1981 Volkswagen Rabbit L Convertible

1981 saw the Volkswagen Rabbit get a facelift, receiving rectangular headlamps, except for the Rabbit Convertible, which was assembled in Germany by Karmann. Other than the Convertible, '81 VW Rabbits for sale in the US were made at the company's Westmoreland plant in Pennsylvania.

For the '81 model year the Rabbit got a bump in displacement to 1.7L. The SOHC 8V inline four had an 8.2:1 compression ratio and was rated at 74 SAE net horsepower. Buyers could opt for a four-speed manual with an overdrive 4th gear or a three-speed automatic.

When Car and Driver put a non-convertible '81 Rabbit with the 1.7L and four-speed manual combo through its paces, they got a zero-to-sixty time of 11.6 seconds and an 18.3 second quarter mile at 71mph. The hardtop ran out of steam at 91 miles per hour and presumably the heavier and less aerodynamic convertible, like this super-clean Mars Red example, would be slightly slower than those numbers across the board.

Base price for a 1981 Rabbit Convertible was $10,100, which is about $36k in current dollars.

This one was photographed in September of 2025 using an Olympus E-3 and a Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.

1981 Triumph TR8

In 1975 the TR6, a classically styled British roadster, was joined by (and eventually replaced with) the TR7, featuring wedge-shaped styling that was very modern and up-to-date for the Seventies. What was also up-to-date for the Seventies was the lump under the hood: a 2.0L SOHC inline four with a pair of SU carbs that wheezed out 92 horsepower in EPA-compliant trim. It was very Malaise Era.

For the 1980 model year, though, it received that classic automotive heart transplant: a V-8 swap.

Buick's 215 cubic inch all-aluminum V-8 had been designed to power their first compacts in the early Sixties (and was also used in the original Olds and Pontiac compacts) but it had been expensive to produce and was dropped after 1963. The design was purchased by Rover in 1965 and had shown up in MGs and Rovers since and eventually it found its way into Triumph's wedge.

While a few hundred hardtops (or "fixed-head coupes" in Brit-speak) were produced, nearly all TR8s were convertibles like the tatty Pendelican White one in the photos. While 1980 imports in the US mostly were carbureted cars making 133 SAE net horsepower, California cars... and all 1981 models ...got Bosch-Lucas L-Jetronic fuel injection and made 148 ponies, a respectable total at the time for a 2,620-pound roadster.

Other than decals, the only real giveaway that it wasn't a TR7 were the dual exhaust outlets out back. This was a view a lot of cars would see, though. Car and Driver's '81 test car managed an 8.1 zero-to-sixty time and a 16.2 quarter at 87mph, which would handily show its taillights to a 280ZX or 924 or any other car in its price class that wasn't a Corvette. Top speed was 117 miles per hour and the only really disappointing part of the performance envelope was the braking, because the tiny un-vented front discs and rear drums took 228 feet to haul the car down from seventy.

Price as tested was $12,325 in 1981 disco-bucks, which is $43,600 in 2025 dollars.

This one was photographed with a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens in July of 2025.

1981 Datsun 280ZX

While it sports the six-spoke 14" rims of a later Series II car, the B-pillar trim identifies this Light Brown Metallic Datsun 280ZX as Series I model from 1981.

This was the third model year of the S130 Z-car. Set apart from the earlier cars by its "X" suffix, the 280ZX was a plusher, more GT-oriented vehicle than the original Z.

Under the hood for 1981 was the Nissan L28E inline six, a 2.8L SOHC 12V motor with Bosch multiport fuel injection making 132 SAE net horsepower in North American trim and could be had with either a five-speed manual or a three-speed auto.

Road & Track tested an '81 280ZX with the GL (for "Grand Luxury") package and the three-speed auto. Hampered with the slushbox, the zero-to-sixty time was a Malaise Era typical 10.2 seconds and it took 18.1 seconds to clear a quarter mile, strolling through the traps at 80mph. It circled the skidpad at 0.76g and topped out at 111 miles per hour.

Price as tested, including the $1,704 GL package, $295 automatic transmission, $635 a/c unit, and $600 t-tops, came to $13,133, which comes to about $46,500 in 2025 dollars. 

North of the Ohio River, up here in road salt country, a Z-car in this condition is an uncommon sight. The drivetrain is the next thing to bulletproof, but they'll rust in front of your eyes.

