Underpowered But Appreciated--My V6 Camaro's

I was fifteen when I saw the ad in the paper for what would be my first car. For $900, I bought a 1983 Camaro sport coupe with medium-metallic blue paint and a puny little 2.8L V6 engine aspirated with an out-of-tune two-barrel carburetor. The car actually started life out back in 1983 as one of the shameful 4-cylinder models produced in the first four years that body style, with a five-speed manual transmission. An industrious prior owner of the car happened upon it after the 4-cylinder motor had blown, and pulled out the drivetrain to drop in a 2.8L V6 with the TH200c automatic transmission behind it. I had a lot of fun with that car in the five years that I drove it, dumped an unbelievable amount of money into it, got stranded on a number of occasions, and kept mechanics shaking their heads in disbelief when I'd repair it and start driving it again. It took some nut speeding through the middle of the road in a blind curve to kill "Old Blue" for good. With the death of Camaro #1, I immediately went out and found its replacement, the superior Camaro#2. You might say that Camaro#1 lives on in pieces...some parts made it onto Camaro#2.