In the 1990s, baby boomers deep into their earning years and nostalgic for their imagined youth built up a bull market in GTOs, Mustangs, and ’Cudas. But today, the next generation of collectors—not counting the Ferrari and Porsche folk, who’ve practically become automotive asset man­agers—is coalescing around a core of a dozen vehicles that will be the substance of the classic-car market for the next decade or more. Like muscle cars before them, these cars defined high performance, engendering passion and acquisitive lust in a generation of America’s young people. These are Gen X vehicles for Gen X collectors, and they’re starting up the same appreciation curve that Chevelles have been climbing since the ’90s.



Beginning with the assumptions that speed still matters, that four-doors aren’t proven collectibles, that limited numbers mean unlimited potential, that originality counts, and that bad-assery never goes out of style, here are 12 machines that will define mainstream collecting for the foreseeable future.