Vintage - Mustang v. Camaro

[Jmtoast]

For me the 60's muscle cars are still my favorite vintage. I literally grew up wrenching on them, especially my father's 69 Nova. I remember helping him replace the front brake shoes and packing wheel bearings. At the time I was probably 9 or 10.

Back then it had to be a GM product for me, however I do really like the '66 Mustang fastback. Today we have a decent selection great cars to choose from that have more power than you can typically use, and incredible handling. Not so much of the latter back in the day.

then you you need to come up to Flint and Detroit during back to the bricks and Dream cruise next summer. They go on for 2 weeks. You can't drive down the road during that time without seeing a old school muscle car. Guys are out driving old school muscles cars with full drag setups (wheelie bars, parachutes, roll bars) to pick up a carton of milk. Of course it's usually a GM car in Flint

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[IronG]

Nah... 87 Grand National was the shit.

Yes they were in a straight line and they came pretty late. Also they still had crappy materials and quality. Not to mention needing to have the windows rolled up or all the way down in fear of them rattling off. After my Z phase I went over to ze Germans in the 90's and stayed with them until the Mustang I have now.

 

[tom_sprecher]

then you you need to come up to Flint and Detroit during back to the bricks and Dream cruise next summer.

My wife's family are all located in the Downriver area, and we go up to see them every summer. I'll have to look up the dates for those events, and "suggest" we go at that time.

 

[Ebm]

Do you want a mullet with your neon-colored headband, Budweiser, and 80s muscle car?

 

[Jmtoast]

Yes they were in a straight line and they came pretty late. Also they still had crappy materials and quality. Not to mention needing to have the windows rolled up or all the way down in fear of them rattling off. After my Z phase I went over to ze Germans in the 90's and stayed with them until the Mustang I have now.

It was a big muscle car as much as a car could be a muscle car during the 80's. Everything else made in the 80's was as ridiculous looking as a hairband. Anyways, I still see them all over during the summer even though they were produced in low numbers.

 

[NoVaGT]

My wife's family are all located in the Downriver area......

Back in the day, at WSU, the Downriver folks used to say "Don't mess with Downriver!!"

 

[NoVaGT]

Do you want a mullet with your neon-colored headband, Budweiser, and 80s muscle car?

Awwww, it was a time period in recent history.

Yes, the hairstyles, head-bands, etc. are considered cheesy today. But ya know, the 1980s weren't that bad. There was some good music, and the cars were getting better fast. The 1970s were horrible for vehicles, and by the 80s things were starting to look brighter.

And let's not forget, we had The Hoff and Members Only jackets;

 

[Balr14]

I grew up with some great cars from the 50s and 60s. But, by 1975 there wasn't anything left worth considering as a performance car. Things started to look better in the late 80s, with the Turbo TA and GTX. I was thrilled to be able to buy a 1991 Syclone. Things were finally looking good again.

It's worth noting that the average modern Camry V6 easily out-performs the average 60s muscle car. Consequently, I do not see the interest or prices a lot of those old 60s muscle cars draw now. They are best left to memory, as far as I am concerned.

 

[NoVaGT]

If you want a bad decade for vehicles, I'm thinking nothing compares to the 1970s.

Dear 'ol dad was rockin' one of these;

 

[Deleted member 35644]

When I was nearly 10 years old, my older sister bought her first new car, a 79 Mustang 2.3 automatic coupe. I wasn't old or experienced enough to know what a poorly-made car that was, or why she bitched about it constantly after only 3 years of ownership. I just knew I loved it and thought it was the coolest car on the block. I knew nothing of her struggles until I took a stroll down memory lane last year and 'rescued' a one-owner 1982 Mustang 3.3 automatic coupe in the same color configuration as hers.

What a nightmare. I actually thought I could bring this car back to life and use it as a nostalgic daily driver. I was dead wrong. I firmly believe you need to be somewhat wealthy and semi-retired to cope with a car from that era. After thousands of dollars in repairs and maintenance, it remained undependable and impossible to live with....exactly how my sister's '79 was after a few years' ownership. What a poorly-built POS. Love seeing them on the road, and I still drool over an immaculate 1st gen Fox Body at a car show, but I never want to own one again.

 

[TheReaper]

I was at this event for 4 days, lots of classics and muscle cars.



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[AlmostFamous]

When I was nearly 10 years old, my older sister bought her first new car, a 79 Mustang 2.3 automatic coupe. I wasn't old or experienced enough to know what a poorly-made car that was, or why she bitched about it constantly after only 3 years of ownership. I just knew I loved it and thought it was the coolest car on the block. I knew nothing of her struggles until I took a stroll down memory lane last year and 'rescued' a one-owner 1982 Mustang 3.3 automatic coupe in the same color configuration as hers.

