[Verdoro 68]

I must have had a heavy foot last night because I was definitely getting the skip shift today. I have an eliminator harness I'll put on this weekend.

Had it smogged and got it registered today with no issue. The smog guy used to own a '99 Firehawk and knew exactly what a Comp T/A was. I got some attention in the parking lot at AAA while I was going the registration process too. Sure is a fun car to cruise around in. I tend to notice the other F-Bodies and Mustangs a lot more....

The bad news is it looks like the A/C clutch kicked the bucket. As I left the smog station the compressor suddenly started making really angry sounds. Seemed ok yesterday and the air was working just fine. I looked under the hood and there's a good bit of grease splatter and the clutch is intermittently engaging when the A/C is on. No real surprise, I expected to ferret out a few things putting the car back in to regular service. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't 95 today. Need that Bay Area breeze to kick in.

[Mr_GTO]

I've owned 2 LS F Bodies. I loved my 99 TA and my 01 Z28 Convertible. I had more fun driving my 88 Formula 350 though.

[Verdoro 68]

Well, I was wrong about the A/C. The compressor was unhappy because the freon was low. Had the system evacuated and recharged this morning and it's blowing ice cubes again. The tech said he doesn't get to work on "classics" that often. Reality check for me since I consider this a newer car!

My son and I popped in a headliner (via GTOG8TA.com) and sunvisors in to replace the sagging originals. Looks much better. I did a little touch up under the hood, installed the CAGS eliminator, and pressure washed the underside. Cool to see all the original Bilstein stuff in place. A little bit of oil and some grime here and there, but very clean. Mostly just washing off cobwebs and dust.

We stopped by the record store and picked up a few era-appropriate cassette tapes and rocked out on the way to the cruise in tonight. My son is totally enamored with the car and said he would rather be dropped off at school in the T/A than the Goat! I caught him in the driver's seat pretending the row the gears.

Thanks again to Mike - super pleased with the car and the process of getting it across the country. I think we're good to go for a while! My rotating assembly for the '68 finally shipped so I'll just drive this thing and have fun while I get that one back on the road.

[Verdoro 68]

A few months in an I've got a little over 1500 miles on it. Minimal issues so far, and it's been a ton of fun.

I ended up replacing the original tires with a set of Nitto 555s. I hated to give up the originals, but it's hard to trust 27 year old tires. I was looking for BFG Comp A/S, but they were all indefinitely backordered.

My son has been talking auto shop at his high school so this car has become his study subject. We did a complete fluid change on it - coolant, oil, trans and rear end. When I started driving it, a sizable oil leak developed from the rear of the intake. It took us about a day and a half to R&R the intake. I think we fixed a vacuum leak in the process because it runs a lot stronger and smoother now. We discovered that the front seal has a small leak as does the power steering. We'll get to those in time. So far the Optispark has been behaving.

Last week I turned on the headlights and was greeted with a horrible grinding noise. A previous owner replaced the gears in the motors with metal ones, so I knew the gears weren't stripped. Turns out the JB Weld holding the gear case together gave up the ghost. The torque was causing the case to split and the gears to disengage. Took the motors apart, re-lubed the gears and resealed the cases and I think they're good to go.

New plates got here the other day too

[b-man]

Sharp looking.

Glad you and your son are enjoying working on it together.

[1965gp]

I really enjoy hearing the follow up and how much your so is enjoying it.

[Verdoro 68]

I'm a loyal reader of Hemmings Muscle Machines and shot an email to the editor a few weeks back after they did a feature on some 80's Fox bodies and IROCs. It turns out Terry McGean is familiar with these cars! I didn't realize that he was the editor of High Performance Pontiac when they were new.

He graciously emailed me back about his experience of Jim Mattison showing him the prototype Comp T/A and relayed a cool story about spotting a Comp in front of Spago in LA around the year 2000 driven by "a mature, gray-haired man" who was greeted by a ton of people when he got out of the car. He later learned that apparently Tony Curtis owned a Comp T/A and connected the dots.

As I was casually flipping through the January issue a couple of familiar cars caught my eye!

[ftwmlp]

I saw that Verdoro 68 pic first, they always catch my eye as my second GTO was also a 68 of that color. Both cars are beautiful, congratulations on the Comp T/A, very sharp indeed.
Mike Pearson

[1965gp]

That’s great! Time to frame it

[will slow gto]

Great letter Ken, and very cool that it was featured in HMM! That IS wild that 1995 is farther away from today than 1968 was from the early 90s.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Just read the whole thread for the first time. Really Cool Stuff !
mmarx definitely steered you in the right direction with this great car.
Thumbs up to Mike in PortOrange !

Your son looks like he was born in that driver seat
As though he found his "happy place".

A few questions :

1. Is this your full-time daily driver after handing down the KIA to your daughter ?

2. How much was the sticker price when new , and where did it sell new ?

3. What do the second set of Wheels/Tires look like ?
Was that an extra option or did all Comp TA's come with 2 sets ?

[Verdoro 68]

It was great working with Mike, really excited to have this car and take care of it.

Sticker price was $23,566 for the T/A + $10789 (!) for the Comp T/A package + $1995 for the R1 Wheels and tires for a total MSRP of $36,350. It was sold new at Bill Sullivan Pontiac in Arlington Heights, Ill.

The extra wheels/tires were an option. I've read that 28 came with the option in '95. The wheels are the same Speedlines that came on Comps (and later WS6s), they just have BFG R1 racing tires mounted to them. 30 year old tires are kind of useless now, but it's cool to have them.

It's not my full time daily driver. I've been driving it a few times a week around town. As far as I can tell, it racked up about 500 miles over the last 10 years prior to my ownership. I'm trying to keep the milage on the lower side, but it sure is fun to drive.

