Thre's a question I've had for a long time regarding ground effects and 3rd gen cars. The bottom of the doors, rocker pannels and bumpers were recessed right from the beginning in 1982, but full gfx packages didn't arrive until the 83 T/A pace car and the package became more widespread to being available on all T/As and Z28s starting in 1984. There were the small wheel spats on T/As in 82 and 83, but those could've been designed without the full body length recesses (the 2nd gen cars had wheel spats and no recess/crease). Were these full body gfx packages planned right from the time of development of the 3rd gen before launching in 1982?

 

They were for the Camaro since the Z28 had them since introduction.

 

oh they did? I don't know much about the early camaros and thought they didn't get the ground effects package until 84. i guess that answers my question then. thanks

 

The 82-84 Z28's had the same style ground effects. 85-90 had their own, the 91-92 got the last style. Same could be said for the Firebird line for the most part.

 

Trans Am GFX
82 - 84 Spats
83 Daytona GFX
84 GFX (same as Daytona in 83)
85-90 Series II
91-92 Series III

84 is an enigma, not sure exactly if all got it or not.

 

The Trans Am aero ground effects (W62) were an option in 1984, but a significant percentage of T/As built were equipped with it (I did see the breakdown at one point, I think it was over 50% built that were equipped with them). I thought I knew the complete history of ground effects on 3rd gens before making this post, but it turns out I was wrong about the 82 and 83 Camaros. I thought they mirrored the T/A (minus the spats) with the full ground effects package arriving in 84.

 

Jeremy,
Thanks, I thought that was the case...