[71formula455]

Originally Posted by njsteve

That is one hell of a stable . . yeah I'm jealous. . congrats Steve.

Both of those colors are very underrated/overshadowed for 70-73 fbodys (minus white TAs of course).

[carnut4life]

Beautiful contrast Steve, congratulations finding the SD you've been dreaming about. That is one amazing car! Are you keeping the 72 so you have something to work on since the SD is sooo nice?

[transam1972]

when I clicked on the e bay link I was totally amazed by that car, one of the finest examples of an original Pontiac performance car I have ever seen..i also live in NJ and on Aug 27th I sold my house and finally have the cash I need to finish a car i bought in 1985..i am actually looking for a 36ft RV but should i have considered more..would it really be that uncomfortable sleeping in a Formula?..all the best Steve on your new car..you definitely deserve it ..original beats restored hands down everytime..I am so jealous of the condition one could feel like giving up, hope I get over it.. anyone else agree that Steves car is the best of PY forum!!

[transam1972]

when I clicked on the e bay link I was totally amazed by that car, one of the finest examples of an original Pontiac performance car I have ever seen..i also live in NJ and on Aug 27th I sold my house and finally have the cash I need to finish a car i bought in 1985..i am actually looking for a 36ft RV but should i have considered more..would it really be that uncomfortable sleeping in a Formula?..all the best Steve on your new car..you definitely deserve it ..original beats restored hands down everytime..I am so jealous of the condition one could feel like giving up, hope I get over it.. anyone else agree that Steves car is the best of PY forum!!

[Brewster]

We all new it when we saw the ad closed so quick. Congrats Steve in appears to be a very nice dry car. Wish you many happy miles with it!
Cheers, B

[blue71ta]

Originally Posted by njsteve

So is the consensus that the center area in the horn pad should be black on a Firebird and not woodgrained (like on the A-body)?

the woodgrain on the center area was on the 1972 model year cars. 1973 & '74 got the smooth, black parts. Not trying to beat a dead horse, just trying to help...

[njsteve]

Thanks. Now I know exactly what to hunt for.

[gto4door]

You might want to consider removing the woodgrain from your 1972 wheel. Underneath the woodgrain is smooth black plastic. The woodgrain is a tin covering/skin that can be popped off. Try it with one of the three horn buttons and you will see what I mean. Just take your time so that you do not end up bending the tin wood grain too much to where you can't use it again.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by blue71ta

the woodgrain on the center area was on the 1972 model year cars. 1973 & '74 got the smooth, black parts. Not trying to beat a dead horse, just trying to help...

Some of us need all the help we can get sometimes ... thanks for "steering" us.

Did some google Image searches on "73 firebird interior" last night -
saw 1 red interior/wheel , and 2 saddle interior/wheels -
with the Black inner prongs , and i think all the horn buttons were Black too .

They look odd and i don't remember seeing them at all from back when - but must be the right deal from the faktry.
The wood grain would look nice with saddle and the dash bezel - but if it aint right - it aint right .

[njsteve]

Stay tuned 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.....

[OVERULD]

What BVZ always says!

WOW - this just keeps on gettin' better!



BJ

[RicksGTO]

That's incredible! Who would have thought he kept the wheel all these years when he sold the car 30 years back! Based on the way the car looks after 40 years I'm going to bet the wheel with no miles on it is like NOS. Glad it turned out to be the right guy! Maybe you can get together with him someday soon, what a great magazine article that would make!

[Norwood]

Steve you have to be the luckiest man in the world

[njsteve]

Thanks to the assistance of a PerformanceYears.com member (RicksGTO) who happened to search the internet and found that there is only one Enrico Stein in the entire universe and that he lives in Arizona but used to live in Port Washington, NY, I was able to spend a magical hour talking to the man that ordered my 1973 Formula SD455, brand new.

Enrico has been a car guy all his life. In 1968 he bought the very first BMW 2002 that arrived in the US for around $2,000. Several years later he wanted to upgrade to a 2002 TII but none of the BMW dealers wanted to give him a break from the $6,000 price tag on the car.

Being the consummate car-guy, Enrico read all the latest car magazines and found out that a 310 horsepower Super Duty engine was going to be available in the upcoming 1973 Firebird. So he went around to the local Pontiac dealerships and asked about ordering the car. He was given the runaround and told that the engine wasn’t available.

Not satisfied with this answer, Enrico called the very same magazine writer who wrote the test drive article on the 310 horsepower Super Duty engine and got some insider info on the cars. He was told that there was an administrative hold on building the cars at the moment and that if they were going to be built it would be during the last two weeks of the model year in late summer, 1973.

With that info in pocket, Enrico went to Suburban Pontiac in Glen Head, New York and found a newly minted car salesman (who just happened to be a former dress salesman who was laid off from his prior job). The salesman took his order but the big-wig, zone managers in New York City said that they would not accept any orders for the Super Duty. Not taking no for an answer, Enrico hunted them down and told them in no uncertain terms that they will order his car, and they will do it now. (At the time, Enrico was 6’8” tall and 280 lbs.). The zone promptly allowed the order to go through.

