History shines its unflinching light on things in different ways. We remember some cars as being junk when they were pretty good. We remember some cars as being pretty good when they were junk. What of the Chevrolet Lumina Z34? Well, this look at the 1991 Lumina Z34 is pretty great because it lays out everything the car was when new. It was a big coupe, a 200hp big coupe that was equipped with a Getrag 5-speed stick! We totally forgot that they even made a stick shift version of this car.
There are parts of the car that are aged, like the body cladding but when we look at what this thing was and how it was priced, how it performed, etc, it was pretty awesome. This was not just a sticker performance car with a spoiler glued to the trunk. It was, from the bottom up designed to be a sports coupe that could compete with anything else in that segment.
The staff at Motorweek was pretty impressed with the car, noting that it went 0-60 in 8.1 seconds and they ripped gears through the quarter mile in 16.1 seconds. That was pretty good stuff and we’re guessing this thing ran as quick or quicker than a V6 Camaro and with a good driver could likely run 15s if the weather was right. That’s pretty wicked for 1991.
A weight of a shade over 3,000lbs, 16-inch wheels, and a performance tuned suspension were other hallmarks of the car.
Anyone out there ever own a stick shift Z34? Seems like they were a pretty hot ticket!
