1973 SD455 Formula VINTAGE CERTIFICATION: TIME CAPSULE AWARD
 

1973 SD455 Formula Firebird. The Ultimate Survivor

After serving as caretaker of original owner, Enrico Steins’s unrestored 1973 SD455 for the past seven years I have now decided to let her go to the next caretaker. I am honored to say that I have been friends with Enrico and his wife Lenora since finding this car in 2013. Enrico recently passed away in 2019 and I miss bench racing with him via email and phone. He was a 6'8" tall, curmudgeonly raconteur with a sly sense of humor. He often described himself as being cursed with obsessive compulsive disorder and a photographic memory for details. He was a record-holding powerboat racer and master mechanic. He was one amazing dude and was the man who ordered this car brand new in 1973 and kept it in the condition you see it in now.

The entire story of the car is posted on this site at the following link: https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=123936 I am currently dealing with Photobucket on getting the photos viewable on the thread again. At the moment some load and some don’t.

“Samarkand,” as Enrico named the car, was featured in Hot Rod/MuscleCar Review and Hemmings Muscle Machines. A good number of high resolution photos are on their sites:

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1973...uper-duty-455/

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/articl...8N26vpxOY4TKAo

I will give you the basics here, but the full story can be had on the above linked sites:

1973 SD455 Formula, one of 43 produced (33 automatics and 10 4-speeds). 19,000 miles. White with optional saddle interior. Two-page window sticker with every possible option that Enrico could think of at the time. Every original document you can think of and some you can’t even imagine.

100% original paint, interior, born-with drivetrain, exhaust, 4 of 5 born-with Firestone 500 Radial tires, everything but the original C89 battery. Includes a brand new set of reproduction 1973 Goodyear Steelgard Radials that the car currently rests on.

Vintage Certification: TIME CAPSULE AWARD at MCACN 2016 – the highest level attainable for an unrestored musclecar. That means every category judged was at least 95% factory untouched original condition. It missed the highest ever attained score of an SD455 by less than one point. It scored 2933.74 out of a possible 3007.67 (overall 97.54 scaled score) The largest deductions were due to not having its 1973 original C89 maintenance-free battery and missing one defective Firestone 500 tire that exploded in 1983.

This is a brand new car that happens to be 47 years old. If you ever missed the opportunity to order and buy the musclecar of your dreams back in the day, here is your second chance.

$190,000

NJSteve Phone: (nine-0h-eight) 442 – six-0h-too-nine
email at [email protected]

This car speaks for itself. Just an amazingly well preserved vehicle that achieved our highest award. Great owner and caretaker!! GLWS

Thanks Steve! If anyone has any questions about how the judging actually works on a car like this, feel free to give Steve Shauger a call.

The process is indescribable by any mere mortal until you've gone through it. Kinda like giving birth to a 3,800 pound kidney stone? :-)

Wow, Steve.... just WOW!! What a car and story!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Enrico’s wife was a tall glass of water also.

Never thought I'd see you sell this car.

Yes. She is 6'5" and such a nice lady. I've been keeping in touch with her lately with family updates, etc.

It is such a unique, frozen moment in time, it really should be somewhere where more people can appreciate it. Just sitting in my garage doesn't do it justice. I only drove it a dozen miles last year.

I have run out of things to work on in my garage and I need a new project. I rebuilt all of my other vehicles: Gramma's '75 Firebird, Grampa's 71 Lincoln, my diesel Suburban. All that's left is the old Viper racecar and that only has 8,000 miles on it. So before I start turning wrenches on that for no reason, I need to find something to pull apart.

Great car and story!

I sure would have liked to know Mr. Stein!

"An angry Rick decided to march right back to the dealership and settle this thing once and for all. He unleashed all the frustration that had twisted his insides since the start of his search. He put it plainly so that Bernie and his manager would understand: "Tell the New York Zone to accept the offer, or unspecified mayhem will occur right here, right now.""

LOL. He was so much fun to get rolling on a topic. The guy owned every type of significant musclecar back when they were new. And remembered every second of their ownership.

If Andre the Giant and Frank Costanza (from Seinfeld) were cloned into one person - that would have been Enrico. :-)