The Greatest Cars of All Time: The Seventies

Maybe best of all, the 308 was stunningly beautiful. Pininfarina drew a perfect, instantly glamorous wedge shape and didn’t add a single bad line. Forty-five years later, it looks barely aged.

Ferrari was a boutique shop selling big, expensive GT cars when the 308 joined the line. This model established the V-8-powered mid-engine sports car as the pure Ferrari, contemporary and cool. In the March 1977 issue, C/D presciently described the 308 as “modernity from Modena.” —John Pearley Huffman

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1976 Honda Accord

In 1976, amidst the doldrums of the decade of disco, there emerged a brilliantly sensible automobile: the Honda Accord. Set against an economy-car swamp infested with dismal rear-wheel-drive Chevy Vegas and Ford Pintos, the first Accord was beautifully engineered to balance practicality, value, and refinement better than anything before. While it was compact—about the size of today’s Fit—the original Accord was an industry blueprint for a small front-drive car that could excel on all fronts, which ultimately made it the sales powerhouse that would kick-start Honda’s mainstream standing in the U.S.

The ’76 Accord’s 1.6-liter inline-four was good for a measly 68 horsepower, but it sipped fuel and had to move only about a ton of two-door hatchback (the Accord sedan wouldn’t arrive until the 1979 model year). Honda’s clever CVCC combustion setup, pioneered on the Civic, helped the engine burn cleanly enough to pass an emissions test without a catalytic converter.

The Accord’s interior was comfortable, spacious, and thoughtfully organized. It also packed a lot of standard equipment for a $4000 car. Through the years, the Accord proved to be doggedly reliable as fuel-efficient transportation, yet it also could engage a spirited driver with its positive controls, nimble handling, and strong brakes.

“In one mad stroke, Honda has invented an automobile that appeals not only
to the vast middle ground of car buyers, but to both extremes of the spectrum as well, the ration­alists and the sports.” Those words from our May 1977 review ring true today. That the Accord has racked up more 10Best trophies than any other vehicle—34 since we started handing them out in 1983—speaks to the significance of the original’s founding virtues. —Mike Sutton

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1978 Porsche 928

Against the dark backdrop of 1978, the Porsche 928 was a supernova. Replete with the best components and engineering available—a fuel-injected and aluminum-block SOHC 4.5-liter V-8 making 219 horses, a rear-mounted five-speed transaxle, a semi-trailing-arm rear suspension designed to mitigate lift-throttle oversteer, 50-series Pirelli P7 performance tires, adjustable pedals, an instrument binnacle that moves with the steering wheel, Recaro seats, HVAC vents in the door panels, height-adjustable headlights, and an air-conditioned glovebox—the 928 could not have been less like the 911 if it were designed to drive on the moon.

The 928 ran to 60 in 6.4 seconds and could hit 144 mph in the days when a Corvette maxed out at 134. When automakers of indifferently built cars counted on buyers to be taken in by fake wood and opera lights instead of real substance, the 928’s incredible fit and finish gleamed in a way commensurate with its $26,150 price ($106,000 in 2020). The 928 might not have replaced the 911 as intended, but as is typical of Porsche, the company kept developing and evolving it, squeezing every bit of juice from it. When it burned out as the 345-hp 928 GTS in 1995, it was arguably the only relevant automotive artifact left from the ’70s. —Tony Quiroga

Previously: The Sixties

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