted in 1972. It’s been the aspirational automobile for many, and the car in which to be seen by the well-monied set. When they were new, it was the car that...

Competing against Ford’s successful Fox-based Mustang police cars, Chevrolet unleashed the elite B4C Special Equipment Option police package in 1991 with the 3rd-Generation Camaro RS. Continued with the new 1993...

Introduced as a wildly popular concept vehicle at the 1993 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Prowler was a radical departure for Chrysler Corporation. Its modernized hot-rod styling –...

Introduced in 1991 as Volkswagen’s entry into America’s mid-size automobile market, the Passat was an increasingly successful model, especially as the Deutschmark eased in value relative to the US dollar through...

Porsche introduced the 944 in 1982 to resolve all the complaints the 924 brought about, and oddly resolved the complaints, but somehow served to improve the image and popularity of the 924 in the process. Weird....

When the fourth gen C4 Corvette came to market in 1994, it was America’s sports car’s first major overhaul since 1968. Besides more contemporary styling, the C4’s primary calling card was handling; it was the...

First offered for 1976, Honda’s Accord provided a slightly larger and more upscale companion to the company’s wildly successful Civic. The restyled second-generation Accords of 1982-‘85 offered more of everything...

Unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1989, Ferrari’s 348 was a marked departure from its 308/328 predecessors and all Ferrari road cars before it. With the 348, Ferrari’s traditional tubular chassis...

Having built pickup-style trucks since the Type 13 of 1934, Nissan entered the American light-duty truck market with its 521 model in 1968. Steadily updated and improved in keeping with American tastes and needs,...

Based on GM’s attractively styled “G-Body” Monte Carlo, Chevrolet’s Monte Carlo SS was one of the most-recognizable American performance cars of the ‘80s. Designed and built to qualify the Monte Carlo body for...

Launched for 1993, Mazda’s 3rd-Generation RX-7 was completely redesigned and re-engineered with a function over form approach, resulting in a car that was at once lighter, nimbler, and faster than its respected...

Introduced in 1984, the 4Runner was an instant hit. It’s compact size, durable nature, and go-anywhere abilities made it popular with everyone, from commuters looking to enjoy a higher seating position, to...

Introduced in 1994, the E36 3-Series BMW Hatchback was the company’s first 3-door offering since the 2002 Touring ceased production in 1974. Reasonably popular in Europe, it floundered in the American market,...

The Porsche 993 911 represents the end of an era, the last of the air-cooled 911s, and in 1999, the 996 911 would debut with an entirely new, water-cooled flat 6-cylinder engine that would mark a new era for the...

Ever since Japan’s Nissan and its Datsun lines started taking North American auto markets by storm in the late 1960s, the Japanese industrial giant made motorsports an integral part of its marketing and brand...

Volkswagen introduced the Rabbit as a replacement for the Beetle, and it was a much more modern take on an economy car that came in a few flavors, ranging from five doors to three, various modern options like...

Built in honor of Dale "The Intimidator" Earnhardt, one of NASCAR's winningest and most popular drivers of all time, Chevrolet's 2002 Monte Carlo SS Dale Earnhardt Signature Edition was produced in association...

Since its inception, Ford’s Thunderbird was an American luxury touring coupe that provided an enjoyable cruising experience and the potential for something more if you hustled it. In 1989, the recently redesigned...

Since coming to market internationally in 1978 as a six-cylinder engined extension of the Celica lineup, Toyota has continually evolved and upgraded the Supra’s standing into that of legitimate, grand touring...

1992 was the 25th anniversary for the Camaro and it marked an end for not only the 3rd generation body style, but also for production at the Van Nuys, California plant. To celebrate the quarter century birthdate...

The Delorean Motor Company, and its only product, the DMC-12 gullwinged gran turismo coupe, represented a unique point in time along the trail of automotive history. It was the singular vision of former General...

The Defender is without doubt the modern signature product from Land Rover. Production dates back to 1983 with the Land Rover 110, named for its wheelbase length in inches, soon followed by the Land Rover 90,...

Succeeding the X40 saloons (sedans), Jaguar’s X300 line debuted at the 1994 Paris Motor Show and provided a welcome return to more classical bodylines with a sleek, modern twist on the curvaceous XJs of the past....

The Ford Bronco has long been a popular personal off-road vehicle and they continue to go up in value with their popularity on the rise. Examples from the 1980s through their end in ‘96 seem to be of particular...

