“Nobody with a good car needs to be justified.” That’s the memorable line from Wise Blood, spoken by Hazel Motes, a charlatan played by Brad Dourif in the 1979 movie adaptation of the 1952 book. It’s been playing in my head for the last couple of days since I wrote about the tax loophole Caprices and Camaros, partially because it’s inspired a song by Gang of Four on their 1983 album, Hard. That bodes well for a 1983 mindset in this article.
The definition of what is a “good car” strongly depends on the context and the elements and the atmosphere and the State of Things, but historically, for a lot of people, it has been an American car with a V8. It’s highly likely that in the original book by Flannery O’Connor, it was one of those as well. Chevy’s original introduction of the Camaro as a Mustang competitor, as a blue-collar sports car, was directed straight into the hero car niche. Buying such a car would make you somebody, someone in command of both the car and where the car was headed.
As I was putting the finishing touches on my story about the ways people would squeeze a 4000-pound full-size station wagon through the eye of the needle that is the Finnish motor vehicle registration authority, Matt asked “Did people really want a Caprice that much?” Back in the day, a large V8 car stood for more power than the car itself delivered. For a regular guy going to work at the margarine factory every morning, to be able to drive home with a five-liter V8, it was the dream, no matter if it was a wagon limited to 50mph with a big sticker. Contrast that with being able to get a Chevrolet sports car.
The Future Arrives In A Camaro To Shake Things Up
The deep-inset sealed beam headlights and square jaw gave it a certain unemotional look that its Firebird cousin couldn’t match with its pop-up design front, even if both had a distinct shark shape. While the Trans Am was the correct choice to base the Knight Rider hero car on, the Camaro had more visual muscle, and as Chevy’s blue-collar sports car, its design could not be improved upon. Period road tests compared the shape to Italian exotics, and the five-spoke wheels probably helped.
The Bishop alerted me to the significance of the Chevrolet Camaro Z28-E, the E standing for Export, not Economy.
Poised to show the Camaro’s sports car potential and available equipment, the ZK3 code cars included a complete option package as standard, including rear disc brakes, a locking rear differential, front air dam and side accents in silver, and a leather steering wheel. Not included: catalytic converters, thus giving the carbureted 305 small block the full 155 horsepower available from the factory in 1983.
The car in the black-and-white photos above and below, which matches the advert above, must be a very early model, as the car has darker lower body accents and the clear headlight covers that weren’t fitted on all of the Z28-E cars. Note the lack of rear spoiler, too.
The Z28-E was exported to Japan as well, as this Japanese market commercial shows. It also rules.
The Camaro Z28-E: E For Expensive
The amount of kit GM put in the Z28-E shows that the company was intent on winning coupe buyers over from established German marques. Too bad they overshot: despite its working-class origins, the Z28-E was horrendously expensive imported from America, partially due to unfavorable exchange rates. In 1983, the Deutschmark kept depreciating while the US dollar surged.
In today’s money, the Z28-E cost $130,000 in Finland due to local taxation on top of the exchange rates against the Finnish Mark. In the 1984 price lists, a Camaro Z28-E is priced at an eye-watering 291,500 FIM while a Mercedes-Benz 280 CE is tens of thousands cheaper at 259,000. No matter how well the Camaro was spec’d, it didn’t start out as a Mercedes competitor when it was first built.
A Z28-E review in the 17/1983 issue of the Finnish Tekniikan Maailma magazine notes that a new Camaro cost between 59,500 and 78,400 FIM in the States: that’s $31k to $41k today, and the lower price likely stands for the $8,000 that a base Sport Coupe with the 2.5 Iron Duke cost, with the Z28 an extra two grand on top. While it took dedication to tear out the rear seats and put a pickup bed in there to skip taxes, it’s not that difficult to justify it. And hey, nobody with a good car …
The authoritative German automobile magazine Auto Motor und Sport tested the Z28-E in its 11/1982 issue, and also listed the Mercedes-Benz 280 CE as a suitable competitor. In the table above, the Mercedes is noted to cost some 4,500 Deutschmark less, despite having 30 more horsepower and strongly undercutting the Camaro’s 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time. In the test, AMS notes that “the era of the cheap American V8 seems to be over.”
The front-wheel-drive Lancia Gamma coupe, itself perfectly weird, cost the same as the Mercedes-Benz; the three-liter Opel Monza with comparable power and speed to the Mercedes-Benz was far cheaper, while the BMW E24 628 CSi did cost significantly more at over 50,000 DM. The Camaro couldn’t quite crack 200 km/h, while the Monza would go on until 214 km/h, over 130 mph.