This one was photographed in September of 2017 using a Ricoh GR Digital 2.

1981 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Coupe

Dating this Azure Blue Firemist Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Coupe is made easy by the fender badge, which denotes that it had Caddy's V-4-6-8 engine.

While cylinder deactivation isn't especially uncommon now, it was pretty radical back in the days when even really powerful computers still had their memory measured in kilobytes.

The 1980 Caddies had been using the 368 cubic inch L61 V-8, which was the older 425 cube motor with the bore reduced to 3.8 inches. The stroke was left at 4.06", which made for an undersquare tractor motor that got better gas mileage. It was fuel-injected on the front wheel drive Eldos and Sevilles, but the RWD bodies still used Rochester Quadrajet carbs.

For 1981, Cadillac added a complicated cylinder deactivation system that would use solenoids to lock the rocker arms on the deactivated cylinders, creating the 140bhp L62 V4-6-8. Now using throttle body injection on all models, it would theoretically use all eight cylinders for accelerating, six for normal around-town driving, and only fire on four cylinders for interstate cruising.

Car and Driver tested an '81 Sedan de Ville with the V4-6-8 and got a zero-to-sixty time of 11.6 seconds and oozed through the quarter mile in 18.4 seconds at 74 mph. Top speed was 101 and the brakes... 11.7" vented discs up front and drums in the back ...took 233 feet to haul the 4240-pound barge to a stop from 70.

The V4-6-8 motor was a public relations nightmare. It had almost no practical effect on fuel economy (The EPA rating of 15 MPG City, 25 Highway was identical to the the previous year's car) and received thirteen programming upgrades in its sole model year of retail sales, and would probably be remembered as the crappiest artifact of the Malaise Era if it weren't for the fact that Oldsmobile's 350 Rocket Diesel had been an even bigger disaster.

Fortunately, the whole system could be disabled by disconnecting a single wire, which this one has almost certainly had done since the driver does not appear to be gnawing on the steering wheel while shedding tears of impotent rage.

This one was photographed with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and EF 24-105mm f/4L zoom lens in February of 2024.

1981 Volvo 240 GLT Turbo Wagon

By 1981, Volvo had been selling their buttoned-down, sober Swedish sleds in the US for a couple decades. Unless you were into niche motorsports like ice racing or rallying, they weren't generally anybody's idea of sporty cars, either, but for the '81 model year, the Swedes slipped a cheater card into their hand.

Starting that year you could order the four cylinder in your 200-series Volvo with a turbo bolted to it. The turbocharger took the B21F 2.1L SOHC four cylinder from 107 SAE net horsepower and bumped the output nearly twenty percent, to 127 horses (and becoming known as the B21FT in the process.)

That 127 horsepower figure may seem paltry to modern ears, but anything with a three-digit total was doing okay there in the worst part of the Malaise Era. It handily outmuscled the 116hp 2.8L inline six in a Toyota Celica Supra and the 118hp 255 cubic inch V-8 in a Mustang Cobra.

Road & Track tested an '81 GLT Turbo sedan and got a zero-to-sixty time of 10.2 seconds and a quarter mile of 17.5 at 79mph, both figures shaving a full second off the time for the normally-aspirated car.

The GLT package also came with sporty Pirelli tires on five-spoke alloy wheels, a tasteful chin spoiler, and beefier roll bars front and rear to bolster a stiffer suspension. Other than the wheels and a couple little "Turbo" badges, there was no external cue to let the Celica Supra or 924 driver in the next lane know he was about to have a really embarrassing day.

This Richelieu Red '81 GLT Turbo wagon was photographed in July of 2020 using a Nikon D7000 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens.

1981 Lincoln Continental Mark VI

Ford went through the Oil Crisis of '73-'74 with the Lincoln Continental Mark IV as its flagship car, a nineteen foot long coupe weighing most of two and three quarters tons, powered by a 460cid V8 and which struggled to top 8 miles per gallon. It was replaced with the even-longer-but-lighter Mark V.

When the next oil crunch, triggered by the Iranian revolution, hit in late 1979 however, it arrived at the same time as a newer, smaller Continental Mark at the top of the Ford heap.

Debuting in autumn of 1979 as a 1980 model, the new Lincoln Continental Mark VI was almost a foot shorter and a quarter ton lighter than the car it replaced.

