Out of the past, into a thousand tomorrows comes a car made of the right stuff…
Huh? There are words and phrases that, if strung together correctly and said with enough emphasis, manage to sound great until you actually think about what the heck is actually being said (lyrics by Ronnie James Dio, anyone?). This commercial opens with such verbiage. And that is one of the many things that makes it a perfect 80s car ad:
This ad conveniently offers all the car posters your 80s bedroom wall or garage space could ever want. Well, save for the infamous “Justification for Higher Education” poster. Ah, the 80s, when going to college meant you could dream about exotic cars, instead of nightmarish student debt.
In this one-page ad taken out by The Atlanta Gallery of Automotive Art, they display a collection of Rod Caudle’s photographs of truly 80s dream cars. We have a Lotus Esprit Turbo, two different Lamborghini Countach variations (what’s the plural of Countach?), a steroidal DeTomaso Pantera, a Porsche 935 and a Ferrari 308 GTSI. All 6 could be had for just under 50 bucks.
The bidding has started at Barrett-Jackson and Wednesday’s results are in. Signs are pointing to low-mileage, special-interest cars from the 1980s being sought after and valued. Both the Firebird and Mustang community are reeling from what must be record prices.
A 750 mile 1980 Firebird Trans Am Bandit Special Edition sold for an astounding $110,000. This tied it for first place with a 1984 Porsche 935 which sold for the same price. And the Fox Mustang world is chattering about the 99 mile 1984 Ford Mustang GT 350 (2oth Anniversary) going for $71,500.
Certainly an honorable mention should go to the 7,715 mile DeLorean DMC-12 for it bringing $63,800.
This showing reinforces the idea that “they’re only new once” and if you want to try to consider your car an investment, keep the miles off of it and keep it factory-fresh.
In all, 15 80s-era cars sold on Wednesday. If you’re interested in a quick look at their prices, a spreadsheet is being kept of auction results and can be viewed here.
80s-cars.com will continue to monitor auction results and update the spreadsheet as time allows.
Although there are auctions with more exotic offerings, higher record sales numbers for individual cars, there is no more famous collector car auction event than Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale extravaganza. For anyone who has not been, it is far more than an auction, it’s nearly a carnival. There are massive displays by automakers, lifestyle booths with automobilia, clothing, luxury services, massive food offerings, and more. If you get a chance, you should attend at least one day of the event. Tickets for the weekend before the big sales are generally inexpensive as well as other pre-auction days during the week. Once the gavel starts crashing, though, ticket prices skyrocket.
One thing that is often overlooked is that Barrett-Jackson is not exclusively a venue for high-dollar muscle cars or rare exotics. The TV coverage may help to give that idea, but there are a lot of mere mortal cars available each year for mere mortals to purchase. Bargains can be had when sellers offer a car at no reserve, expecting the Barrett-Jackson name to do more work than can be done for their car given its lack of rarity or overall condition. There are also a number of cars that seem to be sure show-winners in their preview images or on the screen that do not live up to the camera’s kindness. Solid ‘driver’ status cars abound here, and if there isn’t someone in the audience with a gotta-have-it obsession with a vehicle you’re interested in, you could do well. That said, bidding from afar would not be recommended.
80s-cars took a quick and very early tour of Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction grounds and found that the classics are waning, and our era of cars is on the rise. Corvettes, Porsches and Mercedes-Benzes are the most heavily represented cars of the 80s in this year’s event, and two low-mileage DeLoreans are in attendance as well. Here are some of the highlights of the docket:
There are two low-mileage, numbers matching 1980 Corvettes: Dark Claret Metallic and White.
A 1980 Black Special Edition Firebird Trans Am (they’re calling it a ‘Bandit Edition’ which is common to hear, but the Internet deems incorrect).
A very 80s-appropriate white with white wheels and brown interior 1981 Porsche 928 which was seen puttering around the grounds yesterday.
How about an 80s car that you wouldn’t think of as an 80s car at all? A Citroen 2CV, from 1981. Yep. They were produced from 1948 all the way to 1990.
Two DeLorean DMC-12s presenting low miles: 13,000 and 7,715, take your pick.
This 1982 Toyota 4×4 looks great and claims full restoration. It will be very interesting to see the selling price on this one.
Guards Red, black wheels. Turbo. The 930 was a beast and still demands respect. 1983 Porsche 911 (930) Turbo.
