Engineering wise, I’m sure they are. Except in my mind they’re way too complex with too much reliance on computers and high tech gadgetry. Plus the old classics had much more style and cool factor. Today’s cars all look alike, too much resembling European and Japanese imports. You can have ‘em. I want nothing to do with them. Same for the music, movies, and TV shows of recent decades. :)
Tuning a modern car with a computer is 100 times easier than getting a 440-6bbl carburetors to run in the summer and the winter, without dieing in traffic. Been there, done that, aint going back.
Cool to me is beating a $100K European sportscar in a timed sporting event with $10K car, not paying $100K for a piece of art that gets its butt handed to it by a $2000 Craigslist Camry at a stoplight, then slides through the next light because its brakes suck.
My dad and I restored Muscle cars for 30+ years as father/son projects. We’d buy a car for $2K - $7K and restore them to their former glory. Today, Craigslist is full of “better” cars than the “muscle car era” cars, for the same $2K - $7K prices, and in Texas, currently 1989 and Older cars don’t require emissions testing, so you can build a Modern all Aluminum V-8 and put it into a lightweight modern Chassis with real suspension, real brakes, real seats and once again build a car that will beat $100K cars for $10K.
My son and I won’t be restoring any Old school muscle cars (unless some one literally gives me one), but I do see building LS1 6 speed Miata in our future.