The Most Iconic Cars of the 1980s

I don't think any other era can touch the 1980s when it comes to iconic cars. This is a pretty easy list to put together, but also tough at the same time, as a few favorites had to be left out. 

Honorable mention goes to the Spaceballs Winnebago and Cousin Eddie's RV from Christmas Vacation

 This era gave us some of the coolest, and most memorable cars in pop culture history.

10. The Bluesmobile

From the iconic Blues Brothers movie, the Bluesmobile was actually a 1974 Dodge Monaco. Dan Aykroyd chose the car as he believed it was the hottest of all cars used by the police in the 70s. 

He also gave it a Canadian twist by making the license plate read BDR 529 which was a tribute to the Black Diamond Motorcycle riders club in Toronto.

They used 13 different cars over the course of the filming and most were former police cars used by the California Highway P

9. Ferrari 250 GT California

You may not recognize the name, but you'll recognize this red car from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The 250 was a pretty iconic car and came out in 1961. What's remarkable about this car is that there were only around 100 of them ever made.

So here's the ugly truth about the 250 GT from the movie: it wasn't a real Ferrari at all. The vehicle they used was a 1985 Modena GT Spyder. 

This was basically just a replica car that Ford fitted with a fiberglass body that resembled a Ferrari 250 GT.

They made three for the movie and one of them would end up being restored and auctioned off in 2018 live on NBC. The Car went for around $375,000. 

No one is sure what happened to the other two, but one was just the fiberglass body that was destroyed by Frye in the movie.

8. The Griswold Family Station Wagon

Nothing gets more iconic than the four-wheel-drive sled owned by the Griswolds. So this is actually a unique car created just for the films.

 In the National Lampoon world, this station wagon is a Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon. They based the design on a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire.

It was meant to mock all those giant, wood-paneled family station wagons that littered the roads in the 70s and 80s. 

They took it up a notch as designer, George Barris, went over the top with the wood and the avocado green metallic paint scheme.

You might not have noticed, but the car has 8 headlights. It's hard to tell by looking, but some other details include the grille area being largely covered by the bodywork of the car, the fuel filler cap in the weirdest position, and the airbag is made of a trash can liner.

7. Ecto-1

You may have this higher on your list, but I put the Ecto-1 down a bit because it seemed more like a toy than a car. But it's still an iconic 1980s car.

So the Ecto-1 is a hybrid car, both in the movie and in real life. In real life, the vehicle used for it was a 1959 Cadillac.

 In the context of Ghostbusters, the Ecto-1 started as part hearse and part ambulance. Dr. Ray had found the vehicle when he had mortgaged his mother's house to buy the firehouse for the Ghostbusters office.

His mechanical skills allowed him to repair the hybrid vehicle to turn it into what was essentially a company car. But besides the mechanical changes needed (in the movie's context), the Ecto-1 needed to be fitted with supernatural features including:

• Muon Scrubbers
• Radio GPS locator
• High-Intensity microfoams
• EMF scrubbers

The Ecto-1 remains not just one of the most iconic pop culture cars of the 1980s, but one of the most famous vehicles in film history.

6. The Batmobile

The Batmobile just makes the cut for one of the most iconic cars of the 1980s coming in during 1989. We hadn't had a Batmobile since the campy Adam West version of the 1960s.

But the Batmobile came back in a BIG way thanks to Tim Burton. This was a mind-blowing car for a kid in the 80s as all we knew was the cartoony one we saw on TV or had the toy version of. 

The new Batmobile was as badass as it could get and was like an armored tank.

You obviously can't walk into a dealership and buy a Batmobile, so Anton Furst created the one used in Batman and Batman Returns. It was designed on a Chevrolet Impala chassis.

Simulated specs on the Batmobile say the super aerodynamic design means it could hit speeds of 330 mph. The fictional aspects of the Batmobile allowed it to turn with a grappling hook and jump among many other features. 

Based on the movie, the Batmobile is said to be able to go from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds which would get it beat by a Tesla today, but that held up pretty well in the late 80s.

And it could shoot rockets.

4. The A-Team GMC Van

All of these cars are cool, and the A-Team van is no different. This is another iconic 1980s car that I had a toy version of - and it was amazing.

