Best Muscle Car for Beginner

man times have changed. When I wanted a musclecar so bad I couldn't sleep or eat, back around '87-'88, $4,500 would buy just about anything out there short of a Hemi, #'s matching 6-pack, Vette, or LS6 convertible. You could bag nice 396 Chevelles, 440 Magnum anything, Pro-Street Darts and Demons, the list goes on. But alas, $4500 may as well have been $450,000 to me. I didn't have it, couldn't come up with it, and ended up with an '81 Grand Prix with a dreadful 3.8 liter Buick and casket-lined interior

Coldsnap wrote: How are 66 Comets? They considered muscle cars?

Not when they have a 2 bbl 289---but then I don't think of a 318 Duster or 4 door Nova as muscle cars either, just old cars. Maybe I'm jaded from having grown up with Hemis, LS6s, Boss Fords, etc. and tend to think in more pure terms when I hear "muscle car".

I guess my advice would be to think like an Aussie and not mind those 2 extra doors. Many of the muscle cars in Oz had 4 doors.

I noticed too, upon watching Hot Rod's Fastest Street Car shootout, that more than one of the racers was an odd ball 4 door. The money had obviously gone into things that would help propel them into the 7's. No thought was given to the extra doors detracting from the cool factor. When you're over 600" with twin turbos the cool factor is hard to dent

I could probably get this 4 door nova i have posted a ton for like $2,000. Know the guy needs to cell it for a c-10 and he accepted my offer at $2,500 but i backed out.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3561741369.html

In reply to Coldsnap:

If you really want a 4-door Nova, then do it, but that Duster has 1000 times the character, cool factor, and "muscle-car-ness" than that Nova ever will.

Carro Atrezzi wrote: man times have changed. When I wanted a musclecar so bad I couldn't sleep or eat, back around '87-'88, $4,500 would buy just about anything out there short of a Hemi, #'s matching 6-pack, Vette, or LS6 convertible. You could bag nice 396 Chevelles, 440 Magnum anything, Pro-Street Darts and Demons, the list goes on. But alas, $4500 may as well have been $450,000 to me. I didn't have it, couldn't come up with it, and ended up with an '81 Grand Prix with a dreadful 3.8 liter Buick and casket-lined interior

Same here! I did end up with a tired '70 Boss 302 bought for less than $4,500, and a '67 big block, 4-speed Cougar XR7-GT for $1,000. I had to pass on a mint '63 Corvette with a 4 speed for $5k because it was just out of reach, and I looked at a DB4-GT Aston for $4k and a '65 E-Type for only $3.5k. I seem to recall a Ferrari Daytona also being on that lot at around $15k, but that was a ton of money in the early '80's to me. They were also a bit used up though and on a used car lot, although it was for high line imports at the time.

My dream muscle car has always been a '67 big block Mustang fastback, but that ship has sailed given their very strong numbers these days.

I think the boxy, late-70's Malibu would be a great starting point. There are a ton of them out there in your price range that someone else has already put some work into. They don't have the name-recognition tax that you get with a Nova or Chevelle, but they can be pretty quick. Easy to work on and a great platform to learn how to wrench. Even on a 2-door, the back seat is pretty roomy.

Oh, they come in wagon as well!

The Monte Carlo front end apparently fits...

In reply to racerdave600 and Carro Atrezzi:

I know this may surprise you both, but the 80's were 30 years ago. Back then those cars were 10-20 year old used cars, now they are 40-50 year old classics. Right now you can pick up some classic 90's muscle for peanuts, for comparison. Oh, and $4,500.00 in 1987 has the same buying power as $9,350.27 in 2013. $9K buys you a lot more car than the $3K budget the OP has.

Back in 1983 I lived next door to a general manger of an Oldsmobile Dealership (he married very well) that dabbled in muscle cars on the side. He had a really nice Orange 69 Z-28 and 69ish Shelby 350 Convertible for sale. The Z-68 was around $6500 and the Shelby around $7500. The Z was original and Shelby had been modified such that you couldn't run it on pump gas. I think the biggest miss though was the Sunbeam Tiger with hardtop I could have had for $400 in the 1975.

Oldsmobile had a version as well.

