[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by camerjeff

Christmas 1979, my friends 78 Sunbird Formula parked on the street, 3.8 V6 - 4-speed manual trans. It was a great autocrosser at the time. Notice the little 13" Snowflake Wheels.

The Formulas are rare and very few know they were made. I had a '77 Formula Astre and to this date I only ever seen 2, mine and one in a Pontiac showroom when it was new.

[Chief of the 60's]

Had to run stock bore & stoke for Super Stock. Now, maybe later on it ran Modified Production but I would have to read my old rule books as to what you could run in that class.

[OVERULD]

Here are some fun ones.

75 TA on the Woodward Dream Cruise
Split-Window 63 Corvette being pulled out of the Delaware River
The three Astro-Vettes

BJ

[camerjeff]

Yes they are very rare, I have owned three 1977 Astre Formula's (Still own 1) Hopefully will start going back together soon but with the little 215 Buick V8 and T-5 trans.

What usually Kills the Sunbird HB's (besides rust) is the rear tail light panel falling apart. It is made from the same material as the 73-75 Grand Am Nose panels. And suffer the same fate.

[jerry455]

What a cool picture of that Sunbird Formula. I had a 1977 Monza Spyder with a 305 V8 at that time. I loved that car. My buddy had a Olds Starfire GT at that time. His was a V6 and 5 speed.

[camerjeff]

These are the only pictures I have of what is probably the Rarest Formula Model Pontiac made, a 1977 Astre Formula Safari. Many years ago I met a guy at Norwalk when I was running my 78 Sunbird Safari, He said he was the original owner of a Black 77 Astre Formula Safari, I remember he was from Virginia, and I gave him my contact info thinking I would never hear from him again.
Then several months later I was sent these old 110 format pictures from his photo album, he would not take the pictures out of it so these are the best I got. He said his local dealer had 2 of them in stock, both left over 77's at the beginning of the 78 Model year, the other one was red with a 5-speed manual, he wanted that one, but his new bride could not drive a manual trans so he bought the Black automatic pictured. Both had 2.4 Iron dukes.

I have never been able to determine how many Astre Formula's were made in the 6 months they made them. Let alone how many wagons were made.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by camerjeff

These are the only pictures I have of what is probably the Rarest Formula Model Pontiac made, a 1977 Astre Formula Safari. Many years ago I met a guy at Norwalk when I was running my 78 Sunbird Safari, He said he was the original owner of a Black 77 Astre Formula Safari, I remember he was from Virginia, and I gave him my contact info thinking I would never hear from him again.
Then several months later I was sent these old 110 format pictures from his photo album, he would not take the pictures out of it so these are the best I got. He said his local dealer had 2 of them in stock, both left over 77's at the beginning of the 78 Model year, the other one was red with a 5-speed manual, he wanted that one, but his new bride could not drive a manual trans so he bought the Black automatic pictured. Both had 2.4 Iron dukes.

I have never been able to determine how many Astre Formula's were made in the 6 months they made them. Let alone how many wagons were made.

I recently was inventorying some "H" body Formula parts, checked the parts book and saw where it listed a Formula wagon but if I recall, the original sales brochure did not list one. So up until now, I thought it was just a mis-print in the parts book.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by jerry455

What a cool picture of that Sunbird Formula. I had a 1977 Monza Spyder with a 305 V8 at that time. I loved that car. My buddy had a Olds Starfire GT at that time. His was a V6 and 5 speed.

If it was a factory V-8 car you may want to double check that engine size. I seem to remember a 260 cu.in. something unless GM changed that later on.

[camerjeff]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

If it was a factory V-8 car you may want to double check that engine size. I seem to remember a 260 cu.in. something.

No Jerry is correct, any 77-79 V8 H-body would have a 305 2bbl SBC, you are probably thinking of the V8 Monza option in 75-76, they did have a 262 SBC. The little 262 was only used in those 2 years.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by camerjeff

No Jerry is correct, any 77-79 V8 H-body would have a 305 2bbl SBC, you are probably thinking of the V8 Monza option in 75-76, they did have a 262 SBC. The little 262 was only used in those 2 years.

Was unaware of that, I just remember the small V-8 because it was so small compared to my 389 GTO.

LOL, I thought I was the only one that had any love for the lowly Astre.

[400 4spd.]

Originally Posted by camerjeff

No Jerry is correct, any 77-79 V8 H-body would have a 305 2bbl SBC, you are probably thinking of the V8 Monza option in 75-76, they did have a 262 SBC. The little 262 was only used in those 2 years.

Agreed. The 260 was a very anemic Olds engine of the late 70's.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

If it was a factory V-8 car you may want to double check that engine size. I seem to remember a 260 cu.in. something unless GM changed that later on.

[camerjeff]

Chief, if you are interested in selling any of the H-Body Formula Parts you have, PM me, I would be very interested in them

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by camerjeff

Chief, if you are interested in selling any of the H-Body Formula Parts you have, PM me, I would be very interested in them

I'll see what I have.

[north]

We had a guy running around here in the late 70's and 80's with a built up Monza with and Astre front clip on it for some reason. He had a very stout SBC and munci with a bunch of structural bracing. He used to eat up all the bigblock stuff, hard to beat such a light car.

Most of those cars here rotted into oblivion real quick, can't recall the last time I saw one of any sort locally.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by north

We had a guy running around here in the late 70's and 80's with a built up Monza with and Astre front clip on it for some reason. He had a very stout SBC and munci with a bunch of structural bracing. He used to eat up all the bigblock stuff, hard to beat such a light car.

Most of those cars here rotted into oblivion real quick, can't recall the last time I saw one of any sort locally.

You had to beef up the front end. The stamped steel crossmember would stretch out from the added weight, spreading the front uni-body frame rails and you couldn't get the alignment into specs anymore. Anyone who paid any attention to the "H" body cars back then will remember the camber on the front wheels would be way out of wack.

[jerry455]

The manual trans cars were really bad about the frame spread. The 305 v8 came out in the Monza in 1977. There was a 350 engine available only in California because the 262 did not meet California emissions. It incredibly was rated at 125 hp. where the new 305 made 140 hp in the Sypder. My car was a yellow one just like the cover of Motor Trend that had an article when the new for 1977 Spyder model was released. Many of my friends had Vega and other H bodies. There were 3 or 4 Spyders around, a Buick Skyhawk, my buddy had 2 Cosworth Vegas, the Starfire GT and other Monza and Vega Wagons.

[muscle_collector]

I cant remember now, but some of those cars that were manual trans actually had the super t10 in them. I pulled several back in the 80's

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by jerry455

The manual trans cars were really bad about the frame spread. The 305 v8 came out in the Monza in 1977. There was a 350 engine available only in California because the 262 did not meet California emissions.

We had one. Little maroon metallic job with the styled rally wheels and rear spoiler.

Dad ordered the California emissions package and stripped all the hardware off the engine.

We drilled holes in the fender inners so that you could change the spark plugs.

K

[north]

Or the ultimate dog, the 260 olds diesel!

My buddy bought one new, think it was a GP, 81,82 maybe. That thing slowed up rolling down hills! Got amazing mpg though and his never gave him any trouble.