I passed up on a chance to buy a Saab 9000 Aero a couple years back... regretted it ever since.

Thank you sir.

Don't forget the were-car.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080112171...

(I give up, can someone show me how images are embedded on this system?)

Anything you can tell us about the 74 Dodge Dart?

Ahh, if only I was slightly more graduated than I am now...

When did the Corvette become a poor sports car?

You're quite right. I've often wondered exactly how much difference is between SAE net and gross. Any time I try to figure it out by looking at how a motor's numbers changed at the switch, I come up dry: power levels were falling so rapidly at the time that I can never know how much change came from the new measurement system.

When I was about 10 years old, I saw one of these cars in a parade. This being the mid-late 90's, it contrasted somewhat starkly with the cars I was used to seeing. I turned to my father and asked, "Dad, what's THAT?"

He said, "Why that's a Stingray Corvette, son."

I replied, "I think you should get one.", and like that my love of classic cars was born. At 21, I'm too young to have seen anyone driving one of these that wasn't either an enthusiast or old enough to have bought one new and loved it while others dumped theirs for the latest and greatest. Both types of drivers I can respect, so unlike some of the other posters, there's nothing to stop me from lusting after this gorgeous car. When I see one of these from a year before they lost the chrome bumpers, with the right paint job, black interior, lowered just enough from the too-high stock ride height, and rolling on properly fat tires with bold, white letters on them, I have to change my pants. What people do these days with modern cylinder heads, FE, electronic ignition, and shocks just sweetens the deal.

I'm not sure there's any car that better illustrates the malaise era than this one. The '69 'Vette's small block made 300 or 350 horsepower depending on how you optioned it, the big blocks made between 390 and 435, and if you can find ZL1, it's generally accepted to have made at least 100 hp more than the 430 horses it was rated for. (and 100 is being conservative, wikipedia tells me it's estimated between 550 and 680.[Citation needed.] Yikes.)

By 1977, the base small block coughed up 180 ponies, the optional engine only 210. The big blocks were flat out gone, (Yes I know what the big blocks did to the handling, but they're still nice to talk about, right?) and for all it's trouble it gained about 150 lbs. Oh, the humanity. (Carmanity?)