Cheap, Ugly, Loud, And Fun: 1988 Chevy Camaro IROC vs 1997 Ford Mustang GT

Today, we’re throwing any sense of decorum right out the window. Noise? Vibration? Harshness? Yep, we’ve got all three, in the form of two cosmetically-challenged V8 pony cars with five-speed manuals. They both run and drive fine, but boy, are they ugly. Get ready to do some burnouts.

Yesterday I showed you two nice little trucks, and as I expected, both had plenty of fans. Most of you favored the Ford, primarily because it was fuel-injected, it sounds like. That’s a valid reason, but I don’t think there’s any real reason to fear the Nissan just because it’s carbureted. Carbs worked just fine for decades before EFI came along.

It was a tough call for me too, but my thinking goes like this: if I can’t have a full eight-foot bed anyway, I’d rather have some extra room in the cab. Single-cab compact trucks are awfully cramped inside. I’ll take the Nissan, and sell off the topper to recoup some cost.

There are some things I think we’re meant to outgrow. That may sound funny coming from a guy with a garage full of toy cars, but look, this isn’t about me, all right? I’m thinking of things like Cap’n Crunch, or silly fashion trends. At some point, you just stop wanting them, and that’s a good thing. It shows maturity.

But what about the thing you always wanted, but never got? Somehow, out of the thirty-five or so cars I’ve owned in my life, not one of them has had a V8 paired with a manual transmission. Nor have I had, despite being a fan of both of them, either a Camaro or a Mustang, of any description. I’m old enough now to realize I’m probably not missing a whole lot; such cars are usually coarse, cheaply-made, and not very appealing to drive every day, at least not in your fifties with a bad hip on one side and a bad knee on the other. Still, I look at cars like these, and I can’t help thinking I should own one someday, just to see.

1988 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z – $5,000

Engine/drivetrain: 5.0-liter overhead valve V8, five-speed manual, RWD

Location: Bartlett, IL

Odometer reading: 70,000 miles

Operational status: “Can definitely be used as a daily”

Seeing this car with an old-style Illinois license plate on it makes me think of high school. Our Big Man On Campus, a meathead straight out of a John Hughes comedy, whose name I can’t even recall, drove an electric blue IROC that we were all envious of – though I secretly made fun of him because it was an automatic. I can’t imagine he has weathered the years well; guys like that usually don’t, and if the car is still around, it probably looks a lot like this one.

Unlike the meathead’s, this IROC is optioned properly, with a tuned-port fuel-injected 305 V8, a five-speed manual transmission, and a 3.45:1 Positraction rear axle. It would probably get beaten by a Prius in a drag race today, but in 1988, it was the hot setup. It’s only on its second owner, and has just 70,000 miles to its name. The seller has done a bunch of work to it to bring it back up to snuff mechanically, and it now runs and drives just fine. It is a little loud; it has a crack in the exhaust somewhere that needs fixing, but a little extra V8 noise isn’t the worst thing in the world.

It’s all original inside, and in very nice shape, actually. I clicked on this ad expecting to see the typical trashed interior that so many used third-gen Camaros suffer from, and instead, I saw this. The upholstery looks good, the carpet is a little dirty but not bad, and check out that period-correct car phone. The seller says the radio no longer works, but I’m not surprised. Those old Delco stereos had a finite life. An aftermarket system will have you blasting Def Leppard out of it again in no time.

There has to be a catch, right? Yep. There is, and it’s one that residents and former residents of the Great Lakes region know all too well: rust. It still looks structurally sound underneath, but the front fenders and door bottoms are pretty rough, though mostly just on the passenger’s side. The driver’s side still looks all right. This one is never going to be a collector’s item. But it’s also not about to snap in two tomorrow, so you could just ignore the rust and enjoy it.

1997 Ford Mustang GT – $2,800

Engine/drivetrain: 4.6-liter overhead cam V8, five-speed manual, RWD

Location: Lewisville, TX

Odometer reading: 118,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

The meathead’s rival, of course, drove a Mustang, a maroon 1987 GT model that I liked better than the blue IROC because it was a manual, which my “Chevy guy” friends thought was scandalous. The Camaro-Mustang rivalry was still in full swing in those days, and there weren’t many people as agnostic on the matter as I was. I’ve always liked them both, and which one was “better” in my opinion went back and forth over the years as the two cars evolved. Back in ’88, I would have preferred the IROC – but only with a manual. But in 1997, there was no question: the Mustang was king.

For its first couple of years, the SN95 Mustang carried over the old “five-point-oh” V8 from the Fox-body era. But in 1996, Ford replaced it with the 4.6 liter overhead cam “Modular” V8. It made 215 horsepower – less than the contemporary Camaro Z28 – but it came with a regular old Borg-Warner five-speed manual instead of the dumb “skip-shift” six-speed in the Camaro. This one may or may not be stock; at the very least, it has an aftermarket aluminum coolant expansion tank and a K&N air filter. The seller says it has no mechanical issues, but doesn’t go into any details.

This is what makes me suspect the engine in this car might not be stock: it has Corbeau racing seats. This is the only photo of the interior, so I can’t see what else might not be stock. The seller does say that the air conditioning works, which is something.

It looks a bit rough outside; the front bumper and fenders are in primer, and the rest of the paint isn’t in great shape either. The hood has been replaced, I think; it looks like it used to be white and was painted flat black. There’s a good chance this car was in a minor wreck up front – which, now that I think about it, might account for the aftermarket coolant tank. It might have been cheaper than a genuine Ford plastic one. A good, careful inspection is in order, I think, to look for other signs of damage.

It seems to me that if you want a car like this just to play with and see what it’s like, this is the way to go: look for a scruffy one that runs well, and you’ll spend a lot less on it than a nice shiny one. You can’t see the outside from the driver’s seat anyway. So here are your choices: a highly original but somewhat rusty Camaro, or a potentially modified and possibly wrecked Mustang. What’ll it be?