The Ten Most Iconic Turbo Cars
We asked, and you delivered. Here are ten of the best, most iconic and awesome cars with turbochargers.
Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our Jalopnik summer feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Photo Credit: LotusEspritTurbo.com
10.) Renault R5 Turbo
Suggested By: kbsimnl1
Why It's Terrific: When someone says the magic words "Group B" a couple of different cars immediately come to mind. If one of them isn't this small French monster, you should probably get your head examined. While it may slightly resemble its anemic, front-engine, front-wheel-drive older brother, the R5 Turbo is a completely different beast. Some crazy Renault engineers took the 1.40liter engine, stuck a turbo on it, threw it where the back seats should have been, and went rallying! Why? Because racecar.
Photo credit: Modified.com
9.) Subaru WRX STi
Suggested By: makopolo
Why It's Terrific: Jumping ahead thirty years, when someone says "Rally Car" and you don't immediately think of a blue and yellow Subaru jumping over piles of dirt, you should also probably get your head examined. The story of the STi is similar to that of the R5: take a cheap, boring car (in this case, Subaru's Impreza) and stick a big body kit on it, a bigger wing, and a turbocharger on the engine. Have a comparable car made by a different manufacturer to compete against. Go forth and win. It's a time-tested recipe for success.
8.) Volvo 850 T5-R
Suggested By: Senna MP4
Why It's Terrific: Well, duh. It's a Volvo. With a turbocharger. The legendary Tom Walkinshaw Racing Team took the wagon version and went touring-car racing with it. You could buy one for the road. The Turbo Brick. 1995's T5-R may have looked like mom was on her way to get groceries or pick the kids up from soccer practice, but with its limited 155 mph top speed and additional 18 horsepower over the regular 850's 222 horsepower from the turbo, it was no slouch.
Photo credit: Octane
7.) Lotus Esprit Turbo
Suggested By: Hart88
Why It's Terrific: Getting 210 horsepower and suitable Lotus performance out of an inline four engine in 1980 was quit the feat, aided of course by the addition of a turbocharger to the Esprit's engine bay. The car did still look like a doorstop, but now it was an especially rapid one.
6.) Mustang SVO
Suggested By: fuhteng
Why It's Terrific: Dealing with a post Fuel-Crisis world in the early 80's, Ford's Special Vehicle Operations set to work making the next Mustang properly quick, but still fuel efficient. They gave the car a Pinto inline four coupled with a turbocharger, which was good for 175 horsepower (with a couple of changes for 1986, that number rose to 205). It may have been a departure mechanically from 'Stangs in the past, but it was fast enough that folks didn't mind.
Photo credit: Dragtimes
5.) Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette
Suggested By: Deathrabbits
Why It's Terrific: Featuring a custom designed body for increased cooling and stability at high speeds, the Sledgehammer was a beast of a car. Two turbochargers increased the engine's power output to 898 horsepower and 772 lb-ft of torque. On a high speed test track, the car was driven to a top speed of ridiculously close to 255 mph.
4.) Lancia Stratos HF
Suggested By: philaDLJ
Why It's Terrific: The Group B rally Stratii that that leap to mind (and over piles of dirt) were not turbocharged. What were turbocharged were the Group 5 Touring Car versions of the Stratos. They got a big body kit, big wing, and 560 horsepower. The regular rally machines had to deal with only roughly 200 horsepower. The road-racing Stratos variant was something of an animal, both in terms of outright speed and reliability
Photo credit: Kyosho
3.) Buick GNX
Suggested By: salynch
Why It's Terrific: Underrated by Buick at 276 horsepower, we all know the GNX was packing far more heat than GM would let on. That engine, combined with a number of other suspension upgrades made the GNX one hell of a car. Car and Driver dubbed it Darth Vader's car, and though many others have tried to take that title since then, we'd like to think the only true car for the Dark Lord of the Sith is the GNX.
2.) Ferrari F40
Suggested By: PunjabiPlaya
Why It's Terrific: It was a toss up between the F40 and today's number one car. I happen to think that there is nothing cooler than Ferrari's twin-turboed V8 street-melter. I feel that that engine, producing 471 Italian horsepowers, coupled with the mile-high rear wing and "I'm going to eat your car for lunch" front end make for something that is truly special.
1.) Porsche 930
Suggested By: Dingo_426
Why It's Terrific: But really, there's only one turboed icon. The Porsche 930 was a truly impressive interpretation of the 911 theme. In Europe, it could have been ordered with a slantnose and 330 horses under the trunklid at the end of its production run, but here in America we had to make do with just 300 ponies. Either way, turbo lag was something to be scared of, combine that with the tail-happy nature of pre-stability controlled 911s and you've got a real handful to deal with.
Photo credit: NFSCars