I've asked that question so many times.

I get that it's fast, easy to work on. That's isn't me. I like fast cars, but fast cars can be nice looking too. And a 3rd gen blows away the Fox in handling. As for modifying and working on them, unfortunately that isn't in my skill set and I really don't have the garage and tools to do that. I'm shallow - looks are the most important thing to me.

 

LMAO!!!

 

I've never liked Fox Bodies. Ugly little cars...

 

That's a little harsh there T.L lol.

 

Were they made in ugly little factories Mr Enzo?

What you did there, I see it.

That said, I still get compliments in the GTA all the time. Its build date was November 17th 1988. It turned 31 this week.

I feel that the mixed reputation is more from people who are old enough to remember how slow most of the thirdgens were in comparison to the Fox bodies.

With a third gen, if you had a V8, you were either barely faster than the V6, or you could blow the doors off almost anything else on the road. And there were way more TBI V8's built than TPIs.

 

I go to lots of shows and I can tell you our cars aren't considered classics by most. I do get lots of compliments on how pretty the car is and lots of people comment that the Thirdgens are the last of the good looking F-bodys. I got my drivers license in 1993 when these cars and Fox bodys were plentiful, I like both. Matter of fact I like a ton of 80s cars

 

disagree many times there. Newer gens look good to.


as for the classic cars? They aren’t classic to the old guys for the same reason you think the third gen is the last good looking f-body.

 

Why so much hate for Foxes? Broaden your horizons. I get to enjoy both. Not trying to show off/flaunt my cars in this pic but can't we all just get along lol?!

Kinda silly that GM had so many engine options tho, posi or not etc. With Henry it's manual or auto, 2.73s or 3.08s. That's it.

I enjoy the Ford vs GM ball busting between my buddies but it's all in good nature. Some of you folks here really hate Foxes and it's sad. Remember, they are still USA.

 

I don't hate them George. Who knows, if the right one comes along, I may buy another one.

 

I know you don't hate em lol. Because you're a HEAVY connoisseur keep your eyes peeled for an 85 5.0 manual coupe or 85 manual GT. If not low mileage black interior 1992 5.0 manual coupe is where it's at!

 

Like I said, I've had a few Mustangs, too. I liked them enough to buy them, but I do prefer the f bodies. The only thing that I really never understood with the Mustang's, is why the engineers thought it was necessary to have to punch the stereo when you're grabbing 3rd gear!!

 

I know of a super mint, '85 GT, 5 speed, Z code, vert. It has really low miles, like 10K, and it's for sale. Weird how convertible Foxes are harder to sell than coupes or hatchbacks.

 

Funny thing is I ran into a guy at car show who had a nice 93 cobra. We talked and he said he always wanted a 92 z28.

Nice guy and we eventually found out we are from the same hometown

 

I damn near piled up an 85 GT, 5 speed vert into a bridge one night. I hit black ice once I got on the bridge and went full tilt boogie all over the place. Saved it, though!

 

In 1994, I got into a drag race with a dude in a black, 93 5 speed Cobra. It said VENOM on the plates. I had an 87 IROC-Z, 5.7 with bolt ons. He DESTROYED me. He was a super cool dude, but he wouldn't pop his hood to expose what was making that notorious whine sound lol.

 

Me and my good buddy with his MINT '86 GT coming home from cruise night and having some fun.

 

Fox body convertibles have real issues with terrible build quality. They're heavy too, which collides with the purpose of the 5.0 Mustang in the first place. Even the nice ones are clunky. Like the rest of the car, they're old tech and it shows.

Most of the Fox body hate is missing the point. Thirdgens are under-appreciated because there were tons of them, and 90% of them were slow and disappointing. Being difficult to work on didn't help them either. Look at any thread about changing spark plugs or a fuel pump around here and you'll see people crying about how hard thirdgens are to maintain. Other things like "there's no room to run my duel (sic) exhaust" and expensive performance parts (in comparison) also play into it. A lot of people are still grumpy about their ownership experiences, or they knew someone who had a slow Iroc or whatever. I'm not saying the Fox body is a better car, or nicer, or anything like that really, only that to many people thirdgens represent cruddy 80s/90s GM quality, and they're remembered as cars that looked fast and weren't.

