First Time You Saw a 3rd Gen. Camaro

[LostInMoscow]

It was just after my 16th birthday, and I was jonesing for a sports car. I was at a lake doing some swimming, and in rolls an '82 pace car Z28. I just about shot my load! What is that!? Turns out that I knew the guy and he gave me a ride. I thought I was in a rocket ship on rails. Later he told me that he traded in a 396 Chevelle on it, and he wished he had it back! But that Z might as well have been a Ferrari for me! At 16, that was the sh*t!

[02 WS6 TA]

When you say Rocket Ship, I assume you mean toy rocket... 145hp wasn't very inspiring.

[LostInMoscow]

I thought the Z had 180? Well, it was faster than my mom's Pontiac station wagon. I ended up with a '76 Gremlin with a rag for a gas cap! So that probably puts it into perspective. I remember when I got my first Z28 in '94. It had 275 HP I believe. I thought that was a rocket ship too! But now we get 426 HP! Amazing how perspectives change.

[02 WS6 TA]

How true it is.

Sadly, the 305 was rated at 145 in '82, and Ford threw down the Gauntlet with their advertising about the '82 Mustang GT and Mercury Capri proclaiming "The Boss is BACK!" 157HP 2V 302 and a 4 speed. Absolutely hillarious.

[2ndgenz28]

Id bet for most if was on TV watching Knight Rider as a kid, if you didn't live in a ritsy part of town or near a car lot.

[DarthNacho08]

my dad had a 88 z for the first 14 years of my life, I LOVED that car to death, and I dreamed about making that my first car and fixing it up, the day he gave it away to my mom's cousin was quite honestly one of the saddest days of my life

[Pumpkin1LT]

My bestfriend in HS had a bright red one ... We used to skip school our senior year and troll around Downtown Boston ... Some fond memories. I loved that car!

[kjd15]

Car shopping when I was 21 (in 1985). Not really knowing what I wanted. Spotted a canary yellow v6 Camaro on the lot of a Chevy dealer and knew that was the car for me.
It wasn't fancy, just a plain Sport Coupe with very few options, but boy did I love that car.

I kept it for about 10 years, but had to hand it over to my hubby after my daughter started getting too big to lug around in that car. He drove it for another year or so and then I sadly sold it because he wanted a truck. :(

Recently been thinking of getting another 3rd gen.

[lil_red_v6]

first time i saw a 3rd gen i fell in love. i was a young one in my life when i saw it, so beautiful 1992 white with redish orange stripes i look in the inside and see a dash plack sayin 25th anniversary o god i was in love red enteriour. look like Darrenscamaro on the outside. man i wish my uncle would of kept that car. he sold it after having it only 2 years.

[Michael_Js]

After graduation college and moving from New York City, NY to San Diego, CA, and had my first "real" job, i bought an '82 Camaro V6 RS - 5 spd manual, T-Tops. Couldn't afford the Z28 :( Great car! Not much on the power, but it was fun...

[Monte Carlo Man]

A neighbor friend of mine worked in a machine shop - co/op while in high school and his mom saved his paychecks and helped him to buy his first new car, a '82 Z /28 with Tee Roofs. Silver

It was a pretty neat car.

He put sandbags in the back in the winter and a set of winter tires on it and it would go most anywhere. We took it four wheeling lot's of times.
His dad had to paint the nose several times - because he would wear the paint off it - from pushing snow with the front bumper.

We designed one of the first sub boxes for a set of 10's for his car and it was a bear to get it in that little cavity in the trunk under the hatch.
Lot's of engine and electrical problems. he finally got rid of that car and bought a '85 Z/28 - Red and kept it for a number of years until his wife made him get rid of it, because it wouldn't go worth a hoot in the winter and they were always pushing it to get it out of their driveway in the mornings to get to work, and they lived on the flat and level.

We owned about a half a dozen Camaro's - a bunch of them were Iroc's, and truthfully none were more fun then the old '82...


http://www.thirdgen.org/1982-chevy-camaro

[AZCamaroFan]

for the record, the automatic had 165hp 'cross-fire injection'
the manual had 145hp

[Monte Carlo Man]

All I can tell you is that it blew up one night when I was driving it, the head gasket went and water went all through the engine and we parted company - and was not friends no more. It was ok though, because the same night, he rolled my dad's Blazer over on a back country road and didn't even call to say that he was ok or where the vehicle was at. His father in law tried to charge me $750 for rebuilding the engine. I offered him a 350 out of a 1973 Bel Air that had 24,000 miles on it and he refused. The father in law - expert mechanic rebuilt the motor, but set the timing with the distributor - computer plugged in and it was running slow and several months later it blew up again.
I don't know of too many Cross Fire 305's that didn't blow up. What a total piece of garbage.