The original Bilstein shocks, Eibach springs (marked SLP) and poly suspension bushings are all there. I also discovered that someone put subframe connectors on it. Shame they didn't do anything to the exhaust on these cars as it's pretty tame sounding. I was debating getting a new muffler to liven up the sound, but hate to cut up the original system if I don't have to.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Wow to that sticker shock mark up !
Wonder where that "upgrade/option" falls in line with the cost of all the other special edition / special package 4th gen cars. Anniversary , Hawks. , etc....
Not the full sticker price , but the option price ,,, anyone know ?

Was Comp TA the highest cost upgrade package on 4th Gens ?

[Verdoro 68]

For whatever reason, it appears the markup on my car was exceptionally high. I've seen other '95 SLP Comp window stickers with a price of $7344.

In '96-'97 it appears the Comp package was lowered to $4,595 with no options. According to MotorWeek in '97, the Firehawk base package was also $4595. My guess is they didn't sell as many Comps as they thought they would in '95 and adjusted their strategy in '96-'97 to make the Comp the T/A version of the Formula-based Firehawk.

I do know '95s included a few things by default that were options in '96 and '97 like the Bilstein shocks, suspension kit, Mobil 1 and the floor mats, but even then $10k just seems like highway robbery. I'd love to know who shelled out for this thing originally.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Just read the prototype article you linked to previously.
Very cool info and details.

So your car has embroidered leather seats , and the stripe decals are a grey recreation of the 1994 25th Anny stripe decals.
And they snuck in the WS6 and RamAir Hood/Induction on these Comps before the planned release of them on 1996 production cars.
Very Cool !

Said that JM originally chose a Formula as the concept mule, painted Blue with big wide white stripes.
Then they switched the real deals to Silver TA's with the rehashed Anny decals.
Good Call

They mentioned a Black and Gold Hurst Special Edition of some sort was done later but I dont recall ever seeing one.
Don't think I have ever seen , or just never noticed , a Comp TA before either.
But I like your new car , it looks Right

I liked a lot of things about the 1994 25th cars , except the plain looking white wheels.
Think they should have made a honeycomb or snowflake rendition in white for it maybe.
At least 3 of our local Pontiac Club members bought a new 94 25th Anny , 1 was a Convertible.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Yours may have been dealer ordered as dealer inventory , and the extra boot was a "dealer premium" added on top - maybe.

Some of the dealerships in NC who had the 25th Anny cars were doing that to them.
I don't know if it was to try to keep them around longer for more exposure draw , or just hungry for more blood.

Our local dealership and club sponsor was a very high volume Pontiac dealer.
When they got the Convertible they punched the price up $7500 over sticker.
My friend called in a favor via the VicePrez of the corporation and got it for sticker price.

[Verdoro 68]

No embroidered seats on the Comps, just a stock graphite interior. The stripe motif is similar to a 25th, but the hood stripe varies. Color is different of course. I was never a fan of the white wheels and white leather on the 25th cars.

The 10th anniversary Firehawks were black and gold. Outside of the shifter, I don't think there was a Hurst tie in though.

Here's the SLP sticker. The other ones I've seen say "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price" instead of "Dealership Suggested Retail Price". The font is different so someone clearly doctored the price.



Below is what they're supposed to look like. Interesting that the list of features is a little different between these cars. Mine has the suspension package listed where as the one below doesn't. I thought all '95s were the same. Maybe the price difference isn't all dealership greed.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Are your seats Leather ? But just no embroidery ?
Do you still have the embroidered floor mats ? Maybe the embroidery slurr was only relating to the floor mats but I took it as meaning seats and/or door panels (25th style stuff)

13 second 1/4 miles and 25 mpg Hwy

Here is what the article stated.
And it addresses the "Hardtop Only" availability of the suspension package they opted for on yours.
You have 1 of 6 , according to article stats
So that probably was more coins (but maybe not 3000 more coins?)
Car #041 was T-Top body

The option content for the $6,995 Comp T/A package consisted of a Pontiac-designed fresh air induction system and hood, a short-throw Hurst shifter on six-speed models, a silver exterior with a 9-inch dark gray stripe, special badging, graphite leather with embroidered Comp T/A graphics, and of a set of BFGoodrich 275/40ZR17 Comp T/A radial tires, a Sport Suspension package (hardtop only), and Firehawk 17-inch wheels. Buyers could also opt for an extra set of wheels fitted with BFGoodrich's new Comp T/A RI Competition series ultra-performance tires. These soft-compound tires were not intended for street use, but for autocross duty.

Comp T/A buyers were also required to order a V87 Trans Am coupe or T-top (convertibles were not offered); Bright Silver Metallic exterior-13; AQ9 Ultima Graphite leather buckets; 1SC option package; R6V merchandising option code; T43 Trans Am spoiler; and the GU5 performance axle (automatics only).

[Verdoro 68]

Yes, leather with no embroidery. It’s the same as a regular T/A interior, there’s just a numbered plaque on the ash tray lid and a Hurst shifter. I do have the Comp embroidered floor mats tucked away for safe keeping.

Cool detail about the suspension package being only available on hardtops, I didn’t catch that before. I wonder if the subframe connectors were part of that package? Everything else is so stock on the car it seems odd someone would have added them. They’re also painted silver.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

,pfftt just noticed they posted an interior shot with that article and it shows cloth seats.
Hey for 10 grand I want some fancy shet thrown in too !
Where's my cowhide with needlepoint ??


Article almost makes a reader think ALL the Hardtops got the Suspension Pkg
But the stats show only 6 cars got it , so it must have had more extra coins tied to it.

I bet you are right about the subframe connectors
Cool