[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Not your mom or your dad's car - your very own 73 SD car
What age ?

[kingbuzzo]

still aspiring...not getting any younger neither 😑

[Tellyshavilli]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

Not your mom or your dad's car - your very own 73 SD car
What age ?

Was 22 and purchased my 1973 TA red /black SD455 4 Spd .

[SD455DJ]

I bought my '73 Brewster Green 4-spd SD455 TA back in 1990 for $12.5k from a friend who needed money to finish building a new house. I was 35 years old at the time. He always had sellers' remorse and his wife cried when we trailered it away. The Trans Am was ordered by Don Ayers Pontiac in Ft. Wayne, IN to sit on their showroom floor for a month before selling to the highest bidder. The original owner traded a ’73 Corvette for it plus cash. It had 42,500 miles on it when I bought it and 46,500 miles when I sold it. It came with the original 15x7 Honeycomb wheels and I put my 15x7 JW Rally II’s/Goodyear Eagle ST’s for the American 200S Daisy wheels/Firestone Parnelli Jones tires.

I drove it as-is for 23 years before selling it in the fall of 2013 to a guy who had one brand new almost identically equipped as mine. The then 40 year old TA was rough around the edges and was definitely driven hard over the years and showed it. He had Darrell Davidson restore it with the only deviations being Rally II wheels replacing the original Honeycombs and adding the hood bird. My brother Dan rebuilt the original SD455 (.040 over and it’s 3rd rebuild!) reusing the original Y cam and lifters. It dynoed at 418 hp and 500 lb-ft torque through the factory exhaust manifolds and 2.5" mandrel bent headpipes from Pypes.

Dennis

[mgarblik]

65, two years ago! It's never too late.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

I was 25 in 1989 when I bought this jewel from the original owner .
It took every penny I could scrape up , and already had bought too many cars previously.
Even spent the rent
Think I even had to wait several weeks to afford processing the title and plating it afterwards.

Sold it 20 years later to a PY member in Miami and he still has it.

Telly is most more than likely going to be the youngest.
These cars only had a very very short window of depreciation - before my time.
I doubt very few were ever sold for below their window sticker value.

1989


1990


2009

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

1990 .... I was 35 at the time
Dennis

Great story Dennis
And thanks for sharing the vintage pictures !
Super Cool

[poncho-mike]

I was 32 when I bought my 73 SD.

I was 28 when I bought my 74 4-spd.

[muscle_collector]

i was 18 brewster green automatic no ac sold it a few years later. bought my second one white/burgandy auto loaded up in 1980 at 20 and just sold it to a friend about 4 years ago. bought my 3rd one red/ black auto no ac around 29 or 30 and still have it.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

i was 18 brewster green automatic no ac

Originally Posted by poncho-mike

I was 32 when I bought my 73 SD.

I was 28 when I bought my 74 4-spd.

18 y.o. with a Genuine Brewster the Rooster . Damn Gary

Forgot the rules in the first post -
- but the Rules say you have to post a vintage picture , preferably with you and vehicle .

pretty sure Mike still has both of his cars .

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by Tellyshavilli

Was 22 and purchased my 1973 TA red /black SD455 4 Spd .

Same Rules apply as above

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Some of you guys might have/had the same white Tshirt I was wearing in pic #2

It had front diagram of a 73 SD
and said
Mess with the Best

Rear diagram of the car , on the back of the shirt
Lose Like The Rest

[PAUL K]

I'm still this many days old and haven't owned a 73 SD. However when I was in Junior High I helped a friend restore a 73 SD he purchased from a garage sale. White on white, bird delete, custom interior non AC. We bought the last NOS crankshaft Nunzi had to sell. Most the other parts needed were available from GM. Except the correct plastic valence. There was a bus boy at a local restaurant that had a Firebird with the right valence. Made a deal to R&R his and paid him some money.

I purchased my first 74 SD when I was nineteen. I bought it from a Pontiac guy who was also selling a 72 455 HO LeMans that was yellow with a green vinyl top and white interior. He was asking the same price for both cars.

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

I bought my '73 Brewster Green 4-spd SD455 TA back in 1990 for $12.5k from a friend who needed money to finish building a new house. I was 35 years old at the time. He always had sellers' remorse and his wife cried when we trailered it away. The Trans Am was ordered by Don Ayers Pontiac in Ft. Wayne, IN to sit on their showroom floor for a month before selling to the highest bidder. The original owner traded a ’73 Corvette for it plus cash. It had 42,500 miles on it when I bought it and 46,500 miles when I sold it. It came with the original 15x7 Honeycomb wheels and I put my 15x7 JW Rally II’s/Goodyear Eagle ST’s for the American 200S Daisy wheels/Firestone Parnelli Jones tires.

I drove it as-is for 23 years before selling it in the fall of 2013 to a guy who had one brand new almost identically equipped as mine. The then 40 year old TA was rough around the edges and was definitely driven hard over the years and showed it. He had Darrell Davidson restore it with the only deviations being Rally II wheels replacing the original Honeycombs and adding the hood bird. My brother Dan rebuilt the original SD455 (.040 over and it’s 3rd rebuild!) reusing the original Y cam and lifters. It dynoed at 418 hp and 500 lb-ft torque through the factory exhaust manifolds and 2.5" mandrel bent headpipes from Pypes.

