Italy, Germany and France give a truly pan-European flavour to our 1980s finalists, with Britain notable by its absence
The car industryʼs focus on front-drive engineering in the mainstream sector continued unabated throughout the 1980s. That was borne out by 22 out of the 30 top-three CotY cars through the decade being so driven, representing a near 80:20 split – figures that you could have pretty much reversed for finalists from the 1960s. Hatchbacks also underwent significant growth, with 20 of those podium-placing CotY cars having a fifth door. That wasnʼt confined to small cars, either, with the Renault 25 (second in 1985) and Ford Scorpio (CotY in ʼ86) bucking the trend for large, four-door saloons.
The 1980 European Car of the Year embraced both of those shifts. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Lancia Delta was presented as a premium small car at its Frankfurt show launch in 1979. Today, the base model is somewhat overlooked compared with the Deltaʼs HF and Integrale flag-bearers, which is a shame, given its original CotY success. Sitting below the mid-sized Beta in Lanciaʼs range, the Delta took the hard points of its Fiat-family platform from the Strada (which in turn had been developed from the 128).