1983 Camaro Stiletto

I’ve always thought myself to be a bit of a third generation Camaro aficionado. This would be the 1982-92 run of cars that were the perfect combination of sport and style. What the first year models lacked in power, they made up for in good looks and great handling. Don’t believe me? Ask that car god you hipsters all pray to: Jeremy Clarkson.

By 1983, the Camaro came with the 190hp 305-cubic inch L69. It’s classic combination of a 4bbl carb, hot cam, a good set of heads, and a manual transmission brought the lowly, five-liter, Chevy mill out of malaise-era limbo. From then on, the Camaro just got more bad ass as each year passed.

1983 was also the year for this strange, Ferrari 308-looking, coach-bodied 3rd gen, called the Stiletto. As you can see from the craigslist ad (or click here for a screenshot) it’s obviously strange, different and well-kept. I don’t know if that translates to being rare in the sense of being valuable, but it certainly is something you’ll probably never see again. Strangely enough, I came across this simply searching for “camaro” under our local phoenix craigslist.

Although the previously mentioned 190hp L69 was the hottest engine at the time, I assume they chose to use the lesser 165hp LU5 crossfire because it looks cooler and was more “futuristic” in it’s time because of it’s dual throttle-body setup. I’m sure that eventually it will be an engine people remember fondly, but like other people approaching their thirties with a car-loving parent I was taught that “Crossfire” will always be synonymous with “Piece of Shit”.

At $25,000 they only want half as much as the 1LE that we saw the year before last at the Imperial Palace car museum. I’ll let you be the judge on whether that price is a bargain. Hopefully we cross paths with this ultra rare third gen at next year’s Barrett Jackson, which is just around the corner. Until then, enjoy the rest of these pictures from the craigslist ad.

1982 Mercury Cougar GS Wagon

Somehow I’ve stumbled across another one year only wagon, this is the 1982 Mercury Cougar wagon.  It’s the sister car to the 1982 Granada wagon that I found a while back.  I spotted this guy down near the Mexican border and the Granada out in California, I’ve never seen one around Phoenix.  There’s always something special about seeing an older boring car out on the road for normal use.

1984 Cadillac Deville Flower Car (El Camino)

On the trip back from the SEMA show we spotted this 1984 Cadillac Deville Flower Car at a dealership in Wickenburg. The place seemed to be closed down for the day so any and all questions went unanswered. A quick search of the VIN shows that this car started out life in early 1984, as a 1984 Coupe Deville. It was equipped with a somewhat useless 4.1 V8, which I’m sure scooted a full bed of flowers along just fine. Continue reading

Audi 4000 CS Quattro

I spotted this cool old Audi up in Sedona a while back and thought it looked pretty cool so I snapped some shots of it. I think it would look a little nicer without the trendy roof rack on it, but hey, this photo was taken a couple months ago so the guy has probably removed it and jumped onto another bandwagon by now.

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1987-1990 Nissan Pulsar Sportbak

During the space race of the 1960s, Americans were captivated by the idea of space travel. It permeated every aspect of our culture, from songs and TV shows to magazine articles and an explosion of science fiction entertainment. Automotive manufacturers were quick to hop on the bandwagon, giving their latest models out-of-this-world names like Ford Galaxie, Mercury Meteor, and Oldsmobile StarFire.

After the moon landing in 1969 and the final Apollo mission in 1972, the country’s burning interest in the space program was reduced to a flicker. However in the 1980s, there was a resurgence of space-inspired names as a whole new generation of vehicles adopted galactic monikers. Here are a few examples:

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