Hello Good 3rd gen people

Ok guys .... I would like some info. Hopefully you guys can help out.

My buddy bought a Camaro. Production date is 6/90. Title says its a 1991. Vin 10th digit is L, which means 1990. The badging on the car says IROC. The RPO label supports the IROC as being real. But they didn't make 1991 IROC's. So the question is ..... Is this a super rare car or ?????

 

Your vins 10th is a M which is 91 your L is the 11th meaning build in Van Nuys. Its a z28. Recount again

 

The "IROC" license ran out at midnight, December 31st 1989. Any cars built after that were Z28s only, as GM could no longer use the name under contract even though they were mechanically identical.

 

he started a couple of posts about this on a facebook group, and i came to the conclusion that it's a late '90 build that didn't get sold and titled until '91 for whatever reason... of course i didn't really put too much effort into digging up VIN info since i'm not really a numbers kinda guy and left that up to him.

i also reasoned that even if it isn't an IROC- since Dodge got the rights to the IROC name and provided cars for the race series starting in 91- the IROC badging could have been dealer installed, or put on by a previous owner because he thought it looked cooler or whatever..

 

Wouldn't be the first time. I've lost count of how many "1984 IROC-Z28-RS" and similar Camaros I've seen for sale on Craigslist.

 

every third gen is an IROC just like everyone thinks my dark blue 84 T Type is a GN..

 

This is correct.

Chevy licensed the name from The International Race Of Champions, and the contract expired at that time. Chevy decided that it was no longer of marketing value to associate themselves with a race series where they didn't race against other brands.

Dodge bought the rights next, for a few years; put the name on some little FWD POS. Did very little marketing with it.

When that expired, I don't recall anybody licensing it any more... the series ended up buying their own cars. They used Firebird bodies for the last few years of the series existence. The cars of course weren't "stock", they were tube-frame race cars, just with whatever sheet metal hung on them.

Bottom line is, somebody bought the stickers later on, and stuck them on the car.

I don't see "IROC" anywhere in the SPID label.

 

I am not sure how it worked out, but you are correct, they ended up going with the 4th gen Firebird shape for the IROC seriesl IIRC, even when they changed the dog house in 1998, they still continued to use the 93-97 body style. It was almost like everyone stopped caring what the cars looked like.

I suspect the Trans Am never had an IROC, was "Trans Am" is a completely different racing series, As is the "Formula" racing series, actually several series used the "Formula" name, Formula 1 is probably the most common, but there are also "Formula Vee" "Formula Auto GT" and the list goes on. So it too would have been akward to have a "Formula IROC" On top of all of that, How much sense would it have made to have a Firebird IROC, when they already have the Trans Am and Formula (and even Firehawk) name plates, what would they do differently with the car? The difference between the Trans Am and Formula was only trim, same drive-train, at what point would it end?

Could you imagine the lineup for the Firebird if they did adopt the name?

Firebird
Formula
Formula Firehawk
Formula WS6
Trans Am
Trans Am Firehawk
Trans Am WS6
IROC

I think it would have gotten ridiculous, thus why Pontiac never used it.

 

GM paid the SCCA a licensing fee for every Trans AM they ever sold from 1969 to 2002...

 

I suspect IROC got a little greedy with the licensing though, as the series never was very good at managing money. At the end it died off ignobly because of money issues, broken up and all its assets sold off.

 

$5.00 each car IIRC

 

It was a marketing plan that sold thousands of cars.

Is it also true that the 1990 model year was shortened because of this & that all cars built after January 1, 1990 were considered 91 models?

 

So in short .... it's not an IROC and it is a 91 model year.

The doors are the only IROC labeling on the vehicle.

It is a Z28 Camaro, 350 L98 TPI, that is unmolested. Even still has stock radio and exhaust. I told him to repaint the car, remove the IROC from the doors and keep what it is ... a Z28.

Thanks guys.

 

It should have the tall spoiler too.

 

I don't recall that being the case; there were plenty of late-year 90s on car lots up through Labor Day, pretty much business as usual. Just, no more IROCs after the 1st of th eyear.

 

Yes it does.

 

Dealers could Sell them, the Factory could not make them.

There were NO 1990 F-bodies made in the physical year of 1990, they were all produced in 1989.

Interestingly they did make 13 1991 Camaros and 13 1991 Firebirds in 1989. Around October 30 or 31 of 1989...

 

So what's the story about these 26 cars? Why were they built so early & out of sequence?

 

All I know for sure is they were all 1991 models, from 100001 thru 100013 & 20001 thru 20013. Each one was different, I Don't remember the specifics but no two were the same...

I thought I had a list of the 26 VINs but I do not know where they are...

I suspect they were for a few things, Crash, fuel economy, emissions...

John

 

Test cars John don't receive passenger car vin's - early press vehicles possibly?

Did the Firebirds also have the Dec 31/Jan 1 cutoff or did they have a traditional 1990 model year?

 

Firebirds had the same cutoff