I think what made the A-Team van so significant was how simple it was - but still looked badass. The black and red paint scheme gave it a definable look, and the spoiler on the back end made it stand out more than just a van.

The van used is actually called a GMC Vandura, which is a pretty awesome name. It's a simple black and grey metallic van, but the red striping and spoiler were all that it needed to become iconic.

What's interesting is that there were only 6 of these made for the show. In the first season, the GMC logo on the front and back was pretty prominent but then was blacked out from season 2 onward.

There were a few continuity errors as they needed a sunroof for some scenes, but then in other episodes, no sunroof appeared on the vehicle. The A-Team van is one of the most iconic in TV history and they have featured one of the surviving vans at the New York International Auto Show.

3. The General Lee

These cars are of course cool, but there was nothing cooler than seeing Bo and Luke Duke slide over the hood and jump through the windows to get into the General Lee.

The image of the General Lee is a little problematic now but is still one of the most iconic cars of the 80s - and of all time. The "General" is a pretty old car. 

It's a 1969 orange Dodge Challenger. With a painted 01 on the side door, this car could defy gravity and survive giant cliff and ramp jumps.

The origins of the General come from the old bootlegging days which is where the origins of Nascar come from. Back in the times of prohibition, bootleggers would run moonshine in souped-up cars so they could outrun the cops (the basic premise of the Dukes of Hazzard).

Then The bootleggers would brag about how fast their cars were and would end up racing each other to see who was the fastest and Voila! Nascar was born.

They based the General Lee on the car of a famous bootlegger named Jerry Rushing. Rushing named his car "Traveller" which was the name of one of Lee's favorite horses.

They also gave the name Traveller to the car in the movie Moonrunners, which is all about bootleg liquor, and this movie is what evolved into the Dukes of Hazzard TV series.

2. KITT

I keep using the word cool here, but how can anything be cooler than KITT and Knight Rider? This show blew my mind as a young kid and the black Pontiac Trans Am that was used as KITT could not be any more iconic.

To make Knight Rider memorable, the car had to be epic. KITT started out as TATT: Trans Am Two Thousand before becoming Knight Industries Two Thousand.

KITT went through a ton of changes and design over the four-year course of Knight Rider. It started as that simple F-bodied Trans Am, but with a few alterations. The one big change was the LED display on the front, which just made it even cooler.

Apparently, Pontiac eventually didn't want any mention of KITT being a Trans Am. they would use Four main cars with various alterations over the course of the show. 

There is talk that the first Trans Am from 1982 cost the show $100,000 to put together. It was also said that the next versions only cost around $18,000.

Fun Fact: KITT was created by the same George Barris who gave us the Griswold family station wagon and he also created the original Adam West Batmobile and the Munsters Koach.

There's so much more to cover about KITT and Knight Rider, but we've got to move on. Fortunately, I have a blog all about the show and the iconic car right here.

1. The Delorean

Could there be any other? The Delorean is not only the most iconic pop culture car from the 1980s but the greatest car in movie history. The Delorean is as much a character in Back to the Future as Marty and Doc.

The Delorean itself is a pretty amazing story on its own. I have a blog all about the rise and rapid fall of the Delorean right here, but let's look at a few highlights.

John DeLorean was the man behind the Delorean who was either crazy, or a genius, or both. Before Back to the Future, there was a lot of hype about the new, all-steel body, futuristic car that was being released by a brand new company.

It had gull-wing doors and looked like it would be faster than hell. But it was pushed out way too fast. When it was released in 1981, it just wasn't ready for the market.

 The quick production led to many performance issues as many people who had never worked in the automotive industry before put together it.

The Delorean was slow, unresponsive, and not comfortable to ride in. And what was supposed to be an affordable sports car, became more and more expensive for something that just wasn't worth it. 

The rest of the story involved John DeLorean trafficking cocaine to try to make up for the losses as they only sold 6,000 cars.

But then a cool time travel movie came out that would make the Delorean one of the most iconic cars in history.

So the Delorean on its own is not great, but when fit with a flux capacitor -- it transforms into the best pop culture car of all time.