American Cars of the 80's

You guys left out the fast stuff! My pop was a VP for GM and a true car lover so I grew up on GM Muscle and we constantly ordered rare gm stuff. My all time favorite 80's Muscle Car was the 1989 Pace Car Turbo Trans AM with the Hopped Up Buick GNX Motor! I had a buddy with a super light LX 5.0 5 Speed what was used to taking my 5.7 Iroc by a fender 14.30 vs 14.39 1/4mi. The TTA took him by 10 car lengths. I dunno how I didnt kill myself a few times. I passed a buddys vette on prom night and his digital dash read 158mph! We had Syclones & Typhoons a GTA Notchback with 5.0TPI Stick Shift & WS6, a T-Type Turbo Regal with a Pit Bull Prom Chip (No 124mph Gov.) and a 145mph speedo. Had a V8 S10 & a V8 Fiero which also almost killed me...Back in those days I didnt know if you add 200 hp you might need a little more brakes! Had a 1992 Firebird Firehawk..GOD if I had some of those toys today!! I even remember a GM test vehicle which was a Buick Reatta Convertible only this one was Rear Wheel Drive & had a 3.8L Turbo GN motor. Lots of good memories!

 

I remember going cruising in a Chrysler Town about 30 minute drive from where I was raised and racing one of those in my 1987 IROC-Z 5.7 I couldn't quit shaking my head on how quick that little thang was. I only got him by a hair!

 

Yes I agree it is a HOOT to drive! I love it, no one knows what it is.

 

Tuxedo Black 1970 Nova 396 - 4SPEED

in North Carolina

https://wilmington.craigslist.org/cto/d/nova/6255954045.html

Unclear whether the pricing is 1 for 12k or all 3 for 28K
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This post is a treasure of C4 insight. Very cool to read this and some old magazine tests of the C4. There was so much advancement and technology in that car, overshadowed by some very noticeable accounting limitations that every journalist commented on.

Thus, the mainstream image was created and still stands today.

I drove a properly neglected 1990 convertible yesterday with 72k miles and was pleasantly surprised. It had some cowl shake over really bad roads but almost no dash or interior squeaks. I have driven a lot of low mileage and well cared for C4s and it was interesting to see what a terrible one was like.

Seems that interior update made a big difference and can age well.

HenryR, how is your ZR1 doing? Did you ever install modern brake pads and modern tires?


LSJ

 

My dad has an early ‘90’s Chevy Impala SS with the Corvette engine. It only has about 10k miles. The Mexican Americans in town go crazy when they see it. Sort of their Holy Grail.

 

it's a beast. thing must have terrorized the streets back in the day.

after a full service/fluid/fuel injectors.

it has newer tires on it but i am planning to swap to the r888s (one issue is there a very few choices for matching front/rears in 17')

havent done anything with the brakes yet. either try new pads or spring for a BBK

 

I see one of those all the time. He has a nice exhaust set up on it. Cool car. Not too many around anymore..

 

I too, had a few of these. Folks always thought this pic of my driveway had an outlier!

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Always wanted one - would love to pull the trigger one day.

Reminds me of a funny story I've told here before. I grew up by Englishtown Raceway Park, and would go to the Friday night "Run What Ya Brung" drag races. I had a pretty hotted up Datsun 280Z I raced, a friends worked over Pontiac Trans Am (the Bandit style), and an 11 second Camaro my buddy owned.

On a few occasions when I didn't have anything to drive, I commandeered my parents' white / red interior Dodge Aries K Wagon. I mean the car was a pig to drive, low on power and a slushbox to boot.

Yet - with helmet in hand - I made it over to E-town and dragged the thing. It's handicap racing, so I'd get a major head start over the competition - I think the thing ran 20+ seconds in the quarter mile. I very vividly remember coming up against a real hot Mustang that ran 12's or less. So I'm basically half track before he goes, and I could hear that beast get louder and louder as it got close to (and ultimately passed) me.

