Are you a Camaro guy or a Trans Am lover?

I had a 1977 Z28, black with Cragar SS. It was three or four years old, but lots of folks thought it was brand new because I kept it so clean. What did you drive in 1980?

 

I chose the Z28 over a Smokey Trans Am. There were dozens of flying chickens around my small town. Only one Camaro with that tasteful, modern stripe package.

 

In '79 my buddy bought a new T/A, 400- 4 speed ,WS6, silver with oyster interior. I was a dummy and bought a new piss yellow 4 cylinder turbo Mustang. Stang is long gone but the T/A is still in his garage with only about 19,000 miles. One of the last ones off the line with that combo. Oh well, Mitch.

 

Trans-Am was great!

 

Yeah, the Trans Am racing series was pretty cool. We did a lot of tearing through the curves.
I remember those turbo Mustangs. My girlfriend had a 79 with the little 155 V8. Those smog motors were dogs.

 

The T/A can be unique without the stickers. I like 77-78 more than the 79 and above.

to clarify: they can look great with the stock appearance package. Just hard to tell one black with gold stripes from the other two in the parking lot.

 

And @Robert J. Palmer

New Zealand was the only country outside of North America that raced Trans-Am racing in the same format.
Other countries like UK, S.A and Australia ran their own series of touring cars.

A lot of these old T/A cars got a 2nd lease of life down under [then got cut up as they evolved towards the IMSA style cars]
And a lot of USA collectors have come down to NZ to pick these old cars out of our toybox.

The home of this style of racing in NZ was a track called "Baypark Raceway" which was 6 miles from where I live.
The promoter was a close friend of my family [I grew up hanging around at the track and amongst racers]

Here is Baypark in the 70's


Behind the trees in the background [below] is the pacific ocean beach.
It was prime real estate that now has million $$$ houses on it.


This is approx 1980 [they were getting a bit more chopped up by then]
The rules changed to a 6000cc limit and engine swapping and setback was normal


The "Sidchrome" Mustang was raced by Jim Richards who later moved to Aussie and become a very successful racer [Bathurst winner etc]
That car had Gurney Weslake heads etc, it is still around, and was purchased it directly off Jim Richards and the owner still owns it to this day [restored]
The Capri behind it was raced by Paul Fahey [a friend of my brother] That car was a Ford works car that had a 3400cc quad cam V6 [worth giga-$$$ now]

This is an "All Comers Race" [usually the last race of the day to keep the crowd's attention]

 

Awesome story. I would like to visit NZ someday.

 

Thanks.
I am very grateful for having a "privileged" upbringing [and being there amongst the racing scene]

My dad was a "useless father" who never took us to the beach, vacations, sports etc etc ,but we would load up an old [now] Dodge ambulance and hit the road on the speedway circuit .............. Funny thing is all my friends wanted to come with us instead of the boring family vacation at the beach [great times for a boy, but not my sister]

 

My mom bought this 78 new and I bought it from my folks my first year of college. I had two or three others as well. I always thought they were kinda gawdy, but they were sure fun to drive with a 400 and a 4-speed.

 

Definate Camaro guy. Both '79s, brown was 4 spd (quick car) while the blue one was auto but a proven T/A killer. A friend in high school had a '70 that he put a 427 in, that kinda got me hooked.
One of my neighbors has a '68 Z28 DZ302 4 spd that he did a rotisserie on about 8 years ago. He does not baby it, puts a smile on my face every time he runs it through the gears.

 

But, I guess this was my first car…so, both.

 

69 Z28 Bought from the original owner. Everything is original, except for the beige repaint in 1985.
It will be repainted at some point.

 

In 1980 I was a junior in high school,,,,and drove a 1969 Camaro,,,,really loved driving that one,,,,I was pretty darn hard on it,,,,at least in 81,,,,,lol .
In 1985 i bought my first new car,,,,,a Trans Am,,,,,bright blue metallic paint ,,,silver bird on the hood,,,,,tee tops,,,,,4 wheel disc,,,it would squeal the tires in Second,,,not bark,,,,,,Squeal !

I made the 3rd payment while I was settling with my insurance company,,,,lol .
In 4 months I had really run her hard,,,,,,nobody got hurt anyway ,,,I was sore for a few days,,,lol !

Tommy

 

Are you telling me that they made other cars besides Camaros? Here's my red one, 40,000 original miles, been in the family almost 40 years. I also have another 68 convertible RS/SS, and a 67 RS/SS hardtop, both of which are projects.yeah, I like Camaros.......

 

Summer of '79 I bought a '69 Z/28 that had something like 80,000 miles on the clock.. It had a few little rust spots on the rear quarters but it was never wrecked.. Still had the original 302 and M-21 4-speed..... Had it for about 3 years till some drunk bastard rear ended the car while it was parked in front of a restaurant.....

Looked allot like this one....^^^

 

We had a 77 Firebird Formula in 78. Black with the gold stripes and snowflake wheels, 400 automatic. Loved that car, comfortable, fast, looked sharp. Car had the glass Hurst t tops. Full power inside with black velvet interior. Had to sell it after we both lost our jobs.
Years later, we got a 86 Firebird Formula, yellow with black trim, silver styled aluminum wheels. Had a 350 tuned port Chevy motor with a overdrive automatic. Nice car, but wasn’t comfortable over about 30 miles. The Formula was a stripped version by then built to compete against the Mustang LX. Thin carpets, manual windows, thin cloth seats. Hung the road almost as good as my Corvettes, but you felt every pebble in the road. Sold it and later bought another Vette.

