Topic: WHY I LOVE FIREBIRDS !

[ang]

I have had  a few 2nd gen birds over the years like over 30 ...  and still at 44 have s few birds and daily drive a early 70s t/a clone in the summer....I am SO old school it embarrass my 20 yo son  

100% TRUE STORY as to why I love firebirds....and I would LOVE to hear why you LOVE FIREBIRDS !

It all started FOR ME when my  23 year old long haired COOL uncle rolled up at dusk at my moms house.This guy was always driveing the best cars in the 70s from  DZ302 to a pantera and all coolness in between.....in fact he still keeps the faith... I just seen him 3 weeks ago in his crazy factory supercharged cobra stang.

Well back to WHY I LOVE FIREBIRDS....

Uncle came over to show me  his new rootbeer brown 77 t-top TA with red cloth interior ,it had a red painted dome light cover this was in the summer of 1977 .Just the parking lights were on,black sabbath was playing.

He had  2 drunk girls dressed in terry cloth tops in the car and a joint in his mouth...he gets out and walks over to me standing with my jaw dropped I am sure all the way to the side walk  and says  "hey man, when ya going to get a girl friend" ? I said nothing.... he then says "you know man, if I thought your mom would not kill me I would take you out tonight"..I never spoke a word just nodded .....He left with a great burnout....

I was 12 years old ,it seems like he was their for awhile but really it was only a few min but it really set a thought pattern up ,as to my 12 year old mind it was that bird on the hood it had to be ! The mighty TRANS AM  KING OF ALL CARS ! FAST,GIRLS,FAST LIFE STYLE ..TRANS AM  
All  I  thought was ....WOW JUST WOW !

I was able to get my first ta at 17 ..a 76 carousel red 400 4 speed car original owner car with 70,000 easy miles on it...my uncles great background with hot rods helped me choose it from the many,many trans ams  for sale . It was a original  mint but very expensive used car at 2200.00 and the 100.00 loan payment was really killing me but well it had to be done !!!!

We installed a new clutch,dueled it off ,opened the shaker ,tuned the carb,recurved dist and removed that evil emissions crap  and away I went for my own summer of cruising fun and trust me I partied that car to death and when sold with 80,000 + on the clock the next summer it was ready to go the great trans am heaven in the sky  

I was to young to drive in the 70s so I missed the true KING of the street days for the 2nd gen trans ams... but they still had lots of street respect left in the early 1980s and still worked great to pick up chicks and were great party cars...they were fast street type cars cars and with just a bit of tweaking were very fast street cars,they were also tough cars and could handle a lot of abuse,they were safe cars also for some reason and were good at avoiding accidents...I never crashed a trans am but did a 1980 z-28 weird but the z seemed unstable compared to the trans am in the same moves and well T/A only had room for a partner and 2 chicks  well 3  - 4 chicks if you piled them in but only 2 dudes ever....

[ang]

Pic of My Uncle Mike form a few years back.... he also got me into LT1 c3 vettes.v-8 vegas and monzas but when I went went into my fiero fetish for a few years  all he could do was shake his head in disgust and say.... v-6 ??  ahh man ya coulda had a v-8 ...his is the white c3 mine is the blue...but thats another forum talk

[jphillips3333]

Nice shots ... obviously film on many of them.

[Jolley_Man666]

What a great story, it's very interesting. 

[Paxter]

My story isnt as great as those..but I love Firebirds..just cause they are different from any other car out there.  Im only 18 and I honestly can't see myself owning any other car besides my Trans Am.  Unfortunately I have only driven mine 30miles before the engine gave way, but after 6 long months the engine is coming back this week! 

My real fascination started with of course watching Smokey and the Bandit (great movies!) but before I even laid eyes on the movies I remember my dad telling me these stories about how him and his dad owned all these muscle cars like camaros, elcaminos, chevelles and his brother owned a 77 Trans Am.  Well he was telling me how his brother totaled 2 of his dads camaros lol and also that the Trans Am was "vandalized."  i asked why and he said that his brother cheated on his girlfriend and his girlfriends brother found out and got mad at him so the guy came over at night and poured like a bag of sugar down the gas tank of the trans am.  But I have just never been so fascinated with any other car besides the Trans Am.  I think it is the Hood Bird!  I plan on restoring many more as I grow older.

