This week, Brian, Chad and I are going to be listing eleven of the best production vehicles from the year that we were born. which in my case is 1984.

Setting some ground rules here, I’m going to attempt to only list cars and trucks that were either created after Chad was born (Most cars it seems) and after Brian was born (Little trickier), with the exception of vehicles that had a specific performance variant only available after 1980. Since 1980 was an equally terrible year, I’m pretty sure that Brian is going to cheat by listing race cars, so production stuff only. If it couldn’t be registered for the street, it shouldn’t be on the list.

I’m going to state the obvious now and give “Old Man” Reynolds the overall win for this one, as he is old enough to have been born prior to the oil crisis, back when the Big Three were in full swagger and offered everything and anything with a V8.

In the battle for “First Loser” I think I have a slight edge on Lohnes, since as bad as 1984 was in terms of performance (205 horsepower CrossFire Injection Corvette, anyone?), 1980 was a pretty big stinker as well. In fact, I’m so confident that I’m going to start off my list with a K car…

11. Dodge Daytona Turbo
I’ll admit that it was a bit of a toss-up between the Daytona and the Chrysler Conquest/Mitsubishi Starion, with the Daytona winning out in spite of having “wrong wheel drive” solely because I want Brian to know that I used a K car and STILL was born in a better year than him. The turbo-charged 145 horsepower motor and decent looks (For the time; remember this was a period of Member’s Only Jackets and leg warmers) didn’t hurt either.

10. Jeep Cherokee
Ah, the good old XJ. While this is probably the least powerful and slowest vehicle on the list, I’m adding it in as 1984 was the first year of the XJ, and it really came into its own a few years later when the 4.0L inline-six was added as an available power plant.

I’ve got friends that go wheeling on a regular basis and swear by Cherokees over Wranglers, especially since they’re cheap to pick up. Sure, the ‘84 model year may be weak sauce compared to the later models, but know your roots, people.

9. Ford Escort RS Turbo/GT Turbo
You know it’s a bad year for performance when an Escort makes your list. Yes, it’s a tin can with four gerbils powering the front wheels, but hear me out: While the pedestrian Escort was a terrible vehicle, the 1.6L GT Turbo, and the even hotter RS turbo that our friends in the UK got to play with were actually kinda cool. 130 horsepower, five speed manual, and roughly 2000 lbs? I’ll take it.

8. Subaru BRAT
“Seriously, another furrin (Foreign) four cylinder vehicle”?  ‘84 was a REALLY bad year. Seriously though, BRATs can be a lot of fun, even with less than 100 horsepower. I mean, what other vehicle can claim that it has two plastic passenger seats in the bed (FROM THE FACTORY) and was once owned by Ronald Reagan? When I eventually buy a farm out in California, I’m getting a BRAT in honor of The Gipper.

7. Toyota AE86 Corolla
Listen, I swear that this list is not just crappy little Japanese vehicles and four-bangers; I’m just getting them out of the way early. I’m not totally sold on the AE86 myself, but if you were into the Japanese car scene in the mid nineties and/or obsessed with Initial D, this was the car to have and this particular chassis was introduced in 1984, so I’m going with it. Besides, it’s rear wheel drive, a hair over 2000 pounds, inspired the BRZ/FR-S twins, and has that 80’s “I’m so ugly I’ve gone through to the other side and reached this bizarre state of attractiveness” look. Sold.

6. Mercury Capri
I don’t think that the Capri gets enough love apart from the most diehard of foxbody aficionados, and I can see why: As much as the foxbody Mustang is a product of the 80s, the Capri looks like one of those paper cutouts of a Mustang where you print out a drawing on a piece of paper and slide tab A into slot B to make a miniature three-dimensional car; somehow they took a car that is basically a box on wheels and made it boxier. Still, I dig the look and appreciate them more for their relative rarity. The turbo version offered in ‘84 was no slouch, and if you wanted that V8 sound it was also available with a 5.0. The ASC McLaren version is pretty sweet looking to boot.

5. Ferrari 288 GTO
In terms of raw performance the 288 GTO should be much higher up the list, but your average man on the street would be thinking Pontiac and not Ferrari if you mentioned “GTO”, so that has to be accounted for. Still, the car is absolutely beautiful and had a zero-to-sixty time under five seconds, which was about as long as it took for the average Corvette owner in 1984 to realize that the light had turned green.

4. Ford Mustang SVO
There’s a whole bunch of hand-wringing around the 2015 Mustang being offered with a four-cylinder turbo, which I think it ridiculous in light of how cool the original turbo-charged four banger Mustang was, the SVO. Ain’t nothing wrong with rolling in my 5.0 (Did I really just quote Vanilla Ice?), but in 1984 the SVO had the 302 beat stock for stock. Besides the power figures, the SVO also received four wheel disc brakes and five-lug wheels before any other Mustang. Why is this higher up the list than the turbo-charged Capri? Because “SVO” is much cooler to say, that’s why. Oh, and it has a funky hood scoop. Chicks dig hood scoops.

3. Audi Quattro
What’s that you say? The Quattro came out in 1980, so this should be on Brian’s list? My sources tell me that it wasn’t available for sale in North America until 1983, and since I’m going first I’m calling dibs on this one. Good luck with your 1980 Camaro, Lohnes…

For all of my babbling about STIs and EVOs and how close they are to an AWD rally car for the street, the Audi Quattro was the granddaddy to that concept. Sure, the street going version only had about 160 horsepower, but just look at it! Seriously, it looks like it’s ready to tackle a rally stage even when parked on pavement. There’s a guy the next town over that is selling a ur-Quattro that needs bodywork for mid to high teens, and it takes all of my energy to not cash out part of my 401k every time I drive by it.

2. Buick Grand National
Are you really surprised that I saved a G-body for this far down the list? Sure, the ‘84 is a “hot air” car and not one of the nasty intercooled versions, but with its sequential fuel injection it was a portend of things to come for 1986 and 1987. Besides, 200 HP in 1984 was more than respectable, especially for a mid-sized family car, and if you’re really looking to turn up the wick all of the parts to intercool a Hot Air car are relatively easy to obtain.

1. Ferrari Testarossa
If I was born in 1987, the Ferrari F40 would be at the top of my list, however I was born three years earlier, so the Testarossa is the next best thing (This is like saying that Heidi Klum wasn’t available, so I had to settle for an older Elle Macpherson. Rough, huh?). I’m not even going to bother justifying this car any further. It’s a freaking Testarossa. I’m off to go raid my parents’ basement for a light colored suit and pastel t-shirt.

That’s my list of top 11 vehicles! I’m sure that I missed at least one vehicle from 1984 that didn’t completely suck, so let me know in the comments!