Found my third gen unicorn
 

Edit- I apologize in advance for this being so long. For some reason ‘I wanted one of these for a long time’ didn’t seem to cut it.


This is one I have waited on for a loooong time!

In college (‘95-‘00) I worked the summer of 95 at a Nissan dealer to be able to afford a nice enough car to go to school in TX while my parents were stationed at the Pentagon. Only a Firebird would do- I ended up with a Flame Red Metallic 87 GTA, 350 tuned port with a digital dash. It was beautiful! When I got to Sam Houston State to meet up with my best friend from high school (Rob) he showed up in a black ‘88 Formula 350 tuned port car. We couldn’t have felt cooler! In a sea of 5.0’s we were known as the two dudes with the TA’s. Damn did we have fun with those cars.

As you would expect we pretty much ruined them. Everything super chips or TPIS sold was on those cars. We hung out at a stereo/speed shop so they eventually got big stereos, neon, lowered and so on and so on.

Rob and I were like twins- looked the same, both loved Trans Ams and GTO’s, Smokey and the Bandit and Dazed and Confused. We LOVED our third gens, the only thing better than our cars was the elusive yellow Formula 350 with the throwback stripes. It was even better than the Jamaica yellow 92 GTA. We both loved yellow cars - I had my yellow ‘65 Grand Prix and he had his yellow ‘76 TA. We always thought it would be cool to get a Formula in yellow- but there just weren’t that many available. We didn’t want the yellow ‘86 TA, we didn’t want the 305 Formula and definitely did not want T tops.

I honestly don’t think we ever saw one out in the wild.

I think the best guess is less than 100 made in ‘87 and like 60 something cars built in ‘88. ‘88 has actual production numbers- but I think its safe to say there are less than 100 around today. Probably less than 50.

I’ve looked at several on eBay over the years and almost gave in on a 305 T top car. It had the look, just wasn’t perfect. Well, earlier this year my dad sent me a post of a yellow Formula 350 for sale in Indiana with 48,000 miles. I was in AZ for work and immediately changed my flight to meet him in Dayton and go look at the car.

The car was nice, but the terrible 80’s paint had faded at all different rates, there had been some paint work done….. it was not the low mile car I flew across the country for. However- the car had absolutely no rust, none at all. No significant accidents we could find and had a new set of 88+ Formula wheels (my preference) and tires. The owner wanted it to go to a good home so we talked about our collection and how it fits in. A deal was struck while we were at the TA Nationals and the car was on its way to Houston the next week.

After receiving the car it needed a tune up and new injectors. Ultimately I would like to add headers and a looser converter. I picked up a mint pair of black FlowFit seats for my Saleen, but they may find their way into this car. I took it to my friends shop and he painted it immediately- I think the car was done in 10 days? He knew how long I had been looking for this one and really took care of me.

I installed the decals and just couldn’t get over how amazing it looked. Everything about it is right! I will do a few things to it- add Trans Am tail lights (already have them), LED parking lights and of course two 12’s in the back to jam Biggie, Puff Daddy, Dre and Slim Shady!

Thanks for riding down memory lane with me. Rob passed several years ago but I know he would love it just as much as I do!

Here are a few pics my friend took last week

Here is a pic of my GTA at our shop we hung out at

Aaaaaaaaaand after I dropped it buy cutting the coils (too far) but Damn did it look cool!

That was Robs light blue S10 Blazer- surprisingly a lot of fun!

Loved hearing this story. It looks great! We’re roughly the same age, so I totally get it. Some cars just stick with you. I went through a similar search to find my Comp T/A. Itch scratched.

I think my 3rd gen choice is a light blue metallic ‘91 Formula 350. I looked at a used one when I was in college but made the practical choice on a new ‘95 S10. My son loves GTAs, so maybe there’s a 3rd gen in our future at some point.

Of all the cars I've owned, the one I miss the most is a 1964 Buick Riviera dual quad 425. I bought it in 1976 at age 19 and drove it until about 1980 when I parked it. I was in college at the time and just couldn't afford it. I stashed it in a barn, and finally sold it around 1992 when I needed funds for a new house after being relocated with my job. I've seen a few nice early Rivieras here and there, but few dual quad cars. In 1964, the dual quad 425 was an optional engine, but in 1965 it only came in the Riviera Gran Sport. I came close to buying a 65 Riv Gran Sport in the early 2000s, but didn't pull the trigger. I regret it now.

Flame Red was a great color! Buddy painted his 70 Camaro that color! One of my receptionists bought a new 1988 GTA that color.

That's a great story and a great looking Formula! And I agree, the '88-up wheels look so much better than the 1987 units.

