I was watching some extra video stuff on Disney Presents a Pixar film 'Cars' :: The Official Movie Site and car customizer Eddie Paul created a life size replica of Lightning McQueen. He states in the video they used a Trans Am as a base platform and built the character car on it. I've captured a few screen shots to show you.

It is an actual functional driving car! Enjoy. The single shot shows the TPI setup. I noticed it right off the bat (before he mentions it's a T/A).

Now that would be a pretty cool T/A to own.

-bill

 

Sorry to go off-topic and I'm not ending to trash you or anything...

But wow... you have the first car I've ever actually noticed that had the Iron Duke 4-cylinder. How does it run, how many miles do you have on the car... very few of the 3rd Gen's had the Iron Duke correct? What years was the Iron Duke available?

 

cool. looks like disney's taking a shot at the ricers, nice wing lol:

 

The Iron Duke was availible from 1982-1986. The car handles and drives much like other firebirds, however, it's straight line accelleration is a complete laughing stock. It is just like you would imagine a four cylinder f-body would be. Incredibly slow.

It's geared well. At highway cruising speeds is where this car shines as well as taking corners and handling. (I've upgraded the suspension componets from a WS6 Formula.)

At 95 Hp rating from the factory, it's pretty slow.

-bill

 

95? Wow... that must really suck, but hey, decent gas mileage right!? How long have you had the car for? Any plans to upgrade or anything?

 

The only thing that I have noticed is that ive only seen early 80's firebird's with IRON DUKES. I have not seen yet a sport coupe camaro with one.

 

I've only seen one camaro with an Iron Duke, in person. There are a couple members on these boards with Iron Duke powered Camaros. I've only seen one 1985 fbody with an Iron Duke. I've yet to see any 1986 (the last year they were offered).


The car has very poor power. It does get great gas mileage, however. I don't plan on doing any upgrades or modifications. I've owned this car since 1998 and when I bought it, I only paid $500 for it. I've since put about $1500 or so into it to get it to where you see it now.

I've contemplated putting a V8 in it everytime I get behind the wheel and want to accellerate! I've had 4 different firebirds over the years. 2 of them were v6's and I had an 81 Trans Am with the 301 V8 (it was underpowered for it's size).

I've had more people take interest in my Iron Duke bird as of late. It's even pictured in a Firebird History book by Marc Cranswick. So there is interest in the car being a 4 cylinder. Just about everyone I've ever talked to and revealed the fact that it's a 4 cylinder has either laughed or shook their heads in disbelief.

I'm a married man with a 5 month old baby, so I have zero budget to do anything with this car. Eventually, I would like to see it restored to it's original glory.

Here's my cardomain website if anyone's interested.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/260340

Well, that's my story, in a nut shell.

-bill

 

My 82 camaro had the duke 4 bannger in it when I bought the car. I pulled it out because the orig. owner thrue a rod. Installed a 327ci and a turbo 350 trans.

 

A little CARS trivia for anyone who cares... This is Brian (first post here) from Customs By Eddie Paul (EP Industries, El Segundo, CA (310) 322-8515) the shop that built Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera and Tow Mater. We specialize in customs, restos and studio vehicles (builders of the cars for Grease, Triple X, Fast and the Furious 1 & 2, etc.). The Trans Am was my personal car that I sold to Pixar since it was conveniently available. It's an '87 WS-6 with 48,000 original miles on it. It has a Hypertech chip, Turbo City exhaust, Suspension Techniques suspension that pulled a .96 on a 200' skid pad, and Art Carr TH700. The only T/A items left on the car now are the steering wheel and shifter. I bought the car new and it was used in a few build articles in Car Craft back in the 80s when I was an editor there. After the CARS Road Trip, it will be freshened up here at our shop and then placed on display permanently at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA.

 

Hi Brian!
I grew up in that area, and I used to drive by the shop.
I still don't know why I never stopped by in person though.
It seems that Eddie Paul loves Firebirds/Trans Ams alot, as he is always doing one as a conversion.
I've got pictures somewhere where he did a big flair job and portholes onto a early '70's Firebird.
George Barris seems to like them too.
Do you guys keep a photo log on your conversions?
Might make a good book or something.

George

 

haha I like that one

 

Brian,

Thank you so much for shedding some light on this topic. I think it's awesome to have first hand info given to us!

Ever since I heard that this movie was coming, I've been excited. I'm a huge car fan and I love what Pixar does in it's movies. So for these two to come together, it's got me excited. I work at a plastics plant as a graphic artist. I deal with a lot of artwork that comes in from Movie Theaters (we produce popcorn buckets and drink cups) and I've had a lot of "Cars" artwork come across my desk. Being a graphic designer I take great interest in the latest computer animated movies.

I would love to see Eddie's shop. Living in the midwest, I don't have too much opportunity to see any real custom projects. I'm limited to watching shows like "overhaulin'" , "wrecks to riches" and "rides" to see any cutting edge designs.

So did you get to work on the Cars projects? I saw images of McQueen and Sally. I'd love to see how Mater turned out.

Stick around these boards. We'd love to hear more about the projects you all are working on. Especially the Firebirds and Camaros.

bill

 

Thanks for the reply George and Bill. Yes I remember doing flares and skirts of all kinds back then (I first worked with Eddie Paul from 79 to 84). As for books and photos, we currently have four titles out ("The Cars of the Fast and the Furious" "How To Build Fast and Furious Cars" "Eddie Paul's Custom Bodywork Handbook" and "Extreme Chopper Building"). I highly recommend the chopper book. It'll be out in a couple weeks at book stores. It shows the building of Chopper One, a totally radical V-8 bike. It's a ZZ502 big-block-powered motorcycle with dual superchargers, 2-stage nitrous putting out approx 1300hp...on two wheels. If you've heard of Boss Hoss V-8 motorcycles, then you kind of get the idea. It's not an F-Body but it has GM power and it's something to see. As for the CARS vehicles, Mater turned out great. We used an early 80s Chevy shortbed dually with a 454, removed the bed and cab, shortened and narrowed the frame, and fabbed the whole Mater body. Sally started as a new Porsche (actually a pilot line car from the Mfg. with 10,000miles on it). We cut it in half, removed 7 inches, and put it back together. All three are good runners, although Lightning due to its huge 34-inch tires, can no longer turn on a dime. I did the paint on all three CARS vehicles and much of the body work. We have a full crew here who also worked on them. By the way, if there are any metal fabricators out there, we (Customs By Eddie Paul) manufacture afull line of tools (English wheel, planishing hammer, pneumatic shrinker/stretcher, tubing roller). Also a complete series of How-to videos on a variety of topics. This is getting long so I better end now. Thanks again.

 

wow, very cool stuff. can we get a link to a photo gallery for the firebird-based CARS vehicle? I'd love to see pictures from the build and the completed vehicle.

 

My advice consists of three words:

SUPER DUTY FOUR

 

Awesome! I can't wait for that movie! I love it when they give cars there own personality lol. LIke Herbie, Knight Rider....