The Camaro’s German 44,200 DM price corresponds to a touch under $59,900 today (52,200 Euros). In 1982, the Camaro Z28 started from $9,700, which is $33,475 today, but Road & Track tested a 1982 Z28 with the 165-horsepower Cross-Fire fuel-injected engine with four-wheel disc brakes and a locking rear differential among other equipment, and said the total came to $13,635 ($47k today).
In the early 1980s, the 280 E and the 280 CE were discontinued in the States, as those models were first neutered by emissions regulations and then replaced with diesel and turbodiesel models. In 1981, you could still get a 145-horsepower 280 CE that cost $30,314. That’s an immense $111k today, meaning that not only was the Camaro Z28-E expensive in Germany, but the Mercedes-Benz was also far, far cheaper there. This was still the era when grey-market Mercedes-Benz cars were sold in the States, before the 1988 Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act ended that.
That said, the competitors that Auto Motor und Sport listed are more traditionally GT cars compared to what the Camaro stood for. The Z28-E was a shot at making a sports car, while its export pricing aimed it against European grand tourers. The Monza was the coupe version of the Opel Senator sedan, which also shared some of its underpinnings with Australian Holdens. But unlike those, the Monza never got a V8 and relied on inline six power.
What about a real sports car? Well, you could always look at the Porsche 911. The 1983 911 SC, with 204 horsepower, cost 48,000 DM – just a few thousand more than the Camaro, making it a “known good” for German buyers.
The Mercedes-Benz SLC coupe was already discontinued in 1981, leaving only the SL convertible from the C107/R107 generation on sale. The SL cost significantly more than the 280 CE coupe, as you’d pay 365,000 FIM in 1984 for one, or $178k in today’s money. But if you wanted a coupe, the 280 CE would do fine, especially as the M110 twin-cam produced a healthy 185 horsepower in a car that weighed the same as the Camaro, and offered a more useable rear seat than the SL.
Mercedes and diesel were synonymous here, of course, but a W123 would more often have a 200 D engine with 60-odd horsepower and a 0-100 time of next Tuesday.
Bang For The Buck
For those looking for cheaper sporty cars than the Camaro in the same Finnish price list, an Opel Manta with a two-liter engine was 111 grand FIM. An AE86 Toyota Corolla GT Coupé was a hundred. A Fiat Supermirafiori with the coveted 2.0-liter twin cam was less than 80,000.
A lot of enthusiasts here, 40 years later, would be happy with any of those, even if you couldn’t get the Fiat as a two-door anymore after 1982. The Manta especially was spiritually closer to what a Camaro originally stood for: coupe shape, rear-wheel drive, priced to be attainable by a regular dude – especially in Germany, where it cost half as much as here.
One of the cheapest relatively quick cars was the Citroën Visa GT: it only had 80 horsepower, but because it weighed nothing, it reached 100km/h (62 mph) in 10.9 seconds. According to the Finnish article, the Camaro Z28-E with the tested three-speed automatic was half a second quicker. Half a second!
And the Citroën cost the same here as a base Camaro did in the States: a little over 60,000 FIM, or $28.500 today. Nobody in their right mind would cross-shop them, but it illustrates what you would get for your money here and in America. For a Z28 in the US, you’d pay what the aforementioned two-liter Fiat cost here. Then again, a “Fiat Brava,” as it was called there, cost nine thousand dollars in 1983, so not too far from the mark.
A price table in the same issue also reveals what one had to pay in Finland compared to the rest of Europe: a Volvo 240 cost double here in 1984 compared to Sweden, a VW Golf cost double compared to Germany, and for a Mercedes-Benz 190E, you had to pay 2.75 times as much here as in Germany. Conversely, a Saab 900 cost less here than in Denmark or Norway, partially because the local manufacturing plant meant reduced costs.
The price proposition for the Z28-E wasn’t a uniquely Finnish or German problem. The Belgian automotive magazine AutoGids notes in its November 1983 issue:
“The pleasure of the big American, its beefy V8, its automatic transmission, its power steering here and overdrive there, exists and survives with this Camaro. Of course, it is no longer the muscle car of yesteryear, but the 5-liter V8 has retained some of the driving pleasure… and some of the fuel consumption. Meanwhile, the chassis has improved considerably in terms of handling, brakes, and steering, so the car can deliver a perhaps somewhat primitive but clearly present driving pleasure. Unfortunately, there are financial factors that come to cloud the rugged-idyllic picture.
