The five best car innovations of the 1980s

Carburettors phased out (1980s)

The carburettor had been a key component in the motorcar since Karl Benz built the first internal combustion-engined car in 1885. Its job was to mix fuel and air at the correct ratio for combustion, and remained the preferred method of doing so for a century, until it was decided times had to change.

During the 1960s and ‘70s, the US in particular was hell-bent on reducing the amounts of toxic pollution being produced by car emissions, and by the 1980s, regulations were in place that required the use of catalytic converters in all cars.

The converters required a more precise method of controlling the mix of air and fuel in the combustion process, and as a result, car makers were drawn towards the benefits of fuel injection. Fuel injection itself had been available in cars since the 1930s, and gradually became the de-facto method of combustion control as the carburettor was phased out in the 1980s.

Four-wheel steering (1984)

Now here’s an incredibly useful innovation. Four-wheel steering has various advantages: from improving manoeuvrability at slow speeds for things like parking and navigating city centres, to increasing stability at high speeds, especially when doing things like towing a caravan. 

Mazda was the first manufacturer to go all in with this clever new system, previewing its intentions in 1984 with the MX-02 concept car, before sending both the 626 and MX-6 out into the world in 1988 with electronic four-wheel steering systems. On paper, its benefits were obvious, and Peugeot built the 405 Turbo 16 that same year. It was the first rally car with four-wheel steering, and duly won at Pikes Peak on its first and second attempts.

It remained, and continues to be, a pretty niche idea that you won’t find on many mainstream models, but four-wheel steering has been seen on various models from Peugeot, Porsche (including the 911), Audi, Lamborghini and Ferrari.

MPVs (1984)

Did the 1980s see the dawn of the ultimate family car? The world was moving quickly, people generally had more money going spare and the idea of the family holiday was becoming increasingly attainable. But how would a family of five be able to hit the road with a week’s worth of luggage?

The mighty MPV – or people carrier –was the perfect answer, and the first two of these giant family wagons were introduced in 1984. The US had the Dodge Caravan, and Europe had the Renault Espace. 

The Espace was incredibly van-like in appearance but had huge windows and a cavernous interior with three rows of seats. It was designed and built by Matra, which we’re sure was a fact dropped by many an Espace owner, and after a slow opening month in which only nine were sold, the people carrier took hold and a small revolution took place on the car market, with MPVs becoming the family car of choice through the 1990s and early 2000s.

It took until the 2010s for the MPV to eventually be overthrown by SUVs as the world’s favourite family car. In the end, their reputation as boring boxes that were horrible to drive proved to be their downfall, and the Espace was withdrawn from the UK market in 2012.

Flux capacitor (1985)

In 1985, a certain Doctor Emmett Brown finally achieved his life-long goal and proved that time travel was possible with his invention of the flux capacitor. His car of choice for this unprecedented feat was a DMC DeLorean that he had modified into a time machine.

Brown, together with his friend Marty McFly, instigated the first successful test of the DeLorean time machine. It required that the car reach a speed of 88mph in order to activate the time travel system. These events were dramatised in the film series Back to the Future.

It's unclear as to what extent this technology is still used on modern cars, but we hope that one day we’ll be able to test it here at Goodwood.

CD players (1987)

If you were impressed by the dawn of cassettes in the 1970s, your mind will have been utterly blown when the compact disc arrived in 1982. The search for the perfect portability of our favourite tracks was in full swing, and CDs provided a huge advancement in how we listened to music. No more winding backwards and forwards to find your favourite tunes, CDs enabled you skip from track to track with the press of a button. Magic, there is no other explanation.

It seemed like a no brainer that CDs would make their way into cars, and it took until 1984 when Pioneer introduced the CDX-1, the first in-car CD player. Initial implementations were after-market players that would be located in the boot of the car, while it took until 1987 for the Lincoln Town Car to become the first car to be built with a CD player as standard.

Click to read our list of the six best car innovations from the 1970s.

Top image courtesy of Getty Images.