Well, I could look back at the late 80's and early 90's and tell you what they had to offer for quick production cars on my fingers.
The 5.0 was the only option above the sick *** 2.3L rated at 88 or 110hp, depending on year. Many people got the 5.0 just because they wanted a Mustang that actually moved. That translates to a ton of V-8 stangs for us younger gen people. The market was flooded with the solid performing Mustangs at a good price. If you look at what an excellent condition 87GT will bring now vs 5 years ago, you may be shocked to see no difference in price. They have all stayed pretty high. The market isn't flooded with these cars anymore, and newer cars offer decent performing V=6's in place of the sorry 4 banger. That means the sales of the V-8 is going to drop. You don't really NEED the V-8 when you have a 190+hp V-6 standard. A V-6 that will tangle head to head with the 96-98GT's no less. Add in the fact the starting price for a V-8 Mustang has risen from about $12k in 1987 to $23k today, and you see why there are less of the fun loving V-8 Stangers out there.
As far as the Camaro goes, the Fbody has been riddled by poor quality, now they are in the limelight of their lives, quality reputations have been one of many major factors leading to horribly slumping sales. That and a significantly superior Mustang has fueled the disappearance of these cars.
Now parents who are cosigning for their kid's cars are all driving imports. They are down on domestic cars because of cars such as the Tempo, Cavalier, Shadow, and Neon. Rear wheel drive has practically been labeled as a death machine because people don't know how to drive. You say V-8 and parents think of their V-8 musclecars in the past, getting 15 on the hiway, and they tell their kids there is no way they are going to be driving a pile of **** , 15mpg, rear wheel drive death machine, costing 23k. Or an old piece of **** 87GT costing 5k for that matter.
Lies and misleading's around the performance of the domestic V-8 cars such as the Mustang and Camaro also abound. The import guys ask what a stock 87 Mustang GT runs. They get an answer back on average, stock, about a 14.5. Then their buddy says he knows this guy, who knows this guy, who once saw a stock Civic Si (Special K) run a 15.28. (I can't bring myself to believe it, though.) There is always the guy with the Integra that eat's 5.0's too. So they use the fastest stock import as the performance figure. Hell, there are 13sec stock 87GT's out there. Do we quote them as 13 sec cars? Hell no. Are they? Honestly, driven like a bat outta hell off the showroom floor, damn close. With under $500 in mods, hell yeah. Do we quote that? No. Why? Because most people cannot drive like that. Hell, I can't even drive like that. My best is a 14.19, I am terribly out of tune, but I wasn't happy at all with my launches. My Z spec T-5 may have been hurting me, but I either bogged, spun a little then bogged, or spun to 30mph. I was launching WAY harder with the 3.35 ratio I had in the old tranny, I know that for a fact. Would my car run a mid/high 13 with the old tranny and tuned up? I'm betting it would.
Bottom line, there just aren't as many V-8 guys out there.
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