It seems that Enrico was so “convincing” in his negotiations with upper management, that Suburban Pontiac was able to order a second Super Duty Formula for another young man. (This second car is known, and still exists). That car arrived shortly after Enrico’s car was delivered. This caused much consternation among all the other Pontiac dealers in the zone, concerning how one little dealership on Long Island could get two Super Duty Firebirds when the other big dealers got none.

When Enrico ordered his car, he was told it would be delivered with the fiberglass, twin scooped Formula hood. It arrived, of course, with the Trans Am shaker unit in its place. He was told that this was due to the drive-by noise regulations that were in place by the time the cars were built.

I asked Enrico about the tires on the car and he said that the car came with the infamous Firestone 500 radials. He mentioned that the car always had a severe pull to the left when he drove it. No matter what was done with the alignment, the pull would not go away. It wasn’t until much later when he replaced the tires that the pull magically disappeared. Enrico said that when the recall came out for the 500s, only the tires made after 1975 were listed. That is why his tires stayed with the car. I mentioned to him that there are four, not five Firestone 500s still with the car and he said that when he sold the car to a California collector in 1986, the collector’s driver insisted on driving the car from Arizona to California. Enrico warned him that he should buy newer tires for the car and reminded him that the 500’s were recalled. The guy didn’t listen and in the middle of night out in the desert wastelands between Arizona and California, one of the 500’s exploded. Luckily the car was not damaged.

I also asked about the front valance and was told that the car was delivered with the polyethylene front valance but it cracked soon thereafter and Enrico had the dealer replace it with the steel valance.

When the subject of what steering wheel came on the car originally came up, Enrico said he know exactly what wheel it came with because it was currently sitting in his garage, in the very same box that the Formula wheel that is on the car now, came in. He then asked me for my address so he could make sure it was reunited with the car!

He also asked if the paint flaw in the fender was still there? I confirmed that it was – there is a weird raised line and pieces of fuzz in the paint along the mid portion of the front fender near the headlight. It looks like an air hose for the paint gun was dragged over the wet paint. Enrico said the car was delivered that way and that it was never fixed.

Enrico owned the car from 1973 to 1986 when it was sold to a collector out in California. That collector had it until 1991 when he sold it to the man in New Jersey from whom I bought it. While in Enrico’s hands, the car never saw any winter use. After two years, he and the car moved out to Arizona where he and his wife have lived ever since.

As an aside, Enrico mentioned that the car had been stolen and recovered once. He was at work one day at a large marina when he got a call from the local AAMCO transmission shop manager who asked what he wanted done with his car? Enrico replied: “What the hell are you talking about?” The AAMCO guy then said that his car was there and wanted to know what work he wanted done to it. Enrico was always getting pestered by people about selling is car whenever it was parked in front of the marina. It turned out that one of these pesterers was a car thief who contacted the local Pontiac dealer and pretended to be the owner who lost his keys. The Pontiac dealer happily made the thief a new set. The thief then brought the keys to the AAMCO shop and told them that “his” car was broken down in front of the local marina and needed to be towed to the shop for work. The AAMCO guys happily sent a rollback and picked the car up. The only fly in the ointment was the AAMCO manager calling Enrico before the thief could come down to the AAMCO shop to pick up the car. When the disinterested AAMCO manager said that he was closing up for the day, Enrico told him “Oh no, you’re not! - That is my car and you just stole it.” Enrico then gathered up a bunch of guys from the marina and went there and immediately repossessed his own car. Sitting in the ashtray was the freshly made set of GM keys that the thief had left for later. From that point on, Enrico would park the car in the back of the marina. When the owner complained, Enrico told him that he was parking it there and if they didn’t like that, they could fire him now. They wisely backed down.

I feel very privileged to have had the chance to talk with Enrico. He is now around 80 years young and he is truly a unique person and a major car guy from the age of two (according to him). He has a photographic memory about every car he has ever owned. He also has a file on every car as well. He mentioned that he has photos of the car from when it was new and all sorts of paperwork as well.

Enrico is retired and still has a bunch of collector cars and motorcycles and is very involved with them. He also asked if I was interested in selling to car back to him. I told him that if I do, he is definitely first on the list.

[johnta1]

Awesome!

What a great story and history.

[Held for Ransom]

Great story.
My steering wheel pic was retrieved from another hard drive. So, good to hear on your "new" steering wheel.

Does the file have a build sheet?

[RamAir]

Amazing Steve, the story just keeps getting better. It seems the car was destined to be yours. A great lesson in perseverance.

[gto4door]

That is great that you got to talk to Enrico Stein. I hope you asked him to send you pictures of the car when it was new.

[Pepi]

Cool story, nice to be able to get information like that, like how he ordered it and the front valance replacement.

[RicksGTO]

Great story Steve, glad I could help on finding him! Whitepages.com is very helpful and made it pretty easy especially with his unusual name! Sounds like he really does have a near photographic memory, will be great to see what other pics and documents he has kept on file.