Car and Driver 1983 "Ten Best" List

[ARCHINSTL]

While browsing issues of 1984 C and D looking for proof of a hatch SR5, I found this info. The .jpg print pretty much tells the story.
I will look for similar info in subsequent years.
Tom M.

As always, left-click to enlarge.

[Starbug]

LOL, awesome!

It seems our cars are a combination of the best and worst things in a car. Excellent: fuel economy, reliability, practicality, 4WD capability. Worst: top speed, 0-60 times, braking distance, not-so-pleasing to the eye design. There are other cars that are better or worse than us, but I still love the Tercel best.

[Petros]

Braking distance easy to "up grade", and more power can be gained with a performance rebuild or engine swap. And then there is the ugly.....Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I kind of like the utilitarian appearance, and if you are handy, there are a few things that can be done to help the appearance. I have owned or worked on a lot of the others "best" cars, and the TErcel is still better. How many of those other "best" cars from 1983 are still on the road?

[St6fan]

Wait, what?

I did a whole 100MPH (GPS) in my T4WD. On a flat and completely empty part of I5 in CA.

[ARCHINSTL]

You have bested the testers from various years of Road & Track and Car and Driver and (fill in the blank)...
And that was with new cars...
Tom M.
P.S. And you bested me as well, back when my first ('83) T4WD was new - just less than 90 MPH.

[Petros]

must of had a large tail wind in the CA central valley. No way a stock Tercel can go that fast. Than again, perhaps it is not stock.

[St6fan]

Perhaps I've gone mad?

Wheel size difference perhaps?

Next time I'm headed north, I'm going to try again and film the results. That was weird. While I was typing that, an ant was walking across my screen at the exact speed of rate I was typing. I think this is a sign.

[Lil Beast]

I believe the 100mph, I did it! I'm not stock although, the rear end does feel like a cloud and have to hold the steering pretty hard(non p/s)! I've topped a 102.65mph but a long flat slightly downhill maybe a degree! The 3a would not give much more without damaging it, I don't think, my tach(aftermarket) started to jump probably due to internal vibration! I've must been at 6500rpm(hard to say due to jumping)! Not likely to try again until the I got the 4AG in it, then I might try 120mph+ with some stiffening done to the back end!

[rer233]

never tried a "top end" run with a t4wd (back in my younger days, i did it with EVERY car i owned.) back when they were contemporary cars, a neighbor had a t4wd with vanity tag "fugly." maybe i'll try that top end run soon!

[ARCHINSTL]

Well - you must have had the blueprinted T4WD that was rumored to have been shipped here for the Daytona 500 that year, but was disqualified due to being too pretty. No one ever knew what happened to that car...

With all due respect - when none of the car mags could top mid-80s and from personal observation in a then-new '83 (all with the "high-speed" gearing), I think your results were due to:
A. Erroneous speedo;
B. Downhill;
C. Humongous tailwind;
D. At least one or all of the above.

Note that car mags, when testing cars (at least in those days, and in particular when testing econoboxes) were not gentle in their methods. I recall one of them, when testing a Spridget, wound that little motor to 7000 RPM in as many gears as it would reach. I was with a friend when he tried to duplicate that in his identical-to-the-test Midget and wound the poor thing to 7K in first gear - for a split-second. The poor thing sounded like it was going to fly apart.
Tom M.

[St6fan]

This is weird. I'll do a test run ASAP.

[dlb]

what size of tires are you running, stefan?

[BIGDOME10]

Got my 85 sr5 up to a buck ten! A couple suspension mods made it not too dramatic. But the engine was at 5500 and sounded like I was torturing the poor thing... Sorry snow white

[Petros]

Welcome to the list Bigdome10,

Exactly what suspension mods have you done. I really want to improve the rear end on my Tercel without forking over the big $ for AE86 rear suspension parts.