I, too, am a third-gen Formula fan. I wrote about the '90 Formula 350 we had here:

https://www.pontiacv8.com/blog/2018/...-third-gen-fan

A '91-92 Firehawk is one I want own to own someday...

congrats on the "new" Formula 350!
Those are for sure neat cars, and I am in the same boat as you, for those cars yellow is the best colour.

My uncle (only ten years older than me) had an '88 GTA (it was a metallic burgandy car; it was a 305/digital dash car; fully loaded) - I absolutely loved that car.
At family get togethers, it wouldn't be unusual for me to sit at my grnad parent's living room window and stare at it...
My Uncle got married in 1994(?), and traded it against a four door ho-hum green 1995 Grand Am when they were expecting their first son.

Years later I met my uncle's first cousin (who I refer to as my (second) cousin) - at that time he still had his '87 GTA that he bought brand new - his was the same colour as my Uncle's, but instead of leather, it had red volour interior (I prefer cloth), instead of the "disney" dash, it had special order(?) analog gauges, and to top it off, it had the 350.
He ended up selling the car a couple years later, but it's still around here - a local who is in the local Firebird club owns it.

Great story and nice score.

I'm finding those third gens more appealing everyday as there aren't that many around anymore - especially nice ones!

My best friend and I had identical 87 trans ams in high school we beat those things like crazy. I also had a white 69 bird convertible and he had a white 70 lemans sport . We were maniacs in those cars. Lost our licenses several times street racing.
I ended up rolling my 69 convertible and sold off what was left of my 87 TA. .built a nice 69 convertible yellow pictured from the white 69. That was the start of 21 69 firebirds I’ve owned.
Had all kinds of other stuff lifted jeeps. All kinds of fun cars but the most fun may have been those 87 TAs

Thanks everyone

Rocky that was a great article you wrote. You nailed on these cars becoming collectible….. see Bring a Trailer.com for reference.

I wish I still had that 87 GTA, but like most I sold it when I was graduating college to lease a new truck. The guy I sold it to drove it like he was playing the video game outrun with a stack of quarters. He lived in the same apartment complex and it was hard to watch. Those years of Mobil 1, scotch guard on the seats and Meguires yellow wax were long gone.

I am torn on the seats in the car, they are not the nice seats that the GTA’s and Trans Am’s had, but there aren’t bad. The Flow Fit seats would be a nice period correct mod though.

My friend that took the pics (actually my friends son) said it might be his new favorite to drive. He’s 20 and was amazed how well it handled in stock form and how torquey they made the TPI motor feel.

My dad bought a few other third gens when they were trailer park cars but as Ken said, none of them scratched the itch. The 89 Turbo car is amazing, but drives completely different than a TPI car. The 86 Iroc is dark red ( I don’t think it’s the same as flame red metallic) and it’s a Camaro. The 91 TA is a convertible and while cool, just doesn’t drive anywhere near the way this Formula does.

I really couldn’t be happier with the car. I will get the AC fixed and have already replaced most of the missing little plastic interior pieces. I may not even put headers on it. It has manga flow exhaust on it that sounds good. I mean if it’s a 15 second car now is it really with headers and a converter to make it a 14.40 car that my daughters 6 cyl mustang can beat?

Awesome story, and super cool 3rd gen!

I love the 3rd gen TAs, Formulas and Irocs. That yellow is pretty damn rare, and sharp looking.

Great stories and great acquisition! You got a pretty good friend there that turned around that paint in 10 days.

Bucket list car for sure. The 1LE cars are neat too. Both of those are already $$. What’s cool about this Formula is that it’s a regular production car with an unusual combo rather than something that was limited from the get go.

Can’t wait to see you enjoy the hell out of this car.

I would love to have a 3rd gen Firehawk but I think that ship has sailed for me unless I want to sell a few cars.

It’s been a lot of fun just taking this car on local errands. I’ve been stopped a few times asking if it was a special edition. I guess yellow was just a little too loud for most people when it came out. It’s the car they used to advertise it so they clearly thought it would be popular. I’m not sure if you could get it on anything except a Formula.

I’ve never had a problem with bright cars- but I can imagine most people are hesitant when buying new and agreeing to pay for it over time.

I'm liking the 67 Tempest in that pic of your car at the stereo shop....just sayin'

There’s a 3rd gen firehawk near me that sits outside on the side of a house, I really really don’t need another car but man I want to rescue it.

That Tempest was a beast!

In all honesty that was probably a 13 second car.

Oh!
The period Pontiac "sports seats"! (I probably have thier name wrong)
Those seats are awesome;
They were standard fare in GTA's, but could also be found in Turbo Sunbirds, and for a couple years, were optional in Grand Am's!
I think I might have two sets of them tucked away right now...
(yes, I am hopeless)

The next best were period Fiero seats - no adjustability like the "GTA" seats, but sat better than those base Firebird/Grand Am/Sunbird ect seats.
The base seats worked, but there was room for improvement.

