[Baron Von Zeppelin]

WoW Steve

Extra super cool to find the original owner and him still have such vivid memories.
Everything he said is spot on with what most of us have been able to construct about 73 SD's .

I'm also guessing too, that he really wanted the twin scoop .
He could have had an almost identical TA for same money .

About half of the 73 Auto SD's were ordered that way because they wanted AC.
Mine was in that category too.

i know the good man who owns my 73SDTA now would have loved a shot at your Formula.
Especially with them being same colors, he has been looking for a 73 SDformula too.

Dealers and Zoners didn't like handling cancelled orders and refunds, and dealing with displeased unhappy customers.
The SD program went up and down for months and months.
A lot of orders were cancelled during the wait .
They had about 500 orders when Herb Adams made his last stand with Brass .
By the time Brass finally went ahead - a lot of those had gotten cancelled .
Less than 300 total built .
That is the reason on the business end of dealers/zoners taking or not taking the orders.

Anybody could have gotten one - if they REALLY wanted one and had patience and a cooperating dealer - when all was said and done.
My original owner said a minimum $500 deposit had to be in hold .
He waited for about 4 months in limbo and almost cancelled .

i wouldn't doubt that a decent percentage of the earlier original orders were for dealer inventory that were cancelled as time wore down thinner and thinner on the model year calender.

Has been said that in the end , no dealer inventory or zone inventory cars were built during the short production run.

Hope somehow someday Enrico is able to reunite with his car.
That would be mighty awesome.

Thanks for sharing all this with us Steve .
Been a great story all the way - cross between a romance novel and a fairy tale -
except all non-fiction .
The attempted theft was WILD

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

more pics of the [fugly] 73-74 Standard and Deluxe steering wheels.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

.... Anybody could have gotten one - if they REALLY wanted one and had patience and a cooperating dealer - when all was said and done. ,,,,

To keep that in better context -
Within at least 500 units - anybody could have gotten one .
There ended up being room for about 200 more takers .

[njsteve]

I pulled this off the Firebird today and was wondering if it is a reproduction or an original AC filter from way back. (If so that worries me if it has been running the same oil filter for 40 years)

[njsteve]

Enrico "Rick" Stein emailed me this evening. Here's what he said:


"Dear Steve,
Printed your e-mail this morning and impelled to write back. As I write this it is 9:45 a.m. MST here in Scottsdale and raining.

The sight of the old girl in your enclosed photos brought tears to my eyes. To me it is almost incredible that in all the years since I let her go none of the successive owners has attempted to "improve" on the factory original. I can tell from the photo of the rear that even the chrome exhaust tips are exactly where I put them. Additionally, your conformation of the slight flaw in the paint on the right front fender confirms that this car is a rare original, never restored or molested by an ignorant owner.

While I never had what is commonly referred in the collecting hobby as the "build sheet" or a "broadcast sheet" I will put my provenance on the car against anybody. In this case photo memory, total recall and obsessive compulsive syndrome serve as well.

Depending on class breakdown and other factors beyond your control you should easily win first place in Chicago.

In order to give you any edge that I can, along with the original steering wheel which, by the way, is in factory brand new condition I'm sending you the original window sticker as well as a original factory service manual. The steering wheel is being shipped in the factory original box that the Trans-Am steering wheel currently installed came in.

Any other pertinent data that I research from my files will follow when I've had a chance to go through them, Anything I can do to facilitate your beating the competition with "my car" let me know. I'll be happy to help.

Enrico A. Stein, Jr "Rick"

[njsteve]

What an amazing guy!

The exhaust tip story he is referring to is the fact that when the car was delivered it showed up with the tips looking cross-eyed, pointed heavily toward the center of the car and not straight out the back. He adjusted them so they point straight back (and incidentally rub the inner quarter on the passenger side.)

And the paint flaw consists of a weird couple of pieces of fuzz and hair in a line on the passenger side fender where the assembly line painter must have dragged the air line across the car when it was being painted.

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by njsteve

I pulled this off the Firebird today and was wondering if it is a reproduction or an original AC filter from way back. (If so that worries me if it has been running the same oil filter for 40 years)

Steve, we had NOS ones on the parts shelf for years. Last I saw in '82 there was still 20 or so from 6 cases that were bought in the early 70's It IS an original..probably not original to the car, but its vintage! Nice find! Chis has some repainted and PY sells the new 24's
PS you give your swifer duster away with your 72?? hehe you LUCKED out with white!!

[njsteve]

The original owner ID'd it as the one he installed in the late 1970's.

You bet the white is easier to keep clean! Before Bob's guys picked it up I washed the black car and then went to wash the white car. When I was done washing the white car, the black car was all dusty again.

[RamAir]

Steve got me thinking about my 72 T/A that is supposed to have the original spare tire & wheel. The story goes that the original lady owner didn't like the size of the spare since it didn't allow any trunk space. She removed the tire and placed it in her carport exposed to the Florida weather. The second owner kept the tire & wheel in his garage for 28 years prior to me buying the car. The DOT, sometime in 1970, established a different numbering system called "TIC". This system was utilized through sometime in '72. The first two digits being the date code. In this instance CD indicates the 12th week of 1971. This would coincides well with my 09C build date