Another Popular car of the 80’s was the Chevy Camero IROC.

Commercial link:
https://youtu.be/pB-AgikWZhs

And this one. I have been very fortunate to be able to build my dream car.

In the early eighties there was a T shirt I saw for sale that said "The eighties - slow cars, fast women!"
The IROC was one of the early signs the Detroit was finally figuring out how to make a little horsepower while remaining smog legal. As you can see in this chart, the seventies were a dark age for horsepower. After the performance peak in 1970 it took twenty three years to best the performance numbers of the '70 Z/28.

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:13:

And this one. I have been very fortunate to be able to build my dream car.

Nice. I had a Tremec five speed in my '67 Camaro. I was an early adopter - the transmission had to be modified for Chevrolet applications by the company that was selling them in the late nineties. It was a huge improvement over the Muncie four speed that it replaced.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:30:

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:13:

And this one. I have been very fortunate to be able to build my dream car.

Nice. I had a Tremec five speed in my '67 Camaro. I was an early adopter - the transmission had to be modified for Chevrolet applications by the company that was selling them in the late nineties. It was a huge improvement over the Muncie four speed that it replaced.

Growing up, I was always annoyed how the Camaro and Firebird repeatedly smacked around the Mustang. I did love the Firebird, though. Here's my WS6 from '98. I regret selling it.

I was torn between the Camero IROC and Mustang 5.0 Convertible.
I was out shopping for a Mustang one day when I saw a Guards RED Porsche with beige interior.
It was immaculate and the price was right.
So I ended up buying the Porsche and I was very happy with it because I got a great deal on it.

Its NOT what I initially set out to buy but it was a gem I could not pass up.

How can this not be everyone's favorite car?

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:40:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:30:

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:13:

And this one. I have been very fortunate to be able to build my dream car.

Nice. I had a Tremec five speed in my '67 Camaro. I was an early adopter - the transmission had to be modified for Chevrolet applications by the company that was selling them in the late nineties. It was a huge improvement over the Muncie four speed that it replaced.

Growing up, I was always annoyed how the Camaro and Firebird repeatedly smacked around the Mustang. I did love the Firebird, though. Here's my WS6 from '98. I regret selling it.

The Camaro only exists because of the Mustang. When the Mustang came out, GM thought they had the market covered with the Nova and the Corvair. Then Mustang sales went through the roof and GM decided they had to come up with something. The Chevrolet Nova was scheduled for a major upgrade in 1967, but they instead just updated the sheetmetal, and borrowed the engineering work that had been done to make the Camaro (the new Nova wasn't released until 1968, and both the front and rear suspension were identical to that of the Camaro).

GM wanted to get into the Trans America racing series with the Camaro, so the SCCA bent the rules a little; to homologate a car, there were supposed to be 1,000 built, but they only made 602 Z/28s in 1967, so they allowed them to count the SS350. They did very well in the series once they worked out the bugs inherent in running a production car on a race track (they also cheated a little). The Z/28 was created specifically for the Trans Am series - they didn't even bother coming up with a name, Z/28 was the regular production option code, and they didn't advertise it much the first year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u-ez8zZ_No

Shagittarius wrote on 2022-08-12, 22:29:

db9.jpg

How can this not be everyone's favorite car?

It's very pretty, but (for me at least) it's a bit like pining for a super model.

so responding to the OP, I used to own a 320i when I was 19. It wasn't new, was 9 or 11 years old. It had some issues, first a couple of fuel injectors got clogged, but they were dirt cheap, 25$ about. I had a mechanic who specialized in foreign cars. Then one day I decided to lay on the hood. Smoke started coming out! A bunch of wires got fried, but it was still driveable, I managed to drive it~15 or so miles to the mechanic. He taped up the wires, I supposed spliced some together. Then in the winter it started spurting oil, strait up, like a geiser. Never got to take it to the mechanic, dad told me "just drive it home". The engine seized a few blocks from the house. I still got a grand for the car. This was in 1988.

I really did like the car. Paid 4500$ iirc. It was sort of a yellow cream color. My friends thought I got it just to impress women. Truth be told I just always liked BMWs. The Bavaria/2002s were very appealing to me. I suppose they fetch a premium these days. I think the BMWs have become much more complicated, and hence are prone to problems and are unreliable. My 2 neices have some X series suv things. For now I'm sticking w/GM.