The Jeep Grand Cherokee has long served as one of the most popular SUVs on the planet, but once in a while, Jeep takes it upon itself to build something a little out of the ordinary, something on the special...

When it was introduced in 1997, the new Porsche 911, code named 996, rocked the Porsche community. It didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome, and it’s revised styling inside and out caused near panic with Porsche...

At the turn of the 1990s, Chevrolet and Ford continued duking it out for fleet sales dominance in the police market. Countering Chevrolet’s Caprice-based 9C1 police package was Ford’s popular Police Interceptor,...

The ready market for retro-style automobiles was hot in the ‘90s and early 2000s, including the VW Beetle, Ford Thunderbird, and new-for-2005 Ford Mustang. A number of aftermarket experts answered the call for...

Remembering the days when these were new, one word comes to mind: unapologetic. The Maserati Quattroporte was the zenith of the ultraluxe automobile market – especially in the ‘80s. Hand-built, it features an...

Introduced for 1975, the B-Body Cordoba was Chrysler’s smallest model up to that time, and it gave the marque a personal luxury car that took the North American automobile market by storm. Sales were strong...

This 1988 Grand Prix SE, the third car off the production line, was pulled by GM to create a pace car for the 1988 Daytona 500. GM engineers fitted it with a more powerful, specially modified 3.1L fuel injected...

The F-Series pickups are some of the most popular trucks ever made, as Ford has worked diligently for decades at improving the brand and giving customers reason to return or give Ford a try for the first time....

Ferrari was retooling its entire production road car model line during the 1990s, and the new, nearly from scratch 456GT was its gran turismo, front engine, V12 flagship, replacing the old 400 and 412 2+2 series...

The 964 generation of 911s, introduced in 1989, was highly revised where it counted most – underneath the mildly updated styling. Although the Turbo’s rear-engine layout and traditional design formula remained...

The E30 from BMW is a beloved creature in the automotive space. Prices are thus deservedly high and seem to have no glass ceiling. One of the wonderful aspects of these sport compacts is the diversity of flavors,...

Everyone loves a winner, and the Lancia Delta won the World Rally Championship for manufacturers six times between 1987 and 1992, a stunning record that made the world sit up and take notice. In fact, Italy...

Known internally as the R107, this body style was introduced by Mercedes-Benz for the 1972 model year. It was an immediate hit and sustained production through 1989, the 560SL serving as the final variant. By the...

Following the startling racing success of Nissan’s original Skyline GT-R of 1969-1973, buyers, racers, and enthusiasts were forced to wait 16 years for its eventual successor, the R32-generation GT-R. Utterly...

A product of the wizard-like engineers at Ford’s SVT division, the 2000 Ford F-150 Lightning was the world’s fastest production pickup truck at launch. Underneath the aggressively adorned SVT Lightning’s body...

While Chevrolet’s sophisticated ‘C4’ Corvette rivalled and even bested the finest sports cars Europe could offer, further development work by Dave McLellan’s Corvette engineers under the “King of the Hill”...

The 4th Generation Camaros took the brand to a whole new level. Their chassis and bodies were completely redesigned and reengineered to accommodate a variety of driving styles, but focused very heavily on...

In 1995, Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) performance arm joint-ventured with the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving to build a special run of these race-prepped Mustangs, specifically developed and...

Running a close second to the Pontiac Aztek in the amount of shade thrown its way, the Isuzu VehiCROSS is one unique party animal. It’s also proof that almost anything can come back around and hope for a second...

The E38 7-Series BMW of 1994-2001 broke away from many traditional BMW design motifs and brought the company into the new era while enhancing their reputation for developing cutting-edge vehicles. It was the...

The 2003 SL55 AMG is an absolutist’s motoring dream – it’s an absolutely unforgiving performance car, and an absolutely astonishing luxury car. Not to say that it has Jekyll and Hyde syndrome, but it’s something...

The Mustang Mach 1 was first introduced in 1969, left the lineup in 1979, only to be reprised for 2003/04 – and now again for 2021. This ‘03/04 variant is much more than badges and stripes, instead being a...

Japanese sports and performance cars are finally getting their due recognition from the collector car community. This model is the second generation of the “Diamond Star” twins, which was a joint venture between...

Introduced in 1989, the midsize Legacy continues as Subaru’s flagship model line and remains unique in its class with the all-weather traction afforded by standard all-wheel drive and its maker’s renowned ‘Boxer’...