With the Californian atmosphere we were able to experience for 10 days in Belgium (T-top panels safely stowed away), winter seemed far off. The Camaro is a clear example of the efforts the American industry is making to overcome its handicaps while still retaining the interesting characteristics of their cars. Some of those handicaps hang over our heads as well: unleaded gasoline, which for efficiency’s sake sharply reduces the engine’s power output, e.g. Many of those efforts have already borne fruit: aerodynamics, brakes, steering, and handling. Less successful are the still high weight and space utilization.
As for consumption and efficiency in general, electronic developments in the style of BMW could already improve things considerably. But then the price would presumably go up again.”
Despite the odds not being in its favour, Chevrolet did manage to sell some Z28-Es in Europe, and a number of them have survived to present day, among all the grey-market examples. Not every Camaro in Finland is a pick-up, but it takes a careful eye to note which Camaros had been really expensive when new.
Top graphic images: Mercedes-Benz; Chevrolet
Are we really surprised though? Europe has generally never really been a welcoming place for American cars.
Kind of Both ways back then I suppose. I have seen old euro movies with BMW and Mercedes cop and taxis in the back ground. I am sure they are reasonably priced in Europe at the time, but not so much in the US.
Mercedes-Benzes are a staple of taxi fleets in Europe, even today.
USD was a bit overvalued at the time. But it made for cheap shopping, i.e. TWA (still existed) pilots going between JFK and FRA would use their day off and go shopping at the parts counter of Porsche and Mercedes dealers. Getting intercooler, injection pumps and the like for half off, which became a nice collections over the decades.
Mercedes always saw the export more as that of an aspirational luxury good, they were generously spec’d, whereas at home it could also be a sensible and rather frugal long term investment in your personal mobility.
Lol, two liters more displacement than all the listed competitors and it’s still the second lowest in horsepower. (Behind the Gamma, which I believe came with a standard “pre-rusted” option…)
Only 5 years later Opel would introduce the 16v Kadett GSI, which had a 2 litre engine with 156bhp.
Master accomplishment by Fritz Indra. For a while it had the best relative fuel efficiency for a gasoline engine.
Hey, if you want to get the Gang Of Four track out of your head but still stay on the mid-80s theme there’s always J.G. “Foetus” Thirlwell’s other band “Wiseblood”, also named after the book.
Although I grew up in a first gen Camaro, by the end of high school I could name four friends of mine that had died in second-gen Camaros, and that would be 4/5ths of the people I knew that died in car crashes at the time.
So you’d better get out of my way when I come through your yard
‘Cause I’ve got a bitchin’ Camaro and an Exxon credit card
Dead Milkmen, Bitchin’ Camaro
Love me some Dead Milkmen. (Band.)
There’s an undeveloped T.V. series from the same people that made The Young Ones. The one pilot episode has a pretty good kill count for “milkies” (and I think some GBH to a ‘parking womble’, whatever that is.)
Hmmm… these Camaros (and comparable Firebirds) were literally every-effin-where when I was a pre/teen. I’ve ridden in more than a few, though IIRC I never actually drove one. Regardless, it’s difficult to conceive of them as having to be expensive given how crude, rattly, and underpowered most of them tended to be regardless of their swoopy looks.
An early-mid ’80s Mercedes W123 coupe though? Dayum… those are still nice to look at and ride in TODAY, provided of course that it’s been taken care of in the way that any 40-50 year old car must be in order to be reliably enjoyed today. They’re slow, but nice, especially in turbodiesel form.
I know this is just MHO and not really the point of Antii’s interesting article, but these two hunks of steel are just so apples and oranges, the idea of comparing them stikes me as strange, that’s all. I mean, retail prices are affected at any given moment by so many factors (inflation, import duties/tarrifs, supply chain issues such as war or blocked canals, etc…), export limits for certain raw materials, fluctuating exchange rates, etc…
I was in Germany in the Spring/summer of 1992. I could always tell when I was near a US military base, because I would see V8 Camaros on the autobahn. Always in the slow lane going something around 100-120 kph.
In talking to service members, Chevy was offering all sorts of great deals and it was cheap and easy to get a Camaro in Germany back then as a US serviceman and getting it back to the US when their tour was done was easy as well. Which explained the Camaros being around so commonly.
As for speed? The guys I talked to said they couldn’t afford to drive a Camaro at autobahn speeds. The basic rule of thumb was that Gas in Germany was more per liter than American gas was per gallon. GM V8s of that era had reasonable fuel economy when just barely turning over with a tall gear ratio at 100 kph, but at twice that, and twice the RPM, the fuel economy went from barely acceptable to horrid.
I talked to several servicemen with Camaros and all had the same story. When they got their car, they decided to see what it could do for top speed, but their wallets ran out before their courage.
