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1. CHEVY
COBALT SS
Taking into consideration the fact that the
Cobalt SS didn't even get any interior upgrades, the little coupe's price tag
should have stayed low enough to keep drivers happy compared to similarly
priced offerings, but at the time a Subaru WRX could be had for around the same
cost, featuring all wheel drive in a vastly superior rally-bred package. The
WRX may have featured almost as egregious of a rear spoiler, but with a truer
sense of purpose and superior visibility, as well.
2.
SATURN SKY
GM's semi-experimental brand Saturn was an
attempt by one of the world's largest automotive conglomerates to compete with
the new era of Japanese products that began to infiltrate the American market
in the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in 1985, marketing for Saturn tried to
differentiate its products from the heavy and slow cars produced by most of
GM's other subsidiary companies. Small, lightweight, and cheap offerings like
the S-Series and L-Series represented most of Saturn's sales offerings, but by
the 2000s Saturn needed a rejuvenation.
That boost came in the form of the Saturn Sky, an attempt at delivering
a sports car into the market dominated by Acura's Integra and Honda's Civic Si.
The Sky shared a platform with the Pontiac Solstice, another underwhelming
performer, but at least it came in a high-end turbo variant that created up to
290 horsepower. A manual transmission was even optional. Its aggressive
exterior represented a full departure from Saturn's previous designs,
but despite a variety of special editions over the three year run, neither
the Sky nor the Solstice could draw enough interest or sales numbers to save
Pontiac or Saturn, however, and both models saw their production runs come to a
close as their companies simultaneously shuttered.
3.
DELOREAN DMC-12
The DeLorean DMC-12 is probably one of
the world's most instantly recognizable cars, thanks to its role as a time
machine in the Back to the Future movie franchise. And
with an angular stainless steel body, gullwing doors, and a futuristic
interior, the car delivers everything needed for a perfect movie role. Sadly,
though, the DeLorean doesn't deliver many of the critical features that make
for a perfect sports car. The recipe seems to begin well, with a fiberglass body
structure surrounding a backbone-style steel chassis, with a rear-mounted V6
engine power the rear wheels.
But
the overall package just couldn't deliver, despite a lengthy development
process that included a design overhaul by Colin Chapman (of Lotus fame). The
2.7-liter engine, sourced from Peugeot-Renault-Volvo, only produced 130
horsepower, for a 0-60 time of 8.8 second when purchased with a manual
transmission.
The automatic transmission was even worse,
slowing the car down to over 10 seconds for a 0-60 run. With a heavily
rear-favoring weight distribution, the car's nose was too high in the air,
leading many owners to replace the front shocks to allow a return to
heights specified in early stages of the design process. The DMC-12 did prove popular
and iconic, but it fails to qualify as a true sports car.
4.
PONTIAC FIERO
Pontiac had their own quintessentially 1980s
attempt at a sports car, as well, in the form of the Fiero. With a mid-mounted
engine, retracting headlights, and plastic body panels, the Fiero's features
should have made up the parts for a successful performance automobile, but
unfortunately the Fiero left drivers disappointed. Thanks to its layout and
high percentage of Fiero-specific parts, reliability suffered, while safety
concerns bubbled among the public, as well. Competition from Toyota's
mid-engined, similarly angular MR2 proved fierce, and the Fiero's small engine
bay meant that a V8 was out of the picture.
Instead, engine options included a 2.5-liter
inline four and a higher-spec 2.8-liter V6. The four cylinder option was a high
efficiency, low RPM engine that offered up to 50 miles per gallon on the
highway, the complete opposite of the Toyota MR2's peppy, high-revving engine
which also came with an optional turbocharger. Pontiac was unable to bring
improvements to the Fiero fast enough, and despite a variety of options
packages becoming available over the five years of production, the Fiero was
never able to fully shake the impression that it suffered from a lack of focus,
being neither a sporty coupe nor a capable highway tourer.
5.
CHEVROLET
C4 CORVETTE
The 1980s provided American manufacturers
with an opportunity to utilize improved technology and lighter weight materials
in their cars, which theoretically should have led to better performance and
superior design. Unfortunately, gas prices began to rise as world usage
rates of the automobile increased exponentially, and the beginnings of a
flood of imported competition led American brands down a winding path towards the
mediocrity that would eventually dominate the industry.
Chevrolet's newly redesigned C4 Corvette
epitomized the confused era's products. With a sleek yet angular exterior,
liquid crystal displays on the dash, and a new glass hatchback design, the
Corvette should have been a contender amongst its contemporaries.
A
series of V8 engines under the long hood should have helped, but instead were
often paired to automatic transmissions or manuals with electronic overdrive -
part of Chevy's efforts to meet increasingly stringent efficiency standards.
A novel reverse flow cooling system helped
improve compression on some of the engines, too, but the addition of sway
bars for the first time and a fiberglass mono-leaf spring design still couldn't
save the new Vette from itself. Higher prices and disappointment in the lack of
a sports car feel led to a redesign in 1992.
