The 1980s was the decade of some of the most important events in recent history – the fall of the Berlin Wall, the launch of the first personal computer, and the Chernobyl disaster, just to name a few. This was not a very good era for the American auto industry, as it faced poor quality control, increased import competition and a severe economic downturn. Most European automakers left the North American market in the late eighties, but on the other side of the large pond some of the greatest hot hatches were born.
Late Brake Show on YouTube recently visited Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. This is where an amazing collection of 1980s cars resides and you might expect to see them in a large, shiny building. In contrast, the Mark Holland collection featured in the video attached at the top of this page is in an old, rusty barn. That’s not to say the cars were abandoned and this is by no means a barn find. In fact, these are all very healthy sports cars that are driven regularly.
The 1980s hot hatch collection wouldn’t be a proper collection without two small hatchback segment icons. Of course, we are talking about the Peugeot 205 GTI and Renault 5 Turbo and these are the first two engines shown in the video. Two facts hit us at this clip – the owner of the collection has owned 14 Peugeot 205s in his life and he has spent a fortune restoring a Renault 5 Turbo.
Immediately behind the two French women were two other interesting cars. On the left is a silver Volkswagen Corrado VR6 and next to it is a blue MGF. Of course, with these two cars, we’re moving into the 1990s era, but there are a lot more ’80s cars in this collection. It also featured several hot hatches from the early 2000s, such as the Mini Cooper S JCW and the Renault Twingo RS. But if you really want to focus on the 80s and 90s gems, you have to jump to the 13th minute. There’s plenty to see as the collection currently includes around 25 vehicles.
