Forgotten Cool Cars of the 90s

I bought a red one just like that brand new in 1992. It was a great car with very good performance (especially for a 4 banger). Red line was 7500 RPM, and my poor car lived there.

Here's another one probably nobody remembers but it was the car that got Subaru into the forefront of Rally Racing the Legacy Turbo Sedan, the Impreza came out only a couple years later so it wasn't in the game for long.

That's still cool that those turtle guys were involved with so many different types of racing! I never knew they sponsored an IMSA Firehawk race car too.

Honda crx Si...

mine lived for 21,000 miles on the race track.. we drove it to the races ...when we trailered the neon.

Ahh there you go NEON ACR cars... LOL we made 32k with one...

My buddy had a G60 Corrado which had the supercharged four. Still one of my favourite cars I've ever driven. Another buddy had the SC Thunderbird. That was also a hoot.

When I first started with H-D I worked at their Florida proving grounds, FEC. The place used to be run by Ford and H-D leased to them during the winters. I had a 1989 SHO at the time.

One day I was sitting in the break room and a Ford guy came and sat next to me. He asked if the SHO in the lot was mine, then he proceeded to give me the whole history of the thing. He was the lead engineer on a project called GN34 that Roush was developing for Ford. It was basically a Ford Fiero. When Fiero sales began to tank, Ford pulled the plug. The problem was they'd already committed to buy the engines from Yamaha. He said they tried that engine in everything, Mustangs, Aerostars, Rangers, Merkurs, etc. The Taurus was tried because it was a huge seller for Ford and building a small run wouldn't hit the bottom line too bad. Then Nissan started pushing their 4DSC (4 door sports car) idea witht he Maxima and Ford marketing pushed for the Taurus.

At the time my car had 120K miles and the valve lash on the SHO engines needed to be adjusted every 60K. Ford had stopped selling the shims. He dug through his notes and found the Yamaha part number (from an FJ1200). The Yamaha dealer had them in stock.



GN34



A 90s favorite for me:

MR2 Turbo

What is left of our cool nineties car. It was a 1991 Dodge Spirit R/T, DOHC, turbo, intercooled, five speed, LSD, ABS and heavy duty suspension. One of 1399 built, it only had 80,000 miles and not a single door ding. Unfortunately it was not up to a Camry making a left turn(Blind, across three lanes of oncoming traffic). My wife was driving, she broke her ankle and the steering column even tho the air bag went off. We want to rebuild it, with a donor Spirit.

I am a RWD fan so my nominations would have to go into that camp

Lincoln Continental Mark 8


Last of the RWD Volvos...The V90. Either with the turbo 4 or an LS1 swap

That was my buddy's sleeper. It was pretty damn impressive for a daily driver. His baby, though...was the 3rd gen RX7...

You've got your work cut out for you! That's got a lot of structural damage.

I will just pull the powertrain, electronics, and suspension and put it in a straight base Spirit(We also have a line on two other R/Ts with issues)

I picked up the 2wd version of this for $300, drove it for a few years, and when it started dying at stop lights, I sold if for $600.




1993 Chevrolet.. S10.. Tahoe.. Blazer. I think they threw every name on it that they could. I really liked it.

Always wanted one of those...with the VR6 of course !
Never have driven one but I can imagine they were fun !

Sigh. Memories. I had a red 1991 for 10+ years. What a great little car. Even got to drive it on the Pocono NASCAR track during a club day. Juan Mangio III was giving folks rides that day. Good times. Then I bought a motorcycle...

I ebay'd it to a guy who was buying it for his son. One year of insurance was going to cost the same as the selling price. Guess the actuaries had the kid pegged at a 100% chance of balling it up.

Interesting side note: my daily driver at the time was an SHO. But it was the dopey V8 version. Hell of a motor though.

Pontiac Grand Prix GTP.

Supercharged 3.8, heads up display, Clean interior, heated seats, Bose Audio system and buy them used for 30 cents on the dollar.

1992 Audi S4, miss mine. Also had a 1990 Eclipse GSX that was totally abused.

1991 BMW 318is - I really should have bought the E-30 318 is I test drove as the newer body style 1992 cars were hitting the dealerships. That little 4 cylinder twin cam motor in the BMW was great fun. I had one of the later 318i hatchbacks but the E-30 cars were lighter. I could have bought the 1991 E-30 for $12,500 new.

Beat me to it, the SE-R was my first thought when I read the thread title.

2.0L, 140hp, 130ish ftlbs of torque, low curb weight (~2400lbs) and good suspension = Awesome compact car.

I had a 92' SE-R, super fun to drive, and handled pretty well. Mine developed a rod knock after 150k...and finally threw said rod through the front of the engine....still miss that car. I have occasionally looked for another one, but they are all gone now, at least in stock form.

Sport Compact Car built one that was a pretty mean little beast IIRC.

My neighbor has a white one.

When BMW recently announced they were sending the 1-series over here, I really wanted them to send a 4cyl gas or diesel hatch. Instead we got the turbo 6 coupe.