Were 1980s cars really that bad?

[Mr70]

One of the most notable '79 camaro scenes.

[JRSully]

a little detour on this thread. I had some of the BEST street racing in the 80's with the IROC's, 5.0 Mustangs an GNs squaring off all over the place here on LI. The races were usually pretty close and not stupid fast that you got into that much trouble. I had a brand new 88 5.0 stripper that was a rip to race, wish I still had it. It is now their turn in the collector spotlight, prices are climbing quickly for nice ones

[cook_dw]

[XXXGoldL34M20]

Outside owning a 1970 SS 396 I had a boat load of fun owning a 1981 Citation X-11 with an High output V6 and 4 speed trans, this thing boogied and I drove it all year round, with the front wheel drive it got by the snow just fine.
I ended up driving it to the scrap yard with nearly 300,000 KM on the odometer.
Lots of memories in this little hatchback that was a pocket rocket.

[novadude]

Originally Posted by JRSully

a little detour on this thread. I had some of the BEST street racing in the 80's with the IROC's, 5.0 Mustangs an GNs squaring off all over the place here on LI. The races were usually pretty close and not stupid fast that you got into that much trouble. I had a brand new 88 5.0 stripper that was a rip to race, wish I still had it. It is now their turn in the collector spotlight, prices are climbing quickly for nice ones

I had a '70 Nova SS clone daily driver back around 1990-1995 when I was in my late teens / early 20s. That was back in the day when kids still cruised the local hangouts, and we had a few places in Pittsburgh we'd go to street race. The Nova had a budget mild 350 that ran mid-14s. Lots of 5.0 and thirdgen F-bodies at the street races back in those days, and my Nova could easily beat up on the mostly stock ones.

It always made me happy to beat a rich kid in a new car with my home built junk that cost maybe $3k total (bought the Nova for $500 w/ a stock 230 ci). Of course I lost to some of the mildly modded 5.0L Mustangs too.

I had a '95 Mustang GT 5.0L in 2001-2005. Fun car.

[HawkX66]

Nah, the 80s had some fun iron after some tweaking...

80 Grand Prix that I put a 400 in with Keystones. Comfortable driver that sounded great. I wouldn't consider it fast though lol



My '84 Z28. Loved that car.



And my favorite late 70s, almost 80s car. We still have it.

[markinnaples]

Great thread. I graduated in 1984 and had a slug '78 Trans Am that I used to mess around with a couple of my buddies' rides which were a 1979 Capri 5.0 and 1979 Mustang GT. Stupid choices but lots of fun. Mine looked like this one but with Hurst Hatch T-tops.

[black69]

Funny you say that about your 78 trans am. I thought my brother's car was the fastest thing when I was 18. And it handled like sticky glue. Maybe that is what really changed was for the first time, the cars started to handle way better, got a little flashier (velour interior was the sh-t back then), while getting slower. So thus, people were happy in the end with these other improvements distracting them. Maybe the early 80s were actually a - ok. Slow cars, but the other stuff made up for it.

Thank god, the 80s did come, to fix the 78 mustang nightmare body design. Ford will always have a hard time covering up that tattoo.

[markinnaples]

Agree, 2nd gen F-bodies handled really well, esp the WS6 TA's (a old buddy is restoring a 1979 black 400/4spd WS6) with the beautiful snowflake 15x8 rimes, but they (mine at least) was slow as molasses. Sounded good, looked good, but not fast compared to the hot stuff that was owned by the older guys around Pittsburgh at that time.

[427TJ]

I had two new 5.0 LX Mustangs, an '87 and a '90. Great bang for the buck.