Terrific, turbocharged treats
From superminis to supercars, turbocharging is now so mainstream it’s almost impossible to buy a new car that doesn’t rely on forced induction.
But rewind 20, 30 or 40 years and turbocharging was still something special. The idea of using waste exhaust gases to force-feed air and fuel to an engine to create more power seemed like alchemy, and the technology certainly helped produce some solid-gold classics.
So give yourself a boost with this collection of 26 of the greatest turbocharged classic cars – and apologies if we’ve omitted your favourite.
1. Peugeot 205 T16
The T16 might look like a 205, but with a turbocharged, 16-valve engine behind the front seats and four-wheel drive it bore little resemblance under the skin to the front-wheel-drive GTI.
The T16 was Peugeot’s Group B weapon, and a very useful one: it claimed both the constructors’ and drivers’ WRC titles in 1985 and ’86.
This is one of 200 197bhp road cars Peugeot Talbot Sport built to homologate the 400bhp racers.
2. Ferrari F40
Famous for being the first production car to top 200mph (although technically the RUF CTR got there earlier), the F40 was Ferrari’s riposte to anyone who claimed its road cars had become too soft.
The Pininfarina-designed body was constructed using Kevlar and carbonfibre, and the twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V8 pumped out a monstrous 471bhp, up a massive 80bhp on the earlier 288GTO.
3. Bugatti EB110
Bugatti’s technical director was Nicola Materazzi, the driving force behind the F40. But while the Ferrari got by with two turbos and eight cylinders, the EB110 featured an incredible quad-turbo V12.
In its original EB110 GT guise, Bugatti’s new supercar made 553bhp and could reach 213mph, but the later EB110 SS pushed those numbers to 603bhp and 220mph.
4. Buick GNX
After emissions laws ended the reign of monster American V8s, Detroit turned to turbocharging to reclaim some lost performance.
Early attempts like the 1979 2.3-litre Mustang turbo and 1980 Turbo Trans Am weren’t great, but the 1987 Buick Grand National’s limited edition GNX incarnation delivered the kind of performance even the giants of the original muscle era couldn’t match.
A turbocharged 3.8-litre V6 officially rated at 276bhp (but actually putting out over 300) could send it from rest to 60mph in only 4.6 secs.
5. Porsche 959
Porsche created the 959 to win in Group B competition, but to satisfy the FIA’s homologation rules it also built over 300 examples of this incredible 911-based supercar.
The 2.8-litre flat ‘six’ was based on the 956/962 racer’s and featured water-cooled four-valve heads and sequential twin turbochargers, enabling it to send 444bhp to all four wheels and achieve a then-record 197mph top speed.
6. Alpina B7S Turbo
The world’s fastest four-door back in 1978 was the Alpina B7, a BMW E12 5 Series with a KKK turbo strapped to the side of its 3.0-litre M30 straight-six.
With around 300bhp it was good for 155mph, which was boosted to 163mph for the 330bhp B7S pictured here.
7. Bentley Turbo R
By the early 1980s Bentleys were nothing more than less shouty Rolls clones. But that all changed in 1982 with the launch of the Mulsanne Turbo.
A single Garrett turbo boosted the 6.75-litre V8 from 198 to 298bhp, dropping the 0-60mph time from 10 to 7 secs, though it didn’t get the handling to back up that go until the Turbo R appeared in 1985.
8. Lancia Delta S4
How’s this for a belt and braces approach to making big power – the Delta S4 used a turbocharger and a supercharger to generate its go.
The Stradale road cars built to satisfy homologation rules made a modest 247bhp, but in full Group B tune the racers were making close to 500.
9. Porsche 911 turbo
Say hello to the car that made turbocharging a household name, pushed the 911 into the supercar league and gave us one of the most iconic rear spoilers ever.
Using lessons learned on the racetrack, Porsche added a single KKK turbo to its flat-six. Starting with 3.0 litres and 256bhp in 1974, the turbo grew to 3.3 litres and up to 325bhp, but had to make do with just four gears for the first 15 years.
10. BMW 2002 Turbo
Beating the 911 turbo to market by a year, and looking every bit as tough, was this, the BMW 2002 Turbo.
Building on the 128bhp fuel-injected 2002tii, BMW added huge arch flares and a KKK turbocharger, boosting output to 168bhp.
11. Lotus Turbo Esprit
The Esprit always looked like a supercar, but it didn’t go like one until Lotus added a turbocharged option in 1980.
The blower lifted power from 160bhp to 210bhp, giving true 150mph pace and the acceleration to match its looks, while also earning it a second Bond cameo – two Turbos appeared in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only.
12. Ford RS200
Designed by Ghia, bodied by Reliant and powered by a Cosworth-tuned BDT 1.8-litre ‘four’, the RS200 was Ford’s second crack at a Group B rally car after abandoning the Escort 1700T project.
Sadly, the RS200 was no match for opposition like the Peugeot 205 T16, and Group B was banned before Ford had the chance to make major improvements.
13. GMC Syclone
One of the stealthiest performance cars of all time, the 1991 Syclone pick-up truck could hit 60mph from rest in just 4.3 secs thanks to a combination of a 280bhp turbocharged V6 and four-wheel-drive traction.
