[AKTransAM]

I've always loved old school pushrod V8's and muscle cars, since I'm a complete dinosaur (and proud of it). I detest technology in vehicles, and actively try to avoid it. I enjoy working on old mechanical engines, since you can actually fix things in them with basic tools. As far as car movies go "Smokey and the Bandit" will always be one of my favorite movies , with arguably the most beautiful car ever made (I'm biased of course), a 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am. I've always loved everything about Firebirds, from the timeless styling, to the very functional and beautiful race inspired dash layout in the Trans-Am. Obviously, I couldn't really afford a spare car other than a normal daily driver for the longest time, until I could. Which was fortunate for me at the time as these cars have now become extremely desirable.

A few years ago I started looking, and spent a whole year looking for a 1977-78 Trans-Am (with the classic hawkbill front end), and either found cars that were extremely overpriced, or complete garbage. Out of the blue, my old boss (who was his own muscle car collection) sent me a link to a 77 Trans-Am out of state on Craigslist. By this point I'd become pretty frustrated in the search, but contacted the seller. As it turned out, we became good friends, since he was originally from Alaska. And he told me later that based on our phone conversation, he held the car for me until I could have someone check it out for me, despite a couple of folks approaching him with cash in hand for the car. Had her shipped here, and unlike most other friends who baby their muscle cars, and don't drive them in the rain, she's my daily driver for 6 months of the year, rain or shine. I put her in storage for the Winter. I got her bone stock with 66K original miles, original numbers matching Pontiac 400 (6.6 litre) engine and TH350 transmission. I've put on another 20K miles on her in the past few years. There's something really beautiful about watching the functional shaker hood scoop rumble and have the flapper door move with acceleration to take in more air. Not to mention the amazing sound of a burbling 400 with a 4bbl carburetor, and the smell of gasoline all around. In case anyone's wondering, 10 mpg (if I drive carefully). Any spirited acceleration for even a short burst, and the gas gauge will noticeably be lower at the end of the burst, as soon as the secondaries open up. I've owned and sold other fun old vehicles since then, including a Vette, a Camaro, and a Wagoneer among others, but she's the only one that will always remain.

As far as handling goes..well she's the best handling of all the muscle cars by far, but she is 1-3/4 tons of old Detroit steel with a massive engine in front, so she's never going to outhandle any Corvette or European car, but that was never what she was built for.

[AKTransAM]

Forgot to add a constant source of amusement for most people who don't know old cars. No cupholders. But the console is wide enough heh heh.

[Electromotive]

That is one sweet ride. Good ol' American muscle car.
The side profile looks even better than the 3rd gen/1982 Trans Am which was the car used for KITT in Knight Rider - a favorite of mine.

[GutsyGibbon]

Whoa! That is a monster engine right there. 8 times the size of a Maruti 800. BTW, how'd you end up in Alaska? After a week in Denali, I dreamt of buying a few acres and setup a homestead. I really like the alaskan landscape. Enjoy your ride!

[darthvader001]

Wow a Pontiac !!! I've many fond memories (good and bad) with Pontiac back when I was in Michigan. I owned a 2005 Grand-Am V6 and 2007 G6 V6.

(1) The Grand-Am served me very well for 3 years before I sold it off. The V6 was an absolute pleasure to drive. So quick pickup that it can reach the 70 mph speed limit in no time when entering a freeway ramp. The engine sound so good on the ears and at the same time silent when not revving. Had many memorable drives to Chicago and Detroit. This Grand-Am I found on the Craigslist and purchased from a local dealer. I was skeptical whether it was all ok but it turned out to be an excellent choice and had only 2 owners before me with 60k miles. I could put another 20k miles. While owning this I was envying the later models of Pontiac like G6 or G8.



(2) Then in my next stint in Michigan bought the G6 coupe as i always dreamed.
As I had a Pontiac trouble free ownership, this time I kept searching for Pontiac only though I could find many other available vehicles on Craigslist. That's where fate had a satirical smile on me. Found a 2007 G6 from a private party and fell in love at first sight with the coupe. Did a test drive and even got it checked by Tuffys. All was OK. Brought the car home, drove for a month or so when trouble started. One day while going to a store the car stalled at a traffic light, fuel guage was showing some left though. Some good Samaritans helped me to push the car to the road side and suggested me to try putting a gallon of fuel. Fortunately the car stalled near a gas station so I bought some fuel in a can and the car started. From then on randomly the car used to refuse to start after parking. By then Pontiac brand or dealerships were already closed so had to rely on other dealerships for service. However everytime we towed the car to the dealer, the car used to start there. They couldn't reproduce the issue but issue did exist. So it was tentatively thought to be a fuel pump issue but there were no warnings on cluster or any DTCs set on OBD. The fuel pump was told to be 800 bucks that too not entirely root caused. So I didn't want to take a risk by paying money for trial and error fixes. Finally and sadly had to say good bye for this. Did a trade in and shifted to a Nissan.

Below pic of the car taken in Holland Lake Michigan Beach -



So the irony is that when I didn't check the car condition as much as I should have (first case), it turned out to be excellent but when I evaluated and scrutinized more (second case) it went other way round. So learnt a life lesson that it is all fate.

Last but not least, GM did well on these Pontiac performance machines and I was sad when they retired the brand during recession. Such an amazing brand of performance cars. May be one day they will revive the brand just like they or Ford reviving the older models (Hummer, Bronco etc.)

[sumeethaldankar]

What a beautiful car. Had one on my desktop for years at a time. Hood shaker and all, simply love these old school muscle cars. Nothing in the modern era comes close to these beauties. Wishing you hundreds of thousands of muscle miles on your beauty :-)

[AKTransAM]

Thanks man. Funnily enough I used to own a 3rd Gen Firebird awhile ago. That was a really fun car.

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

What a beautiful car. Had one on my desktop for years at a time. Hood shaker and all, simply love these old school muscle cars. Nothing in the modern era comes close to these beauties. Wishing you hundreds of thousands of muscle miles on your beauty :-)

Thanks! You're right, nothing new comes close to these cars.

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Whoa! That is a monster engine right there. 8 times the size of a Maruti 800. BTW, how'd you end up in Alaska? After a week in Denali, I dreamt of buying a few acres and setup a homestead. I really like the alaskan landscape. Enjoy your ride!

Agreed, Alaska is a very beautiful state.

Originally Posted by Electromotive

That is one sweet ride. Good ol' American muscle car.
The side profile looks even better than the 3rd gen/1982 Trans Am which was the car used for KITT in Knight Rider - a favorite of mine.

Thanks. Funnily enough, I used to own a 3rd Gen Firebird a long time ago. That was a really fun and very good looking car too.