Submitted by Kenn_d t3_119mev5 in OldSchoolCool
Reptarticle t1_j9s4j60 wrote
Reply to comment by GrumpyCatStevens in My dad and I on his Firebird circa 1989 by Kenn_d
It must have been awful to be a gear head in the 70’s. You go from 13 second 1/4 mile running Camaros and Mustangs, to 15-16 second top of the line cars, IE the Corvette. That whole decade(minus 70-71) there’s only a couple cars that stood the test of time. The 76-77 Trans Am being one for sure. Smokey and the Bandit helped launch that car to still being sought after decades later.
GrumpyCatStevens t1_j9s54m7 wrote
Yeah, I like the '77 SE just because Smokey & The Bandit made it a cultural icon - plus it sent Trans Am sales through the roof. If I were looking for a performance model, I'd pick either an LS-1 powered 4th-gen or a '73 with the SD455.
I can still remember when Ford introduced the 5.0 HO engine in the '82 Mustang, and the car rags were so excited that it made 157 hp (which to be fair was a big improvement over the outgoing 4.2L V8 that made about 120 hp and couldn't be had with a stick).
Reptarticle t1_j9s6155 wrote
That front end of the 73 you mentioned took me a while to get used to. It’s grown on me now, but if I’d still choose the Camaro or the TA for 73.
The 82 GT was a big deal. First year of the GT moniker. The 2.3L turbo 4 cylinder nearly made the same power as the V8 until 1985 when the 5.0 jumped to 210hp. Wild to think a minivan has 100 more hp than that today.
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