The Sorry State of Affairs in Automobilia in the 1970s, 80s and 90s

[Henry]

Man, that Trans Am really was a Hollywood favorite! (Totally forgot about The Rockford Files, and Sylvester Stalone bought a new one in Rocky II, IIRC.) I know that when Smokey and the Bandit first came out, there were many endless calls to Pontiac and its dealerships for the new model that debuted in 1977; no wonder it was able to beat the Camaro for the first time ever. I think the same held true when Knight Rider debuted, and calls were for the KITT edition that only existed on the show. Although one has to wonder: Was David Hasselhoff ever promised a Trans Am from the show like Burt Reynolds was from the movies?

[GCrites]

Rockford's car was a base Firebird rather than a T/A. Probably a 6 cylinder too.

[Max Rockatansky]

Their judgmental car show videos are hilarious.

https://youtu.be/oMDcIApBtL8

(NSFW)
https://youtu.be/qy38UGt8n5c

https://youtu.be/P_GJGLy3EVE

Never thought I'd see a Fury Road and Dragon Ball Z Abridged reference in the same post....along with Miss Piggy being ready for the... 

[Max Rockatansky]

Rockford's car was a base Firebird rather than a T/A. Probably a 6 cylinder too.

Even still it was INFINITELY better looking than either the Camaro or Mustang in any trim level.  Really the late 70s second gen TA/Firebird is about the only car from the era that really gets a significant following.  The 400 actually has a bunch of parts that will open it back up from being strangled by the smog equipment and lowered compression....amazing that engine lasted as long as it did until 1979.  Those 73/74 SD engines are complete beasts...they pull some amazing numbers considering they are after the net horsepower ratings conversion.

[Max Rockatansky]

Not actually a thrilling list but chok full of obscure entries:

[SteveG1988]

My mopar is best mercedes

[GCrites]

Rockford's car was a base Firebird rather than a T/A. Probably a 6 cylinder too.

Even still it was INFINITELY better looking than either the Camaro or Mustang in any trim level.  Really the late 70s second gen TA/Firebird is about the only car from the era that really gets a significant following.  The 400 actually has a bunch of parts that will open it back up from being strangled by the smog equipment and lowered compression....amazing that engine lasted as long as it did until 1979.  Those 73/74 SD engines are complete beasts...they pull some amazing numbers considering they are after the net horsepower ratings conversion.

Yeah a good matched package of heads, cam, intake, headers and tune and you are back in business with a post '73 400, 455 or even the Olds 403. It's been done plenty and there's a lot of people that can point you in the right direction. I kind of like '77-'81 Z28s but a base Camaro from that era is yuck. And finding one that isn't hillbillied out is tough and expensive.

[Max Rockatansky]

Rockford's car was a base Firebird rather than a T/A. Probably a 6 cylinder too.

Even still it was INFINITELY better looking than either the Camaro or Mustang in any trim level.  Really the late 70s second gen TA/Firebird is about the only car from the era that really gets a significant following.  The 400 actually has a bunch of parts that will open it back up from being strangled by the smog equipment and lowered compression....amazing that engine lasted as long as it did until 1979.  Those 73/74 SD engines are complete beasts...they pull some amazing numbers considering they are after the net horsepower ratings conversion.

Yeah a good matched package of heads, cam, intake, headers and tune and you are back in business with a post '73 400, 455 or even the Olds 403. It's been done plenty and there's a lot of people that can point you in the right direction. I kind of like '77-'81 Z28s but a base Camaro from that era is yuck. And finding one that isn't hillbillied out is tough and expensive.

Yeah my brother and I used to call those the Burnout or Mullet Camaros.    It would be kind of nice to find one with a solid body and just convert it to drag racing duty with a crate motor.  My uncle has a 1973 Camaro with LS2 he installed himself, the thing looked great before the 1974 bumpers came into play.  For some reason the Firebird and T/A actually got better looking from 74 to 77 and finally 1979...always digged the shaker hood on the T/A.

[Max Rockatansky]

Man van....you never see these anymore:

[GCrites]

Rockford's car was a base Firebird rather than a T/A. Probably a 6 cylinder too.

