Excellent point!
And of course,
Oh! And I almost forgot, as long as we’re dreaming:
Shrinking market share for Lexus
There were several models linked that are awesome looking and quite desirable.But a few episodes of Counting Cars indicates that everything gets a small block V-8 stuffed in that operates on an after market ECM which is attached to a TH350 or 700R4 transmission. Classics like that seem to be dolled up Rat Rods.
My wife has been yelling at me about using the 62 Caddy as a daily driver.
I didn’t want to go too exotic or expensive on my list, so I deliberately lest those cars off.
BTW, some of those cars aren’t 80s models. It was the feed back carburetors and odd throttle body injection systems operated by early ECMs that resulted in poor performance and many drivability problems that makes that decade so undesirable.
Well the MR2 and the RX7 probably won’t be all that expensive. 
Which is good because the rest of 'em, you’re right, will nuke the bank account.
I had an '88 CRX with one of those. “Dual Point Fuel Injection,” it was called, and it was really more of a glorified carburetor than true injection. The higher-end model than the one I had used multi-point fuel injection, which put an injector into each cylinder’s intake, but mine had two injectors in a throat just below the throttle body. It was pretty common to swap from the DPFI to the MPFI system, which required an ECU swap as well as the TB/intake headers from the better car.
Some of them were designed in the late 1970s, but I was careful to choose only cars that were sold during the 1980s.
Don’t make me go through the trouble of proving it.
I think he was talking to me. The 2000GT was made between '67 and '70, but it’s so cool I couldn’t resist posting it.
All the others I posted were 80’s cars, though (although he might be excused if he thought the Toyota Century was older, because if I recall they made that in almost the exact same body style for something like 20 years).
Yes I recalled seeing that 2000GT on the road in Japan in 1970.
But are cars considered classic that are only the shell of the original car?
That is a deep philosophical question. The rule is anything older than 25 years is a classic, but if the owner replaced an engine with a rebuilt engine of the same type, I’d still call it a classic.
If the owner of a classic Checker A11 installed a brand new Chevy crate engine in it, I’d call it a Frankencar.
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Old “classic” body style with a modern drivetrain is sort of the best of both worlds, if done well (in my opinion). Now, I wouldn’t advise stuffing a small block Chevy and an overdrive transmission into a true classic / icon and decreasing the value. If it’s a run of the mill car that isn’t super rare or a special edition (Yenko Camaro or something like that), I’d actually prefer the modern drivetrain.
I talked to an older gent at a fast food restaurant who was driving across the state in a restored 55 Chevy with a modern (Corvette) engine, power windows, AC, remote alarm, etc. Pretty neat car. I know the original engine might make it worth more. But I think the modern engine and AC probably make it more fun. Especially driving long distances.
At the local “Blue Suede Cruise” the repowered old cars were called ‘street rods’ and that seems to make some sense. A 1950 Ford with a fuel injected 350, TH 350 transmission, AC, etc isn’t a ‘classic’ to my way of thinking but it could be a fun car to own and drive. I see such cars on Meecum auctions and they just matter of factly describe the engine as though a GM engine in a Jaguar was an option on the car.
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Another name is ‘resto-mods’, like a former 6-cylinder '65 Mustang with a modern Coyote V8, discs all around, etc, etc…
No great loss of a Mustang 6.
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I guess I agree. It’s sort of not “classic” if half of it is modern. Still, my dad owns a 1950 Chevy truck with a 6 cylinder and column shift with less than 50k miles. Great truck, it’s neat. I pulled it out of the tractor shed, redid the brakes, changed the oil and drove it for a while in high school. But if dad won the lottery and asked if he should restore it in a “concours” stock fashion or with a more modern drivetrain… Cool as it is in stock form, I think it tops out at about 50 mph, as best I recall. And power brakes are pretty nice. Any kind of climate control would be an alteration. I think I’d go the “restomod” route on that one.
Right. If it’s a GT 350 and 100% correct, I might have to think about it. If it’s a low optioned 6 cylinder Mustang, I couldn’t get the Coyote V8 in there fast enough.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t read all the comments and don’t intend to but please I made it through the 80’s and I don’t want to go back.
The other thing is if you look at the BMW SUV styling, it is actually nicer looking than the other cookie cutter versions on the road. That might account for higher sales. Also, everybody is coming out with a competing product so as more are available, unless you can distinguish yourself, you are bound to lose sales. If sales were slipping, I’d just add more cup holders.
Speaking of Mustangs, a 1980 McLaren Mustang sold yesterday at Barrett Jackson for something like $40,000. It’s one of the ten built. It uses a 2.3L turbo 4-cyl with more power than the 4.2L V8 used in the Mustang at the time. I think that will be a collector car if it isn’t already.
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If I was going to get a classic car…I’d get a reso-mod. Modern features with the classic styling.
There is a company (probably more then one) in Florida that will build you a brand new Mustang that looks exactly like a 65 Mustang. I’d love to own one, but can’t afford it.
I just surfed ‘car sales’ and reading a few of the hits left me thinking that like stock market prognosticators the auto market gurus have huddled into BULL and BEAR camps and to support their agenda they select and edit statistics that suit them. But hey, that’s just like the current political situation also.
My own semi literate opinion continues to be that cheap money is pushing all markets into an abyss that will be over stocked with unsold cars, boats, homes and lots of timeshares with PAST DUE notices flying like confetti.
On today’s business page, there was an article predicting that new car sales over the next 12 months would be much lower than they had been for the past few years. I didn’t read the explanation, but because I will probably treat myself to a new car sometime over the next 12 months, I took this prediction as an indication that dealers will be more willing to… deal… and that manufacturers are much more likely to offer very low (or, maybe even 0%) financing rates in order to stimulate sales.