Back when manufacturers SOLD decent cars- 1989 BFTB

KresSlyda180 · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:34 pm

[MOD EDIT]: rest of scans can be found at http://www.stangbangers.com/89_LX5-0_vs_Competition.htm

KresSlyda180 · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:38 pm

The year is 1989, and we had all sorts of all wheel drive and rear wheel drive goodness, flip up headlights, along with turbos galore. Manufacturers were into making fun cars and not so much into the SUV craze as today. Even Toyota, had 3 offerings back then, compared to zilch today. The manufacturers could of learned something from 20 years ago.

All in all, I think the Z32 should have been the twin turbo version and not the NA, it woulda been a fairer competition to us Nissan/Datsun guys.

ENJOY

82maxtx · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:51 pm

holy crap I totally agree 1000000% nowadays, these magazines are doing spreads on the typical camaro, challenger and mustang *YAWN* ok, so maybe the 370z, but still, BORING. what a difference 20 years makes! great post / share :tu:

RoadsterViking · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:25 am

Those were indeed the days!

KresSlyda180 · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:16 am

The embarassing part is the Olds Quad 4 beat the Mitsu Starion in 0-60 :shock:

kev · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:34 am

Wow...think of how things have changed.

- Pontiac, Olds, and Plymouth no longer exist
- Toyota no longer builds a sports car
- Mitsubishi no longer builds rwd coupes
- Rx7 is no more
- Celica is no more
- Supra is no more
- Ford no longer makes a FWD coupe (I think...)

The only constants are that the Zed and Camaro (both only after a long hiatus), Stang and Vette are still around.

baron von chickenpants · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:42 am

I grad-gee-ated hi skewl in '88 and gotta tell ya that most of us teenagers were rather unimpressed by the new cars produced within the remaining years of the Reagan era.

I'm sure part of that was because I grew up in a rural area where most of us kids were driving late 1960s or early 1970s stuff, much of which was powered by monster V8s.

Case in point: my best friend Allen's 430 cubic inch powered 1968 Buick Riviera circa 1987:

this was my sister's $350 daily driven (from 1983 until the early 1990s) 455 engined 1971 Firebird Espirit:

Also, here in pick-up truck country 429s from Torinos, 396s from Chevelles and 440s from Chargers had been pirated from passenger cars and bolted up into trucks since the start of the muscle car days. Even when it appeared that 1960s performance cars had all but disappeared from the road high school kids knew that the hearts of the beasts lived on under the hoods of 1/2 tons that hauled @$$ on Friday night and hauled hay Saturday morning. In the 1980s if a kid popped the hood on his 1967 Chevy C10 1/2 ton and there was anything smaller than a 327 it was rather embarrassing.

A high school friend named Shane was running a pug fugly '59 Ford 1/2 ton short/step that had left the factory with a six cylinder and three-on-the-tree. He had removed the six and dropped in a 302 and C4 from a '69 Cougar but left the stock rear end. Nothing could beat him from a dead stop but at 60mph that little V8 was wrapped up tighter than a snare drum!

I believe part of the reason that new car makers were hyping performance at the time was because 1960s and 1970s muscle cars were being yanked out of cow pastures and barns and being given high dollar restorations.

Up to the early 1980s here in Oklahoma it really wasn't uncommon to see a running 1970 GTO being sold for $1200 or a running 1969 Camaro with a six cylinder and three-on-the-tree for a grand.

By the mid-1980s however muscle cars were capturing the average car enthusiast's and the general public's attention as rat rods are today. They were just super hot.

Car makers in the late 1980s were not pushing performance solely for own sake but as a response to the public's renewed love affair with vintage street warriors - at least partially.

KresSlyda180 · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 9:32 am

kev wrote:

Wow...think of how things have changed.

- Pontiac, Olds, and Plymouth no longer exist
- Toyota no longer builds a sports car
- Mitsubishi no longer builds rwd coupes
- Rx7 is no more
- Celica is no more
- Supra is no more
- Ford no longer makes a FWD coupe (I think...)

The only constants are that the Zed and Camaro (both only after a long hiatus), Stang and Vette are still around.