What a nightmare. I actually thought I could bring this car back to life and use it as a nostalgic daily driver. I was dead wrong. I firmly believe you need to be somewhat wealthy and semi-retired to cope with a car from that era. After thousands of dollars in repairs and maintenance, it remained undependable and impossible to live with....exactly how my sister's '79 was after a few years' ownership. What a poorly-built POS. Love seeing them on the road, and I still drool over an immaculate 1st gen Fox Body at a car show, but I never want to own one again.

If it had the 302ci and 4-speed of that era of Mustangs, the powertrain would have outlasted the vehicle itself. Up there as one of the most bullet-proof powertrains.

 

[ctandc72]

It's interesting seeing the different perspectives based on different ages and past experiences around cars. I wasn't alive when muscle cars were new. But I started wrenching on them before I could legally drive. While I miss MANY of these cars from a design / view standpoint, I don't think many of us old enough to remember muscle cars as they were from the factory want to tell ourselves the truth.

"They don't make things like they used to."

Thank God. Cork valve cover gaskets that leaked if you looked at them wrong.
Solid lifter cams - one good WOT run and you were adjusting the valves. You think the Coyote can be loud? Ever head a solid lifter small block with thin walled long tube headers?
Points - screw points - 'nuff said.
Drum brakes - on front and rear. Yeah - no again.
Tires that had the traction of snot on ice.

EFI - the greatest invention known to mankind. While part of me will always miss the sound of a CORRECTLY tuned QJet's secondaries opening up - EFI is so much better, especially now. Gets better mpg and performs better, no matter the temp or elevation.

Now if you didn't have to work on / drive / experience any of the garbage (with a very few exceptions) that was cranked out between say '75-84 then you won't understand how hopeful it all seemed to a gearhead when the 90's rolled around.

Sure - just starting to use so much plastic materials for interiors in domestics products - rattles. Leaks. I get it. But those trumpeting out the "Greatness" of BMW or Toyota or Datsun / Nissan.........LMAO........sure some of those cars had better QC, but what was the performance like? If you did up the ante and delve into the Foreign offerings that even broached on "high performance" - must have been nice to afford 'em, cause they weren't exactly cheap. I graduated High School in '90. While I drove a beat up, but insanely fast (for the time) '67 Chevelle all through high school, I knew plenty of guys who got part time jobs and worked their butt off and were able to buy IROC's, Trans Ams, Mustang GT's etc. Granted one ticket and insurance was more than the car note - but male, single and under 25 is the same way now.

Younger car people now really don't understand how good they have it.
The Mustang GT (just one example) is an EASY 12 second 1/4 mile car BONE STOCK with a so so driver.

There were VERY FEW, EASILY Attainable cars during even the Musclecar era that could come close to those numbers - much less doing it with AC, power windows, cruise control etc etc. And being reliable on top of all that.

In fact many of the musclecars were NOT as fast (especially close to stock) as people seem to "remember" them being. I won't even talk about handling.

ENJOY IT.

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

This is my mulletastic 1986 Camaro Z/28, complete with 454 (one of only like four or five BB Gen 3s in the country). The car was originally built for the Canadian Players Challenge racing series as a promotional vehicle, and somehow ended up in center NJ. My father-in-law bought it in like 1992, drove it for 200,000+ miles, then restored it and spent fifteen years finishing everything. It was originally a 305/auto car with manual windows, but has since had the 305 replaced with the 454 and a 700R4.

The first time I drove it to work, I shaved my beard into an awful mustache, because I couldn't just grow a mullet over the weekend.

JR

 

[IronG]

When I was nearly 10 years old, my older sister bought her first new car, a 79 Mustang 2.3 automatic coupe. I wasn't old or experienced enough to know what a poorly-made car that was, or why she bitched about it constantly after only 3 years of ownership. I just knew I loved it and thought it was the coolest car on the block. I knew nothing of her struggles until I took a stroll down memory lane last year and 'rescued' a one-owner 1982 Mustang 3.3 automatic coupe in the same color configuration as hers.

What a nightmare. I actually thought I could bring this car back to life and use it as a nostalgic daily driver. I was dead wrong. I firmly believe you need to be somewhat wealthy and semi-retired to cope with a car from that era. After thousands of dollars in repairs and maintenance, it remained undependable and impossible to live with....exactly how my sister's '79 was after a few years' ownership. What a poorly-built POS. Love seeing them on the road, and I still drool over an immaculate 1st gen Fox Body at a car show, but I never want to own one again.

That pretty much sums up the late 70's to early 90's American cars. It was the ultimate blizkrieg for the Japanese and Germans to exact their revenge on us. They waited a while, but they clearly won that war. Thankfully we are getting close to parity with them now.

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