Did you ever just have cars you hated no matter what? The Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz were those cars for me. I know they were needed in the lineup but all the way until their demise in the 1990s I just could not stand the sight of those things. This video from 1985 shows how Ford was trying to make chicken salad out of chicken…well, you know the rest. By adding a revamped suspension, a freeer flowing exhaust, throttle body injection, and other amazing tricks of the trade they somehow made an enormous 5hp more than the standard model and “lowered” the 0-60 time to 12.3 seconds.
There was likely an element of these cars that made them fun as hell for winter beaters and other more entertaining enterprises like demolition derbies or as subjects to be blown to pieces for the entertainment of others by people like Benny the bomb, but I always looked at them with a jaundiced eye.
It is interesting to see though, how the small sedan lineup of the big three evolved in the 1980s and 1990s. The cars seem to really have been thrown into the marketplace across the board to try and fight back the Japanese with something but in the end, the more refined and frankly better built (at the time) Japanese cars just swepts in the really did a job on the whole market.
Did anyone out there own one of these things? It’s ok, you can admit it. We’re all friends here.
Ha!! I had an ’86 Ford Tempo in high school. I bought it because it was 2dr & 5sp. I didn’t realize until years later it was a “Sport” GL.
It was actually really fun to drive! Probably because it came with 3.73 final drive(vs 3.23) and the “HO” motor+5sp was very willing to rev to redline.
Dump the clutch on a turning start and snatch 2nd mid corner and it would spin a 185/70/14 a LONG ways! LOL
I beat that car hard for 4 years/many miles and it was super reliable. I may have just gotten a “good” one.