Holy college days flashback, Batman. I had no idea what the "International Race of Champions" or "IROC" was before Chevrolet came out with these cars in 1985. This one here is an '86. Not that I was ever into auto-racing, but "IROC" (eye-rock) sounded fairly intriguing and the graphics used on the side of the cars looked such as well. An "IROC" either enhanced your appreciation of the Camaro ethos or perpetuated any pre-conceived notions you had of them. Up to and including stereotypes. Haters gonna hate.
If the IROC-Z had any flaw, above, frankly, issues inherent to third-generation Camaro's, it that it was not as "fast" as the car it supposedly was marketed directly against, Ford's Mustang GT. It wasn't much slower (more like "not-fast") but the automobile rags consistently found the little Fox body Mustang quicker zero-to-sixty and in the quarter mile and with a higher top-speed than a third-gen Camaro.
When Chevrolet came out with the IROC-Z for 1985 with an available 5.0-liter engine with then state-of-the-art "Tuned Port Fuel Injection" (TPI), pulsating with all of two-hundred and fifteen net horsepower and two-hundred seventy-five foot-pounds of torque, they must have thought they would finally corral Ford's pony. However, saddled with an automatic (a manual stout enough to handle the torque allegedly wouldn't fit) and those son-of-a-gun's in Dearborn found even more juice in the last go 'round of their venerated and carburated 5.0 (actually it was a 4.9), the IROC-Z finished in second-place in a two-horse town. Curses! For 1986, 5.0-liter IROC's, like our subject, couldn't catch any Mustang 5.0 (with a manual or automatic) with Ford's new-for-'86 port-fuel injection system either. Double-drat.
Begs the question why Ford was able to have a stick-shift in their Mustang in an engine making three-hundred pounds of torque while GM didn't on the Camaro. Adding insult to injury, the Mustang was depicted as a better daily driver thanks to a superior driving position, somewhat better seats and more pliable suspension tuning. It also had a larger back seat. Not that it mattered to someone like me at the time putting themselves through college on two and sometimes three minimum wage jobs; I couldn't get anywhere near either one of them. But given a choice, blindly so, throw me the keys to an IROC-Z and let me see for myself just how horrible it would have been to live with day-to-day as my sole means of transportation.
Probably the single biggest reason why the "third-generation" Camaro was slower than a Ford Mustang was it was some three-hundred pounds heavier. And to compensate for that extra bulk, finally, and what was supposed to be for model year 1986 but for a number of reasons had to wait until 1987, Chevrolet dropped a slightly de-tuned version of the mighty L98 Corvette engine into the IROC-Z and, at last, the IROC-Z (with an automatic) beat a Mustang where it mattered most. Well, mattered most to the stuffed-suits at GM and Chevrolet; I'd buy a Camaro over a Mustang no matter if it was slower to sixty miles-per-hour by a month. It's not like a Corvette powered IROC-Z sucked the doors off a 5.0-liter Mustang (with a manual) either but if 6.1 seconds zero-to-sixty compared to 6.2, and a half second faster in the quarter mile was really "faster", well, whom am I to judge.
Now, you could get an IROC-Z or a Z28 back then with a stick-shift but you couldn't get the stick with either the Tuned-Port 5.0 (LB9) or the honkin' L98 Corvette 5.7. The carburated L69 "High Output" 5.0-liter "Chevy" making one-hundred ninety horses in Camaro tune (one-hundred and eighty in a Monte Carlo SS) was the motor you wanted if you had to have a stick in your Z; it made only two-hundred forty foot-pounds of torque. Probably as a way to boost Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) numbers, a Z28 was available with Chevrolet's one-hundred fifty-five horsepower LG4 5.0-liter as well. Funny, you'd think those would be pretty hard to find these days but most manual-transmission Z28's of this era I find have LG4's in them. IROC-Z' were available only with a high-performance engine.
Our fairly well-worn red-head here also highlights an interesting trend in '80's collectibles, as if there are that many, but Camaro's of the era are going for more than Corvette's are. For example, this one here is listed on Facebook Marketplace for, are you sitting down? $8,000. If you're diligent, you can get a nice earlier (pre-'92) C3 for that money.
There are a number of reasons for that, none of which make real sense. I'll speculate and hypothesize on that in a future soliloquy hopefully by the end of the year. In the meantime, enjoy this Z and comment below if you'd like me to hook you up. Something tells me the owner would love to hear from you. Merry Christmas.
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