Picked up a Road & Track from 1986

[Chris142]

What kind of engine did you have in your 1978 Toyota truck?

I know the 1986 Mustang GT only had 200 hp, but I still love the car none the less. A friend had one. I would trade a brand new top of the line 2022 Mustang straight across for a brand new 1986 Mustang GT. The old push rod 5.0L high output makes a sound that's very pleasing to my ears. The Coyote 5.0 in comparison sounds horrible and to make matters worse, the kids around here take the mufflers off their new Mustangs.

It had the 20 r Toyota with a cam,hedder,Holley carb,ported etc Dynoed 190 hp at the wheels.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Hasn’t been all improvements.

 

[Hall]

The 70s were worse, with the advent of early emissions control hardware, and compromised engine tuning.

I was going to say something similar. Didn't it have more to do with the automakers simply didn't know how to meet emissions requirements and were learning as they went ? You had things like a '78 Corvette that had a whopping 150hp. Or, depending on your age, remember Magnum P.I.'s Ferrari 308 ? It looks great - I still love the look of that car - but had a little over 200hp.

 

[Carmudgeon]

I was going to say something similar. Didn't it have more to do with the automakers simply didn't know how to meet emissions requirements and were learning as they went ? You had things like a '78 Corvette that had a whopping 150hp. Or, depending on your age, remember Magnum P.I.'s Ferrari 308 ? It looks great - I still love the look of that car - but had a little over 200hp.

Yep, they were were forced to learn how to comply, and there were different approaches, none of which worked well in those early days.

It could be disheartening to see models in some markets have "full" power (yet still low), while those in the clean markets rated for even less, due to the controls. That played out on a country by country level, and domestically, by state, before there were "50 state" models.