My dad had bought an ex-cop supervisor's car (had a/c unlike most patrol cars of the time) '82 Malibu Classic in the mid-80s to resell after swapping the interior and repairing the roof atrocities done from the light bar install. It was, as I recall, a pretty nice car.

Javelin wrote: In reply to racerdave600 and Carro Atrezzi: I know this may surprise you both, but the 80's were 30 years ago. Back then those cars were 10-20 year old used cars, now they are 40-50 year old classics. Right now you can pick up some classic 90's muscle for peanuts, for comparison. Oh, and $4,500.00 in 1987 has the same buying power as $9,350.27 in 2013. $9K buys you a lot more car than the $3K budget the OP has.

30 years ago? That would mean that I'd have to be 39, 40, 41....Oh shut up!

You're Wrong!

hell, a decade ago 5k could get you a pretty nice 66-62 malibu that had been switched over to a chevelle ss clone.....now even those are salty.

yamaha wrote: hell, a decade ago 5k could get you a pretty nice 66-62 malibu that had been switched over to a chevelle ss clone.....now even those are salty.

well maybe a 64-66........ the Malibu / Chevelle wasn't launched until 1964. Those 62s are SUPER rare!

The mid 70's cars are still cheap. Look at 73-77 Chevelles (Laguna), Cutlasses (Hurst and 442) , Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, and those cool but rare Grand Ams. (from the 70's not 90s!)

They are bigger cars, but solid, comfy and still very cheap. Besides, some came with swivel buckets!

Javelin wrote: In reply to racerdave600 and Carro Atrezzi: I know this may surprise you both, but the 80's were 30 years ago. Back then those cars were 10-20 year old used cars, now they are 40-50 year old classics. Right now you can pick up some classic 90's muscle for peanuts, for comparison. Oh, and $4,500.00 in 1987 has the same buying power as $9,350.27 in 2013. $9K buys you a lot more car than the $3K budget the OP has.

And I thought we were still there...

The point was, those now are well into 5 figures, some 6 figures, way beyond the $9,350.27.

In reply to racerdave600:

Only for the most fully-vetted, numbers-matching ones with complete 5 and 6 figure restoration work done on them. A used up project with non-vetted numbers, non-matching engine, etc can be found around $10K, or a nice driver of a "less worthy" car like a Mustang GT or a 340 Mopar.

One day, 30 years from now, people will talk about all the 90's cars that went for $10K today and why they're worth 6 figures, like FD RX-7's, Mustang Cobras, and what not.

Here are some more choices.

TERRIBLE pics:

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3563742511.html

big, but fun

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3610036321.html

AWESOME

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3548088493.html

Four doors means more room for friends:

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3578700824.html

Does anyone in Raleigh know how to take pictures?

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3603720602.html

A disproportionate amount of cutlasses

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3557590177.html

This looks VERY nice

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3518562916.html

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3607796484.html

Dead brands for the win

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3607383629.html

This is cool, too

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3540619104.html

just more fodder for you.

Joe Gearin wrote:

yamaha wrote: hell, a decade ago 5k could get you a pretty nice 66-62 malibu that had been switched over to a chevelle ss clone.....now even those are salty.

well maybe a 64-66........ the Malibu / Chevelle wasn't launched until 1964. Those 62s are SUPER rare! The mid 70's cars are still cheap. Look at 73-77 Chevelles (Laguna), Cutlasses (Hurst and 442) , Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, and those cool but rare Grand Ams. (from the 70's not 90s!) They are bigger cars, but solid, comfy and still very cheap. Besides, some came with swivel buckets!

Dammit, I typo'd.......66-72 is what I meant.

tuna55 wrote: Does anyone in Raleigh know how to take pictures? http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3603720602.html

I didn't think ANY 442's had the small engines......if they exist, I've never seen them in my years at mecum. The his and hers shifter is a hurst, but those were optional on everything AFAIK.

yamaha wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Does anyone in Raleigh know how to take pictures? http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3603720602.html

I didn't think ANY 442's had the small engines......if they exist, I've never seen them in my years at mecum. The his and hers shifter is a hurst, but those were optional on everything AFAIK.

I didn't look at that carefully - skip that, way too much rust, and it's probably not a real 442 with the 350.

In reply to tuna55:

Agreed, that car looks like its been parked in the drainage tunnel of a canadian interstate every winter for the last decade.....