I have always liked the third-generation Camaro Iroc-Z. When I was in the secondary school there were two of them in my birth town Stara Zagora. One belonged to a friend of mine. It was top of the line burgundy 1987 Iroc Z with the 350 TPI engine, T-tops and grey leather interior. I have always wanted a car like it. While my friend still owns his car, the others IROC-Zs I’ve seen in my country slowly disappeared from my sight over the years. Most were tired daily drivers and some of them were destroyed from the movie industry. Making American movies in Bulgaria is a popular practice, because of the lower cost. Many American cars were destroyed in different action movie scenes.
One day while doing a regular online check of the market I came upon this burgundy Iroc-Z in Switzerland which was almost identical to the Camaro of my friend. The car was looking great on the pictures and it was obvious that it has been very well maintained. So it was obvious – now or never!
I bought it and had to quickly figure out a way to have it delivered to my country. Switzerland is much closer to Bulgaria than the US, but I didn’t have experience, nor a reliable transportation company in mind. Thanks to a very good friend of mine I found the right transporter.
Two weeks later the car was in my garage.
I was glad to see how well preserved this car is. It needed very little TLC to be perfect. I started dealing with the minor issues. A big challenge turned to be the tires. The ones on the car were like new but were 20 years old and damaged from the long storage. The original 245/50 16 size is unobtainable in Bulgaria. I made an order at a tire shop, whose manager promised that he will deliver a set from Germany. After three months it was obvious that nothing will be delivered and after several argues I got my money back. I found few offers in Europe, but the price was unreasonable. I ended up ordering tires from the US.
For a short time I was able to enjoy it and my gold 1978 Trans am. I had never had the chance before to have two turn-key classics to drive. It was a great feeling that didn’t last long. The dynamic life pushed some other priorities and by the end of the year both cars went to new owners.
Once I started driving the Camaro, I constantly compared it with the burgundy 1988 Trans am GTA that I owned a couple of years ago. There was no comparison between both cars in terms of condition. The Camaro was like new compared to the cosmetically tired Trans am. The ride of both cars was equal. The Camaro was faster at higher rpm with its 350 TPI compared to the 305 TPI Trans am. The real difference between both cars in my opinion was the interior. The digital dash and beige velour seats of the Trans am looked much better than the big oval gauges and plain grey cloth of the Camaro. And the digital dash of the Trans am, was just screaming 80s style.
So, one day I called the current owner of my ex burgundy Trans am GTA who is a very close friend of mine and offered to trade him my Camaro on the GTA. Since he has many cars, he agreed, because the Camaro needed almost no work. He accepted my proposal and in the beginning of 2024 we swapped the F-bodies. It was time to say good buy to the Camaro and to welcome back the burgundy 1988 Trans am GTA.
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