The 'You Need This' thread on the yellow Trans-Am made me dredge up these photos I snapped back around 2006.
My cousin had some cool cars. He was a heart doctor and the means to own some of the great ones.
This is day he let the '73 T/A go to a straw buyer from Texas. I've seen it recently in a YouTube or two. Seems some rich dude in the northeast owns it now and likes to bang shifts around town in it. I'm pretty sure it's it because there just weren't very many like it.
SD-455 King of Second Gen F-bodies.
Oxblood. 4 on the floor.
This car was filthy but rust free and complete. With fresh gas and a battery it should have taken off. But we didn't attempt it.
My cousin told all kinds of wild tales about how fast it was and if you confronted him with real performance figures for an actual '73 SD-455 he would just grin and say "Nunzi". It'd been breathed on by the guru in Brooklyn.
As rare as a '73 SD 4-speed is, low and behold when the Texan opened his trailer, there sat another one! This one was replete with the screaming chicken -
Goodbye forever
What I don't have photos of is his other "Trans-Am" that he let go that day. A '70 Challenger T/A.
I need to get off my duff and go and visit the man. He isn't doing so well these days.
Wow, dang. Thanks for sharing.
Very cool car(s). The good news is due to their value and rarity they will live on and be enjoyed and taken care of for many years to come. We are all just caretakers of our vehicles for a short time. All will eventually be passed on to someone else to take of.
Drool. That is my absolute favorite muscle car. I would love to have that in my garage.
A 401 CJ said:
The 'You Need This' thread on the yellow Trans-Am made me dredge up these photos I snapped back around 2006.
Hindsight is 20/20 but think about how much he would have got for the car if he'd held on to it for another decade or so.
stuart in mn said:
A 401 CJ said:
The 'You Need This' thread on the yellow Trans-Am made me dredge up these photos I snapped back around 2006.
Hindsight is 20/20 but think about how much he would have got for the car if he'd held on to it for another decade or so.
No idea how much he got for it as he's quite tight-lipped about that stuff, but if it's any indication, I remember seeing the one with the screaming chicken on E-bay a few months later and it was over $80k. In 2006 dollars! But then again, come 2009 you would have been considering suicide as their worth fell through the floor for a few years. I think these cars have peaked as the folks who most fondly remember them are starting to no longer be able to enjoy them. My cousin is a prime example. Up next? Rare Fox bodies and Turbo G-bodies to name two.
The other interesting thing here is that this particular T/A was one owner. My cousin purchased it new while stationed at Ft. Bragg not long after joining the Army as a Captain. MD's used to start at that rank.
In for more rare car stories.
WV plates I spy, but have to say that geography doesn't look like the WV I'm most familiar with. I'm guessing Eastern Panhandle?
I want the straw buyer from Texas's job. Driving around buying cool cars with other people's money.
Scotty Con Queso said:
In for more rare car stories.
WV plates I spy, but have to say that geography doesn't look like the WV I'm most familiar with. I'm guessing Eastern Panhandle?
Greenbrier Valley Airport
That's basically my dream car. As I mentioned in the other thread, I prefer my Trans Ams with the firechicken on the hood, but I'm not one to be picky when it comes to the SD-455 cars. And one that Nunzi worked on, at that! Great story.
Here's a PERFECT Buccaneer Red '74 SD455 around here that I spotted a couple years back at a local restaurant.
It was cool to see it being used as a car rather than sitting in a rich guy's museum.
And I know what it's like playing the "what if I hung onto a car and sold it later" game. Back in 2011, I sold my 1979 10th Anniversary Trans Am W72 project. It needed more love than I could give it, and judging by the fact that my other one is still a mess 13 years later, it was the right choice. I bought it and a big pile of parts for $500 in 2004 and sold it for $2000 and some more parts I needed for my other car to a guy in CT. Guy I got it from was going into the Marines and had to ditch it. I lost track of him, but not one week after I sold it, he re-emerged and wanted to buy it back. I felt bad. On top of that, if I had sat on it for a few more years, I could have gotten at least $12-15k for it. Sometimes, you have to just do what you have to do.
That Buccaner Red pops but Brewster Green has always been my dream Trans-Am.
In reply to A 401 CJ :
There's another local guy with a 1973 455 (non-SD) in Brewster Green that is incredible. Such a great color on these cars.
Not being an SD would certainly not be a deal breaker for me. I'm just crazy about the lines of the '73. '70 through '72 are not bad either. What's the John Wayne movie where they totally destroy a Brewster Green '73? It's hard to watch.
In reply to stuart in mn :
That's the one!
I'm almost certain this is it. All cleaned up.
I can relate.
I sold the family 1963 Imperial Le Baron last January. 61 years ago it was purchased new by an aunt. It only has 22,000 miles. 1537 made, and I was told by an expert it was one of 300 with full leather interior. A collector outside of Houston has it now.
buzzboy
UltraDork
11/22/24 8:27 a.m.
Did the blue chicken only come on white? I really like the high contrast. Oxblood looks good too
buzzboy said:
Did the blue chicken only come on white? I really like the high contrast. Oxblood looks good too
I don't know. I'm far from an expert on them. One thing though is that the car in the YouTube has a small chicken on the nose. I have not seen that on any other car. Pretty sure it's the former car of my cousin though because how many oxblood interior, white, SD, 4-speeds could there be? There were only 72 total SD 4-speeds in '73
Interesting the block off plate on the shaker of the BAT car. I didn't know SD's had that. I know we used to cut them out on the later malaise-era ones since they were not removable.
In reply to A 401 CJ :
Yeah, the early cars had a vacuum-operated flap, and that was replaced by a bolted-on block-off plate around 1973. Later ones were cast solid and people would have to cut them out. It's been on my list for 20+ years to fix mine, which looks like it had been cut out with a dull, rusty spoon.
A 401 CJ said:
buzzboy said:
Did the blue chicken only come on white? I really like the high contrast. Oxblood looks good too
I don't know. I'm far from an expert on them. One thing though is that the car in the YouTube has a small chicken on the nose. I have not seen that on any other car. Pretty sure it's the former car of my cousin though because how many oxblood interior, white, SD, 4-speeds could there be? There were only 72 total SD 4-speeds in '73
1973 was the first year of the "Screaming Chicken" hood decal. In 1973, the Trans-Am was only available in three colors, which was up from only two in prior years. Your choice of color determined your decal color: Cameo White got blue, Brewster Green got green and Buccaneer Red got red/orange Graphics. Later on you could get a lot more colors and had a choice of decal color too.
