Older V8s, do they still have a place?

[HULK_I6T]

Driving about you still see a fair few older cars fitted with V8s. People with newer cars poke fun at them as performance standards have moved a long way in modern times.

When considering basic family cars like the Toyota Aurion, many of these older V8s (without major modification) perform mediocre by comparison. An aurion will show most these older V8s a set of tail lights and just keep pulling away whilst returning 10L/100km economy.

V8s were always associated with being a performance offering, but when considered against Today's standards of performance the older V8s seem to be little more than gas guzzling tanks that are well behind on performance

For Holden the LS1 and on seem to be strong by today's standards and from the holden 5.0v8 backwards seem lacklustre.

for ford anything Windsor V8 and back seem mediocre and from the b series 5.4 (boss/3V) are probably the cutoff for still pretty strong by today's standards.

Do these older V8s still have their place? Or are they now mocked and ridiculed by other drivers as well behind the times.