Sport coupes of the 80s.. Do you remember them? Honest, uncompromising, with a minimum of electronics and elegant design. Let me introduce you - giant road test of 8 best sport coupes of the early 80s - "Fashion Models" by Motor Week magazine for April 12, 1986.
Fashion Models
Coupes have become a long way since Ford grafted a pretty two-door fastback body on to a Cortina floorpan and called it the Capri. The Capri still commands respect but it faces tough competition on all sides. Here we giant-test eight the best sporting coupes you can buy fot less than £12,000. Four of them are Japanese. The outcome will surprise you..The sporting coupe (for the common man) has finally come of age. It has taken the best part of 17 years - longer if your definition of the modern breed pre-dates the Capri - and few automotive trends have been at the sharp end of more critical derision.
But the old “less car for more money" and “wheels for wimps§ jibes are harder to make now than ever before. Space is still compromised in favour of style, of course, but car makers are no longer cynically exploiting the fact that, deep down, the Great Buying Public are still suckers for a touch of the old razzle dazzle. Simple cosmetics are part of a more sharply perceived package. While most modern sporting coupes remain chopped down and re-bodied saloons- there would be little economic justification for their existence if they were not - they contrive to disguise their origins, to be something more than Just two-door saloons. They’re fast as well.
The eight cars assembled here all tread that precarious ground between saloon and sports car, mixing style and sensibility with fearless commitment. They all cost less than £12,000 - the sleek Toyota Celica GT by just one pound - and most can crack 120 mph. One that can’t quite is Volkswagen’s injected 1.8-litre Scirocco GTX but, at £9519, it is the cheapest and, with a Golf GTi chassis and running gear lurking beneath its pretty but crudely adorned exterior, it lacks not for basic ability. In facing Honda’s elegant and effective Prelude 2.0i - the more muscular 16-valve version of the pleasant but slow 1.8-litre original- it has to fight perhaps the most onesided battle of the four pairings we’ve struck in this giant Group Test. But while the £10,960 16-valve Scirocco is clearly a closer match for the £11,200 Honda, it is available only to special order and in left-hand drive. In the light- middleweight front-wheel drive contest, the European is the underdog.
A class up, the Japanese and the Germans are at each other’s throats once again, Audi’s cool-browed Coupe GT (£11,840) mixing tyre rubber with Toyota’s exciting Celica GT, now fwd like the Audi and, at £11,999, not afraid of being undercut in the showrooms. The Audi has been at the top of its particular tree for a long time, but the dynamically brilliant Toyota is shaking the branches hard.
The Isuzu Piazza Turbo is not a recent model but is a relative newcomer to Britain, which banks on its Giugiaro- fashioned good looks, powerful turbocharged engine and strong equipment list to justify a £11,950 price tag. Nissan's acclaimed Silvia Turbo seeks to combine the same qualities for £10,196. Not only is one better value, but the better car.
Putting even more power through their rear wheels are the fastest and oldest duo of the group. Both have injected two-and-a-half-litre V6 engines developing around 160 bhp. Both are capable of 130 mph. And both have 2+2 hatchback bodies which have become classics of their type. They are the Ford Capri 2.8 Injection Special (£10,599) and the Alfa Romeo GTV6 (£11,750) and, between them, they define what coupe motoring is all about: Their contest, however, was not close.
Rearguard Action. Alfa Romeo GTV6 vs Ford Capri.
A muscular engine, a long bonnet and rear- wheel drive are traditional ingredients of the sporting coupe. Ford's characterful Capri 2.8 Injection Special and Alfa Romeo’s alluring GTV6 show you don’t need high technology for driving thrills.
The world is not logical. Were it so, there would be no place for the sporting соupe. Especially not two old stagers like the Alfa Romeo GTV6 and the Ford Capri 2.8 Injection Special. That these cars are still in the price lists shows that the heads of many remain resolutely ruled by their hearts.
The original straight-four Alfetta GT’s introduction in 1974 was only a matter of months after that of the first hatchback Capri (whose basic bodyshell is used today). It was 1981 which saw the all-aluminium V6 inserted under a hew bulge in the Alfa's bonnet, and thus the GTV6 was born. Almost concurrently, the Capri gained the fuel-injected 2792 cc Cologne V6 engine in place of the old but worthy 3-litre Essex unit. Although the Capri is now built only in Cologne, 70 per cent of them come to Britain.
On paper, the Alfa Romeo GTV6 stacks up like this: over- head-camshaft 2492 cc V6 delivering 160 bhp and 157 lb ft of torque, fuel-injected and driving the rear wheels through a rear- mounted five-speed transaxle. The front suspension uses torsion-bar-sprung double wishbones, while there’s a de Dion axle at the rear. Alloy wheels and 1.95/60.HR 15 tyres shroud an all disc braking system.
The Capri, by comparison, appears antediluvian; but you reckon without the expertise of Ford's Special Vehicle . Engineering team. Its MacPherson strut front and single-leaf-sprung rear suspension is honed to a fine pitch, while the rack-and-pinion steering has the subtlest of power assistance. The all-iron engine, fuel-injected like the Alfa's, produces 158 bhp and 162 lb ft of torque, outputs close to those of the Italian car's and developed at similar engine speeds. Drive is transmitted via a five-speed gearbox and a limited-slip differential to the rear wheels - shod, like the fronts, with’ fat 205/60 VR 13 tyres on RS-pattern alloy wheels.
