I had to build a small bridge to get it out of the ravine. I had to take materials to get the car safely off of a slope from the garage where it was stored. This is an issue since rain and erosion has changed the angle of approach to the paved driveway surface so much that I had to bridge it with heavy plywood and dunnage type materials in several places to get the car out and off the slope without damage.

So what’s the back story? How did the car come to sit in a garage all these years without being driven and how did you learn about the car’s existence?

Home. First photo shoot.

As to the back story there really is not much of one other than the guy purchased the car at age 37 and got busy with life and parked it. He started it 6 times a year and changed the oil every 3 years.

Exceptionally nice. How does it run?

It runs like stink... but it is too quiet, like a new car.

Looks great! I don’t understand how someone buys that car and life stops them from driving it barely a single mile.. I guess at some point the guy must have decided to just keep miles off it.. So strange.. I feel
like I barely drive my car and probably put 800 miles on it this year..

Its a one of a kind find, that’s for sure..

This is my feeling.. I think most people looking for one of these even with money want to drive it.

I’d think $40k-ish would be possible for Barrett Jackson..

I would never buy a car like this because driving it would be like flushing money down the toilet and keeping it in a climate controlled showroom would be a waste of one’s life to not be able to romp around a brand new 5.7 IROC..

Very interesting to see what this will go for.

The original owner custom ordered the car and he specified the interior as well. I agree, I never recall seeing this combo either.

I live not to far from the Barrett Jackson auction. I may have to come by and check this car out. Do they tell you what day it will go up on the block? If so let me know. It would be fun to see this car go up for auction live in-person.

True.. I was surprised to see this was going up to BJ.. I wouldn’t buy one with such low miles, but wouldn’t sell one right now if I had one..

I agree, the DX3 option may end up really hurting the value of this car. People want it to say IROC.

A collector looked at the car after I acquired it and said that the car looked “prestigious” without the decals.

I pressed him on why he felt that way in light of the fact that he loves my 87 with the decals.

How He replied is interesting. He told me that the decal position change on the door looked out of place and the wheel design change gave the car an overall busy look to the eyes that on a sensory level was a distraction starting in 1988.

He followed up by stating that by 88 through a 90 IROC with full decals was like a lady wearing too much make up. He said “that’s why the IROC has a so called “ trashy” reputation with some people”. After 1987 it was not the car it was the combination of the appearance package that turned some people off.

This collector also has an eye for design. He also explained the decal was likely moved to the rear of the door due to the fact that having it directly above the ground effects where it already had a name plate that said IROC-Z was an attempt to look less obvious that you were duplicating the option announcement.

This shows that the guys with the big dollar collections can understand why a car falls into a certain historical context. He has over 5 million in cars and owned 5 IROCS when they were new. He should know, and I respect his opinion.

When my buddy and I had 87s we thought 88-90 looked stupid and made fun of them.. Now I come to realize it was more due to sort of hating on other IROCs because they weren’t ours..

There is a lot of that when a model changes people tend to trash talk the new model because they just bought a new car and then less than a year later a newer, updated one was driving around and it sort of pisses them off.. Most negative views on the 88-90 differences I’d say come from owners of 85-87s..

I don’t think the trashy reputation comes from the decals, rims and emblems. Most average people don’t notice the difference between an 87 and 89 unless I point it out. Linson has a good reply on a post saying the Camaro in general inherited a “trashy” reputation from the 70s that carried into the 80s. I also thought once the cars were on the used market, it was the people that could now afford them that made “trashy” mods to them that gave them the reputation. I remember when IROCs were brand new and expensive it seemed people in my area thought of them as similar to Corvettes. In the 90s when they were cheap and beat they got made fun of.

As as far as prices.. I think there is an artificial spike in asking prices started by dealers that has moved the market, but this is definitely not the ceiling on thirdgen prices. I think that car will go up in value and some collector will store it and have no fun with it while it makes him $1000/year in value.

I think to the right person Decal Delete is prestigious but to Johnny Hawaiian shirt who wants to buy a cool 80s car right now, he probably wants the stickers..