[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by olrocker

What I want to know is, what happened to all the guys from my generation who grew up in the 80s and 90s with what was a resurgence in the muscle/performance car segment?

I'm 46. As a car buff I know that the period from 1973-86 or so, the Malaise era, performance and pretty much everything went downhill due to the emission and fuel economy regulations that choked out and nearly killed the original muscle and performance cars of the 60s and 70s.

I remember then, as computers and emission and fuel economy could improve with power and performance, the engines getting bigger and better after '86 to reach the pre'73 levels of performance, and then surpass them in the 90s.

All the while my friends and I were all going "man I can't WAIT to get old enough to afford one of these!!!"

Not just the Camaro and TransAm, Ford had the Mustang, Thunderbird, and Cougar which could all be built to be performance or sport coupes. And then before bankruptcy GM had the GTO and G8, and the Cadillac V-series. I figured these cars would always be there because not only me but every cool guy I knew my age wanted one. It was like our Dad's generation all over again.

Did all of a sudden everyone but me decide they just want a boring SUV for life after 40? I ain't dead yet!

I think a lot of them are over on Bring-a-Trailer paying 5x original sticker for the cars they lusted over when they were growing up. Almost bit a few times myself. Tapped out when some of my targets jumped up to 10x original.