March 24, 2026:
And to think, Popular Mechanics magazine couldn’t last twelve (12) months back in 1989… man, those guys must have been a bunch of real wimps! LOL
This section will not supersede the origin story for TheBigRedCar, but I’ve never been timely or knowledgeable enough to support a live blog so we’ll take this historical approach instead. Here we’ll eventually talk about things that happened back in the day with my GTA, and maybe some things that happened just yesterday… or maybe things that YOU bring up about YOUR GTA, but we’ll always try to keep it interesting!
Where to begin? How about a little car history?
The early 1980s… ah, the memories. Many of you weren’t born yet, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It was a privilege to grow up in times like those.
I got my license when I was 16 and in 1982 got a 1954 Mercury Monterey 4-door sedan to drive and call my very own. And it was a cool car, really, it was. Nobody else in school had one like it that’s for sure, and really wasn’t that the be-all, end-all in those days? Even if it did have a KRACO cassette stereo in the dash and an OTASCO lawn battery in the trunk to run it.
I had to charge that battery every Friday afternoon for the weekends but as Jeff Foxworthy used to say….”we’ve got TUNES”! The box speakers up in the rear window… c’mon, you remember the setup! Loverboy’s “Get Lucky” never sounded so good to this very day! Must have been all the glass area for reverb…
I sold the car to an area man in the mid-2000s who had a running Ford Granada 302 V8/C6 powerteam that he said he was going to put under it. I always wondered what he did with it. The Merc served me well, including getting a good friend and I home from high school during a generational flood without missing a beat. Despite the flood waters swirling around at the base of the side windows…
I graduated to a semi-modern car when I started driving my mom’s 1978 Lincoln Mark V occasionally in tandem with the Merc. It would run pretty fast with that 460 ci V8, you could ensure easy exit from any rock concert by simply angling those incredibly long front fenders out into a line of traffic, and it was cool to a degree to actually experience what it must have been like to helm the R.M.S. Titanic out on the open sea. I will say that if you’ve never driven or ridden in one of those era cars on the open road… well, you’ve really missed a traveling experience. It was really like taking your living room sofas on vacation with you. Nothing could soak up the miles like a Lincoln of that era, or any other maker’s large sedans.
The first cool car I remember looking at new was a red 1982 Corvette. Big honking (I thought at the time) Cross-Fire-Injection 350 V8, red leather, Eagle GT tires. and a $20,000 price tag. GASP! $20,000… for a car? For real? Alas, a fellow whose sister was in my class got it for HS graduation… and at last I knew of their family still owned it.
Two cars down the row, though, was the real apple of my eye: a brand-spanking-new, loud and proud 1982 Camaro Z28 Indy Pace Car. This little beauty was only $14,000… or maybe it was $16,000…. it didn’t really matter; might as well have been $1,000,000.
But I loved those cars then and would still have one in a heartbeat today if the opportunity arose. Loud, flashy, and looking bullet-fast for the day. My wife says that to this day if there is a choice in vehicles, I’ll always take the flashy one. Some friends might disagree, but I’m not so sure that’s true…
The 1982 Trans Am was to me then, in a word…. a horrible mistake. Well, that was three words. Sorry. I was like “how in the HELL did we get from Smokey and the Bandit…. to this?” There was just no style, no sizzle, no BIRD; “aero” was a new automotive concept on the horizon for US cars in those days.
And I didn’t get it at all. A Trans Am was supposed to look ballsy, not like it was trying to slip through a crowd and not be seen.
No, thank you, I’ll pass. BTW, where’d that Camaro Z28 go?
I did actually get to test drive a slightly used (10k-mile) ’82 Z28 with my Dad, and naturally I thought it was the hottest thing on the road. I think my Dad was just glad that we had managed to get out of the 1980 Corvette we had just driven previously still in one piece. That car was a piece of junk, and its hesitating 350 V8 almost got us killed in the middle of Race Street in Searcy, Arkansas.
Looking back though to the Z28, I’m not sure all 165 of those cross-fire-injected horses were showing up when I was punching that gas pedal. But I can still look down and in my mind’s eye see that funky round console clock as my arm rested on the console center pad. Man, I thought wanted that car… even told me Dad I’d steal it if I found it sitting with the keys in the ignition. I don’t think he was ever more disappointed in me than he was that day…
First Trans Am was a cousin’s 1981 Turbo T/A. Still vividly remember the first time I saw it in December of ‘83 over Christmas HS break; my parents told me there was no way they could afford the afore-mentioned Z28.… but they COULD afford this car.
Z28? What Z28? Nope, don’t remember ever even thinking about a Chevrolet anything.
Talk about taking your breath away: black paint, one-year red trim and decals, red S/E striping, alloy Turbo-Flow rims. I can still see it in my uncle’s garage; man, I spent all week OUT THERE. My parents purchased it for $7,500. Man, I just knew I had died and gone to heaven….
It worked out that I had the choice between that car and a used 1984 (IIRC) Chrysler K-car Mark Cross Turbo convertible. Had to be careful there… LOL Even with the ‘81 Trans Am being on its third model year, I still think I made the better choice even today. LOL
College came in the Fall of ‘84 and was going… but by the spring of ‘86 with an admittedly juvenile driver (those hood lights are so COOL) the Turbo T/A was showing its age a little bit. New turbocharger, new A/C system, new ECM, 2,000-mile oil changes, partial paint work, etc… it really was starting to cost some $$$ just to keep the Turbo 4.9L on the road. Let’s just say that the local Goodyear Auto Service Center didn’t look forward to my visits…
To Be Continued…