I can't remember what engine was in my BMW, obviously it had 4 cylinders. I'm thinking the 500s of that period had strait 6s, like a chevy van. Not sure.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-08-12, 23:11:

The Camaro only exists because of the Mustang. When the Mustang came out, GM thought they had the market covered with the Nova a […]
Show full quote

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:40:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:30:

Nice. I had a Tremec five speed in my '67 Camaro. I was an early adopter - the transmission had to be modified for Chevrolet applications by the company that was selling them in the late nineties. It was a huge improvement over the Muncie four speed that it replaced.

Growing up, I was always annoyed how the Camaro and Firebird repeatedly smacked around the Mustang. I did love the Firebird, though. Here's my WS6 from '98. I regret selling it.

The Camaro only exists because of the Mustang. When the Mustang came out, GM thought they had the market covered with the Nova and the Corvair. Then Mustang sales went through the roof and GM decided they had to come up with something. The Chevrolet Nova was scheduled for a major upgrade in 1967, but they instead just updated the sheetmetal, and borrowed the engineering work that had been done to make the Camaro (the new Nova wasn't released until 1968, and both the front and rear suspension were identical to that of the Camaro).

GM wanted to get into the Trans America racing series with the Camaro, so the SCCA bent the rules a little; to homologate a car, there were supposed to be 1,000 built, but they only made 602 Z/28s in 1967, so they allowed them to count the SS350. They did very well in the series once they worked out the bugs inherent in running a production car on a race track (they also cheated a little). The Z/28 was created specifically for the Trans Am series - they didn't even bother coming up with a name, Z/28 was the regular production option code, and they didn't advertise it much the first year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u-ez8zZ_No

Yes, I was referring to the beatings the Mustang usually took during the 80's and 90's (when I was but a wee lad). You have the Corvette L98 350 dropped into the Camaro/Firebird, and the TPI HO 305. And don't forget the monster Turbo T/A Anniversary 3.8L borrowed from the Grand National (granted it was very limited in availability). It seemed like up until the 4.6L Cobra (and even the first one was a dog, relatively speaking), the Mustang kept getting slower and slower and the Camaro/Firebird kept getting faster and faster. And then once '93 4th generation hit, things really took off for the Camaro/Firebird with the LT1, LT4 (limited), and the LS1.

Otherwise, very interesting information, certainly.

What was fun driving a V6 minivan in the late 90s was the number of those late 70s through mid 80s godawful output V8 Camaros still around and V6es in those and Mustangs up to 2000 that were pretty feeble too, on paper some of them had more HP than my minivan, but the hilarious thing was some of those "sportscars" oughtweighed my van by 500lb also. Anyway, I'd keep an eye out for them and leave them standing at lights just to enjoy laughing my ass off to myself. If one of them was a sleeper that actually had work done, oh well, what they gonna brag about, beating a minivan 🤣

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-08-13, 02:10:

What was fun driving a V6 minivan in the late 90s was the number of those late 70s through mid 80s godawful output V8 Camaros still around and V6es in those and Mustangs up to 2000 that were pretty feeble too, on paper some of them had more HP than my minivan, but the hilarious thing was some of those "sportscars" oughtweighed my van by 500lb also. Anyway, I'd keep an eye out for them and leave them standing at lights just to enjoy laughing my ass off to myself. If one of them was a sleeper that actually had work done, oh well, what they gonna brag about, beating a minivan 🤣

When I worked rental, I used to love to drive the Ford Aerostar XLT.. that minivan was ready to tip over at every curve... Good times, heh..

Heh, that one was pretty much a Ford Ranger with more cabin and glass perched on top of it. I might probably have done somethng nutty if I had had the spare cash and garage space, Buick blower setups in a TransSport or LS1 swap an Astro etc.

"The Camaro only exists...". The Camaro is one of the most successful and well built autos of all time. I don't see any logic in GM having Ford to thank for it.
Did Ford ever have anything equivalent to a Corvette? The Corvette LT-1 engine, albeit a detuned version (different cam), found it's way into the Caprice and Roadmaster in early 90s. An absolute bastard of an engine, aside from the problematic optispark distributor. The nice things about the non Corvette LT-1s was they had iron cylinder heads (like my Grand Prix' 3800), whereas the Corvettes were aluminum. I'm not what you'd call a fan of the Corvette, as I have no use for plexiglass nonsense. But the 5.7 litre engine was as powerful as most truck engines.

