The Virginia Muscle CarSteve's 73 Trans AM. |
My Trans AM(TA) was the other most beautiful and fun car I ever had, the 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, 455 cu in engine (all SD-455 engines were already sold even though they were not even built until after my TA was delivered), 4-speed manual transmission, white exterior with the blue bird across the hood, white upgraded interior seating/doors/interior roof, etc. , A/C, this was a great car to have.
I spent six months reading about these cars and visiting with the dealership in Superior, Wisconsin (did not like or trust the Pontiac dealership in Duluth so I chose going across the bridge to the other side of Lake Superior/Duluth Superior Harbor to get my work done getting ready to order the car.) They were great to work with.
Started learning about the 73 TA in August, 1972 and finally ordered the car in January, 1973. Eight weeks to the day later it arrived at the dealership in the mid-morning of that day. I was headed to Minneapolis, MN that morning to be in the Honor Guard at a military burial. I saw a car transport/delivery truck headed north to Duluth/Superior and my new Trans Am was on the upper level, second from the front. When I got home that evening, I called the dealership and asked about the car and while it was not yet completely ready for delivery, it was clean and inside the building, back in the wash stall. They said I should come over to see it. I did. Walked into the back area of the building and it was pitch black in there except for the lights over the wash bay where the car was sitting, clean and shiny. It was stunningly gorgeous.
Did some looking at all of it and they said it would be ready for pickup in the late morning/early afternoon the next day. Told then I would be over after work. Air Force folks liked it when I worked all day at my job.
When I went over that next afternoon, it was
sitting outside beside the entrance to the
showroom and it had red velvet roping wrapped
completely around it to help keep people
passing by from walking up to it. They told
me they had to do that because there were people
driving by and stopping or walking by who were
inclined to come up to touch it and they did
not want that happening so they put the roping
around it to keep them out. The car was simply
staggeringly beautiful. Went inside, signed all
my docs, went outside, the roping was down, got
in the car to drive away and there was a crowd
of people outside standing around the car and
everyone who worked in the dealership was
standing on the inside of the showroom watching
this car being driven away. It was the very
first Trans Am Firebird the dealership had ever
sold.
This Trans AM had the inclusion in 1973 of RTS,
the Radial Tuned Suspension. In 73, to my
knowledge, only Pontiac made this suspension
system available, Chevy did not that year. What
it essentially did was have the suspension able
to use radial tires rather than the bias ply
tires. For the Trans Am, one had the choice to
pick the RTS and it did not cost anything extra
to get it. I chose it and was blessed by the
Good Lord Above that I did. My car came with
radial tires from Uniroyal rather that the bias
ply tires the other cars came with if the RTS was
not chosen. The ride with the RTS suspension was
so much better than the standard suspension it
was hard to believe one could get it for no extra
cost. Without doubt, that year, it was the
absolute best decision I made when I got my TA.
I rode in one other TA one time that did not have
the RTS and I rode in a friends Camaro that
obviously did not have the RTS suspension and the
difference was simply staggering. My buddy with
the Camaro drove the TA once and could not believe
the difference between the two cars. His comment
was that his car, compared to my TA, rode like a
buggy out in the prairie. He was flabbergasted
by the difference.
It took me a long time to finally come to terms
with exactly how I wanted it produced and it was
produced exactly as I asked for. It cost me
$5527.75 delivered and then there was the usual
additional costs of preparation by the dealership,
getting the plates for it, etc. None of that
stuff was anywhere near as expensive then as it
is today. That white stallion was some piece
of machinery.
I had a rented garage stall behind the house
across the street from where I lived and that
is where it stayed when not in use. It was
there a lot in the winter due to the massive
snows we got but when it was dry during the
winter and the streets were clean, it was a
wonder to drive.
I learned fairly early that it needed to be
run good every couple of weeks so on Sunday
mornings early, weather permitting, I took it
out on I-35 south toward Minneapolis, it was
always wide open with nobody but me out there,
and I opened it up to run a couple of miles at
110 MPH, and onetime took it up to 125. The
engine then always ran better after blowing out
the carbon buildup.
Anyway, thought you might like to see the pics
of that Trans Am, the other car that was an
equal to all the