As I was Saying, The 80's RULED, but only sometimes

Unicorn cars: Rare, American, affordable, manual trans, and easy to work on. Here's a list of them.

Stating with the 80's

Dodge Omni GLH. More turbocharged cars have been brought into this world under the Chrysler brand name, than any other manufacturer, ever. This drive train was available in other (arguably better looking) models, but this was the lightest and fastest. And unlike the next few decades, this machine was mostly designed and built in Detroit, not Japan. Only available with a manual trans, I believe... and even better (and more rarer) the Shelby GLHS added an intercooler. Here's a standard GLH.

GMC Cyclone and Typhoon. Not available with manual trans but being AWD and built for drag racing, you can't really beat having a torque converter. Prices are falling like pants at a Sophist Party. Lots of examples for sale online.

Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and Mustang SVO and i guess, Capri. Only worth while with a stick shift but hard to find. Featured rare for the time turbo, RWD 4 bangers. Not known for reliability or driving straight when throttle applied liberally.

Buick Grand National. Darth Vader approves.


Honorable mention: Dodge Caravan turbo. I wouldn't put much energy into owning/restoring one of these but there's something undeniably cool about a first generation minivan that, with a few mild mods, can walk your average modern sports car. Plus, it's a mini-v with a manual.


The 90's

C4 Corvette ZR-1. 375hp for an option that ADDED $30k to the base price of the car... It was amazing performance in '89 (technically sold as a '90) Luckily for us used ones are now affordable, though I think the price curve has passed its low point and may be heading north. Still easy to find and the digital dash makes me pee my pants with awesome.

Oldsmobile Achieva SCX. featured the highest output version of the GM Quad 4 engine, featuring awesome-to-look-at Camshaft towers. Here's a nice one.

Ford Contour SVT. This car wasn't so rare, except the ricers have latched their value-degrading claws into it, making nice examples hard to find. Seems many ads feature the word "fast" and "furious" somewhere in the text. I don't know much about these mainly because I swore off Ford vehicles early in life, and still feel that way about anything built by Henry's team after 1980 and before 2008.

Speaking of Ford, the Chevrolet Impala SS would allow you and your family to outrun anything made by Ford or Chrysler. featuring an engine with "LT" in the name, hard to find an ACTUAL SS model, unmolested.

Saturn SW2. What? I love wagons. And this one, every so ofter, could be found with a manual trans. The manual trans was mated to the same dual overhead cam, 125hp engine found in all the "2" designated Saturns. Of course, without the auto tranny sapping power and because it weighed, like, 7 pounds, it was a quick little wagon. Also sometimes popular with the tuners. With all saturns, earlier years is better years and not only because they somehow got uglier, later.

ANOTHER Capri? Yes, with even less displacement. People really dig on these things. See my previously cited rule re: Ford


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What did I miss?