I'll spare you guys why I ended spending my entire life in racing and the car industry. .
So I'll somewhat fast forward and laser focus only on the Pontiacs ( because I own and like other brands too).
As a kid I truly appreciated "The Rockford files" then "Smokey and the bandit" made me want a TA.
One of the movies that I knew every lines by the age of 12 was "Slap Shot". To this day I still lust over owning Reggie Dunlop's 1970 GTO Gold/ Black Vinyl top, 4 speed, maybe not the movie car but ill build a clone and I would blast Maxine Nightingale's " Right back where we started " or "A Little bit of Saskatoon" in the 8 track....
When I was 14 one of my best friend's was a true gearhead , they had a huge garage at home, his das was a me hani
and his entire neiborhood was filled with automotive tradesmen.
He had a soft spot for Pontiacs, my I wanted Camaro and Corvettes. When we were 16 he was driving a very clean black on red 79 Lemans built like a Grand Am. I had a white 1980 Z/28.
One nigh we borrowed his dad's S15 pick up and a Uhaul car dolley because he had bought a reddish 1978 Trans Am project advertised in the Auto Trader
magazine.
The car was 4 hours drive away, when we got there it was quite rusted and the red paint was quite faded along with the black chicken on the hood ( northeast car).
But the freakin's stance that car had, parked in the weeds , the shaker hood, 255 60 15s on 8" snowflakes all around , Hadtop, and a swapped 455 and 4 speed in it.,
Opened the driver door to discove the hurst T handle, black velvet buckets and the machined dash bezel....
I told myself that my Z28 was just a pale version of what this TA was all about.
I think that was the car that somewhat sealed the deal for me when it comes to Ponchos
The kicker is my friend kept the car maybe 2 months and sold it back when he realized how much bodywork the car needed... He never told me he was selling it , pretty sure he didnt want me to buy it lol
Peter
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