Where the final year of the Mark V had been powered by a 2bbl 400 cube V8, the newer car came with either a throttle-body injected 302 or a 351 Windsor with a 2-barrel Motorcraft carb. Since both motors were rated at 140 net horsepower (the 351 gave a slightly higher torque output at lower revs) and it was the middle of a gas crisis, few 351 cars were sold and it was dropped after the 1980 model year. Incidentally, this was the debut of fuel injection on Ford's 5.0L small block.

Motor Trend tested a 1980 Continental Mark VI coupe with the 351 V-8 and recorded a zero-to-sixty time of  11.1 seconds and an 18.1second quarter mile at 76 miles per hour. Observed fuel economy was a hair shy of 23 MPG.

Ford had intended to downsize the Mark more radically than they did by moving it to the Fox compact sedan platform used by the Fairmont and Mustang, but financial constraints meant that the Mark VI would be built on the new full-size Panther platform along with the regular Continental and the Town Car (as well as more pedestrian FoMoCo products like the LTD), which is why there was a Mark sedan for the first time since the label's revival in 1969. The Fox-platform Lincoln didn't happen until the Mark VII debuted for the '84 model year.

The car in the photo is an '80-'83 Lincoln Continental Mark VI sedan in Bright Red.

The top photo was shot in November of 2023 using a Nikon 1 V2 and the 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 lens, while the bottom photo was taken in September 2023 with a Canon EOS 7D and an EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS zoom lens.

1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup

From 'Murrica, with love... 

It was actually Volkswagen of North America, operating from their short-lived and ill-fated Westmoreland, Pennsylvania plant who came up with the idea for an El Camino-esque minitruck based on VW Rabbit mechanicals. In fact, all the ones sold overseas were built in Pennsylvania until a second assembly line was stood up at VW's South African plant.

In the same way U.S.-market Rabbits can be told apart from world market first generation Golfs by their square headlights, so too can their pickup truck variants.

Originally, under the hood you'd find either a 1.7L SOHC fuel injected inline-4 with 78 horsepower or else a 52 horsepower 1.6L diesel. The gasoline-engined ones had a 4-speed manual while the diesel added an overdrive fifth gear. 

By being produced in their Pennsylvania plant the Rabbit Pickup avoided the "Chicken Tax" import tariffs born by imported light trucks that required odd workarounds like being imported without their beds attached, or the jump seats bolted in the beds of Subaru BRATs.

The stance on the truck in the photo, snapped in August of 2024 using a Nikon D2X & 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G DX zoom lens, indicates that this one likely has way more than 78 horses under the hood, a supposition supported by the rorty exhaust note it emitted.

1981 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Here's a sinister-looking murdered-out 1980 or '81 Chevrolet Camaro Z28.

The factory motor would have been a 350cid LM1 V8, rated at 185bhp in 1980. The '81 model year introduced new emissions controls that dropped the horsepower rating to 175.

1981-1983 was probably the absolute low point of automotive performance in the US. The lardy 175-horse 3500-lb boulevardier 1981 Z28 would have squared off against its rival from Dearborn, the Mustang. For the '81 Model year, the top version of the Mustang was the Cobra, with lots of decals and aero doodads.

The Cobra was 900 pounds lighter than the Z28, since the latter was riding on an eleven-year-old platform* that had been designed when Sunoco high test was 35 cents a gallon and CAFE regs were half a decade in the future, while the Mustang was on its third model year of the then-new Fox body. However the top performance motor for the Mustang was the anemic 255cid V8 that sipped gas through a dinky Motorcraft 2bbl carb and only spit out 120 horsepower.

Basically even though the Camaro had been reduced to a plush-bottomed shell of its former wild-eyed glory, it'd still maul the dismally-underpowered Mustang. Those tables wouldn't turn again until Ford stuffed a Holley 4bbl 5.0 under the hood in '83.

Considering that they sold a blue million 2nd Generation Camaros over the eleven-year run of the body style, you don't see a ton of them on the street. I'd wager that rust got a bunch and telephone poles got a bunch more.

This one was snapped in March of '23 with a Nikon D2X & the versatile 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VRII zoom lens.

*This resulted in an odd situation on Chevy lots in the late-'70s/early-'80s in that the Chevy Malibu, their bread-and-butter midsize sedan, and the Monte Carlo "personal luxury coupe" had already gone through a round of downsizing and thus had the same length wheelbase and were actually a couple hundred pounds lighter than the "sporty 2+2" Camaro.