So you would expect the two cars to have very similar performance. And, in outright terms, they do: flat-out the Alfa Romeo will reach 132.6 mph, while the Capri trails a little at 125.1 mph. On sprinting ability it’s a similar story, with 60 mph coming up from a standstill in 8.2 sec for the GTV6 and 8.4 sec for the Capri.
But there's a world of difference in the way this performance feels on the road. The primary reason for this lies in the cars' gearing. Quite simply, the Capri is overgeared. Not only does it reach its maximum speed in fourth gear instead of fifth, but it will all but reach the motorway legal limit in second gear. So, to get the best out of the Ford you have to rev it hard in the gears, to overcome both the unfavourable gearing and the engine’s inherent lack of low-speed muscle. Luckily it responds to this treatment well, remaining acceptably smooth up to around 6000 rpm and emitting a potent-sounding snarl as it does so.
When it comes to aural excitement, though, the Alfa has the Capri well beaten - and most other cars too, for that matter. The low-speed snarl gives way to a glorious high-speed howl, overlaid by a spine-tingling rasp and the busy rattle of timing chains and bucket tappets. The GTV6 is a car you drive with the window open, at full throttle, past every wall or fence. This urgent promise is fulfilled by an engine that combines silky high-revs smoothness with gutsy low- speed torque transmitted through ideal sporting gearing.
But it's a pity about the gearchange. It might be better than on earlier GTVs, but the current GTV's gearlever action is ponderous at best, sticky and obstructive at worst. Combined as it is with an engine of such crisp throttle response, the Alfa's gearchange is a frustration. That of the Capri is whole lot better; long-winded perhaps, but light and precise.
A handling comparison proves that sophistication doesn’t always score over simplicity. The Capri is pure entertainment, and safe with it: its light, direct steering is full of feel and the car turns in as though its life depended on it. Yet it's not nervous; initial stabilising understeer gives way to a long neutral phase and final, easily-controlled, power oversteer. Dry-road traction, aided by the LSD, is fine, while the firm damping heightens the impression of agility. The Capri is a driver’s car par excellence: it is a car with which you feel at one. It is only on poor road surfaces that the live axle betrays its limitations.
The Alfa, by contrast, feels curiously stodgy. It takes a huge dollop of power to unstick the rear end, for the GTV6 is a resolute understeerer requiring a big armful of lock to get round a tight bend. This makes the steering feel lower-geared than it is, though its weight is fine and the feel fair even if it is a touch too informative about . camber changes and surface imperfections. An odd squirming motion on challenging surfaces makes the Alfa feel edgy, though in fact it is safe enough. Uninspiring, but safe.
Both cars ride acceptably for their intended role. Their low- speed choppiness is more forgivable in the Capri given its handling sharpness, but at higher speeds both smooth out well. And both have good brakes; the test Capri's were rather better than we remembered from earlier examples, but ultimately they lack the bite of the Alfa's all-disc system. Neither car is particularly noisy, though wind roar betrays the age of both.
In terms of total passenger space the GTV6 and the Capri are about equal - that is to say, you need to be pretty supple in limb to tolerate the rear seats. But for the' driver, the Capri presents a rosy picture. Quite simply, its driving position is superb and its Recaro front seats supremely comfortable and supportive. The GTV6, in contrast, seems deliberately to make life miserable for its driver. To reach the steering wheel calls for a seat position both too upright and too close to the pedals, and the steering wheel even at its highest setting is periously close to the driver's left knee. The forwardangled headrest makes life even worse, especially as it’s rock- hard, and there's a scarcity of head room. Neither, has much boot space, though there's enough for two people and the Capri's rear seats fold down.
Old age is no excuse for quirky ergonomics - but try telling that to Alfa. Its heater controls use four levers where three would suffice, some of its otherwise clear instruments suffer from stray reflections and the minor switchgear is a stretch. The Capri's facia layout is altogether more integrated; dated perhaps, but still attractive and let down only by minor gauges that are obscured by the steering wheel rim. Its Mark One Cortina-style air-blender heater and cold-air eyeball vents are as effective as ever. Both cars are easier to see out of than their rakish shapes might suggest.
And rakish the Capri most certainly is. The long-bonneted style has aged well and its leather- clad interior is sumptuous yet unostentatious. Giugiaro's Alfa shape, though, now suffers from too many cluttering lines and an excess of black plastics.
An Alfa Romeo GTV6 will cost you £11,750. A Ford Capri 2.8 Injection Special will set you back £10,599. Each would cost about the same to run; in our hands they achieved 23.4 and 23.5 mpg respectively. So what it comes down to is this: if you’re an engine man (or woman) you'll love the Alfa and will learn to live with its many quirks. But the Capri's inappropriate gearing is a small price to pay for vastly superior handling, far more comfort and considerably more rounded driver appeal.
