The 2.8L V6 isn't bad. If you know what you're doing, you can grab factory parts off other GM cars with variations of that same engine and build something capable of over 200-250 HP N/A. The 60 degree V6 engine family are very modular, and was used in some variation from 1979 until 2011.
“Massive” is relative considering that big blocks are a real pain to cram inside and even after you do, cooling the thing is a different story in itself lol
@@snek5596 Main thing it checking what gear ratio you have and possibly upgrading it. I put a 350 in a Monte Carlo but had 2.41 years. If I could do it over I'd switch the gears before I did the engine swap.
When he remarked at the beginning that one big difference between imports and US made cars was standard features, I thought there was a bigger difference than that. Detroit cheaping out, and imports offering higher quality back then. Which came to bite the domestics in the azz down the road.
Holy crap! My car was reviewed back then…😂 Mine was Dark Gold (brown to everyone else), but I had a 5.0 liter carbureted V8 with the 700R4 automatic transmission. Watching this I’m back in 1989 when I owned my used Berlinetta 😊
I shit you not, I modified a Hyundai Pony to run a 15.8 in the quarter, using era correct parts and lots of head work. If you put it up against the Camaro and Mustang of the time (1987) it would beat the pants off of them as they did mid-high 17s LMAO.
@@the_kombinatoreconomy car gearing meant a ton back in the day. The gearing advantage of tiny fwd cars made it pretty easy to make a zippy little car to 60. Swapped my stock 3.08 gear to 4.10s in my 86 camaro with a stock l69 305 in it and it completely changed the character of the car. It’s pretty fun now
I had a 1985 celebrity wagon with a four speed automatic and the same gutless 2.8 L V6. Believe me it was slow and got decent but not overly great mileage. I think the best I ever got on the interstate was 25.
@@linhunnicutt6556At least the ‘85 Celebrity was fuel injected and had almost 130 HP. 😂 The Celebrity could do 0-60 in under 11 seconds too, especially with the 4 speed auto.
Holy cow, 14 second 0-50 with the V6 and manual. The 80s really were dark times. Didn't they later sell this generation with the Iron Duke 4 cylinder and a 3 speed automatic? Did those cars even reach 60 mph?? Lord.
Thank you for another GM review. You have to give GM credit for the innovative interior. The pod style controls on each side appeared in many other GM cars after this. The looked changed, but it was the same idea. The cluster layout with the digital and analog ended up up on the 1994-1996 Caprice/Impala SS. GM just kept reworking things. I do recall Berlinetta from today's Chevrolet.
I almost bought a 1984 Camaro Berlinetta as my first new car back in the day, a metallic blue one. It was a cool car for what you got. My older brother sort of talked me out of it as if I was not prepared to buy a Z-28 , then I should wait till I could. I waited but later bought a 1984 Dodge Shelby Charger instead, which I liked the look and style of more.
My friend in highschool bought an identical white 84 berlinetta as the one shown(although his was a 305 V8). The berlinetta was the plush/touring version of the Camaro. The body roll you see on the test berlinetta is due to the suspention actually having a nice ride. regular 3rd gen Camaros rode like buckboard wagons. I drove it once and the blinker switch was weird but easy to get used to. The swivel radio was more of a gimmick and kept you from being able to install an aftermarket radio. The radio in my friends car was only an AM/FM no tape deck.
I had a friend in high school that had one of these '84 V6 Camaros. I was shocked when my '89 Escort GT could smoke him. He wasn't happy knowing a 4 cylinder, let alone a Ford, was quicker than his "spirts car".
I came within a few dollars of buying when negotiating for a Berlinetta. I proudly showed my older brother the brochure and he said "you're buying a new car and you're getting married next year?". That's all he said. The next day I decided not to buy the loaded Camaro but bought a used stripped Bronco II with 9K miles for my business and I bought a triplex the next year for us to live in. I ran that Bronco II almost 15 years only buying my wife a newish (2 years old, 10K miles) car every 6 or 7 years. Cars are such a waste of money, and although I would have loved that Berlinetta, it was the best decision I made. Fast forward 40 years and we're retired, our home in the suburbs has been paid for 12 years now, and I still believe new cars are a horrible waste of money.
