Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I think that's more of what OAM is referring to--modern engines in even a minivan are way more powerful than typical passenger car engines of 20-30 years ago.

Heck, I had a "sporty" car in the late 90s--89 Ford Probe GT. 2.0L I-4 Turbo. I think it was 145 hp and 170 ft-lb of torque.  Later in the 90s they moved to a 2.5L NA V6, and that made a whopping 164 hp.

A 2021 Honda Odyssey makes 280 hp out of 3.5L and would probably get better gas mileage to boot.

Back when I was a teen (late 80's, early 90's) I was big into Corvettes. At that time I could quote all kinds of Vette stats and specs and pretty much tell you the year of almost any Vette up until they stopped making annual appearance changes just at a glance.

One thing I noticed even back then was that it took them more than 20 years to get back to where they had been in terms of power after the emissions controls just completely neutered the engines starting in the 70's.

In 1967 a base Vette had 300hp, 360 ft lbs and you could get 435hp/460. That remained the top until 1970 when a larger (454cid) V8 had slightly more power, then power started dropping.

In 1972 the most powerful Vette was a Big Block 454cid with 270hp/390 ft lbs. That is less hp and only marginally more torque than a base small block 327cid from five years prior.

Even the early 1990's ZR1's maxed out at 405/385. IIRC, that was the first 400+hp Vette in 20+ years and it was still 30 less hp and 75 ft lbs less torque than had been available in 1967, nearly 30 years prior.

Obviously by the 1990's the car had improved dramatically in other ways but just looking at raw hp and torque it took a REALLY long time to recover after the emissions controls were installed.

Complete History of the Chevy Corvette: From C1 to C8 (caranddriver.com)

interesting, includes some 0-60 times, which back in the day would be pressed to beat my GTI by much, if any.

Chevrolet skips model year 1983 and releases the fourth-generation Corvette as a 1984 model. The sports car is redesigned from the ground up and welcomes additional ground clearance but a lower center of gravity. A 205-hp 350-cubic-inch V-8 is the only engine offered and mates to either a four-speed automatic transmission or Chevrolet's four-plus-three manual gearbox, which offers an available overdrive for gears two, three, and four. We find the automatic car is capable of scooting the low-slung coupe to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15.1 seconds at 91 mph. In spite of our love for manual transmissions, we call the self-shifting gearbox "quite a capable tool for generating performance statistics."

Slower than my GTI, six seconds flat and 14.5 in the quarter.  Kinda funny.

I think that engine had what they called crossfire injection, which sounds like a mechanical issue.

Interesting article. Touches on the future of automakers seeking vertical integration on battery tech and production. Still early days, but in my opinion the EV endgame will only make sense when vertical integration is a thing.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/27/ford-moves-to-make-electric-vehicle-battery-cells.html

perhaps next to Farrah

( ^ ) ( ^ )
That iconic poster was printed in my hometown.

The 1970s and 1980s were a sad time for performance figures though.  Even hot cars would be a thing if they could reach 60 in under ten seconds, which is abysmal

I've often wondered how this will eventually impact the collectors market.

Typically collectible cars tend to spike in price when the guys who dreamed of them in their teens get to roughly their 60's and have the money and time to get into that. Ie, guys in their 60's who have done reasonably well for themselves financially will go buy the car they wanted when they were 15-17ish.

For 70's and 80's cars this would normally cause a price spike between roughly 2015 (15 yr olds from 1970 turned 60 in 2015) and 2042 (17 yr olds from 1989 will turn 70 in 2042).

Performance sucked so bad during that era that I think most of the car guys of those decades instead dreamed about the pre-emmissions cars of the late 60's. It really wasn't until the early 90's ZR1 came out that the new Corvette could beat those.

That puts a car like the 84 Vette in a weird place. Granted, it has MUCH better handling than say a 67 Vette but on a dragstrip the 67 is a second and a half quicker and 14 mph faster at 1,320'.

So will the Vettes of say 1973-1988 ever gain significant collector value?

Per cargurus, a 1984 Vette is worth $2,500-$7,000 today. For comparison a 1964 Vette is worth at least 4x that.

Love seeing Corvette Clubs get together, they are quite prolific.    One cool byproduct of living in Indy, mass respect and interest in automobiles.   Lots of cool shows, fairs and festivals.   To say nothing of all the cool testing they do at IMS.    This is always the best month or two of the year with classics on the road following winter and getting into May in Indy.

It may not be Pebble Beach, Amelia or some of the other high profile shows but there's not much you won't see in any given year.