Those "GTA" seats were sightly tweaked but carried forward in the Firebirds for several years... but most were not grey cloth.

I secretly want a turbo sunbird every time I see one in a junkyard. But only with the half flip up lights.

Lol.

You're in a safe place.

It's been more than a decade since I have seen one in a scrapyard.

They were neat cars, but if you put a same year Grand Am beside it, you will realize why the 1985+ GA's were some of the highest volume selling cars of thier time;
IIRC the Subird's 2.0L Turbo drivetrain was available to 1987-1989 Grand Am's - but starting in 1988 the Quad4 was also available - and they were faster ;)

Had a 3rd gen TA (LG4) which handled pretty nicely, but was obviously slow. Much preferred my 4th gen 97 WS6 Ram Air TA.

Nice! I had a 1988 Maui Blue Formula 350. Totally stripped car. No options at all. No cruise, no power windows, it did have AC because it wasn't a 1LE. I always thought that car handled better than my 99 Trans Am. It was a fun car. I put a SLP Two On the Left exhaust on it and man it sounded so good. Miss that car. Prices on mint ones are now through the roof.

Mr GTO just reminded me that I have an extra SLP two on the left set up that I bought as a spare for my 95 Firehawk.

Oh man that would really look right on this car! I planned on saving it but omg that would add to the cool factor of the car.

And if you can find them they are stupid expensive. I Magnaflow with a similar pipe set up would work but that 2OTL sounds so damn good. :D There are clips on YouTube of the exhaust set up. I remember leaving my college campus in the mid 90's after I graduated and driving up the main drag and seeing a lot of people look at the car as I drove by.

drool...
:oogle:

This is my Firehawk next to my dads 89 TTA at the Trans Am nationals several years ago. This car has seen 186,000 miles of pure abuse. It’s a 6 speed hardtop car with full bolt on’s and headers. It’s a fun mid 13 sec car.

awesome!
I think the 93-97 Firehawk / 96-97 Formula WS6 is the best looking of the fourth gen cars;
If I were to add one to my (already full) little garage, it would have to be a cloth interior, six speed hard top (read: no t-roof).

I worked at a small Buick/Pontiac dealership in 1993. They still had posters up from the 3rd gen F-bodies in addition to the new 93's coming out. One of the posters was a yellow Formula. We had a customer that was passing through town from out of state that had a check engine light come on. His car was identical to the poster. He talked to the sales manager about the poster, and they gave it to him. The sales manager and the customer both knew that the yellow F-body was a low production number car then.

That 95 Firehawk was incredibly light on its feet. Being a hard top it felt very solid and being a six speed it was easy and fun to toss around. With the headers, cat delete and a few other add ons it drove similar to a LS WS6 car but felt smaller if that makes any sense?

Very cool story about the yellow Formula poster- that’s awesome. Hard to believe they advertised it so much but sold so few. I wonder if that was by design? You rarely saw them sitting on lots.

Here are a few more pics my friend finished editing.

I think it was a typical advertising tactic to use a more flamboyant(?) colour to advertize a given performance car;
the advertisement would get noticed on the merits of flamboyancy, and then people would order a more sedate version of the car.

as a side note, I still have the magazine somewhere;
The fourth gen WS6 mule was a yellow Formula and iirc yellow was only available on the fourth gen for 1993 & 2002;
So the WS6 mule was a 1993 model year research and design (Pontiac owned) car.

Correction, 1994, not 1993.

Nice Formula and I especially like the rims and rear spoiler. I had a 90 red Firebird with a V-6 but it had the aeropackage with it. Those rubber bumpers front and back kind of distract from the Formulas and stock Firebirds in my opinion. The running lights in the aeropackage just gave it a sleeker look. The biggest problem I found with my 3rd gen is the rear end is just so light. In the slightest rain the rear end would walk out even with the little v-6 motor.
https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-te...bird-thumb.jpg

I get it.

The Tran Am was made to stand out (in an age of zero decals/stripes) from the "lesser" cars via the hood and ground effects;
With the Formula's return, it paid homage to the second gen Formulas, in that they were by all outward appearance (except for the hood) a dead ringer for a base model car;
By the time the GTA package came out, a "regular" Trans Am would have filled the spot of a buyer who might have previously wanted a Formula, AND wanted some of the aero parts.

I liked that the Formula package came back (although at first I was ignorant to it because I was only ten in 1987) - and by the time the fourth gen debuted, I absolutely knew how to tell them all apart.
I loved how the fourth gen "Trans Am" tail lamps found their way to the Formula as a singular body-panel-distinction from the base cars - just like the hoods were the distinction for second and third gen cars BUT most have forgotten that the filler between the tail lamps was different for all three models;
"Firebird" for base cars
"Formula" for Formula's
"Trans Am" for Trans Am's
I attribute the fact that so few know of this to the fact that the imprint faded with time.