Unfortunately I dont have any pics, but Im going to ask my dad when he gets home.

[ang]

VERY NICE....HMMMM The bird that darn screaming chicken..so hated and so loved.

Best screaming chicken I ever saw and I even had a 10th TA so I know my wild birds... was a custom painted on version in the factory style with the feathers all done in very heavy metallics it just looked amazing..wish I could see a pic of it...anyone ever see a bird done like this...it was NOT the normal airbrush style but was paint and 100% factory style but with the inlays...

[73taguy]

thank heaven for the wisdom of our uncles. my love for the TRANS Am came from my uncle when i was 15.

[sl1jackson]

My love for muscle cars came from my uncle too. When I was small he used to drive an orange and white '71 Mach 1 (the mustang most don't like). He had long hair, a pretty girlfriend and a Doberman. I'd sit in the back with the Doberman and listen to the engine rumble, sometimes he'd let me steer the car. Also thats were my love for Old School rock came from. So it started there.
I remember being younger and liking the shape of F-Bodies in general, but the T/A's always stood out. Later I saw the movie Smokey and the Bandit and then got my hands on an issue of Popular Hot Rodding that was dedicated to 2nd gen T/A's. So from there I had to have one. I would like to have a 72 Camaro some day, but since I don't have a ton of money to sit around and restore cars, I'll stick to T/A's
Finally I have one and am going to restore/modify it. Its an 80 Turbo with a 400, mild cam, 6x heads and Edlebrock intake and carb. So its already not original. But I want to go the pro touring route, but make it look close to stock.

[ang]

firebirds,long hair....hmmmm sounds like the 1970s

[t/a4.915]

LOL Funny you mention the 70s, long hair and firebirds. All my close friends call me "That 70s Kid" because of my long hair, Trans Am, and of course, 70s rock music. And yet, I'm 16

[ang]

LOL Funny you mention the 70s, long hair and firebirds. All my close friends call me "That 70s Kid" because of my long hair, Trans Am, and of course, 70s rock music. And yet, I'm 16

OLD SCHOOL BRO !

I was young in the 70s but 80s were still long hair,70s music and trans ams...it was about 85 that ta really died out and lost most of their respect in my zone..I think it was the 3rd gens fault ...My first brand new car I ever bought was a 83 dual throttle body ram air recaro t/a and I checked ever box on the option list and well it SUCKED--BAD !!..MONZA SUSPENSION,TERRIBLE 305 MOTORS....ARRRG Do not get me rolling on my hate of the 3rd gens !! I owned a few 3rd gens all "rare" versions all were BAD CARS ! so i can speak from first hand knowledge.

[ang]

couple of fun pics.....

[jphillips3333]

Yeah ... the Spokane police tracked you down.  Too funny.

[73taguy]

it is to bad that with the cost of cars and the lack of cars we as uncles will not be able to pass along the tradition to our young. (as per the remember when book series) in 1977 the avereage income was @ 14500.00 a year and the average car cost 4700.00. look at the cost of cars compared to the average income today it has gotten way out of wack. this is why the muscle car era was so succesful in its day. any young kid could save a few bucks up over a couple of summers and by a muscle car. sorry for the soap box but i was there when it was good. miss it

[jphillips3333]

No, that's a good point.  It is wacked.

Also, what that is, in my opinion, is the enslaving of all of us to car payments.  That's made banks rich and made most us a slave to repay the bank.  The other aspect that has totally changed is dual career couples.  They can can both afford that car payment, they both have credit so the banks make 8+ % off of both people.

I won't buy a new car because of that ... and the 15% loss in value in six months.  If you can afford that hit, that's good.  I can't.

Funny thing is, I don't get 8% off my money when it sits in the bank ....

...  sorry for the rant