I haven't had that taste of success but believe the same. New cars are such a waste. The ex wife has gone through about 4 newer cars in the last 10yrs while I still have my 01 z28 that I got in 2015. The chasis is about to hit 300k soon.
Think about this, none of us live forever and we all end up in the dirt when we die. Just enjoy life! Maybe you don't see the value in a new car but others (including myself) see that. If the world thought like you; the auto industry would be out of business in 30 days.
@@nickval5962 You're correct about the auto industry, but only a small percentage of people are intuitive enough (I won't say smart) to save their money and build their future. I'm 67 and have a paid off house and a LOT of money in the bank. I still won't buy a new car. We just upgraded my wife's 09 Edge for a 2023 Edge Titanium and paid less than $30K cash. For 6000 miles on it, someone else lost the first $15K. I still drive my 2011 Mazda Tribute with 170K miles on it. But you know what? For all the enjoyment a new car brings for the 30 minutes I might drive it per day, I enjoy every waking minute knowing I will never have to worry about money. That is the feeling I was shooting for since I started working 60 hour weeks and boy does it feel good.
The slowest of the slow, one of my old bosses had this exact car (except it was jacked up like a funny car for some reason with skinnies in front and drag slicks on the back). It looked quick and that was it lol. Surprisingly all these years later he still has it except it no longer runs and is rotting under a tarp in his yard
Ah, yes. The 1980s. The days when performance cars took 14 seconds to get to 60mph. Some neat and innovative ideas in this car though. More style over substance overall.
My neighbour had one of these in deep maroon...4 cylinder 3 spd auto, and that thing was SLOW!!!! It did get 30 mpg though so...I guess that was good? :)
The Berlinetta is the Camaro I’d own. Air conditioning and automatic transmission are required. Love the digital instrumentation and the “radio on a stick.”
I had this car. 1984 blue v6 stick and it was my first car in 1986 and I had no idea it was that slow OMG My 2023 Explorer has 300 HP now and 0-60 is like 6 sec …. Crazy 😂… twice as fast
I always thought the early 80s Camaros were cool looking when I was a kid. My parents bought a new car that summer of '84 but opted for a FASTER Cutlass Ciera??? By the time I got the Ciera in 1991 I only managed 21 for 0 to 60 though...with AC off, of course, if on it would never have gotten there. But this had a VOLTMETER. Maybe it took another year or two for these to be pointed out so frequently.
I knocked off a couple seconds on my 0-60 flipping the air cleaner lid, bumping the ignition timing, and grinding the tab that limits the secondary from opening to 100%. Later I went with a edelbrock intake, cam, exhaust, and 3.73s. Then I could run with 305 tbi Camaros.
I had the 1983 Version, same color with grey interior. Great car except for the notorious T-Top gasket leak after you took them off and on a few times.
@@trekster9269 Dark days? When they tested the '83 Z/28 against a Porsche 928 the Porsche got smoked around Summit Point. The '84 Z/28 won the DPM Nurburgring Super Sprint. They also won the GTO class at the 24hrs of Daytona. The car in the video is a V6 Berlinetta, not a Z/28.
Had an 85 with that dash They went to multiport fuel injection the next year and 85 still a dog of a car but those electronic gauges would always fail time and time again On that cool dashboard
0-60 of 14 seconds is astonishingly bad, but apparently good enough for the day. American manufacturers in the '80s tried so hard to get buyers to embrace the high tech interiors.
I bought a 1972 Mustang Grande from my folks after my mom got tired of driving it (about 6 months). It had a CruiseOMatic and a 351 2 bbl so it could get out of its own way if it tried. But it was a terrible car: cramped, rough riding and helpless in the rain. Switching from bias-ply to radials helped but it was hopeless in the snow without chains. I sold it 2 years later.
