The 10 coolest performance cars of the 1970s
By Scott Oldham
- Aug 17, 2020
Photo credit: Lamborghini
Gas lines. Smog motors. Big ugly chrome bumpers. Gas guzzling dinosaurs that can get out of their own way. That’s what most people think of when they think of cars of the 1970s. And they’re mostly correct. For much of the decade, performance was a four-letter word and the malaise era was in full swing as the car companies struggled to figure out new safety and emissions regulations, as well as how to make horsepower on lower octane unleaded gasoline. It is the decade that gave us the Gremlin, Pacer, and Pinto.
But it wasn’t all bad. Not even close. In fact, some of the greatest cars the world has ever seen came out the 1970s. Throughout the decade, Detroit and automakers from Europe and Japan, managed to get it right on occasion and create a small batch of cars that have not only stood the test of time, but have become iconic performance machines we still lust after four decades later. From special big bore muscle cars, to sports cars, exotics, and muscle trucks, the 1970s had it all. Here are our top 10 performance cars from the decade, in chronological order. Plus, a few shameless corresponding links to the Hemmings classifieds should this article get you in a shopping mood.
Photo credit: Jeff Koch
GM was on fire in 1970, and in a good way. Its designers and engineers created an incredible list of high-performance machines, including the 1970 Chevy Camaro Z28, 1970 Pontiac Trans Am, 1970 Buick GS and GSX Stage 1, 1970 Oldsmobile 442 W30, and 1970 Pontiac GTO Ram Air IV. But it was the 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS454 LS6 that stood above them all, as well as everything else Detroit had to offer.
Standard power in the SS454 was the LS5 with hydraulic lifters and 360 hp. Stout for sure. But option code LS6, which was ordered by about 4,500 customers, took things up a notch with the highest factory horsepower rating of the entire muscle car era. The 454-cubic-inch big-block V-8 was packing a solid lifter camshaft, 450 hp at 5,600 rpm, 500 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm, and a 6,500-rpm redline. In magazine tests, they ran low 13-second quarter-mile times at over 105 mph.
Photo credit: Jeff Koch
Mopar’s big bad 426 Hemi finally hit the street in 1966 and was offered in many models from both Dodge and Plymouth, but it didn’t really fit into Plymouth’s Barracuda until 1970. (Those 29 Barracuda Fastbacks built in 1968 with option code BO29 don’t count, they were race cars.) That year, a redesign finally gave the pony car, along with the new and similar Dodge Challenger, the width needed to accept the massive V-8. The Hemi, named for its hemispherical combustion chambers, was so large it was nicknamed The Elephant and it delivered some of the highest power ratings of the era, 425 hp at 5,000 rpm and 490 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm.
In 1970, the editors of High-Performance Cars magazine tested a Hemi 'Cuda convertible, one of just 14 produced that year, and ran a 13.8-second quarter-mile at 103 mph. Plymouth also built 276 coupes. All Hemi cars are valuable today, but these top the list of all production muscle cars of the era. Hemi 'Cuda coupes usually sell for few hundred thousand dollars, while the convertibles sell for seven figures.
Photo credit: David LaChance
Car and Driver gushed all over this new sports car back in 1970. It praised the style of the 240Z as well as the performance and practicality of the two-seater. It wasn’t Datsun’s first sports car, but the original 240Z, sold from 1970-1973, started the Z-car legacy that not only continued through the rest of the decade, it’s still an important part of Nissan’s lineup today.
Designed by Yoshihiko Matsuo, who recently died at the age of 86, the 240 emulated the style of the C3 Corvette, Jaguar E-Type, and Toyota’s 2000GT, but it somehow had a look all its own. Under the hood was a torquey 2.4-liter single-overhead-cam inline six cylinder. “With the help of two SUs and a 9.0-to-one compression ratio it generates 151 horsepower at 5,600 rpm, and if you are so inclined you can turn it all the way to 7000 rpm before you hit the red line,” said the magazine. It wasn’t lightning-quick, but with a quarter-mile time of 16.1 seconds it was over a second better than a Triumph TR6. It was also a blast to drive, and it was cheap at just $3,601.
