The GF and I make it a point to not even glance at the "payments" people show up with at shows. Easy to have a perfect looking, fast car when it's 6 months old and will never have gone through years of neglect and abuse.
Even less than perfect older cars will get my attention, we all start somewhere in the scene, and not everyone has the money or the skill to pull off a show winner, but I sure appreciate that more than a car that I could go sign some finance papers for.

I also get a kick out of embarrassing those guys on the road.

I appreciate seeing newer cars, but I don’t look them over like the older ones people have kept in near perfect shape for decades..

A guy has a Grand National with 120k miles but still looks mint inside and out.. Original paint with no dings, scratches, scuffs, etc.. (has it paint corrected and sealed) and the interior is original from 1987. A little wear you have to look close to see on the driver’s seat, but all the plastics, buttons, dash, etc are perfect..

Said he has the car to drive it and goes on all kinds of scenic cruises...

I appreciate those cars..

Its hard to keep a car nice through multiple owners for decades..

examples:
1) a car that chip foose built and i cut a check to buy: "that's bought"

2) a car i put together with my bare hands and didn't send to "my guy" to put together :THAT'S BUILT

the origin of the parts is absolutely irrelevant unless you are referring to "originality"you would laugh outright or turn your head
in shame knowing how much of the original car are left in some "original numbers matching car builds"
philosophy and feelings and perhaps over/under thinking or simplifying these things just muddies it up .

i would love to build a b/n 1969 camaro from the ground up and fly the "built not bought "banner" i certainly wouldn't call it original

Ive got a friend with an 87 mustang gt,its close to "perfect" and "enhanced" in every aspect from the ground up.(yes,i know its a rustang)
he has easily $60,000 in it.its a love hate thing with me,i love how clean,well thought out,well executed ,good looking the car is but the cost to get there,DAMN.....

BUT.do you walk by because the person spent the money to do his car right and had serious pride,focus and dedication(and insanity)
you can bet your bottom dollar there's more than several guys like that on this site.ive seen the cars and im not a fool.i know it costs money
so basically anyone who wants a crazy nice car is "going to have payments" unless the build took 40 years BUT THEN then it wouldn't be current

a 70 1/2 camaro z28 is a thing of pure beauty IMO.i guess cars and the cars we individually love
will always be subjective though so no point in arguing what "i like" or what "you like" at the end
of the day,is there? i like third gens because they are eye catching,attainable and drive/handle well.

seriously,you don't like this?




anyway,i love early muscle but its become unobtainium . if you manage to get something like that,were can
you actually "drive it " or "park it" without being in constant fear of random idiots "touching it" or
"parking near it" or "running in to it"my friend with the carousel red 1969 judge is a total mess when he has
his car out,its easily a 98-99 point car and he is totally **** about anyone approaching it closer than 50 feet.
its appraised at about 3 times what my first house cost.

Honestly, probably the best description I've seen of the newer camaros.
Either way, coming from someone who has a firebird, I can totally agree that after 3rd gen, the designs completely changed and I think they went downhill.
They traded the "boxy" look for "bubbly" and it lost the feel of the traditional muscle car, but hey that's just my opinion.
I think it was all that Japanese influence.

you may be disappointed to know many (or most/all tbh) serious show winning cars aren't built by the owner of the car.

I am not disappointed by this. Those are the cars I walk by without stopping to look.

The first gen - third gen seemed like they were designed for the people to come to them... more of the attitude “we’re going to make a car so cool you won’t be able to resist it...” Even people that usually buy practical cars would lust after the Camaro... Since then it seems like they’ve been trying to figure out the style of cars people are buying and pander to them instead of carving their own path... “well people like more rounded cars so we’ll get with the times..” or “People like faceless, overly aggressive, over designed cars with LED strips and giant black wheels so we’ll do that...”. The engineering is great, but the styling is pandering to the masses instead of winning them over... With the Thirdgens even some Corvette drivers switched to driving IROCs.. That doesn’t happen now..

car shows would be slim pickin's without all the pretty "credit card" cars grey hairs have thrown a **** ton of money at.
i agree with you though,a super slick perfect car with unlimited resources poured into it is kind of sickening but difficult
to not look at,kind of like a horrendous car crash and the magnetic attraction to rubber neckers and other random idiots.

I give the credit to the car... not the owners in those cases...

A great build I will spend time talking to the owner about and appreciate every detail that they did themselves...

I also give a lot of credit to the 30+ year old cars that are unrestored but just so we’ll kept over that amount of time it’s just impressive... Maybe the interior isn’t shiny, new rugs and there might be some wear on the wheels or the trim... but you have to appreciate a meticulously kept original car with unrestored and improved features...

Everyone likes the candy paint and the mirrors showing off the show paint underneath and the spotless chrome motors... And I give it thumbs up... But the DIY cars, the well kept original cars, and the weirdo cars that aren’t The same old classics get most of my attention..

I will say motorcycles don’t have much of a draw for me... Just not my scene...

i definitely love survivor cars that look miraculously good after decades,you know the car was loved and cherished in these cases

Well, you know what they say about opinions.... ;-) I have a 2011 SS and 1986 Z28. Both were purchased new, and I love them equally!! :-)

I like the early 5th Gens the best... I toyed with the idea of having a garage like that but I thought they’d go more retro with the 6th gen... I don’t hate them, just don’t like them enough to buy one like a lot of other people...

Thats awesome those are both one owner cars!

Some sales news from last month...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.car...ustang-owners/

Here’s a guy who put a Camaro nose on a 2005 Mustang... The Mustang also has an LS3, Camaro front end and interior so once again if Ford is so great why do they keep using small block Chevy’s when they need a motor swap? Ha ha
https://www.google.com/amp/gmauthori...d-mustang/amp/

OK - I'll say it - that Cam-stang looks better than what GM came up with.

He stopped at Home Depot to get some more stickers.