 

I've had some of the most fun I've ever had in an automobile with these GLHS's. Embarrassed many much more expensive cars at various tracks. Even had mine transported in Shelby American's big rig to the Terlingua Reunion. Shelby himself came up to the car and asked how much boost I was running and laughed when he mentioned that I was embarrassing the Ford Shelbys with it-signed the dash and said he would always own GLHS number 1 as it was one of his favorite cars.
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You know these motors can handle a LOT of power, right? Go search on YouTube for 12 second minivan - you'll find a guy that has done his research on mix / match parts and how to get big power from them.

I'm a big fan of the backyard tweaks / tricks. A big deal in the Datsun 240 / 260 / 280Z community, which is how I pepped up my old 280Z. It wasn't a rocket, but did mid 15's in the quarter mile, which was about 1 second quicker than stock...no small feat with little budget!!!

 

Great design! Is that a production car?

 

No it was a Concept Car for Pontiac.

 

It is great design!

 

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Thanks! We had fun doing that Car.

 

What a great era

 

https://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/d/442-oldsmobile-1986/6617285777.html

Clean 1986 442 in Raleigh NC 70,531 miles Unbutchered

(non affiliated)
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I love the 80’s. Image Unavailable, Please Login . Not the best pic, but you get the idea.

 

I love these. They definitely lacked the "oomph" of the Monte Carlo SS and the Regal GN, but they look great. I actually like the Hurst Olds a little better, but still plenty cool.

 

1987 SS Aerocoupe (100% original) sitting in my garage...


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I special ordered a new 1990 Corvette (L98) 6spd with the Z-51 suspension (big brakes) and 'without' the adjustable suspension. This has to be an unusual car. Steel gray metallic. I called the factory and asked if it was possible to special order a convertible with the big brakes - they would not make an exception. I believe you could technically get the big brakes on the Callaway convertible - as an option.

 

Interesting comment by someone on here about the performance of 80's cars vs their daily drivers- after 3 years owning a 1990 corvette 6-speed convertible, I bought a used 6-speed 540i as a daily driver (this is around 2002) which had the same performance but in a sedan. I had my fun with the vette, but the lack of better performance than my daily was the nail in the coffin for me and I decided to sell the vette and get back to the smaller sports cars (911). The ability to do the same or more in a sedan just killed off my desire to have the vette anymore since the size and personality of the C4 got long in the tooth for me. That said, I still have fond memories of the vette (when I first got it, I loved the 345 ft lbs of torque that came in low- a new experience coming from a small displacement 911) and am glad I owned one for a while. I still think it's a great looking car (along with the GNs people mention in here). After my experience with the vette, as much as I love '87 GNs, if I bought one I'd probably tire of it and quicker than the 3 years it took me to desire something other than the vette (actually I started thinking of moving on after about 2 years).

Lots of talk about the ZR1 here- here is a nice quick run of one (on a closed 2 lane- I'd prefer more lanes at these speeds ) This video highlights the big differnece from my old L98- which as others said was out of breath by the mid 4,000 range. Of course a ZR1 is more 90's than 80's...

 

Ha, different perspectives-While I'll keep my older 911s, I went back to the Corvette for the newer sportscar as its shorter in overall length than the 911 and nearly 3 inches lower-"smaller sportscars" indeed.

 

I should have clarified- I had a 78 and 87 911 before the 90 vette, and went to a 93 911- the new 911s are bloated.

The C4 corvette felt very big comparatively speaking- and especially the fact that the car was long/wide, and yet with the side sills, not overyly roomy inside with no truck. I wanted the lower sloped hood design of the 911 again (and the build quality). I got a 360 after the 93 911 and loved that car, looks and all. The one complaint may have been the 360 is a wide car too- the 355 I now have is more go-cart like

If I had room and enough money, I'd keep them all (corvette included) as I loved all the cars for different reasons. But only having one sports car at a time, I wanted to go smaller again