[mariojmoe]

Originally Posted by cbr1100xx

Are you 16?

Double that #

[SteevK]

I must admit that, after I watched a few reviews of V6 Camaros on YouTube, I was tempted to downgrade. This was after trying to find a set of all-season run-flat tires for the SS's staggered wheels. If I had a RS, all 4 are 245/40 and Goodyear makes A/S RF Eagle F1's.

Let me start at the beginning: Didn't get my license until I was 18 (parents didn't want to lose the house in a lawsuit) when friends of parents gave me a '61 Dodge Lancer - my only 4-door/MoPar/Amer 6-cyl. That POS lasted me about 5 months, until I smashed it into a wall at the gas (only) station I was working at. After a couple of chastising months riding the bus and returning/finishing HS, parents offered to split down-payment on a store-bought used car.

I chose (my 1st) '67 Olds 442. Beautiful triple-black conv - a true muscle car I got in '73 - a couple months before graduation - so they wouldn't have to lend me mom's '73 Cutlass, for Sr prom.

Anyway, that led to '71 Impala coupe w/350, 2 more 442's, a Pontiac LeMans 350. I then bought my first NEW car, an '82 Z28 (305 w/145 HP - at the crank!) followed by '85 IROC, '86 Buick Grand National (new, stolen!) '87 IROC demo.

Then I went Japanese for ~28 years with 2 Eclipses ('90 my only stick & '91 when I got sick of shifting), a '96 Eagle Talon, and a used '99 Eclipse - all were 2.0T w/AWD. Last 2 were G35 & G37- best car I've ever owned, kept it for 10 years, with only mod Injen short-rams.

Beings I'm '64, this is the last car I'm ever gonna buy. I had dreams of a decent G37 or '14-15 Q60 w/AWD that wouldn't just spin the back wheels when I slap on a Stillen or ProCharger. When I couldn't find one, and figured I could just get a 2SS (wanted new '18, settled for used 2017) with 455/455 from the factory. After initial buyers' remorse, I'm loving it now!

[Zack46]

Originally Posted by mariojmoe

Double that #

triple that.

[SteevK]

Originally Posted by YARBIE 1

Muscle cars and V6's and 4 banger's just doesn't sound right to me...

That's why muscle cars of the 60 and 70's didn't have anything but V8's they're MUSCLE CARS not Toyota Prius's.

Damn straight! I was there when the first GTO started the muscle car era, followed by Chevelle SS, Road Runner, Charger, Cyclone, Buick GS, 442, AMC Rebel... Some say it started with 409 Impalas a few years earlier. They were all variations on the same recipe: drop a big block in a cheap mid-size coupe, and let the power-to-weight ratio do the rest.

These grew up along side pony cars, named for their progenitor Mustang. Soon, Camaro, Firebird, Cougar, Cuda, Challenger, Javelin, AMX followed suit. Tougher recipe: handling, stopping, along with ever-increasing HP (for V8s and several I6s) But, more pony cars were sold with I6 motors than V8s!

By the end of the decade you could choose from hi-po versions of each pony car: Mach 1 & Boss 302-429, Z/28 & SS, Trans-Am & Formula, Hemi 'Cuda & Challenger 440 6-pack.

Muscle cars evolved as well - some of them even getting disk brakes! GTO Judge, 442 W-31, Hemi & 440 Road Runner Super Bird & Charger Daytona, SS454, Buick GS Stage 1-3, AMC improved it's Rebel (but nobody noticed)

I bought my first car in 1973 when these pre-72 cars were in demand - as we entered the HP drought that took 15-25 years to dig out of. I bought a nice black '67 442 convert - 3A black top & vinyl buckets/console. Street racing was big in Philly back then. We had our steady roads, and played cat & mouse with the cops alternating between a dozen streets, side by side, all over a half mile long, with no intersections or bumps/holes and wide enough for 2 cars racing and waiting/watching cars angle parked on the side. This pre-dated street nights at Atco & Cecil County dragways...

Muscle cars had their down sides as well: BRAKING (my 442 had 4 drums); aerodynamics of a brick wall; handling - weight distribution was awful with all that weight in front, and bias belted tire understeer battling long rear overhang oversteer. Whoever designed these suspensions didn't anticipate corners - or even curves!

My SS could walk away from ANY of these cars, in stock form, and really shame one on the curves/corners.

[MackSteelPrivateEye]

Downgrade...Is that possible?