Photo credit: Terry Shea
Without this hot little coupe we probably wouldn’t have BMW’s M3, which first appeared in the late 1980s and continues today. The 2002 was introduced in the late 1960s, but in 1971 it got a facelift and the hottest version called the 2002tii. Brought to America a year later, it solidified the small sport coupe market in this country as well as BMW’s performance image. It was the anti-muscle car, covering the quarter-mile in 16.8 seconds. It was much quicker than a standard 2002, but the well-built German machine was really about the overall driving experience, including turning and stopping.
For about $4,500 buyers got stiffer springs than the 2002ti, front and rear anti-sway bars, larger front disc brakes, and wider wheels. Its 2.0-liter four-cylinder was pumped up to 140 hp at 5,800 rpm and mated to a close-ratio four-speed manual with a shorter first gear. “No matter how you try, you can't help but like it,” said Car and Driver in February of 1972. “It is the essence of motoring truth: no strobe stripes, no phony teardrop racing mirrors, no triple turret taillights. Just finely honed machinery in the simplest steel and glass case. And it works. It handles—with the agility of a pro flankerback—and the fuel-injected engine can make the parson breathe hard.”
Photo credit: Dino Petrocelli and Prestige Motor Car
Nine years after the original Pontiac GTO threw gasoline on Detroit’s horsepower war, the party had wound down, but Pontiac refused to leave. And it gave us one more big-displacement, power muscle car when few others had the guts. Despite gas lines, increasing insurance premiums, and safety regulations, Pontiac introduced the Super Duty 455 Trans Am in 1973. Though the engine was also intended to see duty in the GTO, that never happened. The SD455 was installed only in the Firebird, and its reign as the fastest and most powerful American car you could buy would last just two years.
The optional engine was no smog motor, it was a special high-performance piece with a reinforced block, forged pistons, better cylinder heads, a new valvetrain, and intake and exhaust manifolds. It produced 310 hp in 1973 and 290 hp in 1974, which made it the last American car with more than 300 hp for more than two decades. The first year just 295 were produced (including 43 Formulas) while production jumped to 943 the final year.
Photo credit: Lamborghini
In 1981, Car and Driver wrote this about the Lamborghini Countach, “Not only has the Countach been the flat-out farthest-out car on the market for ten years, but it is so far out that all the others have conceded the market. Its continued presence has caused Lamborghini to be perceived as a company that will stop at nothing.” By then the mid-engine Countach (pronounced Coon-tash) was adorned with wild flares, scoops and wings fit for aircraft. But the best Countach is the original 1974 LP400, designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone.
This is the car that gave us Lamborghini doors and its hard edged design is still emulated in Lambos of today. When its production began in 1973, the shape of aluminum panels were so extreme, from its oversized NACA ducts and blunt proportions, Ferrari scrambled for a response. The Countach is also tiny. At just 163 inches long, an LP400 is about 20 inches shorter than a new Corvette Stingray, yet Lambo squeezed in a longitudinally mounted 4.0-liter DOHC V-12 making 370 hp and a five-speed gearbox. Top speed was over 180 mph.
Photo credit: Richard Lentinello
While Lamborghini was redefining exotic with the wild and crazy Countach, Ferrari created a more obtainable supercar for the rest of us. The Pininfarina-designed 308 was mid-engined, V-8-powered, incredibly sexy, and incredibly popular. More than 12,000 were built from 1975 to 1985, which made it the best-selling Ferrari of all time until the the 360 Modena finally surpassed it several decades later. It also became a TV star underneath Tom Selleck and his fuzzy lip in the hit show Magnum P.I., which ran from 1980-1988.
