I've wanted a camaro for a while, a '98 or higher z28, but the relibility and gas mileage offset the performance qualities it has. But the late '80s camaros seem lighter and they are cheap, too. I was also looking at bmw's.  

dont get a BMW unless after 40,000 miles you want mechanical problems galore.  Camaro SS wouldnt be a bad platform for a drag set up but this is a import forum, so we try to avoid domestic cars.  Especially huge V8 chevy's.  Im not agains them just wrong place to get advice about them.  

I too have heard that BMW's do not make necesarily "reliable" cars, atleast when compared to a $2000 Toyota Camry, you get a lot more bang for the buck in terms of mechanical quality.

If you can work on them yourself, than get the car you want, but dealership prices are often about $300 per man hour, so a tune up can cost you a fortune. Parts prices are more expensive since they need to be imported from Germany.

The Camaro will make a good drag platform, but 80's or not, you can expect to get around 16~mpg city with them. This makes for a very expensive to drive car as a daily driver. A lot of Camaro tuners use theres as track cars, and have a 2nd car to daily drive that gets better gas mileage.

I myself wanted an 11 second car, that could not only give better performance bang for the buck than an LS1, but one that got about %40 better fuel mileage than a Camaro, so I went with a light, 2700lb turbo 4cylinder that allows me to get about 23mpg city and should run low 12's or 11;s when I take it to the track. If you want both speed and good gasmileage, a factory turbo 4cylinder is where its at, especially if its RWD or AWD.  

i personally have driven an e36 over 160 on the interstate for around 35 minutes straight, it had 118k on it when we got it in boston, ive seen no problems on full out beatings over and over reving it like a 1.8vtec, donuts till we were dizzy taking turns in the back seat, stockholm styled evasions, the list goes on, i think the ol beemas hold their weight.  

I wouldn't necessarily get a bmw, but I want a rwd or awd platform, with a V6, I don't want the hassle of taking off pieces of the engine to get to the spark pugs or anything like that. I was looking at audi a4s to but their performance can't really keep up with the bmw.  

get an used 350z or S2000 if you want a RWD/V6.  If you get the audi a4 turbo it should keep up with bmws.  look into used a6's too. i peronally dont know much about them other than theyre v6.