I guessed 11 when I clicked on the video. I generally use the 1987 VW Scirocco 16V I had back then as a guide and that was around 8 (Car and Driver timed it at 7.7).
When I was in high school in early 2000s I almost bought one of these, but picked a 94 Grand Marquis instead because it was faster lol 😂 and I got a good laugh at the little 2.8L V6 looking tiny in that engine bay meant to contain a V8. Also I knew it would be weird to put an aftermarket radio in it.
Very hard plastics in the cabin, even for its day. This is no Celica or Supra! However, must give Chevrolet and GM some credit for thinking outside the box with this dashboard. It looks very modern for 1984 even if it is not very well executed, kind of like a concept car that you might see at an auto show. 14.0 seconds to 60mph is simply not acceptable for a car with sporty pretensions though, and although John didnt really mention it, that was a big criticism of this car (and underpowered Mustangs). I am well aware cars were slower in the '80s but this is below the performance of many econoboxes of the day, and that's just not good enough. I'm sure the V8 with 14 miles per gallon is much faster but that's a tough trade off.
It may seem odd that steering wheel cruise control buttons are a selling point back then but to this day Toyota still uses a stalk for cruise control on some of their vehicles.
Um huh? It's actually not CrAzY at all, it's easy to find one with low miles in mint condition and they have actually become rather expensive for the rarer low mile examples.
107hp REASONABLE acceleration? In that weight? And 20mpg? That's CRANK horsepower, at the wheels maybe 85hp at BEST Hell nawwww I know it's the early 80s but DAMN that's messed up.
Also, the SAE standard revised two decades later with most cars getting a small dip. So that 107hp might actually be more like 103hp if rated today on a chassis dyno. However, it would not meet emission standards by a long shot. So to bring it to modern standards, the engine would have to be detuned significantly to the point of something like 85hp at the crank.
That fuel mileage is atrocious. Small car, good aerodynamics, stick shift and still they could only pull 20mpg and you know they were only doing 55mph back then too.
> puts most controls on or near steering wheel because paying attention to the road is important > puts radio in an unconventional place with illegible buttons because the center stack was taken up by what exactly ??
At first glance, this 1984 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta looks just about like every other 3rd generation Camaro you've seen, but climb inside, & you will think you've climbed aboard an Earth-bound version of the Starship Enterprise, or your own version of KITT from Knight Rider. Watch this road test to see exactly what I mean.
Everything back then was that fast. It was never an issue. Hell, we used to tow a trailer with a Blazer that had 110hp and never had a problem. And modern traffic is slower now than it was back then despite everyone thinking they need 400hp in their minivan.
@@jasonmoyer Could be.... I was in high school and college in the '80s not driving cars but when I did it was a Datsun 210 station wagon or a '65 Plymouth Valiant. I don't remember having a problem with horsepower. But... I remember people driving slower then. But when it comes to *slow* I remember a '72 Vega that couldn't get out of its own way 😀
What they failed to mention was that this was a very expensive car that could easily be fluffed way beyond a Z28. Most were ordered with the auto, which made it even slower. 20 mpg with a stick is abysmal. That shows you how poorly the carb 2.8s really ran.
The best thing about this car is the massive engine bay for an engine swap.
I had the v8. It was as quick as the z28 I got afterwards
The 2.8L V6 isn't bad. If you know what you're doing, you can grab factory parts off other GM cars with variations of that same engine and build something capable of over 200-250 HP N/A. The 60 degree V6 engine family are very modular, and was used in some variation from 1979 until 2011.
“Massive” is relative considering that big blocks are a real pain to cram inside and even after you do, cooling the thing is a different story in itself lol
@@snek5596 Main thing it checking what gear ratio you have and possibly upgrading it. I put a 350 in a Monte Carlo but had 2.41 years. If I could do it over I'd switch the gears before I did the engine swap.
Then once you swap the engine, you can also swap the entire outside of the vehicle.
