Philosophical Discussion: When will my Firebird and Mustang be classics?

[Linson]

Originally Posted by Deez Nuttz

While the 80's might have been a dismal time for performance, there were a few cars that were exceptional...such as a Grand National or a Turbo T/A pace car. Only thing is they weren't V8's like most muscle cars are/were.

thats a big part of the problem, everyone looks at the eighties as "a THE dismal time for automotive performance" when in reality, by the late eighties, performance was making a comeback in the form of F-bodies, Mustangs, and the Turbo 6's that you mentioned. people fail to realize that stock for stock, that "dismal '88 IROC-Z" will smoke that vaunted 68 Camaro.

so these cars suffer a problem with perception. another part of that poor perception element (speaking of the F-bodies) is by GM's own doing. yes, that '88 IROC will run rings around alot of classic muscle cars of the '60s, but what about that '88 RS Camaro with the 305 and the 2.73 gears, and open differential? and they made ALOT of Camaros and Firebirds with that kind of combination. so, if you take your typical hot rod '60s or '70s muscle car running the streets, how many do you think are running stock motors? very few. most have peformance heads, cams, exhaust systems. then you take your average redneck tear-assing around town in his 86 Camaro RS and what does he have? a 180 horsepower 305 with an exhuaust system - and probably just a muffler. it gives the perception that all these cars were is turds.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by WFW&P

Those cars will become classics when the generation that drove them get nostalgic and start paying large sums of $$$$$ to get their youth back.

I was in that generation, but I always hated what they had done to the Camro and Mustang back then. They were basically POS cheap transportation, particularly Mustang which came with 4 cyl engines in some of them. I see no likelihood that I will suddenly start loving them now or in the immediate future. Although I am an American Car buff, most of the neat cars that I remember fondly from that time period are Japanese (Mazda Rx7, Toyota Supra, Datsun 280Z), or British (Triumph TR7, MG, XKE). The Delorean was a neat car from that era and corvettes from almost any time are neat (although that is probably the worst time period for corvettes as well). I had a Gen 2 Camaro during that time, but I would not want one again. They were bad, but Gen 3 went from bad to worse. I am hard pressed to think of a really neat American car form that time that I would want. There was a butt ugly car that was made in Ohio that might be kind of neat. It was just a bad time period where US car makers were uncertain about what they wanted their identity to be. In between the Bad A$$ muscle of the 1960s and early 1970s and the high tech wonders of the 1990s, there was a whole lot of nothing.

Maybe I am forgetting about something, but there just was not much of interest from that time.

[heetseeker]

hey when will my 1997 f-250 become a classic? To some[ Like me] it already is.