 

I agree. Most people don't consider them classics.

Just my opinion and a lot of people won't agree. But I think the 3rd gens have almost aged too well to seem like classics in a lot of peoples' eyes. The design has aged very well. It still looks like a fairly modern car. In the minds of a lot of people, classics look old. A well-maintained 3rd gen doesn't really look old. My car doesn't look 31 years old. Give it time for the "classic" designation.

My niece's husband has a 1970 or so Olds 442. It's absolutely pristine. Beautiful car. Anyone would peg it as a classic. Now it is almost twenty years older than my GTA. But it also does look like an old car.

As for Fox body hate, I don't hate them. I just don't like them. They never looked remotely like a sports car to me. Sports car are sleek. Fox bodies were chunky. Doesn't even fit the name - mustangs are muscular and sinewy. The early Foxes looked like rebodied Fairmonts, the later ones like modified Escorts. No matter how fast a car may be, if I don't like the looks I'll never consider one. (And I have driven a few Foxes. They are quick. Except for a friend's 88 HP version, total dog like the Iron Duke Camaros.)

 

I do! In fact I think you could say the Third Gen's classic sports car design has aged into the future and not become the past.

 

Thats it. Worrying about what others think about your car makes 0 sense to me.
Wanna get hate, go buy a c4 holy cow lol.

 

I buy what I want to buy, not what others "tell me" is cool. Over the years, quite a collector of junk I guess, but it's my junk.

 

I love C4s...

 

Agreed. Owned 4 of them. Great cars.

 

Me too! I have a 95 Vette and absolutley love the thing!

 

I wouldn't necessarily consider my car a classic by any stretch of the word, though technically I can plate and insure it as such...

Everybody has their own opinion on what a classic is or can be, they also have the own opinions on what is cool or junk. I may not like what someone else builds or does with their car but who am I do judge and condemn what they do with their time, energy and money? There's a place in this hobby for every make and model, and just because we tend to lean towards the fbody as the car of choice doesn't mean that we are right or wrong. It's just what we like.

Don't surround yourself with people who have no respect or appreciation for what you visualize as your dream car or build. I've got C5 wheels on my Camaro...some say it's played out, others love it. I don't care, because at the end of the day it's what I like, it's what I wanted and it's what I think looks great.

If you want to paint your car hot pink and put 24" dubs on it, by all means go ahead. Afterall it is your car and your car alone.

 

I've never understood the lack of respect for C4s. The generation was the great leap forward for Corvettes, the one that made them a truly great car. But I think that over time, they will be regarded as classics. They have the same problem regarding being seen as a classic as a 3rd gen f-body - they don't look old.

 

Me too! Looking at them really hard right now probably be my next purchase.

 

Having only a two-car garage, I'm not in the market for anything. My regular car, an ATS coupe, takes up one spot and my Firebird the other. I could see keeping both cars for a really long time. But if the Firebird ever gets troublesome to the point that I decide to sell, I'd probably start looking at Corvettes. My two favorite Vettes are the later C4s and the C7s. I'd probably go for a C7. From all that I've read, the C8 is going to be a phenomenal car, but those mid-engine proportions take some getting used to. Aesthetically, I may prefer the C7, but I have to see a C8 in person.

 

Foxes are all fun and games till you try to hit a corner doing any speed faster than stopped. Fun cars though, I loved the 7up's. I don't understand the big Mustang vs Camaro issue though as it's almost 2020 and Dodge STILL can't figure out how to build a reliable vehicle that does more than a straight line boogie

 

Now is the time to buy one! I don't think they can get any cheaper. The bang for the buck is second to none..