Even still it was INFINITELY better looking than either the Camaro or Mustang in any trim level.  Really the late 70s second gen TA/Firebird is about the only car from the era that really gets a significant following.  The 400 actually has a bunch of parts that will open it back up from being strangled by the smog equipment and lowered compression....amazing that engine lasted as long as it did until 1979.  Those 73/74 SD engines are complete beasts...they pull some amazing numbers considering they are after the net horsepower ratings conversion.

Yeah a good matched package of heads, cam, intake, headers and tune and you are back in business with a post '73 400, 455 or even the Olds 403. It's been done plenty and there's a lot of people that can point you in the right direction. I kind of like '77-'81 Z28s but a base Camaro from that era is yuck. And finding one that isn't hillbillied out is tough and expensive.

Yeah my brother and I used to call those the Burnout or Mullet Camaros.    It would be kind of nice to find one with a solid body and just convert it to drag racing duty with a crate motor. 

You'd love our local cragslist then. Seems like 50% of Camaros and Mustangs on there are drag cars or convertibles. It gets old if you're not into those things. And of course a lot of the drag cars are a Home Depot jobs. They'll sure let you know the manufacturer of every aftermarket part on it as you look at the terrible craftsmanship in the pictures. Any town that has a dragstrip nearby sees a large portion its ponycars converted to drag cars that see few passes which will require thousands of dollars in work to be turned back into regular cars. Simply not that many members of the general public want drag cars as compared to those who want regular cars.

[Max Rockatansky]

Rockford's car was a base Firebird rather than a T/A. Probably a 6 cylinder too.

Even still it was INFINITELY better looking than either the Camaro or Mustang in any trim level.  Really the late 70s second gen TA/Firebird is about the only car from the era that really gets a significant following.  The 400 actually has a bunch of parts that will open it back up from being strangled by the smog equipment and lowered compression....amazing that engine lasted as long as it did until 1979.  Those 73/74 SD engines are complete beasts...they pull some amazing numbers considering they are after the net horsepower ratings conversion.

Yeah a good matched package of heads, cam, intake, headers and tune and you are back in business with a post '73 400, 455 or even the Olds 403. It's been done plenty and there's a lot of people that can point you in the right direction. I kind of like '77-'81 Z28s but a base Camaro from that era is yuck. And finding one that isn't hillbillied out is tough and expensive.

Yeah my brother and I used to call those the Burnout or Mullet Camaros.    It would be kind of nice to find one with a solid body and just convert it to drag racing duty with a crate motor. 

You'd love our local cragslist then. Seems like 50% of Camaros and Mustangs on there are drag cars or convertibles. It gets old if you're not into those things. And of course a lot of the drag cars are a Home Depot jobs. They'll sure let you know the manufacturer of every aftermarket part on it as you look at the terrible craftsmanship in the pictures. Any town that has a dragstrip nearby sees a large portion its ponycars converted to drag cars that see few passes which will require thousands of dollars in work to be turned back into regular cars. Simply not that many members of the general public want drag cars as compared to those who want regular cars.

Yeah I see them for SN95s and 4th Gen F-bodies quite frequently...that's not exactly my bag if that's not done well.  Put this way, I know a guy back home who found a 75 Camaro drag car and bought it.  The thing was obviously a period car with black primer on top of some yellow, blue and red stripes.  I want to say the car had a 327 in it when he bought it that was tricked out for drag duty, it was still fast as all hell and he used to take it to car shows...  He's never touched the thing other than to patch up some rust in the body, that thing is a genuine period classic for the late 70s drag racing era.  I don't recall it ever having the hood actually ON but I know it had one with a huge grabber scoop.

[Max Rockatansky]

Pinky E-Bodies, AAR and T/A variety no less:

[Max Rockatansky]

Mine eyes have glory of the coming of the Bro.
He is exiting the car show with his other Bros in-tow;
He is losing all the traction from his terrible 5-0.
He's heading traffic on!

Glory glory hallelujah! (x3)
Another Mustang crashed!

