Let’s take a deeper dive into my cardboard box of old 35mm snapshots from my youth. Last week we looked at various sights along the highways and byways of California around my college years, now let’s go further back to my high school years. This would have been very soon after getting my license, and from that time on the Los Angeles Auto Show was on my must-do calendar for many years. I’m fairly certain this would have been the 1985 show, held in November of that year, but featuring many of the new 1986 models. I seem to have 19 pictures and a roll of film was 24 (and not cheap to buy or develop), so there were probably already five shots taken on the roll. Or I completely flubbed five at the show which could be the case as well. So here are the 19 for better or (admittedly in some cases) worse.
Leading things off above is a good one that many of you may not recognize. It’s the Nissan MID4, a concept that was a bit of a technological tour de force with a mid-engine layout featuring a quad-cam 24valve V6 (the VG30DE engine), all wheel drive, four wheel steering and all kinds of other tech. There was a lot of talk of Nissan planning to produce it but in the end it never happened. Still, this was one of the most exciting and talked about Japanese cars of the 80’s that has been a bit forgotten since. The engine went on to be used in the 300ZX and various other Nissans after the MID4’s cancellation along with much of the technology that was showcased within it.
Here is the Dodge Lancer Pacifica, a turbocharged version of Dodge’s mid-size Lancer with a special appearance package. I was suckered in by the all-white monochrome look which was definitely “a thing” back then for a few years. But I always found this design to be one of the more attractive domestic offerings of the day and a stark contrast to the very boxy shapes that Mopar was peddling otherwise. The Pacifica had a nifty little spoiler atop the rear window which along with the rest of the lower body kit set it apart from the regular Lancer Turbo. I may have found the lady attractive as well if I’m being perfectly honest.
This was my favorite of the show, an Audi Coupe Cabriolet concept. It looked completely production ready but Audi never did make it. I was a big fan of this FWD Coupe at this time and red with white wheels was probably my favorite color combo. Walter Treser, who was at one time heavily involved with Audi AG and the Quattro program, had gone on to form his own tuning company in Germany by this time and had developed a cabrio conversion for the Quattro, but having seen those cars, this one here is much more attractive. Mind you, they never showed this one with the top up and since the Coupe is really a fastback design, it may have looked hideous with a completely different roof shape. The 5000CS advertised by the huge sign is below in the background and not visible from this angle.
Heading over towards Mercedes-Benz, they had this wonderful 560SEC on display in a quite elegant color combination. It would be a few years (decades) until I had my own Mercedes but in the end the wait was worth it. This car always looked sleek and here it looks like it’s in motion even though it isn’t. Like Mercedes itself back then, a very elegant and classy display for its flagship coupe.
Down on the floor, an example of what Mercedes could do with perhaps their top button unbuttoned, the 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth. This car made quite an impression back in the day and I’d soon get to sample one as part of my valet job later that year. I remember the dogleg first gear position just as much as I recall the red-faced man that started screaming at me when I jogged back to the valet stand as he had apparently noticed me departing in his car at what he thought was an alarming and entirely inappropriate rate of acceleration.
Chevrolet. Live it! This was apparently their slogan this year and they had their Indy Pace Car in attendance. I’m not a particularly huge fan of the Corvette in general but for some reason I found it worthy of one of my shots. The convertible was new that year, right? Perhaps that was the attraction as I didn’t usually watch the Indy 500 either.
I was a bigger fan of the Fiero at this time (but still thought the Toyota MR2 was hands and feet above it in pretty much all respects), however here I am taking a picture of my best friend Ken in this GT version. There’s a T1000 in the background as well as what looks like a gold GrandAm (as well as another Fiero).
I must have started shaking with excitement when I saw the Saab 900 Turbo SPG in what looks like the Edwardian Gray color. Ken is again inside the car and I managed to take a pic of most of it. This one looks much better than the well-traveled example we saw in the junkyard a few weeks ago…
An absolutely horrendous shot of a great car, the Mitsubishi Starion Turbo, this one still excites me when I see examples on the street (or Craigslist). One of the seminal 80’s shapes for me along with the Celica Supra and the Porsche 944, when the Starion gained the wide fenders it looked just right.
I wouldn’t get my motorcycle license for several more years but I knew what I liked at the time and BMW’s K100RS was it. I never did end up with a BMW, either on two or four wheels, but certainly found it interesting. Check out the inline-4 engine laid completely on its side here.
As a huge Group B rally fan, I certainly couldn’t let the opportunity to see a Peugeot 205T16 rally car pass by without a picture. Seeing as there are no numbers or names on this one, it’s likely just a display car but exciting to see nevertheless. Peugeot really changed the game in Group B with the introduction of this car a couple of years earlier with its mid-engine layout and the way the whole rear body half just lifts up and off the chassis and really brought the fight to Audi and their Quattro at the time.
Peugeot also brought their Proxima concept car to the show. Keep in mind that in those days unless they had shown this stuff at other shows months earlier and one of the magazines had decided to cover it, this was all new material that nobody local had seen before, as there was no internet etc. Nowadays the “concepts” are usually nothing new by the time the shows roll around to anyone who is interested in them. There’s a 505 in the background as well.
I guess I really liked it but if I was at this same show today I’d be all over the gray 505 wagon to the right. In 1985 Peugeot was still doing alright in California at least and there was talk of bringing the 205 over. Of course, the only thing that ended up coming was the 405 and the whole thing fizzled out for good a few years later.
Ah, Porsche’s 959! What a stunner this car was. Why is everyone on the other side? Oh, it’s a cutaway, the really interesting view is over there, you can see how only half of the body is there. Still, I liked this side as well and even though I was standing managed to cut the front off. With a tiny viewfinder in my Vivitar it wasn’t as easy as it is now (but yes I should have managed better, back then you didn’t really know until the pictures come back…)
Tucked away without an easy way to shoot the whole thing was Lamborghini’s Jalpa, which I generally thought to be a nicer shape than the Countach. Maybe it’s the blocky fenders or the wheels but I’ve always liked this shape a lot, it’s just extremely 80’s but I still find it approachable. Somehow it weirdly reminds be of the Citroen BX4TC Rally car of all things which, if anything, is even more esoteric than this car (and when I saw an example of THAT car at the Lane Museum I thought of the Jalpa in return…
I used to know what this one is, bit have since forgotten and can’t figure it out. Any ideas? (Update: channaher corretly identified it as the Toyota FXV Concept of 1985 and included a link in his comment below. Thanks!)
This one is Buick’s Wildcat concept and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it since, perhaps at one of the meetup museums? Or a different automotive museum perhaps? Maybe I saw it at some other random display such as one of the Monterey Historics, rare weird stuff shows up in that area all the time during that week.
And now we come to Bob Tullius’ Group 44 Jaguar IMSA racer. This one too I think I’ve seen again, and most likely perhaps was at one of the Monterey races one of the years. At the time I was at this show though, I can’t fathom why I chose to photograph this over a lot of the other stuff that must have been there.
Sadly we’ve reached the tail end of my coverage of this show, so there is no more fitting way to end it than with this tail end shot. I hope you enjoyed this small sampling of what I saw at the show that year and if you were also there that year, you may well be somewhere in the background but I likely cut you off.
Cant say I liked the ’80s back in the ’80s, but compared to today, I want to go back. Thanks for sharing the memories, SHJ
I wondered what the Peugeot was doing there, and then remembered that they were still selling cars in the US in 1985.
Do you have photos from the previous year’s show? That’s where the Yugo was introduced!
The Starion wheels are one of my favorite designs ever, deep dish, nice flared split spoke shape, nice machined finish. Those were every bit as important as the flared body. It amazes me to no end that the Dodge Lancer was succeeded by the boxy Spirit, if it had composite headlights it would have looked as modern as the original Taurus, and frankly better.
I don’t disagree with you. The Lebaron GTS and Lancer represented the pinnacle of K car sedan styling, and was a very attractive design.
The aero look that the Ford Sierra, Merkur XR4ti and Taurus had, was setting a stronger design language for the future. It gave them an advanced look the Chryslers didn’t quite have IMO.
I really don’t see it as that different of a design from the Sierra. There are a few old world automotive details that hold it back from being truly forward looking, like the sealed beam headlights and non-flush glass, but the silhouette is not far off from a 5-door Sierra. If it had the same level of of aero update to address those details the 1987 Mustang got it would have pulled it off much better
Yes, and they could’ve given the LeBaron coupe the same front-end update for peanuts. A wagon was very close to being plug-and-play as well, but it would’ve been more clearly a tweaking of the original-flavor K cars.
I see you shot more to the exotic side of the automotive realm. The cars you may dream about before you go out and buy your average daily driver. Well that is Ok since nothing wrong with dreaming.
However, I do get enjoyment in seeing the basic cars of years past that the average driver and buyer bought. I’ve taken a strong liking to the Netflix show Mind Hunter which has a great selection of period cars in every episode. Heavily Ford as in Monarchs, Granadas, Mustang II, Fairmonts, LTDs of many years, Pintos, plus Bugs, Darts, a Gremlin, police Satellites and on and on.
Yes back then I was still into that stuff…now I wish I had more pics of a new 1986 Camry etc…Like you though I love Mindhunter and the cars they use. My favorite scenes include when they pick up a car at Hertz and there’s a row of Fairmonts…
Other great shows for the cars are The Americans as well as Halt and Catch Fire which is especially good if you grew up around the computer era. Both are also excellently written and acted shows.
Oh, the days before good autofocus and image stabilization! Of the vehicles pictured, I always had a soft spot for Mercedes 16V. Even knowing it’s competition genesis, not to mention growing up knowing of the legendary Grand Prix and LeMans racers of the pre-and post-war years, it just seemed so antithetical to my perception of Mercedes as either a slow diesel or a big luxury V8. And of course, I actually owned a 1985 BMW K100RS like the one in the photo, though mine was a slightly greenish silver, called Madison for some reason. I bought my MY1985 K bike just a few months after his show, in February 1986.
Boy does this bring back memories! That was me, except I had a 110 pocket Vivitar, and yes, even pocket camera film was expensive, as was developing at the local drug store. I went to the new car shows, as well as the custom car shows for many years with my brother and father. At the new car shows it was such a blast to sit in them, not the expensive cars like Cadillacs or MBs though, they were all locked up or cordoned off. As a young car nut, it was not just the cars, but the literature that was avail for later study. In the pic with the BMW motorcycle, there’s a young boy with a bag full of loot, I still have a box of those brochures, they could be worth something… Growing up in NYC, we saw the show first at The Coliseum near Columbus Circle, then later at The Javits Center, good pizza was always on the lunch menu. Those were the days…
We just saw the new British movie Blinded by the Light. Set in Luton, England in the 1980’s there an automotive industry backstory (Luton-Vauxhall-GM), some “unexceptional” period English cars as well as some good ‘80’s music, in addition to the Springsteen which sets the overall theme. The ‘80’s clothing and hairstyles are a bit exaggerated. Or maybe not.
What? No Buicks?!?!?
I will confess to being a fan of those monochrome Pacifica editions coming from Chrysler then. And at having been briefly in love with the Audi Coupe GT. Until I faced some budget realities and bought a VW GTI.
It is sobering to think about how old the attractive ladies would be now (says the guy suffering from the same condition).
The Buick Wildcat most certainly is a Buick unless you are expecting whitewalls and a gold package…
Interesting how similar our 80’s tastes align, especially since I also bought a GTI of the same generation as you…I think I had better luck than you with it or maybe it’s because mine was used and someone else got to fix everything first.
Great step back in time Jim!!
Nice trip back in time! I didn’t realize the Pacifica title existed before that big Chrysler SUV.
And blurry film pictures! Yikes now that’s a throwback. I vividly remember dropping the family film camera forcing us to finally upgrade to digital. Before that it could be weeks at least before we finally saw our pictures that were inevitably half blurry because my mom used cheap cameras and kinda stinks at photo taking. I have so many blurry and out of focus childhood photos.
Remember those dates that were printed on your photos (letting you know that your summer vacation snaps were shot on January 1, 1998)?
There was a Daytona Pacifica too, if I recall correctly it took over from the Chrysler Laser as the luxury G.
As I’m typing this, I’m in my ’84 Delta 88 and Huey Lewis’ “Power of Love” is on the radio. How can I not comment?
I went to the 1985 Auto Show in New York with my Dad at the old New York Coliseum. I vividly remember the 959 and Porsche was giving away little die cast 911s, which I used as a Monopoly token and still have. As a musclecar fan, I was all about the Grand National and Monte Carlo SS but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the Station and the 560SEC, but I cant remember the last time I saw either one.
Thanks Jim!
The RHD four-door you’ve forgotten turns out to be the Toyota FXV Concept of 1985.
Thank you! I will amend the text. After clicking your link I think I got the best angle in my shot… 🙂
I wonder how owners of under-powered and still fresh ’84 Fieros felt when they saw this ferrari-esque Fiero on the show floor. 🙂
I am a bit surprised Pontiac would have a lowly 1000, with styling over a decade old, placed so close to the Fiero concept.
Apologies to the Editor, if you could pull my last comment from the trash? I was logged in at the time.
Imagine if, while you and your friend Ken were standing around that Fiero and the rest of those flashy Pontiacs, someone had Approached you and said that 25 years in the future, Pontiac would be no more. People would’ve branded that naysayer as a lunatic, or worse.
But in the same vein, I can’t help but think how vehicles didn’t evolve all that much from 1985 to 2010, while the difference between 1960 and 1985 is startling.
I love these. I had many similar rolls of film developed from car shows about the same era, but all of those sadly disappeared during the Great Parental Purges.
Incidentally, teenage me had a somewhat closer meetup with Porsche 959s. Seven of them, to be exact. Unknown to nearly everyone, seven 959s were delivered to the headquarters of Porsche Motorsport of North America; they were supposedly ordered by (very) wealthy US customers who vowed to never drive them on public roads. They were held up on the Porsche property for weeks (or maybe longer) while the US government decided what to do about them. Ultimately, Uncle Sam decided they were too close to production cars, not race cars, and they were never permitted to be delivered to the customers.
At the time, my father knew someone who worked for Holbert’s Porsche-Audi in Warrenton, Pennsylvania (Porsche Motorsports was located in back of the dealership). He called Dad one day and said “Would you like to see some 959s?” Needless to say, we went right there. I was amazed that the 959s were just sitting there in an outside parking lot. I got to sit in one too.
If I was tasked with supplying music for the Lancer Pacifica display, I might have went with a looping instrumental version of ‘Is it Love’ from 1985 by Mr. Mister. Focusing on the 30 second intro. This song was popular as bumper music at the time.
It has that 80s light pop West Coast sound that would have suited the Lancer Pacifica.
The Buick Wildcat certainly previewed a number of 1990s styling trends.
Funny enough, on disparate ends of the spectrum I see C5 Corvette and the dustbuster minivans in it
Absolutely! In the wheel arch openings and fender contouring, I see ’94 Cavalier/Sunfire.
Plus some Chrysler ‘cab forward’ language.
I was at the ’85 LA Auto Show…. and it was not the first time I had seen the Nissan Mid4 concept vehicle…..
In November, 1984, we had purchased a new 1985 300ZX Turbo, and as a result, in the spring of 1985 I received an invitation in the mail from Nissan to visit an ‘invitation-only customer opinion event’ in Orange County (we also lived in O.C.) On display, and open for our examination were the Mid4 and some other competitor vehicles (unfortunately don’t remember the specific ones…) No driving, no engines running, just sit and give us your opinions. Can’t say I was particularly impressed with the Mid4…..passenger compartment was a little short on space, for one thing.