I got mine about 7 weeks ago, and I've been driving it all over the place. It's a pain to get in and out of (I'm 6'5" and 260 lbs) but it's a super fun car to drive. It feels like a big go cart.

 

The big problem I see with the C4s is that they made a lot of them over a long period. People got tired of seeing them and a lot of people that bought them babied them. They were weekend cars that got waxed and put away and barely saw the elements. There’s a ton of mint C4s with under 50k miles around me and people practically can’t give them away. Even a mint ZR1 with 20k miles is cheaper than the IROC prices. A lot of Vette guys want the “new one” and always get lured by more performance. Thirdgens seem to have such a strong following that most thirdgen enthusiast I meet would rather cruise in their 200+hp car than trade it up for a 450+hp 5th or 6th gen. Cruising a Thirdgen > Newer, Better, Faster... At least to a pretty big number of people.

I always loved late C4s. Feels like you’re in a fighter jet. I love the clamshell hood, the saw blade wheels... I think they look awesome and drive awesome... Love the 6-speed too.. They get awesome gas mileage and give you all that data on the screen as well as tire pressure which is nice.. The fuel gauge is based on your fuel economy which is interesting. I like the passive keyless entry too. Much better experience owning one than I had imagined. Getting out of them is tough... Once you’re in there it’s damn comfortable though..

There’s a nice looking 40th anniversary 6-speed Vette with 40k miles near me for $8k...

Can’t beat what you get for the price of a C4... The Grand Sport seems to be the most expensive one out there. The depreciation on the ZR1s is unbelievable. You can find a nice one $18-22k.

I think the C4s will come into their own and the C5s will be dropping in price. The C4 has more classic lines than the C5 IMO...

 

I don't much care about classic or antique when it comes to my cars. For me, it's about enjoying and driving something not everyone else has and today, that couldn't be more true for a third generation Firebird or Camaro. When I'm in one of my cars, I'm usually the only one on any day of the week, anywhere I go. I wouldn't own a Corvette unless I could find one that I could drive through a show/cruise-in that would make every Corvette owner stop what they're doing and stare at mine with their jaws hitting the pavement, absolutely furious that a guy like me has it, like I broke some law to get it.

My next purchase to add to my collection will be a 90s Lotus Esprit Turbo. I'm pretty confident, I'll have the only one in this area.

 

C4's are awesome. Compliments our third gen's well.

Btw, as much as I dislike FORD products as a previous owner of one, I wouldn't mind a 1986 SVO.

 

1st vette I will get will be a 90 to 95 zr1 or a 96 LT4.

 

The Espirit is one of my all-time favorite designs.

I agree with you about driving something that isn't too common. Even when I bought a Firebird new in '90 and there were plenty of them on the road, it was still not something that was in everyone's driveway. Then later on when I had a 3rd gen in the 2000s, they were starting to get rare. And since I bought my latest in 2018, I honestly don't think I've seen another 3rd gen Firebird on on the road, although I have seen a few Camaros (I almost never even see a 4th gen Firebird either.)

It's nice driving cars that not everyone has. That was part of the appeal of the Reatta that I had for five years. I had a CTS Coupe from 2012-2018, which was quite a unique design. Even now, my everyday car is an ATS Coupe, which is a conservative but (I think) pretty design. It's not so different from the ATS Sedan I suppose, but it has a nice look and is a really fun ride. There's a fair number of ATS sedans out there, but I don't think I've seen five other ATS Coupes on the road.

 

I’m with you! I’ve looked at the Lotus Esprit for years, and like what I see. I’ve never seen one in person, but would like to.

 

My old girlfriend's neighbor had an orange Esprit as his only car. Just parked it on the street like it was a Corolla.

 

Like I said I like lots of 80s-90s cars and these two are side by side at shows all the time.I would have bought this GT myself had not my friend really wanted it bad. I like the GTs and the old rivalry back in the day was fun and sold lots of go-fast parts.