Proof that people took a gamble and mothballed 80s Mustangs: 99 mile (not 99K) 1984 Mustang GT 350/20th Anniversary car.
Dust off your tennis racket, loosely tie that sweater around your neck and get ready to cruise to the country club in the timelessly classy 1985 Mercedes-Benz 380SL.
Or, if you’d prefer Italian, a 1986 Maserati Bi-Turbo droptop may be what you need.
A new 1986 Corvette with 1,200 miles is awaiting a new owner.
Take a ride on the Dark Side with your choice of 1987 Buicks…Here’s a Grand National and if that’s far too common for you, one of the 547 GNXes to be built is also up for bid.
Most people won’t know what it is, but they’ll know to be impressed. Another white car, white wheels combo in this 1988 Lotus Esprit.
A no-less-fast but more sedate appearing 1989 Lotus Esprit can be had at the auction, sporting a subtle greyish-blue finish.
Finally, a very black 911 Speedster, one of 2200 rounds out our look at some of the more interesting 80s offerings at this year’s Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale.
As you can see, it’s not just 60’s muscle. There’s plenty of muscle cars there, of course, but cars for nearly any interest are waiting to be auctioned off.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the annual Scottsdale auction frenzy is just how many under-the-radar cars pop up to be noticed. How many of you have spent time thinking about what Carroll Shelby might have had as a daily driver in the late-8os? Right. Well, here’s at least one answer: A 1988 Dodge Shadow, but no ordinary one at that, it’s a Shelby CSX-T, devoid of any Shadow badging. It will be headed to Russo and Steele in the coming week.
Carroll Shelby’s Shelby CSX-T
There were a grand total of 1001 of these built, all but this one, #475, being sent to Thrifty Car Rental. As these cars were scarce to begin with, and nearly 30 years of attrition have taken what must be a heavy toll on the population, there aren’t many data points as to value. A search of eBay gave up only one result, a better-than-you-might-expect but still not all that great 139,000 mile example which sold for about $1,700. It had signs of Mopar’s late-80s, early-90s paint adhesion disease, but wasn’t in too bad of shape, all things considered.
This car in particular would have to be the high-water mark of value for these cars. Lots of documentation supporting ownership by its very creator, obviously impeccable condition if it presents as well in real life as it does in the images shown, and being sent to a well-known collector auction.
Read the full description and view more images on the Russo and Steele page.
Once the auction is complete, this article will be updated with sales results if they are published.
When your 3rd Gen Camaro just has beat your buddy’s Countach out on that dusty desert trail, only Super Shops will do! Super Shops ads were all over the radio in the 80s, though TV ads might have been more seldom seen. Everyone went there for their Edelbrock intake, Holley carb, and BFG Comp T/As. Mail order was a thing, of course, but the local convenience of swinging by the store, maybe meeting some like-minded gearheads and making sure your car was seen was irresistible…until the late 90s when the nationwide performance parts chain folded.
Period-correct aftermarket wheels of the 1980s have become sought after as people look to dress up their cars with something different from the norm. The truth is, there were some great looking wheel designs back when less than everyone and their mothers were getting wheels cast, chromed and branded for retail. Of course, one of the sticking points with these wheels and today’s tires is that 16″ wheels were BIG. Now, 17″ is what 14″ers used to be back in the day. Smaller tires are getting harder to find, especially in performance brands. Nevertheless, people are going looking for these wheels. Take note of how many are being offered in 13″! Good luck finding tires for those.
In hopes of being helpful to someone’s search, here’s a list of what you’ll see in the image. Disclaimer: eBay affiliate links will be added, too. This means that if you click through and buy something, this site will get a small commission, but you won’t see any extra charge.
Left-to-right, top-to-bottom:
BBS-RS – 15×16 (typo in the ad?)
