The Supercar Registry - The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

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The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

Re: The New, Newer Project Part Tres...

what a beauty.

Ryan

Re: The New, Newer Project Part Tres...

18,000 miles. Completely untouched, unmolested. 100% Original paint. One of 43 built (33 Autos and 10 4-speeds).

"Survivor" would be an insult: This one actually thrived in hibernation.

Sold new in Long Island (pronounced "Lawn Guy Land", Noo Yawk. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Then moved to Arizona in 1975 with 16,000 mile, and on to California in 1990, and returned East, back to Southern NJ in 1991 with 18,000 miles.

Even came with an extra NOS SD455 carb and set of the infamous recalled Firestone 500 radials. (I need a fifth to have the full set).

It was a complete fluke that I found it...or divine providence.

I randomly logged on to the Super Duty Forum at the Performance Years website on Labor Day morning and noticed that one of the guys posted the ebay link to this newly listed car that just showed up on ebay a few hours prior. It was here in NJ about 75 miles away. I called the guy and immediately drove down.

Weird Coincidence #1:
As many of you know I just sold my 1970 Hemi Charger that I had for 25 years. It was originally sold new at Suburban Dodge in NJ. When I arrived to look at the SD455, I looked at the back panel and there was a "SUBURBAN PONTIAC" dealer emblem on it. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/no.gif[/img]

Weird Coincidence #2:
The owner (great guy by the way) showed me an old magazine from 1990 that had this car in a three page feature. The very next feature car in the magazine was my old 1971 yellow hemicuda convertible. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/shocked.gif[/img]

Weird Coincidence #3.
Ten minutes after I saw the link to the ebay ad on the Super Duty forum at the PY website, the entire website at PY years crashed/went down for maintenance until after I finished inspecting the car and putting a deposit down on it. The website then came back up but by then the ebay ad was shut down as "the vehicle was no longer for sale". [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

Re: The New, Newer Project Part Tres...

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t.../P1010073a.jpg

Ashtray has never been used:

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010107.jpg

Clear plastic delivery cover still intact on seat knob and black plastic carpet seat track covers still in place:

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...P1010101-1.jpg

The trunk is amazing:

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010097.jpg

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Here's the Suburban Pontiac Emblem that sealed the deal:

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010081.jpg

And the NOS Firestone 500 tires. This one is on an untouched original spare honeycomb rim. It's never been bolt onto a car. (Anyone have a fifth one so I can have a full set including spare, for show?)

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...P1010117-1.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...P1010119-1.jpg

Here's a link to the background info on these infamous tires:

http://www.autosafety.org/firestone-...belted-radials

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Steve....that's awesome. I love it. If I get to your area...I want a ride [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Congrats!!

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On which tires: the 25 year old Goodyears or the 40 year old recalled Firestones? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

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BTW, note the giant, brown, oil shmear under the hood from the original A-6 a/c compressor....

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010108.jpg

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Congrats Steve, A white one and a black one! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

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Fantastic, congratulations.

Ryan

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Congratulations on purchasing this beautiful time capsule. The only problem I see is it's too nice; what kind of projects could you possibly dig up on such a perfect car? You're gonna be bored with it in no time.

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">On which tires: the 25 year old Goodyears or the 40 year old recalled Firestones? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] </div></div>

Either set. I LOVE the sound of Formula Firebirds!!!

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dave Rifkin</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Congratulations on purchasing this beautiful time capsule. The only problem I see is it's too nice; what kind of projects could you possibly dig up on such a perfect car? You're gonna be bored with it in no time. </div></div>

Lots of underbody cleaning to be done by hand. Can't use a pressure washer on this one because of all the paper parts labels still down there.

And I will always be cleaning up after that darned A/C compressor. So that will keep me busy. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

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The Buick 'vert has that same deal under the hood.... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

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Awesome score - congrats!! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

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Amazing find! Congrats.

Just clean it and leave it as is.

Jan

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WoWoWoW!

And by the way.... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/drool.gif[/img]

You know the rest...

Congrats Steve, couldn't have found a better home for that one.

