Were 1980s cars really that bad?

[novadude]

Originally Posted by JRSully

a little detour on this thread. I had some of the BEST street racing in the 80's with the IROC's, 5.0 Mustangs an GNs squaring off all over the place here on LI. The races were usually pretty close and not stupid fast that you got into that much trouble. I had a brand new 88 5.0 stripper that was a rip to race, wish I still had it. It is now their turn in the collector spotlight, prices are climbing quickly for nice ones

I had a '70 Nova SS clone daily driver back around 1990-1995 when I was in my late teens / early 20s. That was back in the day when kids still cruised the local hangouts, and we had a few places in Pittsburgh we'd go to street race. The Nova had a budget mild 350 that ran mid-14s. Lots of 5.0 and thirdgen F-bodies at the street races back in those days, and my Nova could easily beat up on the mostly stock ones.

It always made me happy to beat a rich kid in a new car with my home built junk that cost maybe $3k total (bought the Nova for $500 w/ a stock 230 ci). Of course I lost to some of the mildly modded 5.0L Mustangs too.

I had a '95 Mustang GT 5.0L in 2001-2005. Fun car.