Your favorite factory special edition of a "meh" vehicle.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I called the Camry Meh based on the old days.  I need a sales car but all the TRD's in the area are pushing $41-$45,000 before taxes are added.  I would rock one. 

I had two work car Impala's and had to rent a Camry and my first question was; did the GM engineers drive this car?

BlueInGreen - Jon said:

Oh, almost forgot. When I was 10 years old, this was THE coolest thing.

I had the GMC Sonoma version.  Same ZQ8 package but without the plastics.

In reply to californiamilleghia :

I actually had a sports bug for a stint. It was pretty far gone, and I ended up selling the engine then the rest of the car. The recaros didn't look so hot without any upholstery. Also dead animals. Iirc, two of those special wide (lol) wheels now live with patrick. 

1991-92 Dodge Spirit R/T

This brings back fond memories as my first car was its cousin, a 1991 Plymouth Acclaim. Unfortunately, it was not an R/T, or anything like it.

I just remembered my favorite special edition, the absolutely bananas Golf Country.  VW really did some interesting stuff in the '90s. 

Olds Achieva SCX:



My old boss at Year One had a white one that he drag raced, then sold to 81cpcamaro. It was a cool little commuter car that scooted pretty well.

They had a 190 horsepower version of the 2.3 liter Quad-4 engine, which was pretty darn stout for the early 90s.

1988RedT2 said:

Sorry if I missed it, but the X-11 is the perfect candidate for this discussion:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2013/07/08/lost-cars-of-the-1980s-chevrolet-citation-x-11

 

 

Those of you calling the latest generation Camry a "meh" car may be living in the past.  My wife recently purchased a V-6 Camry, not sure of trim level, but it has big wheels and hyper-expensive rubberband tires, makes a tick over 300 horsepower and handles like no sedan 20 years ago could dream of.  Her's isn't a TRD, but I suspect that it is even more impressive.

I love how they're displaying a drum brake equipped beam axle as a cool part of this thing.

iansane said:

I love how they're displaying a drum brake equipped beam axle as a cool part of this thing.

Also what is going on with that diff/trans?  Is half of one bolted to the engine in the foreground with an entire unit in the background?

Right before I graduated HS in 89 I rolled and totaled my parents 82 SAAB 900S.  For some reason my dad took me with him as he was shopping for a replacement.  We went to a Chevy dealer to look at Lumina Euro and they had a Dodge Lancer Pacifica on the used car lot.  It looked just like this car:

I later found out it was an California only special edition that was later sold as a Shelby.  I tried for a week to get him to buy that car, but no luck.

When my we go pregnant with out first child we both had two door cars so we needed something bigger.  We ended up with what is mostly considered the last of the easily hotrod able SAABs.  In 1999 if you bought a SAAB 9-3 SE with a stick you got the bigger turbo and inter cooler from the Viggen, the "dumber" T5 engine management system, easy to add a manual boost controller, with the smaller 2.0 motor.  We flew up to Wisconsin and bought one that looked just like this:

We got it with 70,00 miles on it and ended up giving it to my brother with 302,000 miles.  That was the first car I did any performance mods to, turned my Buick driving FIL into a SAAB fan.  Kind of wish I still had that car.

This maybe cheating, but my favorite of a meh vehicle is so obvious you'll all be face palming why you didn't think of it first.  In Europe Ford had the excellent Escort that was so well received from the original MkI in 1968 through the end of the Mk IV in 1989.  Then came the ultimate Meh car with the Mk V, it even went backwards from IRS to a twist beam.  Simply it was a bit of an under achiever.

Then Ford came out with a sporty version.  You know the one, where they (literally) cut out the floor pan and welded in a Sierra one, and hey presto this was born.  Boring and Meh no longer.

Someone beat me to the SVT Contour. That was a cool car once they added the SVT stuff. 

And I'll get roasted for this, but I'll say it loud and proud

Civic Type R. 

Im thinking specifically the late 90s version. We, here in America, got a boring hatch. Looks good, roomy, does a lot of things well...but it's boring in stock form. 

But the Type R added aero bits that looked great and the power was bumped up significantly, cool RED recaros among other upgrades. 

B13 Sentra SE-R.

iansane said:

I love how they're displaying a drum brake equipped beam axle as a cool part of this thing.

Hey, now.  Not just drum brakes, but finned drum brakes, you know, for cooling.

In reply to Appleseed :

I can't believe it took until the second page for someone to post the GLH....and it was posted AFTER a Camry? We should be ashamed of ourselves.

In reply to Erich :

That was a real thing?  Coming home from Mid Ohio on Sunday, we were behind one of those and it was the first time I had ever seen anything like that!  I was wondering if they had built the tire carrier, adapted it from something else, or if someone made a kit.  I had no clue that it could have possibly been factory!

In reply to wae :

Yeah wild right? Factory lifted 4+ inches(!) with a 4-wheel drive system developed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch. Full skid plates and bull bars included. 

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

That was going to be mine choice.

But second choice, Lotus Cortina.

Erich said:

In reply to wae :

Yeah wild right? Factory lifted 4+ inches(!) with a 4-wheel drive system developed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch. Full skid plates and bull bars included. 

It wasn't just VW doing 4WD hatchbacks. The Panda 4x4 wasn't for overlanding or posing or pretending to be a rally weapon. It was a cheap hatchback that wouldn't get stuck in the field. But because of that, it's got a real appeal in its simplicity.

Some of us consider full on rally homologation specials to be "special editions", others seem to think it's more about sticker and stripe packages :)

I had forgotten about this one.  I came across a picture recently and remebered there was one in my area that I remeber from my youth.  

1976 Indy Pace Car.  Buick Century

In reply to John Welsh :

Mildly surprised this is the first Pace car in here (provided I didn't miss one.)

One of my favorites straight from a dealer brochure....

Reminds me.  Isn't it said that the 1978 Corvette "Limited Edition" Pace car was the most popular selling color scheme of the entire years run.  Or, if you really wanted something "limited" any other color was more rare than the "limited edition."  

Quick facts:

32.66% of all were silver anniversary edition, two tone with another 6.91% being just single silver = 39.57%

13.9% were Pace Car Editions
 

So, 53.47% of the total year's production was "limited offerings".

I was also partial to the Beretta GTZ and the Indy.  I had a GT and drooled over the Turquoise Indy.  Soooo Miami Vice.

This wiki entry of Indy Pace Cars shows that GM has exclusively had the Pace Car since 1997 but the last one I remeber there being a street version of was '98 Corvette.  Does Chevy still market Indy Pace Car Editions?  

2022 Will be Corvette Z06:

Last year was also Corvette: