[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by 71GP76TA

There was a 4 speed 4 door Lemans for sale in California a few(10?) years ago

Hmmm...This car lived in CA up until 2008(?) when John Chung bought it out of the northern CA area to his home in TX. My brother and I bought it from him back in April 2011. Maybe the same one your remembering???

Dennis

[dataway]

Was there ever a "Formula 500" Firebird? Could swear I remember seeing a white second generation Firebird down in Daytona that had a "Formula 500" sticker and 455 badges.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by shermanator2

Does this mean that there are two "SD455" firebirds out there that were shipped with regular 455 engines? Or did two 455 SD engines just show up missing from inventory?

In the situations I am familiar with they would build up the engines themselves from scratch in the experimental engine build room and then wheel them out at the appropriate time (or very nearly) to hang on the motor line.

Nothing missing from inventory in that way, since it was accounted for as individual pieces and the complete engine did not previously exist.

But - yes - either way.

You could build with the specified engine and swap it out later, or you could hang your special engine on the line and walk it through the build.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by bird72

SD with granny shift is a contradiction. But that is the way it was on early 70's birds. No order console, get the column shift. I (as others) speculate some of them were ordered not aware of that fact, thinking a no console auto floor shift would be the end result. Not. FYI, I had a column shift 72 F400. People sometimes thought it was a fake Formy.

Our '68 GTO was a column shifted automatic (bucket seats, no console).

I was always embarrassed by that column shifter.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 1969GiPper

When I was at GM we had an old saying: “We never made one of anything and we never made two alike”.

When I was at Chevrolet we had an old saying: "At Chevy, we never make a mistake...

...We make a million of 'em".

K

[fiedlerh]

I know a few...
Friend had a plain-jane 72-ish Firebird that had a green paint and a red interior. Supposedly shipped to them by Pontiac as dealer stock. His uncle owned Kole Pontiac, so he got the "unsaleable" car for cheap.

1973 A-body: Conventional wisdom says none were built with an X in the VIN.
Production records indicate otherwise, and show ONE SD-455 A-body was built with functional Ram Air. Looks like it was a Grand Am according to the production totals. I assume it was a factory engineering car and is long gone.

Regarding the 455 HO 4-dr, order forms say the 455 HO was only available in 2 door cars, but never say never. Back then a phone call could get things done. No idea what they would have done for an exhaust system though.

For the 73 4 speed LeMans wagons: how did you get the production numbers for manual transmissions? Were they D35 2 seat or D45 3 seat models?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Or - pulled off the line and sent over to the Pontiac Engineering garage for customizing.

K

I should add that the Pontiac Engineering garage was much more liberal and "family like" then the more stiff, formal, centrally located (and highly watched) Chevrolet Engineering shops.

Pontiac would think nothing of bring a fleet order of taxi models into the Engineering garage to swap out the springs and shocks; or a run of a dozen special cars to add aluminum, replace engines, install "worn" tires, move the batteries to the trunk, etc.

I found the Chevrolet Central Office shops to be sort of "oppressive", and it was hard to get your regular job done, much less the special stuff.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

Production records indicate otherwise, and show ONE SD-455 A-body was built with functional Ram Air. I assume it was a factory engineering car and is long gone.

We had a couple pickup trucks combinations like that, too.

Total production volume was 2 units - and they were both Powertrain emissions certification vehicles.

K

[Chief of the 60's]

Production records have been known to be wrong before.

[stuta]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

It does exist and restored by PY member Bentwheel Bob, now since sold...455HO, M22 4-spd, AC, black on black as from the factory.

Dennis

Thanks for that update Dennis !

That picture blows me away...that's exactly how I remember the Formula when it was sitting on the floor of the Convention center in AC all those years ago.
Loved that car then, love and kick myself now for not making a "crazy purchase" for her.

Stu

[GT182]

Dataway, as far as I know, and can remember, there was no Formula "500" Firebird. When when I ordered my 79 Formula in November of 78 I saw nothing pertaining to a Formula 500 in any literature for the 79 Firebirds. And I checked all options carefully.

