Okay, that took forever.
In this list of cars, there are really three different main categories going on. 1) the supercars, which start with lots of DF and power; 2) the crappy micro boxes; and 3) more or less normal cars. It's really nor fair to compare between categories, do I'll deal with them separately, and I'm going to start with the normal cars.
I used a ton of metrics, giving some more weight than others. I looked at stock performance in a variety of ways, and I looked at fully tuned performance both with and without the R mod. I also looked at stock utility, how many events you could reasonably win without any tuning. I looked at fully tuned potential, what's the toughest event you could reasonably win given full tuning, with and without R mod. I considered subjective elements like styling and sound, and debatable elements like historic significance and uniqueness. I took note of purchase price and tuning cost.
I gave the most weight though to a kind of handicapped time trial at the final 80's event at Tahiti comparing cars at a slightly better than stock tuning. Sport suspension and tires were added, and then weight was brought as close to 1200kg as possible (without R mod). The goal was 4.37 kg/hp, or 275hp at 1200kg. If your weight was higher or lower than 1200kg, though, your kg/hp goal would actually change according to what I've determined is pretty much fair, given that heavier cars have a clear advantage at a fixed weight to power ratio. Basically if you're heavier, like the Stingray at 1349kg, the 4.37 kg/hp goal would tell you to tune to 308hp, but my adjusted goal tells me to tune to only 297hp. For a 1020kg car, instead of 233hp, you get 246hp. I'm happy to say that after completing all the time trials I analyzed the data to see if there was still any advantage given to heavier or lighter cars with the new formula I used, and there was absolutely none. As far as I can tell, I've solved the problem of how to compare cars of different weights. For the time trial, I added camber and then ran 10 laps. Watching the replay I recorded all the section times, then did the math to identify the best section times each car had over all 10 laps, then added those times together to get what I believe is a lap time which is very close to the best I could do if given 100 laps to try.
I kind of mentioned it above, but I'm looking at AT performance. This certainly favors some cars over overs, but I'm just no good at driving MT, too many things to think about. If given the option to push to the rev limit before shifting, many of these cars would see dramatically improved performance I have no doubt.
Well, enough ado about method, here's the results (and the winner is...):
Tommykaira M30 - best time in the time trial, great powerband
but really there was a clear pack of seven at the top, with the Tommykaira M30 only slightly in the lead. The next 6 in order:
RX-7 Infini III '90
NSX '90
Supra Twinturbo-R '91
Supra (Turbo) '93 (aka GT Ltd '89)
Silvia K's 1800cc '88
RX-7 GT-X '90
next a group of 3 to round out the top 10 best normal cars of the 80's:
Skyline GT-R R32 '89
Skyline GTS-R R31 '87
Miata '89
the middle of the pack descends as follows:
Stingray '82 - absolutely great powerband helps a lot
RX-7 '83
MR2 1600G-Limited '86
Skyline 2000 RS-X R31 '84
Primera GT '90 (aka Infinity G20 '90)
Celica GT-Four '91
Delta HF Integrale '88 - was okay with custom tranny, but stock powerband is obviously rally tuned and meant to be shifted early
Celica GT-Four RC '91
and what can be considered the bottom of the pack:
all Levin/Truenos
Celica GT-Four '88
Celica '83
Celica GT-R '91
323 4Door Sedan aka Protege
Starlet 3 door Turbo S '87
Lotus Elan S2 '90 (how embarrassing for Lotus!)
Starlet 3 door Turbo S '82
Nissan Micra/March superturbo '89
did not look at Silvia Q (like K but less so), RX-7 Cabriolet (like GT-X but less so), or CR-X (soo weak, couldn't compete in the last 80's event.)
A few notes: Very many of these cars peak at about the same level, at the Tuned Turbo-3 event, while a few peak at Turbo-1, and quite a few at Pure Sport-3. So for the most part, the difference in the potential length of your career in these cars is only a couple events. Of course there were a few dogs that could barely win the 3rd convertible event, and a couple couldn't even do that. But most of these cars can have a very long career.
Powerband is key, those that have a good one will be among the best, no amount of perfect balance or aerodynamics will make up for not having power when you need it.
I backwards calculated drag coefficients from top speed trials and this was quite enlightening. Evidently PD wanted to give the Miata an advantage, because its drag is more than 10% less than what it should be, and it's the sleekest car in this 80's comparison. The MR2, Silvia, and Primera are also quite slippery in the wind, which helps them to be overachievers at high speed. The GT-R R32 '87 however is about as aerodynamic as a cardboard box, and this handicap unfortunately prevents it from making the top of the pack. Guess the front air dam to add DF takes its toll. The Celica GT-Four RC is also quite a beast to push to high speeds, but the widebody probably helps for lower speed rally performance so that's the tradeoff Toyota made.
Well, that was the most interesting list. I included the micro boxes though as you'd expect they're all at the end.
Among the RUF's the BTR Type I is the clear favorite, and will outperform anything else the 80's had to offer, posting the best 1000m time, top speed, and winning the GT world championship. We all know the Skyline Silhouette is great, too, of course. The Delta S4 was a real disappointment, and the RS200 was nice but nothing special.