You forgot the MR2 is no more :wink:

F3ared · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:20 pm

Quote:

holy crap I totally agree 1000000% nowadays, these magazines are doing spreads on the typical camaro, challenger and mustang *YAWN* ok, so maybe the 370z, but still, BORING. what a difference 20 years makes! great post / share

Gee you lot are hard to please - youd think people would be happy there are still SOME RWD's around.

Disapointing really - instead of supporting those brave enough to still make SOMETHING to cater to the performance market, regardless of how expensive it is [i appreciate not everyone can afford a new 'vette, CTS-V etc], everyones bashing them for doing it. Id hate to see said cars extinct.

Down in Oz the mere-mortal is pretty much limited to the Commodore [G8 to you guys] SS, Falcon XR6 Turbo or XR8. Other then that you need big bucks [M3, IS-F, C63 AMG] or a fair bit of disposable income for things like an RX8, 370Z, MX5 etc. Otherwise, thats it - theres nothing left.

Toyotas been out of the game for a long time. More and more "peformance" cars are FWD now - i dont care what anyone says, FWD's WILL NEVER be preferable to RWD's, regardless of how good they are. If Ford US have their way, our RWD Falcon will be dead. If GM decides to tamper with Holden [to this point, thank god they havent], the Commodore will be dead too. Which leaves what, BMW and Mazda to fly the rwd flag. And thats it.

What disapoints me, and yes im thinking aloud, is the American industrys thinking. I dont know much about CAFE standards and shit, but from what ive been reading from most press releases etc its ohhhh too hard to get a RWD to be economical so well switch to front wheel drive. And there in lies the problem with American cars - no outside the square thinking.

If BMW can keep to CAFE standards with an ALL RWD line up, why cant the others?

TSiSS350 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:30 am

kev wrote:

- Ford no longer makes a FWD coupe (I think...)

They do still make one. And it is lightyears better than the Prob could have ever dreamed of being.

Focus Coupe, and it actually cost less than the '89 Probe!!! Exactly the reason Ford is the number one u.s. automaker right now!

KresSlyda180 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 22, 2009 10:23 am

TSiSS350 wrote:

kev wrote:

- Ford no longer makes a FWD coupe (I think...)

They do still make one. And it is lightyears better than the Prob could have ever dreamed of being.

Focus Coupe, and it actually cost less than the '89 Probe!!! Exactly the reason Ford is the number one u.s. automaker right now!

I'd still take the styling of the Probe over the Focus any day..... gotta love flip up headlights :mrgreen:

1st gen Probe GT
<img src="http://www.bestperformancecar.com/includes/images/Ford_Probe/1989_Ford_Probe.jpeg">

82maxtx · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:11 am

F3ARED wrote:

Quote:

holy crap I totally agree 1000000% nowadays, these magazines are doing spreads on the typical camaro, challenger and mustang *YAWN* ok, so maybe the 370z, but still, BORING. what a difference 20 years makes! great post / share

Gee you lot are hard to please - youd think people would be happy there are still SOME RWD's around.

Disapointing really - instead of supporting those brave enough to still make SOMETHING to cater to the performance market, regardless of how expensive it is [i appreciate not everyone can afford a new 'vette, CTS-V etc], everyones bashing them for doing it. Id hate to see said cars extinct.

Down in Oz the mere-mortal is pretty much limited to the Commodore [G8 to you guys] SS, Falcon XR6 Turbo or XR8. Other then that you need big bucks [M3, IS-F, C63 AMG] or a fair bit of disposable income for things like an RX8, 370Z, MX5 etc. Otherwise, thats it - theres nothing left.

Toyotas been out of the game for a long time. More and more "peformance" cars are FWD now - i dont care what anyone says, FWD's WILL NEVER be preferable to RWD's, regardless of how good they are. If Ford US have their way, our RWD Falcon will be dead. If GM decides to tamper with Holden [to this point, thank god they havent], the Commodore will be dead too. Which leaves what, BMW and Mazda to fly the rwd flag. And thats it.