See and I was told they got allotments of (to US price level) discounted fuel vouchers. Maybe they sold them or had burnt through them?
My memory was that if you got gas on the base, it was a lot cheaper, perhaps US prices. However, I wasn’t allowed because I didn’t have a military ID. But even at US prices, getting sub 10 mpg is rough.
Back then, GM had the way to solve fuel economy by displacement. Put in a big lazy engine and geared it to turn low RPM at highway speeds. At 60 mph, it worked because they could turn a 3.8L at less than half the RPM of a 2L and get better fuel economy.
The Camaro at 60 mph (with the right gears) would turn under 3k, while the rental car I drove was turning closer to 3500. At the speeds I went for most of the trip (180 kph), I was bumping the rev limited at 6000 rpm on the poor rental’s NA 1.4L. A Camaro with the 5L would have likely been turning around 5k rpm because of the taller gearing. But still that 5.0L engine vs the 1.4L in the rental meant that the rental was sucking in nearly 3 times less air and thus needed about 3 times less fuel.
Attended high school in the early 1980s and the reality was all the good looking girls drove Camaros – all of them. At the Jersey shore, it was nothing but Camaros, especially if the girls were from Quebec (where they assembled them IIRC).
In my high school of that era, they all drove white 3 Series BMW Convertibles. But this was outside of DC, and there may or may not have been blow paying for the cars, plastic surgery and fashion.
Yeah, the 4th gen was built in Quebec, previously used for G and A bodies
Let’s be honest. Even if it had been prices competitively it still wouldn’t have sold well.
Fuel economy, taxes, sizes and maneouvrability make it a no go.
Today a Mustang GT from a Ford dealer, factory warranty an all, costs… what? 60 or 65 thousand euros?
You still see hardly any in the streets.
I’ve seen 2 of the latest gen in our city with population of 150. Both GT versions. 10 perhaps 10 newish Camaros and 1-2 chargers.
And about 10 newish (<10 year old) 911:s and couple of Ferraris. And even couple of Bentleys. This is pretty cool considering they cost about 2x what they cost in US.
Oh don’t get me wrong, a 450bhp V8 coupé for that price is a steal.
Here you can see a Mustang GT from time to time but they are rare. 911 or Caymans are easier to see. I guess us southeners are not too interested in muscle cars…
Population of 150t I was supposed to say :D.
I think they are relatively OK priced, but still expensive as hell. Most people go with fast bimmers with that money and get year round usability.
But I think the used imports are the thing. I’m kinda considering getting 10-15 year old Camaro with LS and stick shift. Not that useful, but I kinda want one. With ~40k€ one could quite nice vehicle. On the other hand so would be an 5-series wagon with B58, I would have definite usecases for that.
Well for the same sort of money a Mustang costs here you can get a BMW 430i Coupé (which for some reason is only available with four wheel drive). That has 200bhp less and half the number of cylinders.
The equivalent would be the M440i Coupé (which may be actually faster than the Ford and probably immensely more capable), but that is easily 90-100k €.
However you make a good point. I like the Mustang, but it is definitely hard to justify in Europe.
I have zero recollection of seeing a gasoline-engine C123 in the US. I thought they were all Diesel here.
Here’s the 1981 Mercedes-Benz full line US brochure – showing the 280E/280CE for their final year in the US:
https://www.oudemercedesbrochures.nl/Programma_USA1981.html
Oh I’m sure that you and Antti are correct, I just don’t recall seeing any of them!
Did I read that right, that the Lancia Gamma with it’s 2.5L engine is burning 16.4L/100km of fuel?
How? Is there a second fuel pump that just sprays it onto the road?
I am guessing it’s km/l.
It is l/100km, but probably tested fuel economy with an interesting cycle.
High speed autobahn driving?
My mother’s 1980 280 E (four doors) was literally the first car I drove after passing my driving test in 1991. The 14,6 l/100 km (16.1 mpg) are a conservative estimate.
Why not? Volvo V70 with NA 2.4 I5 could do that quite easily in urban environment.
We all love classic cars, but there has been a lot of progress in the past 40 years. And thank God and an army of clever engineers for that.
I’m guessing they sold maybe 5-6 of them….
End of the day people will always pay to stand out and be cool
Keep in mind a very important distinction…
The GM North American vehicles exported to Europe during the late 1970s and early 1980s were opulently equipped with many options as standard. The same options would be extra cost in Mercedes-Benz 280 CE that run to thousands of Deutsche Mark when tallying up the extra-cost options to match Camaro.
