I killed a fourth-gen Camaro. It wasn’t a pretty process, it wasn’t a quick and painless death. I ragged the living hell out of the car as if it was an Avis rental under somebody else’s name and when the car finally gave up the ghost after a hard day of self-clearancing due to bad bearings, it puked every vital fluid in the engine block like it was a scene from The Exorcist and ceased to be anything more than a parts donor. Yeah, I did it. But here’s the deal: up until the engine crapped the bed, the Camaro was an absolute riot to drive. So I kind of feel bad for what happened. And for today’s Rough Start, I wanted to make things as right as I could.

LT-powered fourth-gen F-cars aren’t anywhere near as popular as the LS-powered versions, but they are still awesome cars. They make good power, they handle amazingly well, and they are at the bottom of the price curve in most cases right now. Cars like this 1995 six-speed Z28 can be picked up for simple money and usually just need to have a good once-over, some maintenance caught up, and a fix or two taken care of to be a decent set of wheels. With the earliest fourth-gens now twenty-four years old, clean ones like this silver car are worthy of putting a little time and elbow grease into. Fix those slow window motors. Upgrade the T-56 that keeps popping out of reverse. Put in new plugs, detail the car, and enjoy what will be a very faithful street car. It won’t be a thousand horsepower #LSXFTW beast, but take it from somebody who just thrashed a half-dead LT car to death: there’s still plenty of fun to be had.

Craigslist Link: 1995 Chevrolet Camaro Z28