Which Car Was the 1980's Widowmaker?

[Alfanatic]

Some of you are really beating the definition of supercar over the head with a big stick. There weren't that many supercars around in the '80s, particularly ones produced in enough numbers to actually get a reputation for anything, so this really shouldn't be so hard to narrow down, I'd have thought? So out of these, which one had the strongest reputation for wanting to kill its driver?

'80s supercars:
Countach
512BB
Testarossa
288GTO
F40
-->911 Turbo<--
928
959

Stretching the supercar label somewhat:
Pantera
Jalpa
Turbo Esprit
308
328
348 (hmmm here's another contender)
NSX
Corvette

[Fire99]

Surely a Pantera would be in Supercar territory? Even in '71 when they were launched, they had 330bhp, rising over the years.

The rest I agree with.

[Alfanatic]

Fire99 said:

Surely a Pantera would be in Supercar territory? Even in '71 when they were launched, they had 330bhp, rising over the years.

The rest I agree with.

Probably, I always saw it in the junior supercar market, competing with the 328 and Jalpa, but I'm not fussed about whether it's seen as bona fide or division 2 so to speak. I did consider that point for a while before posting, as I also did with the Corvette ZR1. I solved the ZR1 problem by ignoring it

[driverrob]

GravelBen said:

Was it the Spitfire that has an interesting rear suspension setup - maybe something like going to extreme toe-out in compression?

Thought I remembered something along those line but I could just be talking out my ass.

It was a camber problem:

Common to the Herald and GT6 also at that time.

[Mr2Mike]

driverrob said:

It was a camber problem:

More exactly it was a jacking and "tuck under" problem caused by the swing axle suspension.

[LotusOmega375D]

Young Ned said:

Brilad said:

Although lots of supercars have been mentioned as potential widowmakers the car that comes to mind first for this title is the original Renault 5 Turbo.

I have not driven one, but I have heard it mentioned that the characteristics of the turbo meant that it had a tendency to suddenly give a wodge of power half way around 2nd gear corners.

Needless to say this not necessarily a good thing.

Now this is all hearsay, anyone who knows better please correct me!!

Again not sure If I am totally correct, but the Renault 5 Turbo's reputation came from the first generation. This was I beleive due to the fact the turbochargers impellor was after the carb rather than before, causing the engine to run on when rolling off throttle and also other side effects which suprised a few people!

Nonsense. Both Renault 5 Turbo 1 and Turbo 2 were mechanically almost identical. Neither had a carburettor, since both were fed (greedily) by Bosch K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection. That said mine was the only car I have so far spun (a full 360°) in 25 years of driving!

[Strawman]

First Renault 5 turbo was mid-engine and short wheelbase? Second generation was front engine and a more road friendly state of tune.

[Leins]

From my memory, the widowmakers have been the 50s 300SL, 70s 930 Turbo, 90s 993 GT2 and 00s 996 GT2. I don't remember the term being used as much in the 80s motoring press, but I would have thought the F40 was probably closest to taking the mantle from the 911. Didn't Delacour nearly wipe himself out in a yellow one up in the Monaco hills?

Edited by Leins on Friday 27th July 11:26

[LotusOmega375D]

Strawman said:

First Renault 5 turbo was mid-engine and short wheelbase? Second generation was front engine and a more road friendly state of tune.

Nope: the wheelbases of the regular front-engined FWD R5 and the mid-engined RWD Turbo 1 & 2 were as near-as-dammit identical. Where Renault did perhaps make a mistake was in making the rear track of the Turbo 1/2 much wider than the front. Apparently this created an inherent twitchiness, which Renault only ironed out with the wider front track of the twenty Maxi 5 evolution rally cars towards the end of the car's production life.

The carburettor-fed front engined FWD R5 Turbos (in Gordini, GT Turbo Phase 1 and 2 guise) were no widowmakers.