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Old 05-12-2025, 10:47 PM
'ol Pinion head 'ol Pinion head is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: INJUN Territory, Red State Merica!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin View Post
Another thing I remember thinking when I saw the for sale ad was -
- why in the hell did the Miami guys go to the trouble to do those speedometers.

Had absolutely no idea there was ever a TA Specialties in business back in the 70's
I guess the guys in Miami bought out the namesake , or maybe any special parts still left , when they formed in Miami .

Ricky is a member here but seldom posts.
As far as I know they are still in business in Miami area.
He might have some interesting back story or history items of them too.
Why the custom speedo's with their company logo... own take is the "new" higher mph speedo looked better, & then there's the marketing factor, & finally the EGO factor of the builder. Doubt very seriously their 455 transplanted "Bandit" would do 140 with 3.08 rear gears.

Need to dig out the thin beige catalogue that TransAm Specialties originally offered. That catalogue was their first catalogue, not the expansive one HFR posted a link to including all the 3rd Gen stuff.

In '80 & into '81 the only water injection systems that were commonly avail were the Shelby-Spearco (horrid looking red squared off jug) setup. Edelbrock had just came out with a more sophisticated setup & looking at the later catalogue pics am betting the Edelbrock set-up is what Chuck Posey sourced. I bought a Shelby-Spearco water injection setup from HO Racing early on, & was given an Edelbrock system in early '82. Also had several different adjusted Hobbs switches. With all these pieces, experimented with water injection on two modded '80 Turbo T/A's. Eventually, late '81, for cleaner cosmetics under the hood of my '80, installed a '78 Bird washer jug (with the washer pump in the bottom).

Both setups were installed with the twin hole water injection spray nozzle along with the smallest restrictor "pellet" in the supply hose. Had mixed results even when mixing 50-50 methanol to water, that was running 91 octane Super. Eventually, I gave up on the water injection system & ran a mixture of 89 octane (barely leaded) & race fuel.

Looking back, I stumbled onto a factory washer jug & pump, & bought that first one at my local Pontiac dealer. Afterwards I began to frequent two large local late model GM Salvages where recent pulled washer jugs were typically piled up in pickup beds out the back door. Both of these late model yards weren't real keen on me wandering their yard, but they pointed me out back to their overflowing "stock" of washer jugs. At that time, also began buying traditional Pontiac shaker bases & lids. Similar deal, there would be over a hundred aircleaner bases & lids dropped in several pickup beds. I'd drop in several times a year & buy whatever they had.

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