Were 1980s cars really that bad?

[Chazman]

Originally Posted by old5.0

That's my understanding as well. A roller cam 5 speed Fox coupe with those mods could crack 12s with a very good driver before the factory Goodyears become an insurmountable obstacle, so I'm curious as to why a TPI Camaro can't at least get in the bottom half of the 13s.

Here's a Motorweek road test of an '89 G92, dual cat, LB9, 5 speed with a 3.45 gear.

This is the fastest one I've ever remember seeing from the day and may not be representative of the typical production car - but they got a 13.9 second 1/4 mile.



https://youtu.be/aCL-odNmuGA

There were a number of free/cheap mods on the TPI back in the day, (similar to the 5.0 Mustang), which could REALLY wake it up.