Man, who doesn’t love a powerful car? The more power, the more better, amirite? Even when all that’s required is basic transportation, a little extra oomph is appreciated. No one visits their mechanic and says “I’d like a little less out of the engine.” And rest assured, any salesman accompanying a starry-eyed first-time econobox buyer on a test drive will invite them to mash the pedal (once up to about 30mph or so) before offering a suitably impressed, “it’s pretty peppy, right?”
But woe to those who find themselves behind the wheel of a truly underpowered car. Merely not-powerful is disappointing, sure, but livable. A bonafide underpowered car, however, is true misery. Frustrated drivers in real cars whiz past you the moment you clear the on-ramp. Not only is the left lane off limits, so is the center lane. Even the right lane requires a sharp eye on the rear view mirror, lest you overlook an angry moped rider crowding your rear bumper. A steep hill on the horizon? Better mat the pedal now and build up as much momentum as you can.
Tell us about your underpowered-car experiences. If you suffered through stewardship of a malaise-era machine, you no doubt encountered some steel sleds boasting V8s with big cubes but precious few ponies. Or perhaps you commuted in a hatchback that, while lightweight, was very lopsided when it came to power to weight and rewarded you with great fuel economy and zero fun. Hey, at least you were speed-trap proof.
What cars, trucks, and/or motorcycles wheezed you to school or work with the bare minimum of muscle? Let’s hear those stories!
RHD 1967 Land Rover Series IIa 109 Dormobile camper. ~70bhp and 35 seconds 0-60 without all the extra weight of the camper conversion. It was a lot of fun, but also very, very, very slow. We drove as far north as Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and as far south as Key West, Florida and all very, very, very slowly.
1917 Stephens touring car. 30hp, 3200 lbs. Top speed 35mph downhill in a gale. Second place 1972 Fiat 500 – 1/2 liter of cute impotence.
1994 Saturn SL1. Passing on the highway was a multi-step process that began with turning off the A/C, followed by downshifting to 4th, flooring it, waiting forever to get up to the car’s maximum speed of 85mph, upshifting to 5th, and now being restricted to 84mph (83 if you turned the A/C back on).
I loved that car. Driving the hell out of it on back roads and learning to conserve momentum through curves taught me how to be a better driver. I also learned to drive stick in it.
1987 Audi Coupe GT 5 cylinder 5 speed. Did the quarter in 19 seconds at 71mph. Fell flat on its face after 4k rpm. Can’t even imagine how bad the 4 banger autos were.
Not necessarily underpowered, but highway geared. 1978 Thunderbird with 2 barrel 351 Windsor and 3 speed FMX transmission, 2.73? gears. Decent power and acceleration through first, then you hit second and all forward momentum just ceased.
Yep, my Cougar with almost identical powertrain (C4 auto instead of the FMX) had 2.50’s when I got it. later on I ‘upgraded’ to 2.75’s when the front pinion bearing went out in the original pumpkin.
Had a ’69 Beetle with an Automatic StickShift. Even if I went through the “low” gear, first, and drive, it was pitiful.
Stepping into the wayback machine, a hand me down 1968 VW fastback type 3 manual with fuel injection when I turned 15, after it sat broken down in a field for at least 5 years. Talk about patina and cracked plastic! When new it was a whopping 65 bhp. After tons of work just to get it running, maybe 50 bhp. Lived among rolling hills and it would stall at times up hill where you just have to pull over, catch a space, and start out in 1st. I DO NOT miss it. At all. Ever.
A 1966 Bus and it’s not close—and it even had some sort of later Beetle engine in it. It was slower than the Cushman I used for landscaping jobs. It goes without saying it was dangerous in traffic, though the turgid acceleration was really the least of its problems when there were other cars about.
I see a lot of people nominating the diesel Rabbits and let me tell you, the diesel Rabbit is a slow car. No doubt. But it still felt like a rocket ship next to the Bus
I get it, but it was the opposite for me since our Bus was a 1978 2.0 liter with a GRAND 67 horsepower. I think a Vanagon diesel is probably going to take the cake on this. Our ’82 Rabbit diesel was slow, but I cannot image the same engine in a Vavagon.
VW Vanagon Diesel Westy. 5000lbs dry and 48 hp. Couldn’t even go the speed limit going downhill
In case you’re wondering 0 to 60 didn’t happen
Have a late 1990 Westy but 2.1 injected WBX with 5speed manual. It’s OK (102 hp) – like, it can almost keep up with traffic as long as long hills aren’t involved but sort of gets about it as other drivers are weirdly OK with a weird old van compared to some other slow cars I’ve had.
as a millennial, I haven’t driven many older cars. So the slowest is probably my first car, a Volvo 240dl with the 4 speed auto.
but I have driven slower vehicles. As kid, I learned to sail and then raced optimist prams, which top out, on plain, around 10 kts in a stiff breeze.
1985 Renault Alliance. It had an 85 CI Iron-block, non-cross flow engine from a Jacobsen lawn mower. New it had a 0-60 of 15 seconds. At 250,000 miles, slow would be a generous description.
1986 Ford Escort.
Engine sounded like a sewing machine.