With just 3.0 liters and 240 hp, the 308 wasn’t the most powerful or the fastest Ferrari ever built, not by a long shot. But it was the right car at the right time and it cemented the brand's mainstream appeal in the United States. Suddenly everyone wanted a Ferrari, and the 308 became a must-have for those that made a buck. They cost an astronomical $28,780 at the time. Even drag racing legend Don “The Snake” Prudhomme had one. “Ferrariphiles take heart. If you're dismayed because Ferrari can't sell the Boxer in the U.S. and upset with the Dino 308's relatively sedate styling, we've got good news for you. The 308 GTB is everything you've come to expect from a Ferrari and more,” wrote Road & Track back in 1977.
Photo credit: Mike McNessor
In 1978, Pontiac Trans Am sales began to surge thanks to the stratospheric success of Smokey and the Bandit. The movie also popularized the CB and trucker cultures that gave us TV hits like B.J. and the Bear and The Dukes of Hazzard. Dodge wanted a piece of the action and jumped through a loophole in the emissions regulations to create the Li’l Red Express pickup, the fastest American vehicle you could buy in 1978. It would lay waste to a Corvette, Trans Am, and Z28. Even a Mustang King Cobra would be shown this truck’s tailgate.
Legendary Chrysler engineer Tom Hoover at Dodge, one of the father’s of the 426 Hemi, realized that light trucks with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating above 6,000 pounds were exempt from using catalytic converters. Dodge’s D-150, its smallest D-Series pickup, qualified. So the engineers cranked up its 360-cu.in. V-8 to 225 hp, added a beefed-up three-speed automatic and 3.55 gears. Then the designers dressed the red stepside with chrome slot mags, door graphics, gold pinstripes, 60-series white-letter tires, and two big chrome functional exhaust stacks just like the Snowman’s Kenworth. A legend was born. Li’l Red Express sales lasted just two years.
Photo credit: Jeff Koch
Known to Porschefiles by its internal project code, 930, the 911 Turbo hit the street in 1975 but didn’t find its way to the United States until the following year. Steve McQueen famously bought a 1976 model four years before his death. It sold for nearly $2M back in 2005. We prefer the 1978 model, which received a long list of updates that increased performance on the road as well as the racetrack. Its turbocharged flat six engine grew from 3.0 to 3.3 liters, and became the first production street engine with a wastegate to control boost, which was cranked up to 11.4 psi.
Other tech, trickled down from Porsche’s dominating Can Am series performance in 1972 and 1973, included larger cross-drilled brake rotors and an air-to-air intercooler, which forced the Turbo’s Whale Tail to be replaced by the Tea Tray rear spoiler. It would quickly become the 930’s signature design feature. Infamous for turbo lag and deadly lift-throttle oversteer, they can be a handful, but the 930’s 261 horsepower made for mind-blowing performance. In a Car and Driver test the 911 Turbo hit 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds and covered the quarter-mile in 13.7 seconds at 104 mph. It could also reach 165 mph.
The 1980s brought a new wave of muscle cars like IROC Camaros and Buick Grand Nationals, and it happened because of this car. Today, we have Hellcats and supercharged GT500s and Camaro ZL1 ILEs also because of this car. By 1979, emissions-related malaise had complexly consumed the automotive landscape. The Corvette, Camaro, and Firebird were still around, but they were living on legacy. Ford, however, saw the future and replaced the Mustang II with the Fox body. It was larger, but lighter, and it looked rad before the descriptor was even invented, especially when dressed for Indy 500 Pace Car duty.
The Mustang wasn’t a fire breather at first. The 302-cu.in. engine put out just 140 hp, and Car and Driver recorded a 0-60 mph time of 8.3 seconds and a 17-second quarter-mile run. But the potential was there, and the 5.0-liter powered Mustangs would go on the lead a street performance revolution for the next decade and beyond. “Ford, obviously, has done a Very Good Thing with its Mustang,” wrote the magazine in October of 1978. “These cars are not only what we've been asking for, they're an indication of things to come throughout the domestic industry. And that is indeed good news.”
SOURCE: HEMMINGS