Crazy how even when brand new, the plastics inside looked like they were already on the verge of snapping and breaking
The steering wheel pad is already trashed
I’ve seen better quality plastics in toys of the same period. Seriously.
It was not a good era for cars
We had one back in the day….The plastic dash didnt break but the digital dash stopped lighting up so that was a problem
When he remarked at the beginning that one big difference between imports and US made cars was standard features, I thought there was a bigger difference than that. Detroit cheaping out, and imports offering higher quality back then. Which came to bite the domestics in the azz down the road.
Holy crap! My car was reviewed back then…😂
Mine was Dark Gold (brown to everyone else), but I had a 5.0 liter carbureted V8 with the 700R4 automatic transmission. Watching this I’m back in 1989 when I owned my used Berlinetta 😊
at least you didnt have the '83 and '84 mauve cars
I had one as well. Mine was midnight sand grey, I think it was called. Also had the V-8. I loved it.
I miss the days of sports cars having 8 inches of ground clearance.
😂 I’ve thought the same many times when it comes to cars from the 80’s
They needed them. We are spoiled with todays roads. Not everything had been paved over yet.
@@trekster9269our roads are worse today
It wouldn't be a bad look with some 33" mud tires😂
Radio on stick😂
The way that stereo pod wobbled was abysmal, and it was brand new! Ahhh the good ole days🤭
I started driving in the early 80's and I've owned 12 third generation Camaro's but I've never seen one with this interior in person.
I’ve seen an odd Berlinetta or two over the years, but never really looked inside. I figured it was just a standard trim option for the non-V8 cars.
Best contribution Camaro made to the muscle car scene of the 80's was the 89 Mustang 5.0. 😂
This thing would lose a drag race with a school bus.
Okay but you’d look cool doing it
I shit you not, I modified a Hyundai Pony to run a 15.8 in the quarter, using era correct parts and lots of head work. If you put it up against the Camaro and Mustang of the time (1987) it would beat the pants off of them as they did mid-high 17s LMAO.
@@the_kombinatoreconomy car gearing meant a ton back in the day. The gearing advantage of tiny fwd cars made it pretty easy to make a zippy little car to 60. Swapped my stock 3.08 gear to 4.10s in my 86 camaro with a stock l69 305 in it and it completely changed the character of the car. It’s pretty fun now
@@theeoddments960 L69 cars came with 3.73 gears not 3.08
1:33 John: The instrument cluster is basically in 3 parts! LOL
Wow! V6 with 107 hp and 0-60 in 14 seconds! I’ll never complain about my Lexus IS taking over 5 seconds to 60 again! 😂
I had a 1985 celebrity wagon with a four speed automatic and the same gutless 2.8 L V6. Believe me it was slow and got decent but not overly great mileage. I think the best I ever got on the interstate was 25.
And I won’t complain about my Jetta’s 8 seconds with 42mpg anymore either 😅
@@linhunnicutt6556At least the ‘85 Celebrity was fuel injected and had almost 130 HP. 😂 The Celebrity could do 0-60 in under 11 seconds too, especially with the 4 speed auto.
How often did you complain about it before you saw this video?
14 seconds to 60 with the 2.8 liter V6 and manual transmission. Imagine what the “Iron Duke” 4 cylinder and automatic numbers would be…
If you launched it on a Monday, the chances were good that you’d reach 60 mph by Tuesday…..😅🤣🤦♂️
My neighbour had a 2.5 automatic in deep marroon, and it was around 22 seconds in her car (although it had 100k+ miles on it at the time).
Legend says it's still trying to get to 60mph.
@@gumbie007, 0-60 in 9.2 miles..
I had an '88 with the 2.8L. I got whooped at a stoplight by a slightly modded late 60's VW bug. I was so embarrassed!!!
Holy cow, 14 second 0-50 with the V6 and manual. The 80s really were dark times. Didn't they later sell this generation with the Iron Duke 4 cylinder and a 3 speed automatic? Did those cars even reach 60 mph?? Lord.
