Image via oldcarbrochures.com
Based upon your comments in last week’s Open Diff post, we seem to have come to an agreement that the Hemmings Six Degrees of Separation Challenges had outlived their usefulness. The basic question that we had posed – Can you connect any car company to any other car company in the world, six degrees style? – was answered with a resounding Yes. (Save, perhaps, for Bacon Motors Corporation, but I digress.)
Fortunately, your comments in last week’s Open Diff post also led me to hatch a plan for the replacement for Six Degrees. Many of you seemed keen on the idea of discussing the latest cars to enter the fold of Little-C classicdom – that is, those cars just now turning 25 years old. We had a very interesting discussion on the topic a few weeks ago, in the post regarding the Chrysler minivan on the show field at Hershey, so why not continue that discussion, targeting a different member of the current quarter-century club?
Of course, not everybody will agree on the collectibility of certain cars from 25 years ago, and that’s fine. In fact, we want you to tell us Yay or Nay on the vehicles we pick from week to week, and then tell us why. Just before next week’s installment, we’ll tally up the votes and either induct that vehicle into the Class of 1985 or lump it with the dropouts. Your suggestions are welcome, too.
Let’s start this series with an obvious target: the 1985 Chevrolet Corvette, the fastest American car of 1985. In the sophomore year of its fourth generation, the ‘Vette benefited from a variety of refinements over its predecessor – none so welcomed as the 230hp, 330-lb.ft. tuned-port injection 350-cu.in. V-8, replacing the much-reviled Cross-Fire V-8. You couldn’t get a true convertible Corvette in 1985, though you could get an optional transparent removable roof panel. The 39,729 Corvettes that Chevrolet built in 1985 fell short of 1984′s total, but remain among the highest single-year production totals for Corvettes.
So what say you: Is every Corvette automatically regarded a collector car? Or does the ’85 ‘Vette not cut the mustard?