Can I show mine off? :) This is our 87. It was my wife's first car back in 91. Her dad and I picked it out for her. I even took her to prom in it. It's been totalled once, repainted twice, and has lots of miles. Right now it has the motor from my first car (327 from a 68 impala). Edelbrock heads and efi. It currently lives a life of luxury in the garage.

Damn that is a nice looking car.the bumper pads blend right in looking much sleeker.

Details please;
Auto or stick?
Did it start out as a 305 car?
iirc 1987 was the last year you could get a carburetor - although I am unclear on which 305's were available to the Formula...

Both the TBI and TPI were available in the Formula.

It was a carb'd 305 with 700r4. I kept the CCC carb set up for years even on the 327. I eventually burned a chip that used the ZZ4 ignition curve/knock sensor but ignored any mixture adjustment. This allowed me to use a non cc carb but still use the computer for ignition and TCC control. When I switched to edelbrock heads, I couldn't find an intake that sealed well but still fit under the hood. So I ended up with edelbrock proflo4 setup. I still have the original motor. It's a bit of an oddball. TPI heads, roller cam, 1 year only intake with the carb. This car is from Norwood as well, which I think this was the last year for that plant.

Went and found a post I made back on 2/11/2012 (!) about a 1992 1LE.
Post was:
I have never posted in this section before, but I do have some knowledge of 92 F-cars.
I almost bought one new. I will take you back to Friday, January 24th, 1992:

I had a 87' Formula 350; I had bought it off of a close friend who was sort of a silver-spoon kid, he had the car bought new for him. He rarely drove it, and I bought it in the fall of 90' with about 4400 miles on it. By the date above, the car had about 24K on it.
I lived in the NW suburbs of Chicago, but was going out for the typical Friday night with some friends; they lived in Oak Lawn, IL - south suburbs. I left the car in front of their house and let a buddy drive. Short story on that - the car was stolen that night.

Now, as a purely "therapeutic" reaction, before my buddies drove me home the next day, I visited (2) Pontiac dealers. A salesman at an Oak Lawn area dealer had to research what I wanted (he did call me later the next week saying what I wanted could be ordered), but at Sullivan Pontiac in Arlington Heights (where my 87' was bought new) - YES, if I wanted a 1LE I could get one. Additionally, I found that I could have ordered all of the other power options - just not A/C. At the time, I already knew of the 1LE package.
I was going to get a 350 Formula 1LE, dark green, with either tan cloth or leather interior and all options including 1LE and no A/C. In the end, I wanted to stay with older stuff and just save money - I had a 72 GP at the time also. There wound up being only 12 92' Formulas built with 350s and 1LE. I think all of the T/As that had 1LE were 305-5spd cars. This was as close as I ever got to ordering a car new, except for (2) of my wife's cars.

Back to today:
My 87 was a very high option car. From what I have researched, it didn't have the touch-control stereo (but did have the sub-woofer option), no 4-way manual seat.
The leather appointment group might have been an option but my car didn't have it. I have seen (1) 87 Formula at a car show that did - the group included leather-wrapped steering wheel, shifter handle and parking brake handle. It had everything else - p/windows, p/locks, p/mirrors, cruise, deluxe interior, etc.

Photos of my Red over Silver 87 Formula 350 - from its "funeral".
State Farm had already paid me, and I did not have the space to buy the car from the salvage yard and fix it.
For being a GM car of the 80s - it was a good car.
The one thing it needed was the valve-stem oil seal fix; after sitting for a bit, it would always puff blue smoke upon startup.

I didn't want to make this about my loss!
1965GP - while I am not into yellow, congrats on a GREAT FIND!

/\ bummer!

Thanks for the story :)

It seems there is lots of good information on 3rd generation Formulas (Formulae?) - here:

https://www.3rdgenformula.com/main_menu.htm

Per the "87 history" section, it seems that the 4-way manual seat had some sort of availability issue, so less that, the NP5 leather group (possibly) and touch-control stereo - my departed 350 had every available option for a US-market car. Sigh.

Compnine.com will show option breakdowns for Canadian Market (Z49) cars before 1990, generally. For example, there were only THREE Formulas that had the LB9 TPI 305 and 5spd - all were C41 (A/C delete) and the only one that was a hardtop was YELLOW. There were 655 Formulas shipped to Canada. The 350 was not available in Canada.

Here’s another pic we took- more details on the 72 coming to follow….

If it was closer…. But it needs a lot of work.

Here’s a question- we have a 91 TA convertible. I believe they were all 305 automatic cars. Most of the Firebird convertibles I see are 305 cars with the ground effects. What was the benefit of the TA? I guess the wheels and suspension along with the TPI?

Beautiful!