And for buyers who needed to move kids not cargo, GMC offered the same drivetrain in the Typhoon SUV.
14. Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo
The Legacy 4 Cam Turbo had already proved the pace of Subaru’s turbocharged boxer engine and four-wheel drive combination, but it was the Impreza that really put Subaru on the map.
The Impreza scored three drivers’ and manufacturers’ WRC titles, and road versions from the mild 2000 Turbo to the limited-edition 22B could eat supercars whole on wet, twisty roads.
But so could its nemesis, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, which was launched in 1992 and went through 10 evolutions, winning four WRC titles along the way before finally bowing out for good in 2016.
15. Lotus Carlton
The regular Vauxhall Carlton/Opel Omega GSI 3000 was already a well-regarded sports saloon, but a trip to Lotus resulted in a 377bhp monster whose 176mph top speed was so outrageous questions were even asked about it in Parliament.
16. Mercedes-Benz 300SD
By 1978, big trucks had employed turbodiesel power for years, but the 300SD was the first successful attempt to apply the thinking to passenger cars.
Alongside the usual straight-six and V8 petrol engines, Mercedes-Benz offered US buyers of the W116 S-Class a 3.0-litre five-cylinder turbodiesel motor.
Power and performance (110bhp and 17sec to 62mph) were laughable by modern standards, but the SD was hugely influential.
17. Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire
The Olds Jetfire certainly wasn’t the greatest turbocharged car, but as the first, alongside its GM stablemate, the Corvair Monza Spyder, it’s definitely worth a mention.
Both cars were released in 1962, the Olds using turbocharging to augment its relatively small 3.5-litre V8, and the Corvair, its 2.4 flat-six.
Neither lasted long, and it was almost 10 years before turbocharging made a comeback.
18. Audi quattro
Audi’s Quattro four-wheel drive system changed the course of rallying forever, but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful if its 2.1-litre five-cylinder engine hadn’t had some turbocharged assistance.
19. Renault 5 Turbo
The 5 Turbo was Renault’s attempt to replicate Lancia’s rallying success with the Stratos. In road trim it came with a mid-mounted, 160bhp, turbocharged 1.4, originally with a zany Bertone interior, and then in Turbo 2 guise with more stock 4 supermini bits.
Slightly saner front-wheel-drive 5s got the turbo treatment, too, and ensured the GT Turbo was every bit as rapid as its Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 arch rival.
20. Saab 99 Turbo
Turbocharging made a supercar of the 911, but the technology soon filtered down to more affordable cars, and the Saab 99 was one of the first.
Applied to Saab’s Triumph-derived 2.0-litre ‘four’, the hot 99 made 145bhp and offered impressive overtaking shove, though the torque steer was just as likely to get your blood pumping.
21. Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
While the RS200 had its eyes on Group B glory, Ford’s hopes for success in the less bonkers Group A competition rested on the shoulders of the Sierra Cosworth.
Cosworth’s engineers added a four-valve head and Garrett T3 turbo, boosting power to 201bhp, compared with 113bhp for an ordinary 2.0-litre Sierra. The car pictured here is the rarer 224bhp RS500 version.
22. Nissan Skyline GT-R
The original six-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive Skyline GT-R had been a touring-car race winner in the late 1960s and early ’70s, but when Nissan brought the badge out of retirement it was a very different machine.
Its twin-turbocharged RB26 sent 276bhp to all four wheels in road trim, and the 600+bhp Group A racing version was so fast turbocharging was banned from Australian touring-car competition to give the local Ford and Holden teams a chance.
23. Toyota Supra
Starting life as a posh Celica, the Supra was spun off into a separate model and soon Toyota was offering turbocharged models alongside the regular naturally-aspirated straight-six cars.
Most collectable these days are the A80 cars built from 1993, whose twin-turbo 2JZ engines put out over 320bhp in standard guise – and could be tweaked to produce as much as 1000bhp by aftermarket tuners.
24. Jaguar XJ220
At the 1988 Birmingham Motor Show launch of the XJ220 concept, Jaguar promised its new supercar would have a V12 and four-wheel drive.
It delivered neither, but the turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 did produce 542bhp and had a top speed of more than 210mph.
25. Mazda RX-7 Turbo
The free-spinning, oil-guzzling RX-7 got a huge shot in the arm when Mazda dropped in a turbocharged version of its 12A rotary in 1983.
Two generations later the FD RX-7 came exclusively with turbo power, using a small Hitachi blower to provide low-rev boost, and a second, bigger turbo to deliver a top-end kick and a solid 252bhp total.
26. Ruf CTR
By any normal standards, the 300bhp Porsche 911 turbo was a fast car. But the 463bhp Ruf CTR made it feel about as exciting as a Beetle.
In a 1987 Road & Track shootout to find the world’s fastest car, the Ruf clocked a staggering 211mph at a time when a standard 911 turbo was all done by 160.
That pace, and the striking paint of the press demonstrator, earned it the nickname Yellowbird, though as this picture proves, other colours were available, and looked every bit as cool.
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