America’s only small, front-wheel drive pickup of the 1980s, the Dodge Rampage was a great-looking vehicle based on the Dodge Omni-based Charger. Powered by Chrysler’s excellent 2.2L 4-cylinder engine and...

The TT’s muscular Bauhaus design themes were deemed unique and bold when introduced and remain so today, while the model gave Audi a sports car at a time when it had none. Available in convertible and 2+2 coupe...

Following the early-1970s demise of high-performance engines, Police departments still benefited from the continued availability of heavy-duty law enforcement option packages, but officers were usually outgunned...

Certain vehicles are the ultimate expression of the companies that made them, where passion and performance coalesce into a form that couldn’t have been fashioned by any other manufacturer. Hailing from an era...

GM’s awesome fourth generation Camaros and Firebirds were nearing the end of their run in 2001 and only a deal between the company and its unions kept production going for one last year in 2002 at Ste. Therese,...

The Humvee became an American icon in Operation Desert Storm, when it proved its salt as one of the most versatile, robust, nearly indestructible vehicles ever designed and built. Through the decades, multiple...

While long in the shadow of the 1984-1989 Carrera 3.2, the 911SC marked the non-Turbo peak for the line from 1978 to 1983. Powered by an enlarged 3.0L flat-six fortified with 930 Turbo technologies inside, the...

Penned by Bruno Sacco’s legendary design team, the Mercedes-Benz 190E debuted for 1985 as a somewhat smaller sedan rivalling BMW’s popular 3-Series. Predictably, the two marques would duke it out in the new DTM...

As America gravitated further to pickup trucks and SUVs, Ford Motor Company continued to redesign, refine, and reinvent its successful “F” Series through the 1990s, offering more of everything buyers could...

We’ve always been seduced by the FD RX-7’s gorgeous rounded bodywork, which was arguably one of the most attractive automobile designs of the decade. But what’s under the hood is what really get us revved up (to...

Citroens are the consummate flag wavers of uniqueness. It’s hard to think of another large automobile manufacturer with as many “quirks per model” (QPM). As a successor to the suave DS, there were high...

It’s hard not to love an F-Series pickup truck, especially one that’s never been modified or monkeyed with. They’re arguably the gold standard in light-duty, full-size pickup manufacturing for many reasons, and...

For 1998, Porsche did a bold thing by moving away from the famed and fabled air-cooled engine design to a water-cooled unit with the new 996 911. It sent shockwaves through the community and made the final air...

Based on Buick’s “G-Body” intermediate platform, the new Regal was an ideal platform for Buick’s first series-produced Turbo V6 engine and its chiseled lines were perfect for NASCAR speedways, confirmed by...

Produced along five generations from 1986 through 2018 with a sixth planned for 2021, BMW’s brilliant M3 is the company’s legendary road model purpose-built for racing homologation. Victorious in German DTM,...

We are now in comfortable B-side territory regarding to the ‘80s automobile popularity contest. Volkswagen’s second generation Scirocco wasn’t exactly a smash hit, sales wise, and so many have been lost to the...

First used for a glamorous Fairlane variant introduced for 1955-1956, the Crown Victoria was the name given to Ford designers’ interpretation of the “Victoria Carriage” body style. In 1980, after a 23-year...

Thanks to the all-out DTM (German Touring Car) racing series, car fanatics worldwide have enjoyed a succession of amazing road cars with stunning performance and pure sophistication. Consequently, while Audi,...

The Isuzu Amigo was part of a throng of small SUVs that swarmed dealer showrooms from the late '80s through the early part of the 2000s, like the Toyota RAV4, Geo Tracker, Land Rover Freelander, Isuzu VehiCROSS,...

By the 1990s, the Acura Integra had become known as one of the best small performance vehicles on the planet. Its handling was second to none for a front wheel driver, with an easy to shift, short-throw manual...

Who knows how many Escorts were built between 1980 and 2003, but a more interesting question might be – where did they all go? This is one of those interesting cases of a car that was built seemingly in...

80’s nostalgia is hot right now. Super customizable and capable off road trucks and suvs are maybe more so. Those trends converge at this unlikely place, an extremely clean example of a divisive little devil, the...

Conversion vans hold a special place in automotive history, providing a window into the lackadaisical wanderlust filled era of the ‘70s. Most of the time, the exterior will hint at what lies beneath all the...

Introduced at Germany’s legendary Nürburgring circuit in 1996, Ferrari’s new Pininfarina-designed 550 Maranello replaced the Testarossa-based F512 M and heralded a long-awaited return to the front-engine V-12...

The pride of Toyota’s Tahara plant located in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, the Celica Liftback-based GT-Four was the company’s World Rally Championship standard bearer from 1986 to 1999. Equipped with potent...

The 928 was Porsche’s first front engine, V8 powered production sports / GT car. Even though it offers supercar performance, it all comes wrapped in a comfortable, high quality cabin, and offers a gran...

Mazda blew the lid off the RX-7 by reenforcing the rockers, transmission tunnel and windshield pillars, as well as installing braces between the rear strut towers and behind the engine. The exercise achieved a...

An upscale modern icon that has become the equivalent of the rich “woodies” of the 1930s and ‘40s, the Mercedes-Benz “Gelandewagen” or “cross-country vehicle” began as a military transporter with roots dating to...

It was a crowded house when Toyota introduced the MR2 – the market was flooded with the likes of the Honda CR-X, Pontiac Fiero, and Ford EXP, not to mention the aging Fiat X1/9, which was being marketed in the...

Nissan’s halo car, the Skyline GT-R, needs no introduction. It should also come as no surprise that the company that coined the acronym “4DSC” (4 Door Sports Car) in the ‘80s would later offer a monster of this...

We’ve always loved rally-inspired street-cars like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Subaru WRX, and likewise deeply appreciate great hot hatches like the VW R32 or JCW Mini, so when we came across this rare Lancia –...

Following the startling racing success of Nissan’s original Skyline GT-R of 1969-1973, its eventual successor, the R32-generation GT-R proved utterly dominant and earned the fierce nickname “Godzilla” by the...

First available in 1970 as a sleek, sporty model with a Grand Touring character, Toyota’s Celica continued along seven generations through 2006, with its name derived from the Latin for “heavenly” or “celestial.”...

The E30 chassis BMW 3-series are universally regarded as a knockout hit in the Munich manufacturer’s pantheon. Expanding on the reputation established by the earlier model 2002, the eternally tasty recipe of...

Introduced in 1984 as a performance alternative to the likes of the Mazda RX7, Toyota Supra, and Nissan 300ZX, the Mitsubishi Starion brought about a sort of Robotech styling with the chiseled angles and creased...

Debuting as a concept vehicle at the Tokyo International Auto Show in 1993, the production Isuzu VehiCROSS made it to American shores in 1999 and, as indicated by its “Hi, I’m-a-concept-car-from-the-90s” styling,...

What was once a run-of-the-mill Japanese sports coupe, the Nissan 240SX (“aka” S13 Sylvia) has become arguably the most iconic drifting platform ever produced. The 90’s era vehicle finds itself at a critical...

Mitsubishi Delica’s have long been appreciated by the van-life set, offering a wonderful blend of period styling, utility and more-or-less modern day drivability with totally suitable weekend off-roadability. As...

As America gravitated further towards pickup trucks and SUVs, Ford Motor Company continued to redesign, refine, and reinvent its successful “F” Series through the 1990s with more of everything buyers demanded. In...

Despite a nearly 20-year production run, the Innocenti Mini “city car” introduced in 1974 became all but forgotten just about as soon as production ceased in 1993, and considering its typically underwhelming “get...

Divisive designs are always a win in the long run. Two decades have passed since the car affectionately called the “clown shoe” and its shooting brake design offered up a practical alternative to the classic...

While Porsche may be best known for its long running, multi-generational 911 series, the Boxster – launched for 1997 – echoed the spirit of another Stuttgart icon, the 550 Spyder of the mid-1950s. In many ways...

Built on the mud-caked, dust-covered, 35 year legacy of the go anywhere, do anything Land Rover Series trucks, what we all now know as the Defender was internationally sold starting in 1984 as the Land Rover...

Debuted for 1981, Isuzu’s Trooper long predated the sport-utility vehicle craze that really only started gathering steam in North America during the ‘90s. Powered by a 2.0L 4-cylinder engine styled suspiciously...

When it comes to strange vehicles, Jeep has a lengthy history of producing many products that could be described as such. But a Cherokee built for the Japanese market, complete with right-hand drive, is really...

Launched for 1980, GM’s new ‘X-Car’ compact model lineup brought The General into the new decade and proved the giant carmaker could almost reinvent itself while adapting to fast changing market demands....