What disapoints me, and yes im thinking aloud, is the American industrys thinking. I dont know much about CAFE standards and shit, but from what ive been reading from most press releases etc its ohhhh too hard to get a RWD to be economical so well switch to front wheel drive. And there in lies the problem with American cars - no outside the square thinking.

If BMW can keep to CAFE standards with an ALL RWD line up, why cant the others?

I get what you're saying, but something I don't think that you understand is, 99% of the people that buy those cars here are either:
A: don't drive it for it's intended purpose
B: straight up douche-bags

so I'm a little biased by saying the newer american rwd / sports cars are boring or un-intresting because they immediately got put into the d-bag status when they came out. I think cars were just alot cooler back then, and I like that fact that there was more diversity in the magazines choices of cars to feature back then.

KresSlyda180 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:40 am

82maxtx wrote:

F3ARED wrote:

Quote:

holy crap I totally agree 1000000% nowadays, these magazines are doing spreads on the typical camaro, challenger and mustang *YAWN* ok, so maybe the 370z, but still, BORING. what a difference 20 years makes! great post / share

Gee you lot are hard to please - youd think people would be happy there are still SOME RWD's around.

Disapointing really - instead of supporting those brave enough to still make SOMETHING to cater to the performance market, regardless of how expensive it is [i appreciate not everyone can afford a new 'vette, CTS-V etc], everyones bashing them for doing it. Id hate to see said cars extinct.

Down in Oz the mere-mortal is pretty much limited to the Commodore [G8 to you guys] SS, Falcon XR6 Turbo or XR8. Other then that you need big bucks [M3, IS-F, C63 AMG] or a fair bit of disposable income for things like an RX8, 370Z, MX5 etc. Otherwise, thats it - theres nothing left.

Toyotas been out of the game for a long time. More and more "peformance" cars are FWD now - i dont care what anyone says, FWD's WILL NEVER be preferable to RWD's, regardless of how good they are. If Ford US have their way, our RWD Falcon will be dead. If GM decides to tamper with Holden [to this point, thank god they havent], the Commodore will be dead too. Which leaves what, BMW and Mazda to fly the rwd flag. And thats it.

What disapoints me, and yes im thinking aloud, is the American industrys thinking. I dont know much about CAFE standards and shit, but from what ive been reading from most press releases etc its ohhhh too hard to get a RWD to be economical so well switch to front wheel drive. And there in lies the problem with American cars - no outside the square thinking.

If BMW can keep to CAFE standards with an ALL RWD line up, why cant the others?

I get what you're saying, but something I don't think that you understand is, 99% of the people that buy those cars here are either:
A: don't drive it for it's intended purpose
B: straight up douche-bags

so I'm a little biased by saying the newer american rwd / sports cars are boring or un-intresting because they immediately got put into the d-bag status when they came out. I think cars were just alot cooler back then, and I like that fact that there was more diversity in the magazines choices of cars to feature back then.

Amen. I agree, it seems like ALL the manufacturers were in the game, not just a handful.

F3ared · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:37 pm

I can agree with that comment - we have a similar thing going on here with Commodore/Falcon owners [apparently their bogans], Nissan owners who think the SR20 is the best engine ever made [its not] then youve got the people that own Euro's who think there cars are greater then anything else [problem is particularly with BMW and VW Golf GTI/R32 owners. No your car is not better then a 6L V8 commodore, and you will still get slapped even through the twistys if the Commo driver knows what their doing]

Basically, the point is judge a car on how it drives/its strong points, and not the crowd it seems to attract. Id happily take a mustang, mullet/redneck image and all. Because it actually looks good, is RWD, and is a V8. Sure, the live axle is crude and ancient [still dont understand why Ford US doesnt use our Oz Falcon platform], but basically its a dieing breed.

Enjoy it while you can.

lilalleykatt · **Posted:** Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:08 pm

Diesel will prolly be a nice alternative. I just bought a 335d BMW w 428 ft lbs of torque. I have ran a 13.9 sec quarter mile @ 99 mph. I easily get 40 mpg @ 75 mph. Efficient performance with low emmissions will become the norm in the near future. Doom and gloom will not happen when there is so much money to be made selling performance.

Back when manufacturers SOLD decent cars- 1989 BFTB

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