The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[njsteve]

Thanks to the assistance of a PerformanceYears.com member who happened to search the internet and found that there is only one Enrico Stein in the entire universe and that he lives in Arizona but used to live in Port Washington, NY, I was able to spend a magical hour talking to the man that ordered my 1973 Formula SD455, brand new.

Enrico has been a car guy all his life. In 1968 he bought the very first BMW 2002 that arrived in the US for around $2,000. Several years later he wanted to upgrade to a 2002 TII but none of the BMW dealers wanted to give him a break from the $6,000 price tag on the car.

Being the consummate car-guy, Enrico read all the latest car magazines and found out that a 310 horsepower Super Duty engine was going to be available in the upcoming 1973 Firebird. So he went around to the local Pontiac dealerships and asked about ordering the car. He was given the runaround and told that the engine wasn’t available.

Not satisfied with this answer, Enrico called the very same magazine writer who wrote the test drive article on the 310 horsepower Super Duty engine and got some insider info on the cars. He was told that there was an administrative hold on building the cars at the moment and that if they were going to be built it would be during the last two weeks of the model year in late summer, 1973.

With that info in pocket, Enrico went to Suburban Pontiac in Glen Head, New York and found a newly minted car salesman (who just happened to be a former dress salesman who was laid off from his prior job). The salesman took his order but the big-wig, zone managers in New York City said that they would not accept any orders for the Super Duty. Not taking no for an answer, Enrico hunted them down and told them in no uncertain terms that they will order his car, and they will do it now. (At the time, Enrico was 6’8” tall and 280 lbs.). The zone promptly allowed the order to go through.

It seems that Enrico was so “convincing” in his negotiations with upper management, that Suburban Pontiac was able to order a second Super Duty Formula for another young man. (This second car is known, and still exists). That car arrived shortly after Enrico’s car was delivered. This caused much consternation among all the other Pontiac dealers in the zone, concerning how one little dealership on Long Island could get two Super Duty Firebirds when the other big dealers got none.

When Enrico ordered his car, he was told it would be delivered with the fiberglass, twin scooped Formula hood. It arrived, of course, with the Trans Am shaker unit in its place. He was told that this was due to the drive-by noise regulations that were in place by the time the cars were built.

I asked Enrico about the tires on the car and he said that the car came with the infamous Firestone 500 radials. He mentioned that the car always had a severe pull to the left when he drove it. No matter what was done with the alignment, the pull would not go away. It wasn’t until much later when he replaced the tires that the pull magically disappeared. Enrico said that when the recall came out for the 500s, only the tires made after 1975 were listed. That is why his tires stayed with the car. I mentioned to him that there are four, not five Firestone 500s still with the car and he said that when he sold the car to a California collector in 1986, the collector’s driver insisted on driving the car from Arizona to California. Enrico warned him that he should buy newer tires for the car and reminded him that the 500’s were recalled. The guy didn’t listen and in the middle of night out in the desert wastelands between Arizona and California, one of the 500’s exploded. Luckily the car was not damaged.

I also asked about the front valance and was told that the car was delivered with the polyethylene front valance but it cracked soon thereafter and Enrico had the dealer replace it with the steel valance.

When the subject of what steering wheel came on the car originally came up, Enrico said he know exactly what wheel it came with because it was currently sitting in his garage, in the very same box that the Formula wheel that is on the car now, came in. He then asked me for my address so he could make sure it was reunited with the car!

He also asked if the paint flaw in the fender was still there? I confirmed that it was – there is a weird raised line and pieces of fuzz in the paint along the mid portion of the front fender near the headlight. It looks like an air hose for the paint gun was dragged over the wet paint. Enrico said the car was delivered that way and that it was never fixed.

Enrico owned the car from 1973 to 1986 when it was sold to a collector out in California. That collector had it until 1991 when he sold it to the man in New Jersey from whom I bought it. While in Enrico’s hands, the car never saw any winter use. After two years, he and the car moved out to Arizona where he and his wife have lived ever since.