The price catalogue from 1982:
…and so forth. 280 CE didn’t have the power seats, electrically adjustable external rear view mirrors, and so forth.
Of course, the reengineering and certifying the Camaro to meet ECE regulations cost money that was passed to the European owners.
The 280CE is just a catchy headline. The Monza is the real Camaro destroyer here.
Nevermind cars like the Manta or the Capri.
And then there’s the Golf GTI and the Kadett GSI.
The Camaro never stood a chance. The Mercedes comparison is just an anecdote.
In Germany, the 280 CE, the Camaro and the Manta appealed to totally different demographics. Dentists, pimps and elementary school dropouts respectively. And hardly anybody was insane enough to buy an 80’s Lancia.
Unfortunately, the Senator/Monza never really stood a chance with the public, because they looked too much like the plain Rekord. Which is a pity considering their great KAD predecessors (including the small-block versions).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Diplomat
I quite like the Monza, a chat from a friend prompted a search:
https://www.coches.net/opel-monza-monza-30i-gse-3p-gasolina-1982-en-valencia-70532302-covo.aspx
I hate the stupid wheels… but other than that tempting…
They weren’t bad cars at all, but they never really found a viable market. Unfortunately, most got destroyed quickly when they became dirt cheap on the used market. Two years ago, a near mint Monza A2 came to our local cars and Bratwurst meeting and was instantly more popular than the 911s.
But those wonderful Opel seats! Thank God I’m 1,100 miles away from Valencia.
I am only 180. That’s dangerous… 😛
By the way, I am sure you are aware of the story about the V8 KADs having endurance racing versions of the SBC as they kept destroying the standard ones under autobahn conditions.
Thanks – I knew that they replaced the smaller V8 with the 327 cid one rather quickly, but not why. It must have been a real PITA to check the oil with the limited space in the engine bay.
Apparently the story goes that initially GM sent the standard engines they sold in Impalas and standard Chevrolets. But in high speed autobahn testing they kept blowing up.
Afterwards they sent the Corvette-spec engines, but those too couldn’t cope with sustained high speed driving.
The final option was too use engine blocks from Corvettes they used in endurance racing. Those were the only ones who could survive the Autobahns.
The trifecta of “C”s for pimps
Capri, Camaro, Corvette
In the Finnish road test article it’s mentioned that the test car had A/C as an optional extra, as well as a rear window wash/wipe and some extra carpets. Also, “for some reason” the original stereo had been replaced with a cheaper unit, which was noted to have no digital clock on it. Important things in 1983…
Perhaps, it’s differently equipped in Germany and the Switzerland than in Finland. I have seen lot of GM vehicles that were official export version in Germany and the Switzerland with lot of equipment as standard.
Just because something is rare and expensive does not make it automatically good.
“While the Trans Am was the correct choice to base the Knight Rider hero car on, the Camaro had more visual muscle…”
Where?
The only difference between the Camaro and Firebird were the front clips – all the sheetmetal aft of the windshield was the same.
One also needs to remember that a Mercedes-Benz in Germany was not equipped the same as a Mercedes-Benz in the USA. If you wanted radio, automatic, power windows and locks, wood trim, alloys, sunroof, metallic paint, leather interior – all that was at extra cost.
Meanwhile the Camaro was fully equipped – and it needed to be, particularly the brakes and engine – otherwise it could never compete dynamically.
But it’s a shame the Camaro didn’t come with headlamp covers – with them it was reminiscent of a same-era Alpine GTA
Too true. There used to be a joke that Mercedes came standard with a steering wheel. VW was just as bad. A base Golf II didn’t even have a storage compartment forward of the shifter. They actually went to the length of designing an interior without one (because of course it came standard on better trims).
But the Camaro was the hero car for Simon & Simon starting in season 2, replete with a custom targa top. Maybe that’s why KITT got his custom convertible mode in season 4.
Rear quarter panels were different. Most people wouldn’t notice the difference unless seen side by side. But I had a mullet, so I know these things.
Well you have to maintain a mullet while you maintain a Camaro, and that gets expensive!
Same – or worse – with the Manta. The punchlines of Manta jokes often centered on the drivers’ hairstyles and their girlfriends being hairdressers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manta_joke
From the factory without catalytic convertors in 1983? Didn’t think any country was doing that at the time, interesting. My 84 sport coupe had the 305 w/ 4b, but I’m curious what the lack of cats sounded like.
Europe was quite late to the market with unleaded petrol – it only went on sale in 1986, with catalytic convertors (which require unleaded) only made mandatory in the EU in 1993.
In Germany and Austria, they didn’t become mandatory until the late 80s.
Over here they became mandatory in 1991.