{"id":2776,"date":"2008-01-23T04:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2008\/01\/f-cars\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:58","slug":"f-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2008\/01\/f-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"F-Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1982<\/a><\/p>\n

Ford’s blockbuster Mustang<\/a>, of course, begged for a response, but it was three years before The General could raise it. When he did, it was a two-parter, the so-called F-body twins, Chevy’s Camaro<\/a> and Pontiac’s Firebird<\/a>. The Firebird, of course, was a tribute to the far-out Firebird I<\/a>, a concept car of 1952. F-cars were available in plain vanilla and many exotic flavors, from SS<\/a> to Z-28<\/a>, HO<\/a> to Trans Am<\/a>. Racing driver John Fitch<\/a> tried his own tuned version, the Fitch Firebird<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A second generation F-mobile debuted in 1970. An alternative to the Trans Am<\/a> was Firebird’s Formula 400<\/a>. More civilized than the Z28<\/a> was the Rally Sport Camaro<\/a>. Available only as a coupe, the Gen 2 soon sported a T-roof option<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Gen-3 series arrived for 1982. Equipped with a nifty glass hatchback<\/a>, Gen-3s came in all stages of tune from four-cylinder to big honking V8s. They were succeeded in 1993 by a fourth generation of Camaros<\/a> and Firebirds<\/a>, and convertibles <\/a>returned, but after 2002 it was all over. Rumors of a front-drive F-car proved false, and the genre died out with a whimper.<\/p>\n

F-cars have long been popular with restorers and rodders. Some, like this tricked-out ’69 Z-28<\/a>, go way over the top, with hyperactivity disorder<\/a> and instrument obsession<\/a>. But there’s a junker syndrome at work, too. It seems that everywhere I go I see dormant and derelict third-gen F-cars. From my office window I can see an ’82 Camaro T-top<\/a> (not mine), and within a five mile radius are ’84<\/a>, ’85<\/a> and ’91<\/a> Camaros, an ’86 Firebird<\/a> and an ’88-ish Trans Am<\/a>. They’re all restorable cars, some for sale at bargain prices<\/a>, but few show the slightest signs of work in progress.<\/p>\n

GM’s been showing a new Camaro Concept<\/a> lately, which may become a production reality<\/a> soon. I hope it does, but in the mean time won’t somebody please start restoring all those disabled third-generation veterans?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ford’s blockbuster Mustang, of course, begged for a response, but it was three years before The General could raise it. When he did, it was a two-parter, the so-called F-body twins, Chevy’s Camaro and Pontiac’s Firebird. The Firebird, of course, was a tribute to the far-out Firebird I, a concept car of 1952. F-cars were….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2776"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3298,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions\/3298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}