 

I’ve had my X33 RS/Z28 since 87, I wrote letters to the owner over the course of 2 years & got my Z on New Year’s Day. Amazing story I’ll share in the future if OT thread survives its test phase. As a teen I drove it to HS , College & work & street raced the Sxxx out of it , 302 / 4 speed & BV 4.10 posi , code 67 & a 729 white houndstooth with white stripes. It sat from 1976-86 on jack stands in owners back driveway because he had mid year vettes stashed inside his house garage. One owner L89 67 tanker car knock offs , 65 fuelie & more at his parents …great time to be alive as id looked at over 100 69’s till I spent my wad of cash I’d saved on my dream car. My cousins had ss396s & z’s I knew by 12 what I wanted & educated myself to search. Best $4400 I ever spent. Had 89,000 miles on it . L60 tiger paws & the stripes were skinnier & black yet my fav part is the black diamond vynil interior everywhere , I de shackled I and left his vette rally’s on back as I dig it that way. Rust free southern car from The Rolla Mo area. Over next 10 years I bought everything nos gm to restore it possible & a cross ram set up long ago. It’s not about money as I’ve turned down over the years , these true cars are approaching insane costs….. it’s about the ride & a kids dream pile of car mags with pages of 69zs taped all over his small bedroom , keep those dreams alive , it’s about to enter its afterlife restored as It’ll be passed it down to my boy who has the same zeal for her. Lucky kid ! When he was 13 I gifted him a super nice no option 80z my old Sunday school teacher bought new here local.

 

Guess I’m a Camaro guy too. I had a 78 lemon yellow Camaro LT with black bucket and console interior.

 

Just another Camaro! OK. OK. Just another GM!

Just after we got out of High school, my buddy that had a 69 Nova 3 speed on the floor with a V8 that couldn't keep up. He dropped every penny he could scrape together to order a new 76 Camaro Rally Sport, 350 motor, 4 speed (I think?), blah, blah, blah...

He was so proud when it came in, he just knew my beater Mopar didn't stand a chance against his new "fast" ride, because he had a 350 and I just had that little small block Mopar "granny motor" with an automatic transmission. He kept egging me on as I was trying hard to save his pride. When he finally reached my limit, I proved he was wrong again. I whopped him 3 for 3, but just to add a little more hurt, and to prove my point, I beat him by a quite a bit more each time (yea, I really was like that back then). My granny motor and automatic trans ran pretty hard on the streets (bumped up compression, cam, carb, gears, traction), if you wanted to run me, you better had been on your game. I was just playing with him, he brought a pocket knife to a sward fight. He couldn't grasp the fact that his 76 350 smogger didn't stand a chance, even though everyone tried to warn him. Then to make matters worst, he was facing 3 years of car payments to boot. I don't know if the car lasted through the end of his payments, but the way he drove it made that pretty questionable. He moved away a couple years later, perusing a decent job that he actually did get. Haven't seen him since.

 

Both of our boys had T/A's when they were in High School ( 2010 )
the 79 had a 454 Chevy with a 400 and a Dana with a 4:10 and a spool. The 84 was a nice original car with 80k on it. We let that son build his own turbo set up and install it on this car. They both learned a lot during those years from painting skills to engine overhaul and a friend of mine helped one of them rebuild a automatic for his senior project.
We used cars to get our boys through their teenage years and it worked out good .

 

Camaro guy, all the way....
Before with a 6cyl...after with 406" sbc, 4 speed....

 

Time line...my street racing high school buddy in 1968...ran the Z28 into the ground, sold it,
then bought it back 20yrs. later, did a complete restoration and has since sold it again...sigh....

 

Dad! I’ll be over tomorrow to get it!

 

I have owned 37 F bodies. Most of those Camaros but a dozen T/A's, formulas and of course 3 rotisserie restored SE "Bandit" cars. I have a soft spot in my heart for the 78-80 t-top Z though, I respectfully refer to them as "Disco Camaros".
This is Ban One, and yours truly signing autographs for my adoring public.

This is Ban Two, 4 speed car. It is a 77 though it has a gold beak emblem. I welded a '78 Fisher t-top roof on it (it was a hardtop) so I kept it looking like a 78. I always used the '78 8" wheels on them too. Cooler looking IMO.

This is Ban Three behind "Parts Getter 2" on her way to her new home. I had to buy three sets of window louvers to make that 3rd set. I hate the plastic ones, all the cars got black powder coated louvers and I powder coated all the window trim on them. This on didn't have a CB antenna. I had a magnetic one, but someone stole it and my cowboy hat that was hanging on it. Who does shit like that?

"They call me the Bandit"

 

Never owned either. Worked on a few, both paid and friend's cars. Liked some from afar, mainly 69-72 RS. Most stuff was nice and easy to work on. They were always more popular (expensive) than what I liked and could afford. The third and fourth gen I don't fit in so don't care. Haven't tried the 5-6.

 

I think between the two, I have owned 5 or 6 of first generation, 5 of the second generation, 0 of the third, one of the fourth, and 0 past that. My oldest son does have a 2010 SS 6 speed car now so he has a 5th generation. My mom also had a 89 GTA so, we have had all but the sixth generation in the family.

 

I had a couple GTA's and IROC's in my 30's. I sported a mean ass mullet back then, what else would I drive? I had a 3rd gen Z when my wife and I got married. The last F body I owned was my 69. Here is that car and my buddies at the newly dubbed "Camaro Henge" in the Columbia River Gorge on a weekend jaunt to tri cities.