 

While we're on the subject, this is one of the nicest 5.0s I've seen.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0120-39...kAXioiwB6xd1kI

 

Yep, that is a damn nice one! Wow!

 

Wow that's a clean GT.

 

I have a black 87 GTA 5.7L with C&C tops. Maybe it's not the creme de la creme of desirable classic cars, but I've had more people make comments to me about how totally cool it is. I mostly hear the term "badass." One time I was sitting at a stoplight with the tops off, and this guys pulls up next to me and says, "Dude.. that thing f*cks. Seriously."

People love 3rd gen Trans Ams.

 

I wonder how many times I've posted this...

The problem isn't THE CAR itself; it's THE TIME it was born into.

The car culture, as it existed in the 60s and very early 70s, was GONE. It is STILL GONE. It will NEVER COME BACK. Cars simply don't have the same meaning, the grip on a teenager's imagination, the way they were weaved into the very fabric of THE CULTURE OF THE TIMES, the way they were back then. It's pretty much impossible to explain to people who weren't THERE.

A 350 TPI car will WAX a stock 302 67 "Z/28". Ruthlessly. But... people DON'T CARE. Didn't in 1987, don't now, never will. The "Z/28" was a RACE CAR, a homologue, one of the 500 mystical unicorns the factory HAD TO make in order to participate in a particular racing class (Trans Am), whereas the L98 cars were just a mass-produced commodity that cost too much and didn't deliver enough. How ironic that the car that's named after that racing series, by way of merely PAYING for (buying) the use of the name, to my knowledge, NEVER DID race in it, until MUCH later, at least 10 yrs later than after they started using the name. They built no homologues. Pontiac had no 300 inch motor of their own that they put into production cars, until near 1980, by which time the rules changed. Which by the time they finally came up with one, it was a steaming bucket of monkey excrement that wouldn't have been able to FINISH one of those races, let alone finish on the lead lap. Thank Bozye they never put it into our chassis, otherwise the Firebird guys would REALLY be spanking off about "real" Pontiac" motors, and STILL getting their asses whupped.

A L69 car will hold its own against ANY and EVERY 60s muscle car, as delivered. Even accounting for the TOTAL CRAP for tires that those older cars came with. Tire for tire, off the showroom floor, it's not even a race.

Problem is, by the time these cars came out, NOBODY CARED. The whole excitement, enthusiasm, adrenaline, that came along with THOSE cars in THOSE days, DISAPPEARED in the emissions drag of 1971, and even worse, the Arab oil embargo of 1973. I remember in the mid 70s people COULDN'T GET RID OF their Challengers, Chargers, Mustangs, Chevelle SSs, GTOs, 442s, fast enough. Hell, gasoline went from $0.29 a gallon to sometimes $0.75 a gallon, OVERFREAKINGNIGHT!!!! ON THE DAYS OF THE WEEK YOUR LICENSE PLATE # ALLOWED YOU TO BUY IT AT ALL!!!!!!!! Who's gonna get out there and "cruise" when all the sudden it costs 3 TIMES AS MUCH and you can only do it on alternate days after waiting in a 2-hr line at the pump??? I learned to take girls out at night "parking" instead of "cruising". And besides, the gas you could buy in 1976, was WATERED DOWN CAT PEE compared to what you could buy in 1970; meaning, NONE of those old cars could even WORK on pump gas? We had to go to the airport and bribe the lop-eared kid at the FBO to fill a 5-gallon can for us. (I won't tell you what airport we went to or who the kid was, … in case you haven't figured it out already) It was HIGHLY ILLEGAL but … ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Meanwhile, the whole "car culture" CRASHED AND BURNED. I remember songs on the radio in the 60s about "409", "GTO", "2 cool shorts [drag racers... short track] standing side by side", "Mustang Sally", "Pink Cadillac", … the list just GOES ON. After 1972 or so, NO MORE. That kind of public adulation and infatuation with "cars" as an enthusiast's wet dream, DIED.