Bashton
MCACN Managing Member

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W[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/drool.gif[/img]W!!!
Congrats to you and the car for finding each other!
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]
~ Pete

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----Steve,,,If I would have ordered an SD it would have been this one. Really love the car without the TA stuff. Just so different. I thought very hard in late 73 about buying a leftover SD Bird in (I think its called) Brewster Green. I didnt buy it because of the green. I had no idea at the time that they were built in such limited numbers, and thought I could find a non-TA SD in a better color. By the time I figured it out the green one was gone.......Bill S

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Congrats STeve - she's a beaut! Love the white and the incredible condition!!!

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Very nice...you got my attention with the Suburban connection.

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Fantastic car! Congrats!

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Congrats Steve! Beautiful car!

Those 73-74 SD455 cars really jumped in price several years ago, to the level of the high end 64-72 A-Body cars, and remain highly sought after. One of the best American automotive designs ever. They had style, great looks, great handling, the best all around American car at that time. And with the SD-455, they had straight line performance that rivaled and even surpassed many of the best musclecars of all time. And the SD-455 did it with a few points less compression, a lazy gear ratio, and straddled with emissions.

One of my fondest memories growing up was back in 1974, when we took my brothers 1969 GTO to a local dragstrip (St Thomas up in Ontario). We read all about these new SD-455 cars, but assumed it was all hype. They were "pollution cars", not real muscle cars like a GTO or our friends 440+6 Super Bee. Well, at the track, there was a brand new Buccaneer Red 1974 SD-455 Trans Am, and we saw him make several passes. As luck would have it, he ended up lining up next to my brothers 1969 GTO, which ran low 14's at the time. I was in the passenger seat of my brother's Goat, and I was all of but 10 years old at the time, thrilled to get a ride down the track. I was excited knowing that my brother would be beating this new "pollution car", that probably cost $5,500, and that this new Trans Am owner would see how cool old musclecars were. But I watched in amazement as the new 1974 Trans Am jumped off the line (they all had posi standard), and we watched his rear bumper all the way down the track. We ended up about 2 car lengths behind. Afterwards, we went over to look at this "pollution car" just after the guy returned from a run. He opened the hood, and it was all hoses and plumbing. He had an automatic, with a/c, so it had 3.08 gears. The engine was giving off those "heat tick" sounds that new engines do after being shut off. It had around 400 miles on the odometer, and the guy just bought it that week. I actually have an old Super 8mm movie of that day, one of my first times with the ol' Kodak camera.

All my brothers could talk about after that was to imagine what that new Trans Am would do with 2 more points of compression, an open scoop, emissions removed, and 3.55 gears.

Congrats again on your find! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

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YEP...That's pretty nice....

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Finally took the lady for a ride tonight. The gas tank was empty so I drove 5 miles to the gas station. Filled her up and just before the tank was full, gas started trickling out from the front of the tank. I drove her home quickly and put a floor jack under the rear end to raise the back up and stop the fuel leak. Turns out that one of the vapor return lines had popped out of the two inch rubber connector hose at the front of the tank. I replaced the rubber hose section and all is well. While I had the wheel off I took these shots

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010124.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010121.jpg

I also found the source of the exhaust rumble - the tailpipe is about 1/64" from the lower edge of the bottom of the quarter. I tried using some gentle persuasion to rock the entire system toward the driver's side. It is now 1/8" away.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010122.jpg

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And here are a few shots of the black car and the white car together:

I have no idea what the bright sparkly thing is under the front of the white car. There is nothing in the other photos in that spot. Scary car spirits?

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010131.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010130.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010134.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...D/P1010133.jpg

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In case anyone comes across a tan Pontiac wheel like this, give me a heads up. Since this car has a tan steering column and no mention of the Formula wheel on the purchase docs, it would appear that the (very expensive) 1973 Formula wheel was added later. I did the same thing on my Gramma's 75 Firebird a couple decades ago...and like an idiot I threw that wheel away shortly thereafter) [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

There is still a debate as to whether the center of the horn pad should be woodgrain or black on the Firebirds, but either way, this wheel came on a lot of Firebirds and A-bodies as well from 1971-74

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...uCEjvg60_3.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eringWheel.jpg

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Nice pics! The bright spot is the ghost of the Charger, annoyed there is a white Pontiac in its garage space [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

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Nice car Steve. I really like those SD Formulas .