Thank you for another GM review. You have to give GM credit for the innovative interior. The pod style controls on each side appeared in many other GM cars after this. The looked changed, but it was the same idea. The cluster layout with the digital and analog ended up up on the 1994-1996 Caprice/Impala SS. GM just kept reworking things. I do recall Berlinetta from today's Chevrolet.
I rode in a new Berlinetta when I was a kid. It seemed so futuristic but I'd never order one without a V8.
I almost bought a 1984 Camaro Berlinetta as my first new car back in the day, a metallic blue one. It was a cool car for what you got. My older brother sort of talked me out of it as if I was not prepared to buy a Z-28 , then I should wait till I could.
I waited but later bought a 1984 Dodge Shelby Charger instead, which I liked the look and style of more.
My friend in highschool bought an identical white 84 berlinetta as the one shown(although his was a 305 V8). The berlinetta was the plush/touring version of the Camaro. The body roll you see on the test berlinetta is due to the suspention actually having a nice ride. regular 3rd gen Camaros rode like buckboard wagons. I drove it once and the blinker switch was weird but easy to get used to. The swivel radio was more of a gimmick and kept you from being able to install an aftermarket radio. The radio in my friends car was only an AM/FM no tape deck.
Remember these all over the place in the 80's.
Radio... on a stick😂
LMFAO
@jamesvw769 😂
County fair food stalls were out of control in the 80's.
Insert your Jeff Dunham jokes here.
*To be honest I laughed at that too I was like WTF is a radio on a stick!?* 😂🤣
These third gens are so amazing!! I never get tired of seeing this Camaro on the road! Same for the second gen '74-'81
“What’s it’s 0-60 time?”
- Yes 😂🙄🤦♂️
This assumes
(1) with the wind at your back
(2) going downhill
I still thought it was cool back in the day when I was a middle schooler 😂
Man those "control pods" must have vibrated and rattled so bad. I guess with the top off you couldnt hear it 😅.
I miss these days of cars were all the rage today it's a big SUV with a 90k price tage that most people can't afford 😢
I had a friend in high school that had one of these '84 V6 Camaros. I was shocked when my '89 Escort GT could smoke him. He wasn't happy knowing a 4 cylinder, let alone a Ford, was quicker than his "spirts car".
Having owned both of those, I wasn't surprised. Them little 1.9 high output were rippers for what they were.
@@williamsinger4124 Yeah man, I loved those little Escorts too.
14 second 0-60. Wow. Just wow.
My first car was a '73 gremlin...when it appeared in 1970, it was clocked at 12.5 seconds to 60 😉
In the 80s everyone yearned for the cars of the 60s.
I came within a few dollars of buying when negotiating for a Berlinetta. I proudly showed my older brother the brochure and he said "you're buying a new car and you're getting married next year?". That's all he said. The next day I decided not to buy the loaded Camaro but bought a used stripped Bronco II with 9K miles for my business and I bought a triplex the next year for us to live in. I ran that Bronco II almost 15 years only buying my wife a newish (2 years old, 10K miles) car every 6 or 7 years. Cars are such a waste of money, and although I would have loved that Berlinetta, it was the best decision I made. Fast forward 40 years and we're retired, our home in the suburbs has been paid for 12 years now, and I still believe new cars are a horrible waste of money.
I haven't had that taste of success but believe the same. New cars are such a waste. The ex wife has gone through about 4 newer cars in the last 10yrs while I still have my 01 z28 that I got in 2015. The chasis is about to hit 300k soon.
Think about this, none of us live forever and we all end up in the dirt when we die. Just enjoy life! Maybe you don't see the value in a new car but others (including myself) see that. If the world thought like you; the auto industry would be out of business in 30 days.
@@nickval5962 You're correct about the auto industry, but only a small percentage of people are intuitive enough (I won't say smart) to save their money and build their future. I'm 67 and have a paid off house and a LOT of money in the bank. I still won't buy a new car. We just upgraded my wife's 09 Edge for a 2023 Edge Titanium and paid less than $30K cash. For 6000 miles on it, someone else lost the first $15K. I still drive my 2011 Mazda Tribute with 170K miles on it. But you know what? For all the enjoyment a new car brings for the 30 minutes I might drive it per day, I enjoy every waking minute knowing I will never have to worry about money. That is the feeling I was shooting for since I started working 60 hour weeks and boy does it feel good.
