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.