The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[StealthBird]

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]

[Norwood]

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

[njsteve]

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





I also found the source of the exhaust rumble - the tailpipe is about 1/64&quot; 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&quot; away.

[njsteve]

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?

[njsteve]

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

[DaJudge]

Nice car Steve. I really like those SD Formulas .

[KevinW]

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]

[69 Post Sedan]

Very nice find Steve.....congrats.

Kurt

[njsteve]

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.....

[Xplantdad]

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