It may be a kick in the goolies for TV’s Gene Hunt but most people would rather ‘fire up’ a Porsche 911 from the eighties than an Audi Quattro.
Hunt, from series Ashes To Ashes, famously drives a red Quattro, but in a new pole on ultimate 80s cars it was the Porsche that came out on top.
The 911 took almost a third of all votes 29%, just pipping the Audi Quattro with 28%, to be crowned the decade’s most desirable car.
Both cars left their 80s rivals trailing in the dust, with only the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and BMW M5 to make any impression in the survey with 15% and 12% respectively.
The HPI survey also asked respondents about which iconic cars from that period they most fondly remembered, and it was another TV car that swept all before it.
The Ford Capri SLE 71R, immortalised by Terry McCann in Minder, polled 30% of the votes, receiving more than twice as many votes as the Jaguar XJ6 driven by his TV boss Arthur Daly which polled 11%.
Nick Lindsay, director of HPI, said: ‘The success of Ashes to Ashes and the proposed remake of Minder have piqued people’s interest in 80s cars again and, though you need to approach older cars with care, they need not necessarily be old bangers.
‘In fact, as this survey has shown, many of these vehicles are highly desirable classics.’