Pretty sure it had the power of one too. It was about 13 years old when I bought it, and the spritely 13s 0-100 km/h sprint from the factory was much closer to 20s when I owned it.
I drove it on the 401 once and nearly shit my pants from fear.
Had an ’82 Escort with the close ration 4-speed (.95 overdrive fourth) with air conditioning. Whenever the A/C compressor kicked on at 70mph I immediately slowed to 55mph. Being a glutton for punishment, I bought an ’87 Escort wagon with a 5-speed and TBI. Light years ahead of the ’82.
1984 Buick Skyhawk. My first car at age 16.
I’m convinced that the air conditioning used 3 of the 4 cylinders.
I’d totally forgotten about having to turn the A/C off before trying to merge onto a highway on a couple of my early beaters!
Driven – Mid 80s Chevette, could not get out it’s own way.
Owned. Defined underpowered. High Torque, low speed – 69 Ranger F-100. Low HP – 91 Escort GT.
My grandmother’s 1980 Mercedes 300SD–by the time I got my hands on it, compression was just about gone in the fifth cylinder, it smoked in a way that could not have been legal and could barely get to freeway speeds–but one of the joys of that car was that its combination of slow, heavy, and sure-footed made it so you could take any corner at any speed that you could get the car to achieve. All diesel, no brakes. Loved that car; want another one.
In high school (circa 98-99) I drove a ‘84 Cadillac Fleetwood, that I think we bought from a neighbor or something. It was an absolute boat, the electronics were a mess, and it was so great.
Anyway, it had a V8 that put out about 135HP, and it was so damn slow.
I loved that big stupid car.
I think my dad acquired an ‘90 Olds Cutlass Ciera at some point that was in much nicer shape, so we sold the Caddy. Neighbor kid wrecked it within a month. Damn shame…
The Cutlass Ciera was pretty nice though.
Mercedes 240D. Not just slow, but slow to respond. Didn’t even feel like it was trying.
In the early noughties I drove a 1984 Mazda 929 – 2.0l carburetted engine with 4-speed slushbox auto, trying to push around a heavyweight “luxury” Japanese barge.
After I grumbled about its gutlessness to my mechanic, the thing was dyno’ed as having 60hp AT THE FLYWHEEL – but I reckon that hateful auto took half of it, swirled it about and then forgot about it.
The worst was the first ten minutes of my commute in the morning. Until it got warmed up all that “power” seemed to be escaping out of the seals.
The digital speedo allowed me to precisely watch the acceleration on the freeway on-ramp, as the speed rose (in kilometres per hour) slowly enough to call out the numbers one-by-one – 65 <pause>, 66 <pause>, 67 <pause>
1982 Chevy K-20 with the 6.2 Diesel, about 135 hp for a two-ton truck. Even with 4.10 gears and a 4-speed it took about 24 seconds to hit 60 on level ground. Hard to believe they stuck that turd into slushbox Suburbans as well- they must have been absolutely glacial.
Friend in college drove one, 4×4 Suburban w/ the 6.2 diesel. Hit the gas and got only smoke, no acceleration. Spy Hunter! we called it. Had Chevy badging on the exterior and dash, plus a GMC horn button. Mid-eighties GM at it’s finest.
1979 Chevy Chevette. But, you could chirp the tires…by dropping it into second rapidly from high speeds. Well, relatively high. It was a Chevette after all. Didn’t contribute to it being underpowered, but it was at it’s best when my parents took the only overseas trip of their lives and Dad had to rig up the clutch with a pair of vice grips for me to drive while they were gone. What could possibly go wrong??
I still drive my 1962 FIAT 500D…eventually swapped the motor from the original 499cc to 594cc from a FIAT 126. Also have a stock Honda Motocompo when I feel the need for speed
Back in university, I worked at a place that had a fleet of delivery Chevettes which were predominantly older than I was, the only routine maintenance they got was a daily top up of whatever oil had burned off, and would only ever see an actual mechanic if they stopped running. Now, when running properly, they were adequate for around town usage – I was quicker than the constant stream of transport trucks coming off the Ambassador bridge, and that good enough. But when they weren’t properly warmed up or running right, they could barely move under their owner power, anything more than idling would stall it out. One of them could hit highway speeds from a dead stop, but trying to speed up from over 60km/h or so would just end in losing power.
Far from the same degree of underpowered, but I drove a bunch of prior-gen Equinoxes with the 2.4, and they’d struggle to get much better than low 20s MPG (I was seeing better out of Silverados and Traverses on the dame route).
‘95 Wrangler with the 4 cylinder. Slower than government bureaucracy, and NVH issues as bad as several tractors I own. My FIL has a ‘94 Ranger with the Lima that is so much smoother, it’s crazy to think Chrysler put together an engine this gutless and rough so late into the ‘90s.
my Smart Fortwo diesel… still have it . I recall the official 0-60 was about 23.8 secs.
So little power that I had to take a run at ramps so I could get momentum to avoid being rear-ended.
My London Taxi, 4000 lbs, 80hp, 2.7L Diesel, with 400,000 miles of city driving under under its wheels. Maximum speed on level ground is 70mph, max speed on a hill 25mph. 0-60 about 1 minute.
It makes my Model A feel peppy.