There is a fine line between the two.
I bought a 84 new in Oct 83 it was the v8 red no tops it was my wifes
You bought one but it wasnt yours 😅
@alexander1485 he got to play with it, though, when he wanted...
I still love those old 3-gen Camaros 🥰
Wish we had these choices today....if we dont like the screen for a gauge cluster, some of us would pay MORE for analog gauges there instead.
The slowest of the slow, one of my old bosses had this exact car (except it was jacked up like a funny car for some reason with skinnies in front and drag slicks on the back). It looked quick and that was it lol. Surprisingly all these years later he still has it except it no longer runs and is rotting under a tarp in his yard
He said at end of video, up next Buick regal T-type…put that video/review up on RUclips?????
It’s up
ruclips.net/video/-IO3ilsqxQY/видео.html
Ah, yes. The 1980s. The days when performance cars took 14 seconds to get to 60mph. Some neat and innovative ideas in this car though. More style over substance overall.
It wasn't considered a performance car. It was an economy sports car.
My neighbour had one of these in deep maroon...4 cylinder 3 spd auto, and that thing was SLOW!!!!
It did get 30 mpg though so...I guess that was good? :)
@@thewiseguy3529 if it hasn’t eight cylinder, it’s considered a performance car
This was almost the first car I bought myself back in 1990 with the v6. It seemed slow even back then. I bought a 1987 Honda CRX Si instead.
The Berlinetta is the Camaro I’d own. Air conditioning and automatic transmission are required. Love the digital instrumentation and the “radio on a stick.”
Interior better than the 90s Camaro
I miss my 4cyl, 4spd Camaro.
I had this car. 1984 blue v6 stick and it was my first car in 1986 and I had no idea it was that slow OMG
My 2023 Explorer has 300 HP now and 0-60 is like 6 sec …. Crazy 😂… twice as fast
pfft my daily 2005 RSX-S does 0-60 in about 6 seconds
Those radios always fascinated me
Very unusual tape deck too.
@@jimdayton8837 Like a home cassette player.
@@owlnswan4016 Yep. Wonder if it still had auto reverse and all the same feature's GM's regular Delco stereos had.
@@jimdayton8837 I'm guessing it did...I know the Buicks that eventually had the separate vertically oriented cassette player were auto reverse.
The best thing about the Berlinetta is I never had one but I did have a '71 SS 350, '78 Z28 350 & '88 IROC- 350
I loved my Camaro Berlinetta, they discontinued the Berlinetta in 1986
I always thought the early 80s Camaros were cool looking when I was a kid. My parents bought a new car that summer of '84 but opted for a FASTER Cutlass Ciera??? By the time I got the Ciera in 1991 I only managed 21 for 0 to 60 though...with AC off, of course, if on it would never have gotten there.
But this had a VOLTMETER. Maybe it took another year or two for these to be pointed out so frequently.
Which engine did the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera have?
It's amazing that you can watch a RUclips short before that car gets to 60 mph 😳
That's just a rumor 🧐
I knocked off a couple seconds on my 0-60 flipping the air cleaner lid, bumping the ignition timing, and grinding the tab that limits the secondary from opening to 100%. Later I went with a edelbrock intake, cam, exhaust, and 3.73s. Then I could run with 305 tbi Camaros.
I had the 1983 Version, same color with grey interior. Great car except for the notorious T-Top gasket leak after you took them off and on a few times.
Holy hell, even my father's 1999 1.6 Hyundai Lantra wagon will smoke this with 11 seconds to 100km/h !
These were the dark days of the camaro.
Welcome to the 1980s, when anything that did 0 to 60 mph in under 10 seconds was considered blazing fast.
