Musclecar value question

[RichSchmidt]

Values have always been a bit skewed.Look at it like this.The last time I checked,the highest selling price for a muscle car was a Hemi Cuda convertable.Now this was in fact a rare and low miles car.but there is a reason why it is so rare.Even back in 1970 it was painfully obvious that stabbing a Hemi into a car with it's roof cut off was a total waste of time.The result would have been a car that tweaked itself to death after just a few hundred hard stoplight launches.If peice were all about performance then a manual everything heater/radio delete car would be at the top of the list.Such car usualy demand more money,but covertables and cars with weird options always seem to do a fraction of a bit better.

And the fact is,that it all boils down to name recognition.A Hemi anything is hot,and add 'Cuda or Road Runner in the same sentence and it sounds even better.Chevys arent immune to this either.Look at what is going on with 69 Camaros,Z/28's are demanding the same money as Copo cars these days.Not to take anything away from Z/28's,but they did make almost 20 thousand of them in 1969.To put that into perspective,they made more 69 z/28's then they made base model and Espirt firebirds combined in 1972.They also made about 100 times as many 69 Z/28's as they did 73 super duty Trans Ams,and the 73S.D. is a car that can hand a 69 Z it's azz both at the drags and on a road course in stock form.You dont see any of the cars I mentioned bringing the big "Z" money depite both superior rareity and performance.It's all in the eye of the beholder.To most beholders,a 73 S.D. Trans am looks like a cookie cutter T/A from the Smokie and the Bandit years.Most people still dont even view them as collectable cars,they just conjure up images of trashy hoodlums cruising from trailer park to trailer park between stops to fill up their air shocks so that their N50 tires wont rub in the back.Some cars cant get no respect.