Many of us have seen the movie Friday Night Lights that depicts how competitive high school football can be in certain communities. I found it eye-opening as a northern kid who spent half the year indoors when the weather turned foul, and who attended a low-rent district where we had to borrow other schools’ fields to play on. This Camaro apparently belonged to the high school football coach in a Midwest town, and I can easily imagine it pulling up to a packed stadium on a Friday night, with his team slapping high-fives through the open T-tops, American as apple pie. Find this low-mileage Camaro IROC Z here on eBay with bids to $23,543 and the reserve unmet.
The seller claims that despite the temptation to drive this car everyday, the coach kept it out of the winter and wet weather-seasons while living in Ohio, and that it was only used when the weather was hospitable. After the owner passed away, the Camaro remained in heated storage for ten years, not turning a wheel in that time, and also accumulating some basic deferred maintenance needs typical of a car that hasn’t seen much action. The paintwork is beautiful and the factory decals are still clear as day.
The Camaro IROC-Z is one of those iconic 80s muscle cars that I give an edge to as far as its place in pop culture at the time. While the Fox body Mustang is right there next to it, I feel like the Camaro was used more often as the “hero’s” car when it came time to capture some high school drama on the big screen. The Mustang was almost always the antagonist’s car, it seems. Regardless, the coach clearly loved this Camaro, as the details are as tidy under the hood as they are on the exterior.
The other bonus is that there are no apparent modifications. The seller did ditch the original Gatorback tires for some new Coopers (by the way, Goodyear should absolutely revive that tire line and product name to sell to nostalgic suckers like me who want to put the original parts back wherever possible.) The interior is quite fresh and all of the photos seem to point to the sub-20,000 mile odometer reading being accurate. I’m not surprised to see a reserve on this car, but I do wonder how much higher it will go before the threshold is crossed.
I have a1986 convertible. Black on tan. It has 40 k on it. It is untouched other than the y pipe. It is one of 200 badged cars ASC did in advance of them being RPO ‘s as official gm ragtops. It’s a fun car to pull out on the odd sunny day. It is #52. I have all paper work.
Oh, you can get Goodyear Gatorbacks again – at $445 a pop! $1800 seems a bit much to watch them dry rot on my 69.000 mile ’86 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe that only sees 300+ miles a year.
Several 215-65r15’s on walmart website for 80s camaros, regals, etc. for
<$70. Odd brand names tho. Ck other sizes too for your car.
I remember reading the Gatorbacks were noisy & tracked like bias ply tires.
Wow nice story Jeff.. This is a beautiful Z28. I remember seeing them in Westchester county NY along Central Ave. Saturday night cruise and at the movie theater. Street racing from light to light. Always a Stang would show and try to beat them. The reserve I would say is between 30 and $40,000. Even if I had this it would be hard not to drive every day. Good luck to the next owner. 🐻🇺🇸
Loved the camaro growing up. Born in 81 and loved old cars my whole life, guess you can say truly daddies girl. He gave me 74 z28 ss for my 13th birthday, then bought a 78 which i wanted more at 16 then at 17 bought a 91. Fast forward few years I ended up with a 68 z28 ss…miss all of those cars
Beautiful, but it has the least desirable TPI engine of all 3rd gen Camaros.
If you mean because the LB9 305 wasn’t as big as the 350 I’d agree with that as there is more power. However, I bought a brand new 85 Trans Am that had the first year of this engine which was the most horsepower you could get that year and had no issue with it. Acceleration was decent even with the automatic(couldn’t get a stick) and a trooper friend clocked it at 138 and it was a pretty stable car at speed. Wish I still had the thing(along with the 77 T/A 6.6) in my garage today.
The 1986 version had the flat tappet LG4 cam and was down to 190 hp from the 215 hp rating in 1985. The 1987 got the roller cam with the old L69 profile and the 25 hp back.
With the right cam, the LB9 was a solid performer.
One more thing…the LB9 was only available with the automatic in 1986. Only the L69’s and LG4’s were available with the manual (limited production).
Desirable TPI engine is an oxymoron.
Looks like a time capsule with such low miles and in great like new condition. Although, at 27k and RNM it’s getting up there. Nice Camaro Z/28 though.
Very nice camaro but the dash and console was made of cheap plastic. Before 50,000 miles the cheap console would break and the dash cracked everywhere. 60,000 miles looks for the transmission to go but an up grade Trans pak was avaliable. Still nice cars..I owed one that I babies around an these pros. Still happened..
My Sk-IROC-et, has about 250,000 on it and the consoles only broke when the stereos were being stolen out of it, which used to be all the time, since it’s a convertible and was parked outdoors.
My insurance company finally asked me to put a stock radio back in it, to stop leaving ANYTHING in the car, and to stop locking it up.
The original transmission did go out at about 60K, but nitrous killed that.
I raced a car very similar to this in IMSA. I can’t say for sure but the motor looks like a 350 cu in. We raced the 305 with the 5 speed manual. The 350 was available but only with the automatic. The intakes were different if I recall correctly. But I’m a long ways from 1986, maybe my memory is wrong
The twin to it is in the small town I live in here in east TN, with even less miles, around 11,000 or so. She is asking $35,000 for it though…but don’t ask me who because you know, I’m waiting to see what may happen.
Make mine a droptop !
I owned the hardtop
The t top
And the convertible
And i am now searching for a topless 91/92 trans am
Cant bring the grandson in a 2 seater
YOLO
The 80’s was a terrible decade for cars including this Camaro yeah it’s nice and original but still ugly and no performance I know some people will love it, not me!!!
Do you really think the last 3 gens of camaros look better than this ’86?
Made it to $28,690, Reserve Not Met.
Relisted: https://www.ebay.com/itm/314481680526