(first posted 1/20/2016) If you remember, R&T used to do Ten Best issues from time to time- actually, my first Ads’ Post of June 1978 was such an issue. Here they go at it again, this time directing their efforts to the (shall we say) more frugal of readers…
Here we go, this is of course the cover story of July 1983 issue:
My MGB had a metal crack in the door under the vent window, probably a design flaw.
Tricked-up 510 coupes (fender-flares, fat tires, etc.) were popular among my fellow high-school gearheads during the late ’70s, so I’m not surprised they said few were for sale. It seems my suburban H.S. had car cliques: pony cars (1st-gen Mustangs were prized), muscle cars (often jacked-up in back), mini-trucks (same), & these. There was silly bathroom graffiti denouncing mini-truckers.
I was in high school in New York then, and while most of the cars in this feature could be seen in school lots or on the street, all of them would have rust. R&T was in Southern California at the time and thus all their enthusiast cars are rust free examples. One of my tales of growing up was having to go to California to see a rust free Datsun 2000 roadster since the local examples all suffered tinworm.
Some very good choices. The Alfa is alluring, but the 240Z would have probably grabbed me.
Of course, what we know now is that someone in 1983 should have been going out and snapping up every Road Runner, Charger, Duster 340 and E body hemi or ragtop he could afford. You would have paid a lot less than $5k for really nice ones, too.
+1 …and it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’d take any of the cars in your second paragraph over anything in this bunch. Of the cars in the article though, I’d have to go with the Camaro. I like the look, it has lots of upgrade potential, and I’d probably fit in it more comfortably than any of the others.
My brother kicked himself for buying a Superbird for $500 in 1975, taking out the hemi, putting in a 318, and selling it for $1000. The hemi went into a drag car.
It’s easy to say that was the thing to do now, but at the time the ’60s cars to have were the lowest performance ones. 340s were the best small-blocks ever sold, but the early ones needed 100 octane leaded fuel and the last ones sucked gasoline. K-code Mustangs and fuel injected 327 Corvettes were fast and reved like Hondas, but they too needed gasoline that wasn’t available and were never meant to last. The solid lifter big blocks that made headlines during the muscle car war were as fun to own as wooden boats in the ’80s. Anything with a 2-barrel carburetor, originally fitted to a station wagon, or with six cylinders was the sort of ’60s engine that could deal with the 89 octane leaded fuel or premium unleaded of the ’80s without failing valve seats or terminal detonation. Real high performance cars when seen were either far from original, on their last legs, or in the hands of people that could get avgas.
That is true, though some people tried different things like retarding the timing, thicker head gaskets, doubling-up the head gaskets (!!!), swapping cylinder heads and swapping-in low compression engines to keep their beasts going when high octane leaded gas disappeared. Sure it hurt the performance, but they got to keep driving their cars.
My dad’s DD was a 1967 Sport Fury convertible with the 383 “Commando” in the mid 70’s and he was worried about what he’d do when high octane leaded gas disappeared. Then in 1977 someone slammed into his car and wrote it off, which solved that problem.
If I could buy a good example of any of those cars for $5,000 now.. 🙂
I think my pick would be the Datsun 510.
But as JPC mentioned what I really should have done is bought that 440 6-Pack 4 speed 1971 GTX for $1,200 in 1983 (no joke 🙁 )
You’d buy a 510 over a 2002? Or the pale imitation over the real thing? It’s one case where the Made In Japan imitation was still a long ways off from the original.
I’d grab a 2002 for $5k in a heartbeat. And a decent Alfa Spider.
I’m flattered that you think I considered it that deeply, but no.
I’ve never been in either car but I haven’t seen a 510 in decades so it seemed more interesting that way. Also I had a 510 slot car as a kid and my brother had the 2002.
Ah, that explains it. Sibling issues. 🙂
The 510 is probably the car you could get now for the closest to $5,000
It would be easier to get a Capri, a FIAT 124 Sport Spider, or an Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce. There are three MGB GTs on ebay right now, the most expensive with a $2,995 buy-it-now price. I’m not sure about the Celica, as really nice ones are expensive while beater ones are still cheap. BMW 2002s only recently moved out of this price range for tired driver condition cars. 510s have been hard to get and expensive for anything that runs pretty much since back when Fast and Furious was a movie instead of a plot to cause dramatic murders in order to drive the gun control agenda.
+1 for the 510. I had a ’73 during my college days in AZ where rust was a ghost but lack of a/c wasn’t which in my view was the machine’s only shortcoming. But, it was a dry heat…
Ah, the ’79 Fiat Spider. A co-worker of mine took one in trade for some work in ’99. He let me take it to pick up lunch for the crew one day. I was promptly sideswiped by a big truck in a turn lane. She “didn’t see me” and “was on the way to the hospital” which was enough for me to let her drive off with no insurance exchange. I did get a license plate—the truck was stolen. I had to eat the cost of repairs to the Fiat (one fender dent) and didn’t realize til later that my co-worker ripped me off.
It was fun to drive, though. Not recommended for anyone over 5′ 10″ and 175 lbs.
Hmm black Camaro on slot mags, just how it should be. Now a days the chalk mark over restorers would slap steelies and dog dishes on it.
Love the Alfa too, I’ve seriously considered buying one of those in RECENT years since they’re still a relative bargain for non longtails, and they look awesome on the larger diameter minilites being made today.
Camaro for sure. Still (relatively) good value today. Alternatively (well, I’m in Europe) the MGB which also has a huge potential for improvement and has not gone up by much price wise. Alfa Romeo Spider have gone into collectible status and nothing sound will be available at less than € 15,000.
How about the Fiat then? The thing that turns me off MGBs is how primitive they are; very well-done primitive, but primitive nonetheless. I’m not sure their price will go up too much, there are so many available. It seems to me that the prices have not risen too much (eg lower than inflation) in 20 years.
John, of course. I picked the MGB on account of better aftermarket parts supply and ease of restoration, no more no less. I’m familiar with both having restored more than one of each when I was working on cars for living, so each would make sense. Value wise here (Austria) neither Fiat nor MGB seem to have appreciated much during the recent classic car price explosion – unlike for example the Alfa Spider or the Triumph TR series, so no big difference and I expect none in the future. And if you want, the MGB can be made to go as well as the Fiat very easily.
There are a lot more MGB’s around here too, and more support. The MG club is huge and very active in motorsport (like everywhere I assume).
Road and Track did a great review on the problem areas of the early Scriocco (and Rabbit). 1983 was the year I sold my last air cooled (’66 VW Fastback) and bought my first water cooled VW.
Only had $2000 to spend and needed to have AC. I was done cooking in bumper to bumper traffic in the summer months of So Cal, and my new job had me driving a 90 mile a day commute. I knew at this price it wasn’t going to be a fuel injected car and would need some work. I was working for a VW dealership, and access to helpful mechanics and the shop and tools meant I would be looking for an early Rabbit.
I found a top of the line deluxe ’75 4 speed manual transmission Rabbit in red with the rare white vinyl interior, and it had working add on VPC brand AC. The car was a one owner and was for sale in Thousand Oaks where I was working at the time. Body was straight, interior was good. Paint was faded as red will do. On start up it blew a big cloud of blue smoke (bad valve seals). The engine ran smoothly but was down on power, a quick check under the hood and I could see the carb had a broken connecting link for the second barrel so it was only running on one barrel of the 2 barrel carb. Asking price was $2500, I pointed out the problems and was the new owner for $2000.
The detail guy did a power buff and wax and the paint job came back looking almost new again. The AC compressor mount was cracked, so I replaced it with a factory AC mounting assembly that was much stronger. One of the mechanics replaced the T belt and valve seals for fifty dollars, as a compressor was needed to hold up the valves and the dealership had the special tool to do the job with the head installed. I bought a Holly/Weber carburetor kit for $150.00, it was made just for the Rabbit/Scirocco and even adapted the stock air filter assembly and was smog legal. After the smog check a test pipe was installed and the smog air pump was removed.
It ran great after these repairs, and used almost no oil and didn’t smoke after the valve seal replacement. It was so nice to have a modern car that was comfortable for the long drive. It proved to be trouble free and cost in total about $500.00 to get it good shape. And the engine ran really strong, had plenty of power. Handled great and crosswinds were no longer an issue, along with getting baked in the sun in the summertime.
Wish I had A/C on my ’78 Scirocco…I bought it up north in ’81, but moved to central Texas a few years later…still kept it till I bought my ’86 GTi. Yes, I also had the valve seal replacement. Never had an aircooled, but my Father had a ’59 Beetle back in the day (and drove earlier 50s Beetles in Germany when in the Army). Inflation was really high in the early 80’s so even used it wasn’t inexpensive, but I couldn’t yet qualify for enough of a loan for a new one; I was too new in my job and the credit union based the loan amounts on how long you’d been a member..Almost comically I was in a carpool at the time, all of us young owners of 2 door compact cars (2 other drivers besides me). Now it is difficult to find an inexpensive compact 2 door car (other than maybe a Miata…that would really be tough to use in a carpool though).
All my VWs were fuel injected…as mentioned it was standard on the 77 up Scirocco, and by the time I bought the GTi, think it was. That’s part of the reason I ended up buying it; I toyed with getting an Accord Hatchback, but to get fuel injection that year you needed to get the LXi model, which came with power windows/locks…they were still optional back then (along with power steering which my GTi also lacked). On the other hand the GTi came with 4 wheel disk brakes which the Honda didn’t yet offer…so I went with the GTi. It also had a manual (crank) sunroof with the metal rather than glass panel.
Back in ’78, I was still driving the Datsun 710 I had all the way through undergraduate studies, could only dream of the VW (lived in Vermont at the time and would have loved a FWD car instead of my light RWD one). But I also worked at Hertz as a transporter for 2 years, so I got to sample (mostly domestic) a lot of cars of that vintage…transition time in cars, going from RWD to FWD, it scratched my itch of trying lots of different cars early on, such that I’ve only owned 4 different cars in 48 years of driving…when something works for me I stick with it pretty long.
I knew a couple of people who bought used MGB’s circa 1977. As far as I could tell the only “restoration” done on either of them was a cheap paint job. One of them suffered terminal clutch failure after 3-4 months and the woman who owned it decided it wasn’t worth the expense of having it repaired. The owner of the other one ended up spending a couple of thousand dollars fixing assorted ills but at least ended up with a decent MGB to drive. I was a passenger in this one on several occasions and remember it as feeling faster than it actually was, presumably because one was so close to the ground.
During this same time frame I came really, really close to buying a used Fiat 124 Spider. I thought it over and decided I couldn’t afford to take the plunge. I ended up buying a new VW Rabbit instead; I know those get a lot of grief here (and elsewhere), but the one I had was super reliable, as well as being fun to drive. I finally traded it away after 7 years and 118k miles, and it was still going strong.
Part of the joy of owning a metal bumper MGB was the ease with which maintenance could be done. Swap out the points with a solid state setup, replace the throttle rod bushings, properly gapped plugs and valves and you had a pretty reliable sports car. As someone posted earlier, primitive, but a joy to drive. Especially with the top down. Get em while they’re cheap and fix them up. Loads of cheap fun, but watch out for rust!
I remember this issue well, and ended up owning three of the cars on the list – A Datsun 510, Toyota Celica, and a Mercury Capri. I loved the 510 – it was a blast to drive, dead simple to work on, but had low gearing, tinny body panels, and no sound insulation to speak of, making long freeway drives a chore.The Celica was refined for a small “import” car of it’s era – 5 speeds, AC that actually worked, factory cassette, and a hatchback that could swallow a great deal of stuff, but the overall driving experience wasn’t all that exciting. The Capri had a torquey 2.8 V6 and a 4 speed that took a deliberate hand to shift. It was quick for a car built in the mid-70s and the overall driven experience felt more like a shrunken American muscle car than something built in Germany. Finding parts for the Capri in the pre-internet era was also a chore. I’d be curious to see suggestions for a similar list of contemporary cars (perhaps adjusted for inflation?)
Look at it this way. Someone has been paying to park and store that “ten best” car for you, for 44 years now (since 1978), and the higher price you pay today can be accounted for by that parking and storing. How much? At $50/month average, $26k. Even at $25/month, $13k.
Looking at it from the other side of the equation, had you bought one of these in 1978 to save it, and spent a few bucks a month to park or garage it (not even counting the ongoing maintenance, insurance, registration), the higher price you could get for it today might cover the 44 years of costs, but likely not a whole lot more than that.
Ask me how I know…
My three favorite cars on this list are the Volkswagen Scirrocco, Datsun 240Z, and MGB GT. Of the three I only had a few Datsun Zs. My brother vacillated over a new Scirroco or BMW 320I and chose the Beemer. I had a ’74,’75, and ’77 Z. The ’77 was really a great car I kept for years. I thought that the MG GT was a cute little coupe but never I trusted anything British, though I still long for a Triumph Spitfire.
Every now and then I roll over in my head what car, usually 1 of the ones from this list, would I like to own if I could buy one in fairly good condition and also had a few thousand dollars for upgrades.
I owned 2 or 3 cars on this list, well, actually later models or different drivetrains than those recommended. I once owned a 76 280Z, not a bad car, but these REALLY needed a 5 speed transmission. Nice car otherwise. And I owned a 73 Capri, but with a 2 liter engine. After driving several 4 and 6 cylinder models, I preferred the 4 cylinder cars, actually, for being pleasant ” all around runabouts “. Though a 73 V6 is also pretty good, with any other year V6 being a bit too trucky for my tastes.
Drove a 78 Celica a few times. Maybe it was the automatic transmission, but it seemed more like a shrunken 70s Buick Regal than a mini Mustang.
Did I miss their explanation for why a Porsche 914 wasn’t on this list?
Well I lived this, although a bit earlier. Bought a ’69 510 sedan in ’79 and turned into a quasi SSS with a rally cam and twin SU’s. No flares and I left the BW automatic sign on the back even though it had a 4 speed. 100,000 miles in 5 years, a great car. Outer u joints every 10,000 miles was the only mechanical issue. Rust killed it.
Regular CC readers may or may not know me as someone with limited technical knowledge. As well as currently being a non-car-owning cyclist.
But I’m chuffed that two of my limited car ownership experiences are in this list – the BMW 2002 and the first generation VW Scirocco. That probably explains my daily click on CC, even though I doubt I’d pass any potential entrance exam.
The others on the list that have some emotional pull for me are the MGB and the Datsun 510 – the B for its elegance and defiant Britishness, and the Datsun for its unassuming street-kid toughness.
The only car on this list that would be a viable, low budget, fun car today would be the
MGB, of any flavor. You can still pick up decent ones for a couple of grand, and every
single part is available relatively inexpensively. The others have all either been
priced out of the toy range, or have little support.