[242177P]

Originally Posted by dataway

Was there ever a "Formula 500" Firebird? Could swear I remember seeing a white second generation Firebird down in Daytona that had a "Formula 500" sticker and 455 badges.

Are there any rabid NASCAR fans in the Daytona area? Formula 400 + Daytona 500. Anywhere else, I'd be skeptical, but this sounds plausible. The real question I suppose, is who did it, the customer or the dealer?

[camerjeff]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Jeff, That is such a interesting LeMans...so you don't own it any longer? Any pictures of it? I have a '70 LeMans 4-dr sedan (350 2-bbl) with the factory M20 trans, 3.23 posi, in-dash tach/gauges, sport (wood) steering wheel with manual steering, and PDB's. It's the only one we know of so far, and don't know if PMD made others, but I imagine there were a few that were made.

Dennis

I still have it at my storage unit about 2 hours away, havent done anything with it in 10 years. It is a factory 400 4-speed car, bench seat floor shift, Rally gauges with Tic Tock Tach, A/C, Power windows, Lock's, & bench seat, Tilt column, Sport steering wheel, and standard 14'" rims with dog dish Hub caps.

It is also a 2 seat wagon. with the rear window defogger (blower ) in the rear hatch. And to top it off it was an export car to Germany. Judging by the USAF parking stickers on the front bumper it was owned by a Bomber or Tanker air crew member.

Here are some very old pictures from shortly after I brought it home from AZ, the car did have a roof rack originally, but it was missing. I did find the original IBT shifter in the rear storage area. PO had installed a Hurst Indy with the shift levers installed upside down that reversed the 1-2 & 3-4 gear positions on the H pattern.

[poncho-mike]

Originally Posted by Elarson

A friend of ours is the second owner of a '74 SD-455 Trans Am, auto with a column shift. The original buyer said that he ordered the car without a console and the only way they could build it that way was to do a column shift.
Eric

I have a 1970 T/A auto with a/c and column shift. If you ordered a tape deck or deluxe interior, you got the console automatically. But with standard interior, it was an option.

My 70 T/A is heavily documented, still have the paperwork where the deal was struck and the car ordered while the buyer was still driving the trade-in. The buyer was shocked when itthe car arrived with column shift, and tried to force the dealership to convert to floor shift at their expense. The dealership wouldn't do convert for free, but would convert at his expense. He owed the car for probably 12 years before finally selling it, but he wasn't a happy camper.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by necdb3

I don't think that's the same car. Steve bought that car out of Canada. Bob bought it from Steve. Unless the buyer shipped it to Canada. I owned a 72 F455 cardinal red/ black 4spd with air back then also.

There are at least 2 Blk/Blk (special paint) 72 455HO 4spd Formula's known of via PY Members.
The other example was sold new in SilverSpring,Maryland with 25 options.
The Canadian example has 33 options.

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Hmmm...This car lived in CA up until 2008(?) when John Chung bought it out of the northern CA area to his home in TX. My brother and I bought it from him back in April 2011. Maybe the same one your remembering???

Dennis

Probably same car. Same color combo.. and it was for sale in northern CA. It was advertised for I think in the $2500 range. I remember practicing a lot of self restraint by not going after it.

[jmt455]

I think a collector i know just bought this 75 Grand Ville.


I was surprised to see adjustable pedals on the option list:




That was a new one to me!

[camerjeff]

Thats a new one to me also! I see it also has the power front seat back release, so you don't have to reach down for the release lever to tilt the seat back forward, very well equipped GV!

[necdb3]

Originally Posted by jmt455

I think a collector i know just bought this 75 Grand Ville.
Attachment 562514

I was surprised to see adjustable pedals on the option list:
Attachment 562515

Attachment 562516

That was a new one to me!

Was this the one at VOLO?

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by jmt455

I was surprised to see adjustable pedals on the option list:

I believe 1974-1976 were the only years for that option. Big car only, not on wagons for 1976 per the literature. Rather unusual to see after all these years.