As an aside, Enrico mentioned that the car had been stolen and recovered once. He was at work one day at a large marina when he got a call from the local AAMCO transmission shop manager who asked what he wanted done with his car? Enrico replied: “What the hell are you talking about?” The AAMCO guy then said that his car was there and wanted to know what work he wanted done to it. Enrico was always getting pestered by people about selling is car whenever it was parked in front of the marina. It turned out that one of these pesterers was a car thief who contacted the local Pontiac dealer and pretended to be the owner who lost his keys. The Pontiac dealer happily made the thief a new set. The thief then brought the keys to the AAMCO shop and told them that “his” car was broken down in front of the local marina and needed to be towed to the shop for work. The AAMCO guys happily sent a rollback and picked the car up. The only fly in the ointment was the AAMCO manager calling Enrico before the thief could come down to the AAMCO shop to pick up the car. When the disinterested AAMCO manager said that he was closing up for the day, Enrico told him “Oh no, you’re not! - That is my car and you just stole it.” Enrico then gathered up a bunch of guys from the marina and went there and immediately repossessed his own car. Sitting in the ashtray was the freshly made set of GM keys that the thief had left for later. From that point on, Enrico would park the car in the back of the marina. When the owner complained, Enrico told him that he was parking it there and if they didn’t like that, they could fire him now. They wisely backed down.

I feel very privileged to have had the chance to talk with Enrico. He is now around 80 years young and he is truly a unique person and a major car guy from the age of two (according to him). He has a photographic memory about every car he has ever owned. He also has a file on every car as well. He mentioned that he has photos of the car from when it was new and all sorts of paperwork as well.

Enrico is retired and still has a bunch of collector cars and motorcycles and is very involved with them. He also asked if I was interested in selling to car back to him. I told him that if I do, he is definitely first on the list.

[KevinW]

Steve, I do not know how you do that, but you have done it again. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] Lucky Man!

[napa68]

That is just SOOOOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOOOL Steve!

What a find and a story!

Tim

[69biscayne]

&quot;When Enrico ordered his car, he was told it would be delivered with the fiberglass, twin scooped Formula hood. It arrived, of course, with the Trans Am shaker unit in its place. He was told that this was due to the drive-by noise regulations that were in place by the time the cars were built.&quot;

Was this an SD only thing?

Steve

[njsteve]

Yes. All SD455 Firebirds, whether Trans Am or Formula had the shaker. It was not due to any performance upgrade but instead was due to the fact that the EPA only certified the emmissions and drive-by noise regulations on that precise set up. GM would have had to recertify the engine package from scratch just to use the Formula fiberglass hood. If you look at the window sticker you'll see a $27 credit for &quot;delete functional ram air&quot; as they had to rivet a blocking plate on the shaker opening to close it In order to pass the noise regulations.

There is some great spy trivia on how the Pontiac engineers tried to pull a fast one on the EPA by figuring out a special solenoid that would shut down the emission control systems on the production cars two seconds after the EPA test timed testing procedure was done. The EPA found out about it and GM got slapped big time. They had to completely redesign the emissions system and replace the camshaft with a milder one. That is why there is an initial rating of 310 hp and a production rating of 290 hp. That was one of the reasons that the engine package was delayed until the last couple weeks of production. It barely made it as the top brass at GM wanted to kill the whole deal but the engine plants had already built the 1,000 or so engines in a rush, seeing the writing on the wall. It would have cost too much to crush the motors, so they made the cars and got them out on the street.

[njsteve]

I changed the very black oil today and noticed this old A/C filter. Is this a repro or an original piece?

[K code Mustang]

My dad was the one that did the prep and test drive on Steve's Hemi Charger. My dad, or my Grandfather were the only ones that did the preps on the hi performance cars at Suburban Dodge for just that reason. When I went to work there years later, I was the one that prepped the Shelby Chargers and Daytonas and turbo cars.

[njsteve]

I talked with original owner Rick again today. He confirmed that the oil filter in the photos is the oil filter he put on in the late 1970's or early 1980s. He only used factory parts to maintain the car. I sent him the link to the SD455 Registry and he was surprised that they built so many 73 Formulas with the SD455. He thought there were only a handful so the 43 total number came as somewhat of a surprise.

This evening I used a flashlight and an inspection mirror to look under all the seats and did not see any signs of a broadcast in the springs or on the floor. I pulled the spare tire out and used the mirror to look behind the cardboard bulkhead liner and did not see anything in there either. I don't want to needlessly pull that back seat since the bottom cushions are so hard to remove and replace without damaging the vinyl.

[njsteve]

Here's something interesting I noticed about the spare tire. What I thought is mildew is the protective film that is sprayed on the white letters. You know, that blue stuff that is on the sidewalls of modern new tires when they arrive. It seems to be on both sides of the tires.

In addition to the tire, the jack does not appear to ever have been used. - there are no paint chips where the post would mount in to the base.

Here's some photos:




The unpainted spot by the center cap opening appears to be a result of the method by which the factory must have had the rim held in a fixture when it was painted. The other NOS spare I have has the very same unpainted notch.





Original valve stem and cap with small dome on the cap.




The jack in its original position

[njsteve]

Here is a panorama of the trunk for you trunk spatter paint aficianados out there: