Iconic cars of the 1990s driven, from Renault Clio 16v to Ferrari 355 – car pictures of the week
In the latest issue of evo magazine, we go back to the 1990s on the finest Welsh roads with a selection of iconic youngtimers
Our journey through the golden eras continues with a trip to Wales and a lunge forward in time, to the 1990s, by which time the healthy babbling brook that was the performance car market of the decade prior, had progressed into a raging foaming torrent.
The cohort of machines selected for this rose-tinted gaze back in time would have passed through the Performance Car magazine car park and indeed, featured in the earliest issues of evo. Now they’ve returned for issue 335 some 27 years on.
The 1990s produced cars with more curves than the decade before – just look to the Lotus Elise and TVR Griffith, bastions of the revitalisation of British sports cars during this decade. Novel, though, was the steroidal Subaru Impreza with its rally-spec drivetrain and warbling flat-four motor. Cars of its ilk opened our eyes to new dimensions of driving thrills and how the states of grip and slip can be manipulated.
The Clio 16V arguably carried on the good work of the Peugeot 205 GTI we so adored during our ‘80s test. The two were sold alongside each other for a good few years in the early 1990s - lightweight, analogue unimpeded. On the other end of the scale, the 355 is a ‘90s icon and an icon of Ferrari, symbolic of the firm’s return to standard-setting form as a titan of contemporary style and engineering. When else have you hankered for the villain’s car more than the hero’s other than in Goldeneye?
Then we have our control car, the 996 generation Porsche 911. As intended, it encapsulates the 1990s perfectly. Like decade, like car, great change was afoot with new technology and a refreshed outlook not totally erasing what made the cars and times that came before so great.
They were the best of times but were these the best of cars from evo’s history? You’ll have to read the full test in issue 335 (still on shelves and available online from the evo shop) and indeed, the upcoming tests looking at the following decades, for the conclusive verdict.
