I'm sure there was a 90mph variant of these which ran Paddington-Banbury services on introduction.
They were chronically unreliable and perpetuated the cramped WR 4-a-side compartment format.
They were quickly withdrawn.
156s for me. It still cheers me up to see one turning up instead of a 150 or Pacer.
Go anywhere, reasonably comfortable and a smooth ride, good view out, highly reliable, still going strong.
158s were problem children at the start (the last stock built before BREL was sold to ABB).
For me they are too cramped to have an inter-city ambience, though the recent ATW upgrade was nicely done.
I seemed to travel on a lot of Derby 108s in the early days in the north-west, far better than the push-pull steam they replaced.
But really most of the 1st generation were rubbish commuter trains and were put on unsuitable long-distance services (eg Manchester-Holyhead), because BR had run out of money to buy proper long-distance DMUs.
Not many votes for the Turbos I see, but they were a great improvement on the high-density and fume-ridden Thames 116s they replaced.