Here come the cops a-wailin' and his eyes are getting damp.
We have build-ed him an altar out of zip-ties and pipe-clamps.
I can read his righteous sentence by the flairs and flashing lamps.
His day is truly boned!

Glory glory hallelujah! (x3)
You brought this on yourself!

[Henry]

Let me guess, this was written by a Camaro guy? 

[Max Rockatansky]

Let me guess, this was written by a Camaro guy? 

Actually I think the Regular Cars guy isn't really anything other than a car guy.  I kind of gathered he's building a Ford Falcon from all his videos on the subject.  I just wish that he would make a song video from the Volare video. 

[Takumi]

The Roman (the other guy who does the music part of the videos) has an SN95 Mustang, actually.

[formulanone]

http://youtu.be/19NKXnG7kbU

[jwolfer]

https://youtu.be/1v3CzvQ9e_w

[jwolfer]

Bitchin camaro by the dead milkmen

[Max Rockatansky]

And the Challenger song.....

[7/8]

And the Challenger song.....

That's awesome! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is this a real commercial? It looks authentic, but I can't imagine seeing this on TV

[Max Rockatansky]

It was a real commercial state side but someone on Youtube put the Team America theme song over it. 

[7/8]

It was a real commercial state side but someone on Youtube put the Team America theme song over it. 

Nice! But even without the theme song, it's still a ridiculous commercial (in a good way).

I swear the US gets better commercials than us; my brother and I have noticed how common big-name actors/actresses are in American commercials. I guess it's a simple fact of having a bigger TV market. The worst is during the Super Bowl; in Canada, they'll "overwrite" the big-budget US commercials with regular commercials. Though a quick Google search seem to suggest that this will no longer be the case?

[Max Rockatansky]

It was a real commercial state side but someone on Youtube put the Team America theme song over it. 

Nice! But even without the theme song, it's still a ridiculous commercial (in a good way).

I swear the US gets better commercials than us; my brother and I have noticed how common big-name actors/actresses are in American commercials. I guess it's a simple fact of having a bigger TV market. The worst is during the Super Bowl; in Canada, they'll "overwrite" the big-budget US commercials with regular commercials. Though a quick Google search seem to suggest that this will no longer be the case?

I noticed on recent trips up there that there seems to be....more restraint in generally everything which would include TV commercials.  I guess that I'm kind of used to it from all the trips I've taken to Ontario, the Canadians were always so much more chilled out than the Michiganders or Americans in general.  I guess you can chalk that up to "traditional values" or something like that?

Anyways.....one of 5 1970 convertibles with a Hemi and a stick, this probably is among the kings of the traditional muscle cars:

[8.Lug]

It is also all about tolerences. A ford V8 will run for hundreds of hundreds of thousands of miles before needing a rebuild. A German engine will have tighter tolerances, and will need a valve adjustment among other things over time, due to how tight they are. a Ford V8 is designed for longevity not outright power. A understressed engine will last forever. Plus BMW engines run on 91 or 93 octane, ford tunes theirs for 87

A strung-out M motor will need valve adjustments only because they run solid lifters - but the entire rest of their line will outlast any 302 out there. Ford guys think 200k miles is a lot. Hell, they think 150k is a lot. Go on any Ford forum and ask about high mileage. Then go on a BMW forum and you'll see double the numbers. There's plenty of guys on the BMW forums with 400k miles on their car. I saw someone open up a 4.0 from an old 740 that had 173k on it - and you could still see the cross-hatching on the cylinder walls. It literally wasn't even broken-in yet.

My haggard ass 325 spent its entire life in NYC - all 212k miles of it - and it runs like it's brand new. Doesn't burn a spot of oil, bounces happily off the rev limiter all day at the track, and you can clearly tell this car was NOT taken care of. At all. Every piece of upholstery torn, every body panel dented, half the switches are broken, convertible top doesn't work - but that engine baby, god damn that engine.

But you know what? It's not just BMW. As long as the chassis will hold out, you see the same from Honda, Toyota, hell - even Hyundai.

But people love to make excuses for the piles of crap that America makes.