Good grief guys. It's not a Z/28...
@@trekster9269 Dark days? When they tested the '83 Z/28 against a Porsche 928 the Porsche got smoked around Summit Point. The '84 Z/28 won the DPM Nurburgring Super Sprint. They also won the GTO class at the 24hrs of Daytona. The car in the video is a V6 Berlinetta, not a Z/28.
@@sidefx996 Yes, this generation was the single worst iteration of camaro.
Had an 85 with that dash They went to multiport fuel injection the next year and 85 still a dog of a car but those electronic gauges would always fail time and time again On that cool dashboard
0-60 of 14 seconds is astonishingly bad, but apparently good enough for the day. American manufacturers in the '80s tried so hard to get buyers to embrace the high tech interiors.
I bought a 1972 Mustang Grande from my folks after my mom got tired of driving it (about 6 months). It had a CruiseOMatic and a 351 2 bbl so it could get out of its own way if it tried. But it was a terrible car: cramped, rough riding and helpless in the rain. Switching from bias-ply to radials helped but it was hopeless in the snow without chains. I sold it 2 years later.
Did he say 0-60 in 14 seconds 😮
One version did a 19 second run from 0-60
I guessed 11 when I clicked on the video. I generally use the 1987 VW Scirocco 16V I had back then as a guide and that was around 8 (Car and Driver timed it at 7.7).
@@KRAMITDFROGwhoa that was a rocket back then! I wasn't alive for cars like that ('04 guy) but that doesn't stop me from rlly wanting one
On a good day ….😂
😂
Very cool, I like it! 🙌
Me too, especially interior. ❤
Radio.... on a stick! LMAO
It's the Davidsfarm Berlinetta Camaro!
Lol as they were describing the gauges, I thought about the videos of Dave starting it and maxing out the tach and it would start blinking at redline.
My girlfriend had an '87Gold Berlinetta, and she taught me how to drive stick on it
Those were the days.....
When I was in high school in early 2000s I almost bought one of these, but picked a 94 Grand Marquis instead because it was faster lol 😂 and I got a good laugh at the little 2.8L V6 looking tiny in that engine bay meant to contain a V8. Also I knew it would be weird to put an aftermarket radio in it.
“The interior could become the benchmark for other aspiring posh coups.” Thankfully it was a short lived trend.
Very hard plastics in the cabin, even for its day. This is no Celica or Supra! However, must give Chevrolet and GM some credit for thinking outside the box with this dashboard. It looks very modern for 1984 even if it is not very well executed, kind of like a concept car that you might see at an auto show. 14.0 seconds to 60mph is simply not acceptable for a car with sporty pretensions though, and although John didnt really mention it, that was a big criticism of this car (and underpowered Mustangs). I am well aware cars were slower in the '80s but this is below the performance of many econoboxes of the day, and that's just not good enough. I'm sure the V8 with 14 miles per gallon is much faster but that's a tough trade off.
This was rocket fast a bmw 3 took about the same a Cadillac took 18👍
@@NicholasDemichele-m2h 320 and 323i were considerably faster than this
Knowing GM quality control back then that interior likely didn’t age well 😂 and 14 seconds to 60!! Holy crap we’ve come a LONG way 😂
1:56 Check out that voltmeter and oil pressure gauge. and 4:05 0-60 in 14 seconds? That is not a *bitchin' Camaro.*
That voltmeter made it Car of the Year for John.
Nice whitewalls
The base 107 hp engine provides reasonable around town acceleration
14 seconds 0-60 was bad for a sports car even then. That was the same acceleration level as a Chrysler K-car could achieve.
It may seem odd that steering wheel cruise control buttons are a selling point back then but to this day Toyota still uses a stalk for cruise control on some of their vehicles.
Crazy to try to find one today in working condition
Um huh? It's actually not CrAzY at all, it's easy to find one with low miles in mint condition and they have actually become rather expensive for the rarer low mile examples.
I miss pop up headlights and t-tops.