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-13, 01:26:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-08-12, 23:11:

The Camaro only exists because of the Mustang. When the Mustang came out, GM thought they had the market covered with the Nova a […]
Show full quote

Meatball wrote on 2022-08-12, 20:40:

Growing up, I was always annoyed how the Camaro and Firebird repeatedly smacked around the Mustang. I did love the Firebird, though. Here's my WS6 from '98. I regret selling it.

The Camaro only exists because of the Mustang. When the Mustang came out, GM thought they had the market covered with the Nova and the Corvair. Then Mustang sales went through the roof and GM decided they had to come up with something. The Chevrolet Nova was scheduled for a major upgrade in 1967, but they instead just updated the sheetmetal, and borrowed the engineering work that had been done to make the Camaro (the new Nova wasn't released until 1968, and both the front and rear suspension were identical to that of the Camaro).

GM wanted to get into the Trans America racing series with the Camaro, so the SCCA bent the rules a little; to homologate a car, there were supposed to be 1,000 built, but they only made 602 Z/28s in 1967, so they allowed them to count the SS350. They did very well in the series once they worked out the bugs inherent in running a production car on a race track (they also cheated a little). The Z/28 was created specifically for the Trans Am series - they didn't even bother coming up with a name, Z/28 was the regular production option code, and they didn't advertise it much the first year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u-ez8zZ_No

Yes, I was referring to the beatings the Mustang usually took during the 80's and 90's (when I was but a wee lad). You have the Corvette L98 350 dropped into the Camaro/Firebird, and the TPI HO 305. And don't forget the monster Turbo T/A Anniversary 3.8L borrowed from the Grand National (granted it was very limited in availability). It seemed like up until the 4.6L Cobra (and even the first one was a dog, relatively speaking), the Mustang kept getting slower and slower and the Camaro/Firebird kept getting faster and faster. And then once '93 4th generation hit, things really took off for the Camaro/Firebird with the LT1, LT4 (limited), and the LS1.

Otherwise, very interesting information, certainly.

But the 5.0 Mustang kicked it off back in the early 80s. It was a very big deal when the California Highway Patrol bought some Mustangs for their fleet back in 1982. Of course, most cars on the road were pretty slow by then, but it was known that the CHP's full size patrol cars were total dogs; if someone had a high dollar car such as a Ferrari, Porsche, an older Corvette or sixties musclecar or a motorcycle, they could outrun them pretty easily. As time went on they continued to improve the 302 Windsor with better cylinder heads, EFI, a roller cam, better exhaust.

chris2021 wrote on 2022-08-13, 03:01:

"The Camaro only exists...". The Camaro is one of the most successful and well built autos of all time. I don't see any logic in GM having Ford to thank for it.
Did Ford ever have anything equivalent to a Corvette? The Corvette LT-1 engine, albeit a detuned version (different cam), found it's way into the Caprice and Roadmaster in early 90s. An absolute bastard of an engine, aside from the problematic optispark distributor. The nice things about the non Corvette LT-1s was they had iron cylinder heads (like my Grand Prix' 3800), whereas the Corvettes were aluminum. I'm not what you'd call a fan of the Corvette, as I have no use for plexiglass nonsense. But the 5.7 litre engine was as powerful as most truck engines.

If Ford had never made the Mustang then we almost certainly would never have had the Camaro. Which wouldn't have been the end of the world since GM had the Nova which is really a Camaro with different sheetmetal, and they aren't bad at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hALPkERz3Fw

chris2021 wrote on 2022-08-13, 03:01:

But the 5.7 litre engine was as powerful as most truck engines.

..and then there was the 6.6 Duramax, The Truck engine.

Chevy supposedly had a checkered history attempting to produce their own d-i-e-s-e-l engine. I think for a while they were using Cummings engines or something.

I never said it was the most powerful engine known to man. It was as powerful as many truck engines. The ones that used gasolina. The Duramax was a more recent development anyway IINM. Yep originally installed in 2001 according to wikipedia. The LT-1s were capable of towing something like 5000lbs, maybe 6000, with the towing package (a differential w/the proper gear ratios). Not that it was necessarily a good idea according to some. But the vehicle sat lower to the ground and had an actual cast frame so I'm not necessarily seeing why it would be an issue, actually preferable to a truck, which was a bit more top heavy. In theory anyway. But what do I know.

Back in 1980’s the California Highway Patrol had Camero too.

Video link:
https://youtu.be/KHEs8psO6xc