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Very nice find Steve.....congrats.

Kurt

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Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, I just spent an hour talking to Enrico Stein out in Arizona....and he is sending me the original steering wheel he took off in 1973 when he bought the Formula wheel that is currently on the car. It has been sitting in the box that the Formula wheel came in, for the past 40 years or so.....

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That's cool!!!! Hey, does Enrico drive a Suburban???? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/shocked.gif[/img]

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Thanks to the assistance of a PerformanceYears.com member who happened to search the internet and found that there is only one Enrico Stein in the entire universe and that he lives in Arizona but used to live in Port Washington, NY, I was able to spend a magical hour talking to the man that ordered my 1973 Formula SD455, brand new.

Enrico has been a car guy all his life. In 1968 he bought the very first BMW 2002 that arrived in the US for around $2,000. Several years later he wanted to upgrade to a 2002 TII but none of the BMW dealers wanted to give him a break from the $6,000 price tag on the car.

Being the consummate car-guy, Enrico read all the latest car magazines and found out that a 310 horsepower Super Duty engine was going to be available in the upcoming 1973 Firebird. So he went around to the local Pontiac dealerships and asked about ordering the car. He was given the runaround and told that the engine wasn’t available.

Not satisfied with this answer, Enrico called the very same magazine writer who wrote the test drive article on the 310 horsepower Super Duty engine and got some insider info on the cars. He was told that there was an administrative hold on building the cars at the moment and that if they were going to be built it would be during the last two weeks of the model year in late summer, 1973.

With that info in pocket, Enrico went to Suburban Pontiac in Glen Head, New York and found a newly minted car salesman (who just happened to be a former dress salesman who was laid off from his prior job). The salesman took his order but the big-wig, zone managers in New York City said that they would not accept any orders for the Super Duty. Not taking no for an answer, Enrico hunted them down and told them in no uncertain terms that they will order his car, and they will do it now. (At the time, Enrico was 6’8” tall and 280 lbs.). The zone promptly allowed the order to go through.

It seems that Enrico was so “convincing” in his negotiations with upper management, that Suburban Pontiac was able to order a second Super Duty Formula for another young man. (This second car is known, and still exists). That car arrived shortly after Enrico’s car was delivered. This caused much consternation among all the other Pontiac dealers in the zone, concerning how one little dealership on Long Island could get two Super Duty Firebirds when the other big dealers got none.

When Enrico ordered his car, he was told it would be delivered with the fiberglass, twin scooped Formula hood. It arrived, of course, with the Trans Am shaker unit in its place. He was told that this was due to the drive-by noise regulations that were in place by the time the cars were built.

I asked Enrico about the tires on the car and he said that the car came with the infamous Firestone 500 radials. He mentioned that the car always had a severe pull to the left when he drove it. No matter what was done with the alignment, the pull would not go away. It wasn’t until much later when he replaced the tires that the pull magically disappeared. Enrico said that when the recall came out for the 500s, only the tires made after 1975 were listed. That is why his tires stayed with the car. I mentioned to him that there are four, not five Firestone 500s still with the car and he said that when he sold the car to a California collector in 1986, the collector’s driver insisted on driving the car from Arizona to California. Enrico warned him that he should buy newer tires for the car and reminded him that the 500’s were recalled. The guy didn’t listen and in the middle of night out in the desert wastelands between Arizona and California, one of the 500’s exploded. Luckily the car was not damaged.

I also asked about the front valance and was told that the car was delivered with the polyethylene front valance but it cracked soon thereafter and Enrico had the dealer replace it with the steel valance.

When the subject of what steering wheel came on the car originally came up, Enrico said he know exactly what wheel it came with because it was currently sitting in his garage, in the very same box that the Formula wheel that is on the car now, came in. He then asked me for my address so he could make sure it was reunited with the car!