Dennis

Welp that's pretty cool! Did the guy you buy it from ever try to buy it back?

What did it run in the 1/4 mile?

[SD455DJ]

Thanks Paul! No, he didn’t ever ask to buy it back and we see him several times a year since the purchase. He always told fond street racing memories he had with the car. I believe he bought it (as the 3rd owner) in 1977 with a spun rod bearing. The 2nd owner was a kid that injured the engine, fortunately he stopped driving it and sold it immediately after that. The 3rd owner had the engine rebuilt (to .030” over) with lots of parts/kits from HO Racing. He had the HC-63 (?) SD Hi-lift cam with the RAIV specs with the recommended valve springs, Rhoades lifters, the carb & distributor kits, the “cross-flow” muffler (2 glass-packs welded together with steel straps)…a true HO Racing poster child. Sometime later in his ownership, he reinstalled the ‘Y’ factory cam and lifters to tame it down for his wife to drive. He drove it to the Car Craft Street Nationals in 1980 and 1981 (my brother took pictures of it there). His best story with the TA was when he beat the “Buick Brothers” in a street race who were unbeaten at the time in their ’70 Stage 1 GS. He did take it to the track where he only got a tire smoking 14.00 at 108 mph on those awful Firestone tires.

In the 1990’s I started collecting SD engine parts to build a pure stock SD455 for the pure stock drags. I was going to remove the numbers drivetrain and convert to an TH400 auto. I bought everything for the conversion (complete from Purely PMD…ah, the good old days!) but never pulled the trigger. I still have everything including NOS SD 16 heads and rods, 4-core auto factory radiator, etc.). I bought the NOS heads from the guy I bought the TA from. He also had plans to build a wicked street engine that never happened.

Here's the TA fresh from the restoration at the 2016 MCACN show.

I never did race it unfortunately. Sorry about the long post.

Dennis

[Tellyshavilli]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

Some of you guys might have/had the same white Tshirt I was wearing in pic #2

It had front diagram of a 73 SD
and said
Mess with the Best

Rear diagram of the car , on the back of the shirt
Lose Like The Rest

Somebody needs to bring that shirt back on the market

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Thanks Paul! No, he didn’t ever ask to buy it back and we see him several times a year since the purchase. He always told fond street racing memories he had with the car. I believe he bought it (as the 3rd owner) in 1977 with a spun rod bearing. The 2nd owner was a kid that injured the engine, fortunately he stopped driving it and sold it immediately after that. The 3rd owner had the engine rebuilt (to .030” over) with lots of parts/kits from HO Racing. He had the HC-63 (?) SD Hi-lift cam with the RAIV specs with the recommended valve springs, Rhoades lifters, the carb & distributor kits, the “cross-flow” muffler (2 glass-packs welded together with steel straps)…a true HO Racing poster child. Sometime later in his ownership, he reinstalled the ‘Y’ factory cam and lifters to tame it down for his wife to drive. He drove it to the Car Craft Street Nationals in 1980 and 1981 (my brother took pictures of it there). His best story with the TA was when he beat the “Buick Brothers” in a street race who were unbeaten at the time in their ’70 Stage 1 GS. He did take it to the track where he only got a tire smoking 14.00 at 108 mph on those awful Firestone tires.

In the 1990’s I started collecting SD engine parts to build a pure stock SD455 for the pure stock drags. I was going to remove the numbers drivetrain and convert to an TH400 auto. I bought everything for the conversion (complete from Purely PMD…ah, the good old days!) but never pulled the trigger. I still have everything including NOS SD 16 heads and rods, 4-core auto factory radiator, etc.). I bought the NOS heads from the guy I bought the TA from. He also had plans to build a wicked street engine that never happened.

Here's the TA fresh from the restoration at the 2016 MCACN show.

I never did race it unfortunately. Sorry about the long post.

Dennis

Thanks, that's cool info. I'm glad he put the smack down on the Buick. But it's cool the Buick was undefeated. I'm sure most his kills were Brand X. 108 was moving back then. I remember that H-O muffler. The factory crossflow had to be pretty bad for that to better. Thanks for sharing.



On an unrelated note after the coffee kicked in I think the 455 HO LeMans the fellow was selling was yellow with a white vinyl top and green interior. I remember he said it was quite rare, maybe one of seven made. It wasn't the best running HO I had driven.

[71GP76TA]

I was 46 when I bought my SD Formula back in 2014. From the time I was 12 I had always wanted a SD455 car.

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by 71GP76TA

I was 46 when I bought my SD Formula back in 2014. From the time I was 12 I had always wanted a SD455 car.

I've put about 6,000 miles on it since buying. When I bought it. I had my blue '70 T/A that was a 4 speed. I was in the market for a nice driver Formula or base/Esprit with an automatic. This car popped up on ebay 2 days before we were supposed to fly to Hawaii. I made the deal and drove up to Yreka (5 hours each way from where I live) the next day... got home.. put the car in the garage and flew out the next morning.

[1969GTO]

I never owned one but, in 1977 a good friend of mine [Ed Decker 20 years old] if your still out there.
Traded in his 1969 Verdero Green GTO Judge on a Blue 1974 SD automatic trans and man what a rocket that car was.
It was a trade at a local dealership and some cash to get the SD, this was in the Johnstown , Fulton Montgomery County in NY.