What you all seem to like of that era is the desire to make the car the manufacturers couldn't make or weren't allowed to make.
Mustang II with 5.0.
Vega with LS1
Etc.
But, no one is rushing out to restore a genuine, as-new, '82 Firebird with 90 hp, Iron Duke 2.5L and 3 speed auto trans.
In reply to JohnRW1621:
Ford did put 302s in Mustang IIs, though. They were crappy (140 horse) 302s, but they were in there.
Trans_Maro wrote: Bias ply tires are E36 M3. That's why every muscle car could light 'em up.
Sure, but I owned the car in `98. It had radials. It was by no means a great car, but it lasted that long, which should count for something.
My distaste for the word malaise really only extends to the usage to describe cars from an certain era, which I believe I have Murilee Martin to thank for that. GRM is really an awesome place where people will come and defend everything from donk to stanced; all I am asking for is some love for the survivors of a sad era.
One of my friends actually had a few of those Road Runners in the early 90's.. they were tanks, and like every other Chrysler of the era, they had a propensity to self lower the rear end when the rear shackles poke thru the trunk floor..
I had another friend that had a 76 Fury 2 with a 318.. it was gutless and handled like crap, but it was a burnout machine.. my 78 Cordoba was also good at turning a lot of gas into a lot of fried right rear tires..
My favorite car of all time is the 1974 Monte Carlo.. it had an awesome chassis and a comfy well laid out interior that was saddled by crap engines.. but that chassis survived with minor changes until the end of the 1996 model year when the B bodies (Caprice/Impala SS, Roadsmasher, etc) were discontinued, so it wasn't all bad.
I've owned /own 4 import vehicles from that era and I loved /love all of them. I suppose I am not your typical tire shredding car owner that can't love a car unless it has a fire breathing v8 and 600 horsepower though.
Currently I have my 74 Repu which is definitely from the era. My 78 production RX-7 is probably from that era, but shares none of the traits many complain about even though compared to even a bottom of the barrel economy car of today it's a real turd performance wise. Both my 77 RX-3, and 74 RX-4 were both awesome cars in my opinion, but again I've been told I'm odd when it comes to what I like in vehicles. I even like most of the styling from this era. To each his own I guess.
By the way this thread needs more pictures.
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