5 Cars that turned 25 this year

5 Cars that turned 25 this year. The hot rod Lightning pickup went through a couple of evolutions over the years, and 1994 wasn’t the hottest year for the cool truck, but it was the fi rst year. The 240-hp, 351-cid fuel-injected V-8 could pull a 15.6-second quarter mile, which made it by far the quickest hauler on the market. They had dual exhausts and bucket seats, which added to their cool factor. Ford only built 11,563 of the fi rst-generation vehicles from 1993-’95, so they don’t grow on trees. With pickups among the hottest segments of the old car market, it seems a given that nice survivors from the earliest days of the Lightning will continue to climb in value. Really nice ones command in the neighborhood of $20,000. Now that the trucks are 25 years old and widely eligible for collector plates, don’t expect the demand for Lightning to go cold anytime soon.

What follows is a list of 10 cars from 1994 that fi gure to hold their place as “collector cars” into the future. We purposely avoided including European cars and other foreign exotic/supercars in this list — it goes without saying that almost every Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti of any vintage is going to have great appeal to enthusiasts and collectors. We’re narrowing our list to cars commonly seen on U.S. roads 25 years ago — machines that most of us can identify with. Of course, there are more than 10 that deserve to be on the list. But here’s 10 25th birthday machines we like and expect to be on collectors’ radars for many years to come.

1. 1994 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Chevrolet built a total of 112,539 Camaro coupes and 7,260 Camaro convertibles in 1994, but it is not known how many cars had the Z28 package. The newly bodied 1994 Ford Mustang GT and Cobra were natural comparisons for the oneyear-old Camaro Z28, which had little trouble holding its class crown. Among other things, Car & Driver pointed to the Camaro’s top speed of 156 mph (versus 137 mph for the Mustang) and noted “the Mustang got hammered.”

A new convertible body style returned for 1994. It was the fi rst factory-built Camaro ragtop since the 1969 model concluded the nameplate’s fi rst generation. The open model listed for $22,565, compared to $19,235 for the coupe. At fi rst, the convertible lacked some of the heavy-duty suspension parts used on the coupe and its top speed was governed at 104 mph. The Camaro’s hot-running LT1 V-8 got sequential port fuel injection, which was a defi nite improvement over multi-port fuel injection. You can fi nd nice examples today with all the right options and in the right colors for $10,000 or less. If it’s wrong to want one, then we don’t want to be right.

2. 1994 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1

Only 448 were built. They carried a 405-hp 350 (5.7-liter) V-8. They blasted down the quarter-mile in 13 seconds and topped out at 180 mph. And they cost more than $60,000 — almost twice as much as the regular Corvette. It all adds up to a car you want to keep if you can get your hands on one. The ZR1 again used the LT5 5.7-liter V-8. It was teamed with a six-speed manual transmission. Arctic White, Admiral Blue, Black, Bright Aqua Metallic, Polo Green Metallic, Competition Yellow, Copper Metallic, Torch Red, Black Rose Metallic and Dark Red Metallic were the 1994 colors. Interiors came in beige, black, light beige, light gray, red and white. There are some around with hardly any miles, and then there are stories of guys piling up 200,000 miles on their super-hot ’Vettes with nary an issue. Repairs and replacement parts can be expensive, but how much is too much for a true American dream machine? 

3. 1994 Chevrolet Impala SS

The 1994 Chevrolet Impala SS was an odd duck. It’s a f four-door sedan, it’s big and it caters to comfort as much as performance. However, putting the SS back in context, it ranks as one of the last remnants of the old “big car, big horsepower” era. It combined a large-for-its-time V-8 with ample horsepower, rear-wheel drive and full-frame construction. Unlike some production versions of show cars, the SS was not a watered-down, wimped-out version. The 260-hp version of the 350-cid LT1 came standard and was attached to a 4L60- E automatic transmission. The wheels were special 17 x 8.5- inch units like those on the show car. They were wrapped with P255/50ZR17 tires.

Four-wheel ventilated disc brakes were used at all four corners, as were stiffer coil springs and DeCarbon shocks similar to those on the Camaro Z28. The result was a 20 percent stiffer suspension, much better handling and a still-comfortable ride. From the police car parts bin came front and rear anti-roll bars and other hardware aimed at going fast on straight or curved roads. Chevrolet listed a 0-to-60-mph time of 7.1 seconds, but a spirited Car & Driver crew got a 6.5-second run and a quarter-mile of 15 seconds with a 92 mph trap speed. A couple of prototype SS examples were even quicker. GM put a 502 big-block in a test car and got 0-to-60 mph in 6.0 seconds and a 14.5-second quarter-mile at 98.2 mph. Horsepower was claimed to be 385. The late-model Impala SS cost $22,495 and turned out to be a small-volume niche car in the GM scheme of things. For the model’s fi rst year, 6,303 units were built. Of course, instant collector status was assured for the Impala SS. We may not see anything like it again, at least from General Motors.

4. 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10

Buying a Dodge Viper RT/10 roadster 25 years ago was an expensive proposition. The dealer wholesale price of the hotlooking Dodge climbed to $47,450 and the suggested retail price went up to $54,500. Even at that, many of the cars were sold for prices well above what it said on the factory window sticker. The destination charge remained at $700 and the gas guzzler tax was once again $2,100. Production nearly tripled in the Viper’s third season and Dodge produced a grand total of 3,083 Viper RT/10 roadsters in the 1994 model year.

Sure, they were expensive to buy, were terrible on gas, were a bear to drive (at least on a daily basis) and basically impractical in every way imaginable. But what these cars did, they did well: Look cool and go fast. The 1994 Viper RT/10 roadster accelerated from 0-to-60 mph in 4.6 seconds and blistered the quarter-mile in 12.9 seconds at 113.8 mph. It had a top speed of 165 mph. Today, you could wear Crocs with black socks and your stupidest pair of shorts and still look cool piloting a ’94 Viper RT/10. You remember that girl who broke your heart back when you were young (or heck, last year, when you weren’t so young)? Get yourself one of these babies and go drive past her house.

5. 1994 Ford F-150 Lightning 

The hot rod Lightning pickup went through a couple of evolutions over the years, and 1994 wasn’t the hottest year for the cool truck, but it was the fi rst year. The 240-hp, 351-cid fuel-injected V-8 could pull a 15.6-second quarter mile, which made it by far the quickest hauler on the market. They had dual exhausts and bucket seats, which added to their cool factor. Ford only built 11,563 of the fi rst-generation vehicles from 1993-’95, so they don’t grow on trees. With pickups among the hottest segments of the old car market, it seems a given that nice survivors from the earliest days of the Lightning will continue to climb in value. Really nice ones command in the neighborhood of $20,000. Now that the trucks are 25 years old and widely eligible for collector plates, don’t expect the demand for Lightning to go cold anytime soon.

sources:

https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-all-cars-made-in-1994/reference

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