Our cars were simply born into the wrong time. Even now, when you can walk into any Chevy, Frod, Xler, Subie, Caddy, whatever whatever whatever STEALERSHIP and just buy and drive out in a car that would DRILL any of those 60s cars with any amount of modification you could do to it short of a tube frame with an acid-dipped body-in-white tacked onto it, people … just aren't … excited … about it. Those days are OVER.

I remember the first time I saw a 82 Indy pace car. I had a 79 Z28 4-speed with 186 heads and a Holley carb and a Comp 268H cam (developmental at that moment) and 4.10 gears, was driving home from work. Musta been about Oct of 81. I DAMN NEAR FILLED THE CUP on the spot. I could not BELIEVE how awesome that car looked and how much I wished I had THAT instead of the old boulevard PIG I had. But then I drove one... and I kept my pig. Because the CFI and LG4 cars were WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY worse. As crappy as my 2nd gen was, at least it has some whooma-whooma. A CFI car is ENTIRELY DEVOID of any of that. A LG4 was pretty much a sedan motor... bought my wife a 83 Caprice one time (triple black... beautiful car.. ended up getting stolen... it was in Memphis after all), had EXACTLY the same motor in it, kinda left me … underwhelmed. Good motor, ran strong for the day, got around good, even got pretty good gas mileage; but … my stepfather worked for Xler as an executive from 65 - 70; we had EVERY car they made in those years, as a condition of his employment he HAD TO accept them, couldn't be seen in the parking lot with a Frod or GM product, but could ONLY retain them for 3000 miles, which was about 8 - 10 weeks max. He didn't HAVE TO keep em that long (and usually didn't), just, he couldn't keep em ANY LONGER, which meant, we went through A SHIPLOAD of Xlers in the late 60s. We had EVERY car that company made. We had Hemi cars, 440 6-pack cars, New Yorkers, Furys, Chargers, the little 340 Demons, I think he even brought home a Super Bee one time. I can assure you, a LG4 car in 82 - 83 didn't excite the same primal existential urges (to fill the cup) as one of THOSE cars did, once you got into the driver's seat. Sorry, it just … DIDN'T.

The flip side of that is, these cars are CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEP to buy, and PLENTIFUL. Which means those of us who enjoy them, can readily afford to indulge in our hobby. We might complain about paying $12k for a "pristine" "survivor" IROC or GTA or something; but do you have ANY IDEA what it would take to buy the equivalent 68 Mustang or 69 442 or 65 GTO? IMO we should quit BITCHING about "we don't get no respect" and instead ENJOY the fact that we can immerse ourselves in our hobby for A TINY FRACTION of what the "classic" car people have to spend. Count our blessings that our cars "don't get no respect". TRUST ME: the Mustang, Nopar, Vette people with ANY car later than the early 70s, ALL say the same thing.

It's not about the "cars". It's about THE TIME THEY WERE BORN INTO.

 

Bingo.

 

My only complaint with my C4 is that it sure doesn't turn very sharp. I'm sure you've noticed that with yours, too.. F bodies turn way sharper

 

Am I the only one noticing that convertible Challenger??

 

Good eye! I didnt even notice that! I'd like to see more pics of that one!

 

Me too! I've never been a Mopar "enthusiast", but I can definitely get on board with something like that

 

I feel like it can take a corner faster and it holds the road unbelievably, But yeah I think my Tahoe has a better turning radius. Lots of three point turns where you wouldn’t think you need to... My IROC feels surprisingly good cornering and can make sharper turns.

 

I haven't driven a C4 much, but I noticed that too. Large turning circle. But they carve up a road well. I have to admit, when people post pics of their C4, I start to think, "maybe I should list the GTA." But I don't think i could part with it. I've made that mistake before.

I love the handling on the Firebirds I've owned. The turning circle is surprisingly tight for a 192" long car. They way these car handle a winding road and slice through corners has always put a smile on my face. It's one thing if you have a small sports car that does this, but to have a fairly big, muscular car handle like this is really fun.