The 2026 version of Mecum’s annual Indy auction finished on May 16th. About five years ago, I gave up trying to chronicle every eighties vehicle sold at any particular auction—there’s often an endless sameness to them. So, I now only write about the cars and trucks that are less seen at auction—and those that sold (a Bianco 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary coupe with Bone leather front bucket seats and an indicated 47,000 kilometers was a no-sale at $480,000). Here are five that caught my eye, described in more detail than I used to when these surveys were more exhaustive.
[Lot K153.1] 1980 Chevrolet Camaro Sport Coupe. Bronze Metallic with Camel vinyl/cloth front bucket seats. LC3 115 bhp 3.8 liter/229 ci V6 with a two-barrel carburetor, a three-speed automatic, and an indicated 17,000 miles. Simply a wow—this attractive Camaro was never messed with in almost half a century. Leaving it original generated a $17,000 hammer price—spectacular money for an early eighties Sport Coupe with a V6. I have written about the 1980 Rally Sport, but not the Sport Coupe.
[W95] 1987 Subaru BRAT GL pickup truck. Moon Silver Metallic with blue/gray vinyl/cloth front bucket seats. EA-81 73 bhp 1.8 liter/109 ci flat four with a two-barrel carburetor, a four-speed manual, and an indicated 74,000 miles. An astounding $25,000 for this final year BRAT, which features the bed-mounted seats that were no longer included in 1987. I really should complete my draft blog post on this vehicle.
[W169] 1988 Chevrolet Camaro convertible. Bright Red with a Black convertible top and Bright Red cloth bucket seats. L03 170 bhp 5.0.liter/305 ci V8 with a throttle-body fuel injection, a four-speed automatic, and an indicated 19,000 kilometers. $20,000 bought this relatively rare Canadian-market convertible, simply called the “Camaro convertible” until they renamed it to RS in 1989.
[W210] 1986 Pontiac Grand Prix coupe. Light Blue Metallic/Dark Blue Metallic two-tone with blue cloth notchback front seat. LD5 110 bhp 3.8 liter/229 ci V6 with a two-barrel carburetor, a three-speed automatic, and an indicated 18,000 miles. A base Grand Prix (not an LE or Brougham—you can tell by the pull straps on the doors). $10,000—I have written about the 1987 version of this car.
[S133] 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort coupe. Graphite Metallic with Gray leather front bucket seats. 444 bhp 2.9 liter/174 ci flat six with electronic fuel injection, a six-speed manual, and an indicated 3,500 miles. At $2,100,000 (that’s Hagerty #2/Excellent money), by far the highest eighties vehicle sale in this auction—a slantnose 1986 RUF was closest at less than a quarter the price.
Eighties Cars 
While I’ll never deny that I gravitate to the performance variants in most cases, it’s nice to see well-preserved ‘normal’ cars like that Camaro V6 get noticed. I mean, the odds are good that was really the version that was mom’s grocery getter or the car some kid in 1989 got to shuttle between college and his night job at the supermarket. Seeing them at cruise nights now is more fun sometimes than seeing the usual Z28s, TAs, Mustang GTs etc.
Thank you for the comment, Mark.
I find cars like this V6 Sport Coupe interesting, because 90% of what was saved were the top-of-the-line models (in this case, the Z28). However, what was produced was completely different: 45% of overall Camaro production was the Sport Coupe.