Curbside Classic Outtake: What's Wrong With This Picture Edition

by Paul Niedermeyer

Published: November 6th, 2009

curbside classic outtake what s wrong with this picture edition

I was torn about whether to use this Firebird for a Curbside Classic, until I saw a terrific “Screaming Chicken” T/A the other day. Only problem: I didn’t get any shots. But it made me determined to hold out for the real thing. I hear that Trans Ams are in demand now, fetching up to $30k. In the meantime, feast your eye on this delight. Oh, there’s more than one thing wrong with this picture. More detail after the jump:

Paul Niedermeyer

More by Paul Niedermeyer

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 42 comments

Dman900 on Dec 05, 2009

Oh, this is sad .... the first new car I ever bought, while I still owned the Fiesta I commented about recently, was a 1981 TransAm. That year, in California, after years of auto trans only, you could buy the Firebird with a 305 Chevy and 4-speed (the automatics still came with the Pontiac 301). I think it was rated at 150 hp. Mine was a WS6, with the 4 wheel discs, 8" rims (and massive-for-the-time 225/70-15 tires!) no screaming chicken hood decal, polyurethane suspension bushings, quick-ratio steering, "PosiTraction" (GM's limited slip differential). Years of reading Car & Driver rave about the handling of the FBody, coupled with the styling and a chance to get a V8 4speed, and I was putty in the salesman's hands. Frankly, other than smooth road cornering, it was a piece of junk, and when gas hit $1.20 a gallon 8 months later, I traded it in at a huge loss on a new Civic. The TA was the first and only V8 I've ever owned. I wish I had it today.

Like Reply
Rustaddscharacter on Mar 14, 2010

Years ago, back in what Hunter S. Thompson called the "white knuckle days", I knew a couple of hillbilly brothers who had a '74 T/A. It was an honest-to-god SD455, the last REAL muscle car, from the last year they were built. By the time they acquired it (1988, give or take), it was getting pretty rugged. Dull, faded orange-red paint, the screaming chicken was peeling and torn, trim rings missing from the wheels. Someone had stolen the shaker hood scoop, so there was just a big hole in the middle of the hood. Which turned out to be a blessing, 'cause they carried a quart can of starting fluid in the car at all times, 'cause the thing wouldn't actually start without a healthy shot of the stuff to the carb. Oh yeah, the carb... 1,000 cfm Carter Thermo-quad, it made this frightening whistling noise as it sucked air even at idle. Hold your hand over the hole in the hood with the air cleaner off and you could FEEL the suction. Black interior, Pioneer tape deck with Jensen 6x9s. These boys would buy used up Goodrich T/As from the gas station where I worked, run 'em for a week or two, then buy some more. When the ancient cherry bombs rusted out, they just removed the entire exhaust system and ran it open headers... that thing shot flames like the Batmobile, and was SERIOUSLY loud. They called it The Beast. Eventually they blew the 455, replaced it with a 400, blew that, swapped it out for a 350, then a 305, then traded the remnants for a bag of weed... Loud, fast, ugly and dangerous. Who could ask for more?

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Rna65689660 For such a flat surface, why not get smoke tint, Rtint or Rvynil. Starts at $8. I used to use a company called Lamin-x, but I think they are gone. Has held up great.
Cprescott A cheaper golf cart will not make me more inclined to screw up my life. I can go 500 plus miles on a tank of gas with my 2016 ICE car that is paid off. I get two weeks out of a tank that takes from start to finish less than 10 minutes to refill. At no point with golf cart technology as we know it can they match what my ICE vehicle can do. Hell no. Absolutely never.
Cprescott People do silly things to their cars.
Jeff This is a step in the right direction with the Murano gaining a 9 speed automatic. Nissan could go a little further and offer a compact pickup and offer hybrids. VoGhost--Nissan has  laid out a new plan to electrify 16 of the 30 vehicles it produces by 2026, with the rest using internal combustion instead. For those of us in North America, the company says it plans to release seven new vehicles in the US and Canada, although it’s not clear how many of those will be some type of EV.Nissan says the US is getting “e-POWER and plug-in hybrid models” — each of those uses a mix of electricity and fuel for power. At the moment, the only all-electric EVs Nissan is producing are the  Ariya SUV and the  perhaps endangered (or  maybe not) Leaf.In 2021, Nissan said it would  make 23 electrified vehicles by 2030, and that 15 of those would be fully electric, rather than some form of hybrid vehicle. It’s hard to say if any of this is a step forward from that plan, because yes, 16 is bigger than 15, but Nissan doesn’t explicitly say how many of those 16 are all-battery, or indeed if any of them are.  https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/25/24111963/nissan-ev-plan-2026-solid-state-batteries
Jkross22 Sure, but it depends on the price. All EVs cost too much and I'm talking about all costs. Depreciation, lack of public/available/reliable charging, concerns about repairability (H/K). Look at the battering the Mercedes and Ford EV's are taking on depreciation. As another site mentioned in the last few days, cars aren't supposed to depreciate by 40-50% in a year or 2.