RE: Turbocharged '80s legends | Six of the Best

[pheonix478]

RSstuff said:

I reckon the secret to making progress in a laggy 80's turbo car compared to a modern version, is you need to be a gear or 2 lower when you floor the loud pedal.

Pretty much! Wring it's neck. They love it.

[Murci.sv]

marine boy said:

I do love 80's turbos, 1st super car ride was in a F40, found the experience much more violent in an impressive way than my 2nd super car ride in a McLaren F1

Own a 1989 Porsche 930 which is proper hard to drive fast, smoothly but very rewarding on the few occasions I'm brave enough to try

2-car dream garage would be a F40 and SWB Quattro, I'd add my 930 to make it up to a 3-car dream garage

Like this comment, the legend of the old turbos lies in the way they feel brutally fast. the example is clear here: the mclaren f1 leaves nothing to the f40 in terms of performance. the torque and power are also higher. yet the f40 feels faster. (this is not the case) many old "on boost" turbos feel faster than V8s with 100hp more. It is this characteristic which contributed to the myth.

[Murci.sv]

otolith said:

biggbn said:

Yup, people criticise turbo lag like its a BAD thing? As an old Saab aficionado, little prepared you for your first nothing, nothing, nothing WALLOP of boost in a T16S or the like. The experience always matched the anticipation and these old cars FELT crudely fast.

Matter of taste. I always felt driving a laggy car was like using a computer with mouse lag - just a bit irritating. The worst turbo car I drove was a 9000 CS with an automatic transmission. Nobody seemed to have told the transmission people about the turbo. It changed up as soon as it started to boost. Horrid.

Manual 9-5 aero was ok for a barge if you drove around the lag, but not something I enjoyed about it. Same for Impreza Turbo 2000, though that was actually trying to be enjoyable, so failed harder.

I can see why people like the drama, but for me it’s not worth the mush.

This is understandable.

already for me the small displacement na engines feel empty at low revs whereas the laggy turbo versions... worse!!
I have never particularly liked high revving engines for this reason. very little torque at the bottom and very little torque at all. "no real feeling" of power, but he understands the appeal of going up the revs again and again.

However the big block NA feel quite fast, and the large amount of torque pushes you into the seat with a feeling of force at all revs. very pleasant for me.

[pheonix478]

An old school slushbox auto 80's turbo sounds both utterly awful and amusingly fun to try and drive. The obvious solution to the large capacity vs turbo debate is to have both

[Murci.sv]

pheonix478 said:

An old school slushbox auto 80's turbo sounds both utterly awful and amusingly fun to try and drive. The obvious solution to the large capacity vs turbo debate is to have both

absolutely, I can't afford both personally so I alternate. when I sell turbo I buy NA and vice versa.