Love ❤️ that interior!...Nice car 🚗 🙂
Chevy should do a luxury Berlinetta edition of the current Camaro.
Where can I order one?
It's crazy that a new base model Nissan Sentra zero to 60 is 8 seconds.
107hp REASONABLE acceleration? In that weight? And 20mpg? That's CRANK horsepower, at the wheels maybe 85hp at BEST
Hell nawwww
I know it's the early 80s but DAMN that's messed up.
Also, the SAE standard revised two decades later with most cars getting a small dip. So that 107hp might actually be more like 103hp if rated today on a chassis dyno. However, it would not meet emission standards by a long shot. So to bring it to modern standards, the engine would have to be detuned significantly to the point of something like 85hp at the crank.
Three words: One barrel carbueter
That fuel mileage is atrocious. Small car, good aerodynamics, stick shift and still they could only pull 20mpg and you know they were only doing 55mph back then too.
3:17 I hope that was a Whitesnake cassette
Do any of these still exsist?
40 years ago. That’s crazy
Technically 39 years since I was born in 84 and wont be 40 until next week 😂
the fancy man’s camaro 😂
> puts most controls on or near steering wheel because paying attention to the road is important
> puts radio in an unconventional place with illegible buttons because the center stack was taken up by what exactly ??
ah, the good old days of the Camaro.
At first glance, this 1984 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta looks just about like every other 3rd generation Camaro you've seen, but climb inside, & you will think you've climbed aboard an Earth-bound version of the Starship Enterprise, or your own version of KITT from Knight Rider. Watch this road test to see exactly what I mean.
Don’t tell me they put that 4 cylinder iron Duke engine in there. The 6 cylinder would have been pretty good.
0 to 60 in the time a 3rd gen Equinox gets the 1/4 mile done.... 😅
Damn that body lean 😂😂
0-60 in 14 seconds! Still probably not as slow as the Camaros that came with the 2.5 iron Duke motor, but that's still embarrassing even for a V6.
It amazes me that they didn't at least put the Citation X11's HO V6 in it which had 20 more hp.
the bumper and fender do not match color. 0:44
Plastic steering columns i could steal that car with the seat belt 😂
I love it but I bet every feature squeaked and rattled.
0 to 60 in 14 seconds? Yikes. Around town driving is okay but a danger on the highway.
Everything back then was that fast. It was never an issue. Hell, we used to tow a trailer with a Blazer that had 110hp and never had a problem. And modern traffic is slower now than it was back then despite everyone thinking they need 400hp in their minivan.
@@jasonmoyer Could be.... I was in high school and college in the '80s not driving cars but when I did it was a Datsun 210 station wagon or a '65 Plymouth Valiant. I don't remember having a problem with horsepower. But... I remember people driving slower then. But when it comes to *slow* I remember a '72 Vega that couldn't get out of its own way 😀
Do you guy’s realize that $10900 dollars was the equivalent of $33,097.92 in today’s inflation!
amazing hiow nicer the interior and instruments were compared to the z28s
What they failed to mention was that this was a very expensive car that could easily be fluffed way beyond a Z28. Most were ordered with the auto, which made it even slower. 20 mpg with a stick is abysmal. That shows you how poorly the carb 2.8s really ran.
It was the fast car of the world!
“Provides reasonable acceleration”. Hard to believe 0 to 60 in 14 seconds was reasonable back then.
That radio was an abomination. A friend had one and it broke after the first month and after 6 months he was still waiting for a replacement.
"Reasonable around town acceleration"
The Civic that year was more than 2 seconds faster to 60 mph though.
Disco Camaro!
i wanna see da T Type!!
My mullet agrees with this car
14 seconds to 60??
I made it to 1:13. I tried, I really did.
I always thought these were crap versions as I seem to recall they all came with a V6.
As a baby boomer. Oh the 70s and 80s. Lol😮
Feels like this is K.I.T.T., except this ain't K.I.T.T. Think of it as an early 2+2 C4.
Berlinetta named so you weren’t dinged with sports car insurance rates