Good morning, everyone!

Let me introduce myself and explain why I am here.


I do not currently own a Camaro and never have even though I have always loved the 1968. I have been in Japan for over 20 years so I have been driving and wrenching on Nissans mostly and like them a lot and currently tear around in a little Subaru BRZ with a tightly wound rubber band under the hood. Something about squeezing a slow car as hard as you can to make it go as fast as possible is rewarding. I have had reasonably powerful cars and holding back while trying to contain more power than the tires and chassis can easily manage is also fun, but in a different way. Unfortunately, my GT-R's body is rusted away and I have to scrap it. I planned on picking up a clean one to build a real bruiser next year, but much like rich collectors have driven the musclecar market prices through the roof, the Fast and Furious tax of everybody wanting "ZOMG Godilla" has pushed Skyline prices to the stratosphere. $40K for a 25 year old stock car? I having a hard time justifying that.


This got me looking at other ideas. I started looking at musclecars. I've owned so many Skylines and Silvias and RX7s, but even though my roots are being a fan of rumbling V8s and classic American iron, I've never actually owned one. I go to that 68' dream. Yeah, I can't justify $60k for a clean one over here. Pretty much anything in the 60's era is going to be out of my comfort zone. I went newer and found myself in the late 80's-early 90's. These cars are reasonably priced. Three finalists stood out, Buick Regal, Fox body Mustang and the 3rd gen Camaro. The Regal has the plus of a full, albeit not substantial frame and looks that I like, but kind of hard to find a non V6 one and the aftermarket support is not that strong. The Mustang has the advantage of good looks and being lighter than and with almost identical dimensions to my R32 with good aftermarket support but they are not easily found in Japan. The Camaro seems to have a better suspension which I really appreciate, but it's physical dimensions and weight are not great. It would be really big over here. It does have a ton of aftermarket support and, surprisingly, is pretty common here in the used marketplace and is reasonably priced, considering. It also helps that I find it a very attractive car. I'm not fully sold on it, but the platform makes a solid case for itself. Gas expense doesn't bother me. My FC and my GT-R were punishing, but I am willing to suffer for my art. The road tax will be a hit, but, again, gotta pay to play. It's not really on the radar. Finally owning and wrenching on a V8, the emotional component, easily wipes those cons off the table.


So, I find myself seriously considering buying, building and supporting an old Chevy on the other side of the world where everything I need will have to come through the mail or slow boat which will make it international and incur likely punishing import duties and taxes. Very few people here understand or mess with them over here and the few Japanese guys I see trying to run American iron somehow fail a lot. Not sure where the disconnect is, but When you pull up next to my beat up 2.0 turbo Nissan with a giant PAXTON sticker down the side of your Impala SS you better come stronger than that! As an American I was mad that I won. This means I will be all alone out here having to do everything myself and the whole time I will have a giant target on my back. Japanese guys want to bang the prom queen and there are a lot a big, veiny, 800+HP boosted beasts out here aiming for penetration. Then there are the American kids in F&F mode that don't respect American cars as a matter of principle who are looking to prove their religion. A stock 3rd Gen is a mark for pretty much everybody, I could kill it with my Subaru, but I know they have a ton of potential so I better figure it out quick and come correct. I don't mind losing races, but I don't want to make rookie mistakes and be a goof. The best way to make sure that doesn't happen is start learning about the car, come to understand what it can and can't do, what it needs to do X, what are reasonable goals to shoot for and how best to achieve them.


HI!


I hope to not ask dumb questions that have been asked a million times, but I probably will and I apologize in advance. I hope to give back as much as I can to the community and if everything works out and I do go down this road provide some unusual and fun content as I develop this potential project.