If the Mazda-powered Argo was a scalpel and the Buick version a hammer, the 1986 Argo JM19 Zakspeed Turbo was a Formula 1-derived thunderbolt. This was the European theatre’s answer, a car built not for IMSA Lights, but for the brutal battlegrounds of the World Sports Car Championship’s Group C2. And it brought some serious, high-tech firepower.

The heart of this machine was a tiny 1.7-liter (later 1.8L) four-cylinder engine, but this was no ordinary four-pot. This was a fire-breathing monster built by Zakspeed, the German tuning legends famous for their silhouette racers and their own F1 team. Drawing directly from their Formula 1 engine program, this diminutive engine was force-fed by a massive turbocharger, unleashing a volatile explosion of over 530 horsepower.

It was an engine of staggering performance and terrifying fragility. On a good day, it was a giant-killer, a lightweight C2 car with the straight-line speed to harass the vastly more expensive C1 prototypes. The sound was a violent, high-RPM barrage, a stark contrast to the American V6’s rumble or the rotary’s wail. This was the dark horse, the exotic, and the ultimate expression of the “boost-it-til-it-breaks” 1980s turbo-era philosophy, wrapped in the proven, agile Argo JM19 chassis.