year by year wish list
Thread Starter
Supreme Member
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 1,353
Likes: 2
From: North Salt Lake
Car: '86 Camaro, '94 Camaro, 3 others
Engine: LG4 ->L29, L32->LR4, L36, LG4, L31
Transmission: 700R-4, T5WC, 4L80E, SM465, 4L60E
Axle/Gears: 3.42, 3.23, WTB/WTT 2.93
year by year wish list
Am I the only one who ever sat around with the standard catalog of Camaros, and the standard catalog of Firebirds, and wondered what I would buy each year if I could go back in time? You'd have to go back knowing what you know now, in order to make the right investments to afford all the best ones, and a place to keep them, etc.
Some you would have to put on your list, like the '82 Z28 pace car with LG4 and Super T-10, rather than the more common CrossFire option with TH200C, the '84 anniversary T/A, the ''89 Anniversary Pace Car Turbo T/A hardtop with cloth interior, with the '89-only notchback hatch, and a '92 Firehawk TransAm in not-red, with the Brembo / rollcage option, and a '91 Z28 1LE T5 hardtop, probably an '87 Formula 350, probably in yellow, the lesser-options version to keep it light,
But what would you buy in the other years, when there was nothing special?
An '88 Fiero? A '90 454SS? an '83.5 Monte Carlo SS? Or an '83 Mustang 5.0L with the return of the Holley 4-barrel carb?
But if you invested wisely, taking advantage of compound interest, what else could you do? How about an '87 GNX? A '91 Syclone? a '92 Typhoon? a '90 ZR1?
What if you used your foreknowledge of the future to manipulate your way into control of the F-car production? Get the 350 in the '82, with non-tapered subframe rails, the torque arm mounted to the crossmember, Vortec heads by '84, the Dana 44 axle by '84, et cetera?
I'm not likely to read back what you'd wish, I just thought I'd offer a little food for thought. I stir the pot every so often.
Some you would have to put on your list, like the '82 Z28 pace car with LG4 and Super T-10, rather than the more common CrossFire option with TH200C, the '84 anniversary T/A, the ''89 Anniversary Pace Car Turbo T/A hardtop with cloth interior, with the '89-only notchback hatch, and a '92 Firehawk TransAm in not-red, with the Brembo / rollcage option, and a '91 Z28 1LE T5 hardtop, probably an '87 Formula 350, probably in yellow, the lesser-options version to keep it light,
But what would you buy in the other years, when there was nothing special?
An '88 Fiero? A '90 454SS? an '83.5 Monte Carlo SS? Or an '83 Mustang 5.0L with the return of the Holley 4-barrel carb?
But if you invested wisely, taking advantage of compound interest, what else could you do? How about an '87 GNX? A '91 Syclone? a '92 Typhoon? a '90 ZR1?
What if you used your foreknowledge of the future to manipulate your way into control of the F-car production? Get the 350 in the '82, with non-tapered subframe rails, the torque arm mounted to the crossmember, Vortec heads by '84, the Dana 44 axle by '84, et cetera?
I'm not likely to read back what you'd wish, I just thought I'd offer a little food for thought. I stir the pot every so often.
Thread Starter
Supreme Member
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 1,353
Likes: 2
From: North Salt Lake
Car: '86 Camaro, '94 Camaro, 3 others
Engine: LG4 ->L29, L32->LR4, L36, LG4, L31
Transmission: 700R-4, T5WC, 4L80E, SM465, 4L60E
Axle/Gears: 3.42, 3.23, WTB/WTT 2.93
Re: year by year wish list
Applying that to the present, I'd take a GT350 over anything else right now, if I could afford anything new.
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 3,038
Likes: 52
From: Newtown, CT
Car: 1987 IROC Original Owner
Engine: LB9
Transmission: M39 MM5
Axle/Gears: G80 G92 J65
Re: year by year wish list
88 Was the first year for the 1LE option so I would order that.
If you took $15,000 in 1985 and it grew at a rate equal to the CPI it would be worth over $33k today. If you instead took that same amount and invested it yielding 10% return annually, it would be worth over $287,000 today.
Very few cars will have a future value equal to what you could have made with the same amount of money in proven investments. They are better as short term investments.
If you took $15,000 in 1985 and it grew at a rate equal to the CPI it would be worth over $33k today. If you instead took that same amount and invested it yielding 10% return annually, it would be worth over $287,000 today.
Very few cars will have a future value equal to what you could have made with the same amount of money in proven investments. They are better as short term investments.