MUSCLE CARS or just CLASSIC?

Where does the term Antique come into play then, to me what you just described would be antique cars,

 

to me muscle car means factory high performance and a 130hp 302 isnt quite a musle car by my standards


but theyre definatly classics. the DE DMv draws the line of classics at 25 years old but in my own eyes theres a few younger classics out there

and i always thought antique cars were cars built befor the end of WWII

 

What has always attracted me to these cars is SLEEPER aspect. Take a light, short-wheelbase car with an economy heritage and stuff it full of motor.

Kinda' got off track when I put the 351 with the thumpy cam in it. It doesn't fool anyone anymore.
And that's OK, too ...

 

The general rule on that is 25 years and older.....for cars that is.... I've benn an antique for half my life.......

 

this goes either way....mine is a muscle car.... at least to me. screw everyone else....

and my insurance is lower without the "tag"...

yeeeeaaahhh....

 

Not Muscle

Not Classic

Not really even collectible since that implies some kind of large value appreciation. A Hemi anything is collectible. A maverick or comet is just interesting.

It's a pony car on a good day. An economy car is what it really is.

If you just put an age limit on classic...then anything from '82 is now a classic. Come on.... That's just not right. Muscle has to come from the factory. A 300 HP turbo Civic CRX has an incredible power to weight ratio, but I don't think anyone is going to call that a muscle car. Is a Germlin or Pacer a Classic Muscle Car??? I don't think so, but someone else might.

I know a lot of people want their favorite cars to be collectible or classic, but the fact of the matter is that they just aren't. If the maverick or comet was truly collectible, the market would have bore that out by now.

NOTHING from the '70s - '80s smog era will ever be collectible or classic in my opinion. Maybe the GNs or turbo trans-ams, but that's about it. Even then, I think they're borderline.

The cars that are coming off the line right now, the modern muscle could one day be collectible. With the new energy legislation on the horizon, and the price of fuel, I think we're looking at a second gas crunch in the next 10 years or so. Cars are peaking again. It's pretty much the same thing that happened in the late '60s. HP war is going full bore. Cars are getting bigger and heavier...

Mavs and Comets deserve a place in history for what they are. A cheap (in every sense of the word), smog era car, that is an excellent platform for modifications with lines reminiscent of late '60s muscle.

 

Weather an old car is a "Classic" or not has alot to do with opinion... there are people out there who absolutely think the old 70's-early 80's Honda's are classics. Muscle cars? No. Look at the sales figures of Mavericks and how well they did in different forms of racing, several cars of which are now famous for who drove them and their achievements. Mavericks and Comets are definitely historic, classic cars. They are collectible cars. There are several people here who own several of them, and in the world of classic cars, Maverick and Comets are picking up steam everyday... They will likely never reach the status of a Mustang, but to say they totally aren't collectible cars just isn't right in my opinion.

They are absolutely not Muscle cars. A Muscle car came from the factory as a Muscle car.

 

Some of the 80's cars are already increasing in value. Look at a nice T-Bird Turbo Coupe or Mustang GT. How about a T-Type Buick or Monte Carlo SS? Now, I'm not going to say that a Citation X-11 is going to bring 5 digits, but we never thought a Maverick would either....and now they are (like the Barrett Jackson Comet or some of the nice Grabbers). I'm sure there's an 80's Escort EXP club out there somewhere and they also think "Mavericks? Who wants one of those?" It takes all kinds...

several? Yes, there are a few of us that have a "problem" - or atleast some people call it a problem. I just call it good taste.

 

I absolutely agree... I belong to another forum for '79-'86 Mustangs and Capris, since I have a '80 Capri RS. Those cars are getting very popular. It was once popular to put the later "aero" nose on the early cars, it's practically a crime to do that over on that forum because the early foxes are picking up so much steam as classic/collector cars. Ironic that you mention it, because I also just happen to belong to an Ford EXP/Mercury LN7 forum, too! My grandpa has an '83 EXP he has been talking about getting going again.

 

the fox body(mustang LX sedan) special equipment package, at this moment still warrent 5,000 to 12,000 USD at average and they have thier own registry and special codes.a very limited where sold to the general public if thier was an overstock and the goverment either federal or state agencies did not need them !!!! the US Air Force also had them in thier inventory !!!!.

 

I backed into one of those once with a Thunderbird I had. There was absolutely no damage because of the rubber bumper cover.

 

I'm just saying that just because something is old doesn't make it valuable. If it was junk when it was new, now it's just old junk. Being rare doesn't necessarily make something valuable either. I'm sure we can all think of limited production cars that we were glad to see just die.

Here is my list of '80s cars that might one day have theuniversal appeal needed to make them collectible, or classic or whatever.

Top Tier:
Buick T-type
Buick Grand National
Saleen SSC Mustang
Firebird Firehawk
These cars are the runners of their day either from the factory or they're built by specialty tuners like Steve Saleen or SLP.

2nd tier cars are:
Corvette
Mustang GT
Camaro Z28
Firebird Trans-Am
These are you run of the mill pony cars. Affordable and available, they'll hold sentimental value, but that's about it. Nothing terribly outstanding or exceptional about any of them.

Niche cars are:
Turbo Dodge Omni/Daytona
Turbo Thunderbird
SVO Mustang
Mercury Capri RS
Mercury Cougar XR7
These cars are only valuable to people who just really really really want something different. They are for the fanatic. Most people won't pay $5,000 for a Star Wars lunch box, but I'm sure you could find some weirdo on Ebay willing to pony up the dough. Same thing here.

That's not counting imports, but all the ones I can think of right now are from the '90s.

The '80s cars can't even compare to what was available in the '90s, even the early '90s and that will also hurt the value of '80s cars. Especially when you're just comparing stock vs. stock. The other thing that hurts the value of '80s cars is that most of them went on 10 year production runs without any significant changes.

My prediciton is that most of your 2nd tier '80s cars will be popular for modifications the same way that a lot of '70s cars are only becoming popular because they're good platforms for modification.

 

good list but i think you left out a few from the 80's

2 tier would definatly have to include a few more G-bodies

442's
hurst/olds
pontiac 2+2's
Monte carlo SS's
aero backs montes

sad thing about all of those is that they really had nothing to offer under the hood
but even today there is a big market for those cars and their base model cousins

 

I forgot about these. Aren't they good for about 30K miles.



Don't forget the Shelby Rampage

 

If your lucky, I bought a new Plymouth Tursimo that was falling apart by 3500 miles
there is not a whole lot of daylight in the differences, at least in quality