MSW Type 1 & 2 – 13″, 14″, 15″, 16″
Centra 31 – 14″, 15″, 16″
Enkei 90 – 13″, 14″, 15″
Ronal R8 – 13″, 14″, 15″
Enkei 98 – 14″, 15″, 16″
Fittipaldi Aero – 15″
BBS RZ – 14″, 15″, 16″
MSW Type 5 – 14″, 15″
Centra 8 – 14″, 15″
Enkei 82 – 13″, 14″, 15″
Ronal R9 – 15″, 16″
Epsilon – 5 spoke, 16″
Fittipaldi – 5 spoke, 16″
BBS RA – 13″, 14″, 15″, 16″
MSW Type 7 – 15″, 16″
Gotti 2&3 piece – 15″, 16″
Enkei 84 – 13″, 14″, 15″
Ronal R10 – 15×6.5″, 15×7″
Epsilon Mesh – 14″, 15″, 16″
Hayashi 504 – 15″, 16″
MSW Classic – 15″
MSW Type 8 – 15″, 16″ 3 piece
ACT – 15″, 16″
Enkei 92 – 13″, 14″, 15″, 16″
Weds G-S – 13″, 14″, 15″, 16″
Superlight “25” – 14″, 15″
Hayashi 505 – 15″, 16″
*whew*
Also, in case it is relevant, this ad is from a January of 1988 publication.
Wouldn’t it be great to get some of these styles in 17″?
Certainly Pontiac’s F-body was one of the highlights of the decade, but take a look at their TV commercials and you’ll see the marketing department at Firebird were 100% on-point with their grasp of then-current trends.
We’ll start this out with the 1980 Firebird, touting “The world’s only turbocharged V8 available in a production car.” Certainly Bandit would approve.
The 1981 Firebird was pushed with a lot less excess, and the style of the commercial shows less 70s-hangover than the year before. A much more sedate looking car is featured, but, hey, thunder and lightning! This lower-key variant is no turbo-V8, but a more sophisticated “computer-assisted V6 engine.” Hm. Turn up that smoke machine!
1982 and we are full-boogie 1980s style for the all-new F-‘Bird. Guy in a lab coat looking techie? Check. Outline and grid style computer graphics? Check. Futuristic sounding electronic music? Of course! We’ve got puffy pleather on the driving-gloved model booking it across a digital city and it’s no wonder they claim the car conquers the world!
Mysteriously, searching for 1983 yielded no results. So, this slideshow of the 1983 brochure set to Knight Rider’s theme song will have to do (you know you’ll watch it):
For 1984, there’s a culmination-of-80s-cool guy running to his car which he thoughtlessly left parked in the middle of the hilly forest road. He’d been driving there at night, perhaps, and needed a rest, given the awkwardly inserted nighttime clips. He apparently walked some distance away from it. Dude could have been selling shampoo or sunglasses for all we know. If you can explain the logic of this ad, please do. Definitely 80s.
Preppy-yuppie guy asks, “Want to see something really exciting?” The commercial answers on our behalf in the affirmative, and shows the car being driven through an incoming tide on the beach. But, only after being blasted through a wall. Naturally. Super-deep-voice announcer guy (if you lived through the 80s, you will recognize this guy, guaranteed) tells us how awesome the car is over semi-aggressive techno-electronic sounds. The 1980s: You got it, Pontiac!
What Pontiac got for 1986 was sexy! Night time, wet city streets, electronic drum kit, super cool guy, rad babe, envious old dude wishing he were super cool guy to get rad babe, and wrapping it up with neon. They’re letting you know there is NO cooler ride than a Firebird.
The heat is on for 1987: plucky yuppies versus jerk-faced thugs! Absolutely nothing about the car, but very era-correct music video stylings. It’s okay to antagonize the guys who are definitely going to give you a beat down if they catch you, so long as you keep running towards your Firebird.
Hard rockin’ montage! Ride, Pontiac, Ride! ALL the Pontiacs! 1988! Yeah!
Sadly, no results for 1989. Plenty for the Bonneville, Grand Prix, and even Sunbird. Perhaps the lack of material shows them leaning in a different direction for the brand in general?
Having seen far too many car spots of the 80s in recent years, Pontiac certainly wasn’t afraid to follow what was cool and try to sell their vehicles with it.
The Dodge Mirada is one of the many overlooked cars of the 80s. The styling is clearly an evolution of the 1970s, understandably so given the length of time the design-to-production process takes. Rearward slanting angular lines give the car crisp edges while retaining a bit of the upright boxiness of the previous decade in the grille and rear fascia.
It’s an interesting enough looking car that it is a shame that it came about at an unfortunate time for Mopar. By 1983, it was all over for the Mirada. The K-car family was proven the way forward for the struggling Chrysler Corporation, leaving the J-body behind entirely.
As an aside: isn’t it a riot that ‘working gauges’ is such a selling point?
Consumer Orientation
No. 17 in a Series of Technical Papers
Sounds serious, doesn’t it?
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