He also asked if the paint flaw in the fender was still there? I confirmed that it was – there is a weird raised line and pieces of fuzz in the paint along the mid portion of the front fender near the headlight. It looks like an air hose for the paint gun was dragged over the wet paint. Enrico said the car was delivered that way and that it was never fixed.

Enrico owned the car from 1973 to 1986 when it was sold to a collector out in California. That collector had it until 1991 when he sold it to the man in New Jersey from whom I bought it. While in Enrico’s hands, the car never saw any winter use. After two years, he and the car moved out to Arizona where he and his wife have lived ever since.

As an aside, Enrico mentioned that the car had been stolen and recovered once. He was at work one day at a large marina when he got a call from the local AAMCO transmission shop manager who asked what he wanted done with his car? Enrico replied: “What the hell are you talking about?” The AAMCO guy then said that his car was there and wanted to know what work he wanted done to it. Enrico was always getting pestered by people about selling is car whenever it was parked in front of the marina. It turned out that one of these pesterers was a car thief who contacted the local Pontiac dealer and pretended to be the owner who lost his keys. The Pontiac dealer happily made the thief a new set. The thief then brought the keys to the AAMCO shop and told them that “his” car was broken down in front of the local marina and needed to be towed to the shop for work. The AAMCO guys happily sent a rollback and picked the car up. The only fly in the ointment was the AAMCO manager calling Enrico before the thief could come down to the AAMCO shop to pick up the car. When the disinterested AAMCO manager said that he was closing up for the day, Enrico told him “Oh no, you’re not! - That is my car and you just stole it.” Enrico then gathered up a bunch of guys from the marina and went there and immediately repossessed his own car. Sitting in the ashtray was the freshly made set of GM keys that the thief had left for later. From that point on, Enrico would park the car in the back of the marina. When the owner complained, Enrico told him that he was parking it there and if they didn’t like that, they could fire him now. They wisely backed down.

I feel very privileged to have had the chance to talk with Enrico. He is now around 80 years young and he is truly a unique person and a major car guy from the age of two (according to him). He has a photographic memory about every car he has ever owned. He also has a file on every car as well. He mentioned that he has photos of the car from when it was new and all sorts of paperwork as well.

Enrico is retired and still has a bunch of collector cars and motorcycles and is very involved with them. He also asked if I was interested in selling to car back to him. I told him that if I do, he is definitely first on the list.

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Steve, I do not know how you do that, but you have done it again. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] Lucky Man!

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That is just SOOOOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOOOL Steve!

What a find and a story!

Tim

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"When Enrico ordered his car, he was told it would be delivered with the fiberglass, twin scooped Formula hood. It arrived, of course, with the Trans Am shaker unit in its place. He was told that this was due to the drive-by noise regulations that were in place by the time the cars were built."

Was this an SD only thing?

Steve

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Yes. All SD455 Firebirds, whether Trans Am or Formula had the shaker. It was not due to any performance upgrade but instead was due to the fact that the EPA only certified the emmissions and drive-by noise regulations on that precise set up. GM would have had to recertify the engine package from scratch just to use the Formula fiberglass hood. If you look at the window sticker you'll see a $27 credit for "delete functional ram air" as they had to rivet a blocking plate on the shaker opening to close it In order to pass the noise regulations.

There is some great spy trivia on how the Pontiac engineers tried to pull a fast one on the EPA by figuring out a special solenoid that would shut down the emission control systems on the production cars two seconds after the EPA test timed testing procedure was done. The EPA found out about it and GM got slapped big time. They had to completely redesign the emissions system and replace the camshaft with a milder one. That is why there is an initial rating of 310 hp and a production rating of 290 hp. That was one of the reasons that the engine package was delayed until the last couple weeks of production. It barely made it as the top brass at GM wanted to kill the whole deal but the engine plants had already built the 1,000 or so engines in a rush, seeing the writing on the wall. It would have cost too much to crush the motors, so they made the cars and got them out on the street.