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December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

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Old Nov 30, 2015 | 05:24 PM
  #1  
Linson's Avatar
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From: Washington
Car: 89 Formula 350, TTA
December 2015 COTM **WINNER**



Congratulations, J.C. Denton. Your car has been voted by the Third Gen Community as TGO's December 2015 Car of the Month.

Sometimes I think there is a demand for something a little different, and this stunningly pristine '92 Firebird certainly is that. For one thing, I'm pretty sure that this is the first time a basically stock, V6 F-Body has won COTM. Another thing is the color {Dark Bright Teal}. I had never seen or heard of this before, and I am not generally a fan of the teal colors. But this color is pretty. In fact, I find it to be very soothing.

Very pretty car. Congratulations again, J.C. Denton, on walking away with Car of the month, especially in the face of some really elite competition.

Gut Gemacht!









It is a 1992 Firebird V6, 48k original miles, first paint, original WA9238 "Dark Bright Teal". It looks really blue on every picture but it is rather green than blue. Car has never seen any winter, I don't even drive when it's raining. Everything original excepted tinted tail lights and I've added 16" Diamond Spokes. It originally came with the 15" Spokes, RPO N90, but the 16" look much better. Hard to get over here in Germany.
Hope you guys will like it. It is a real head-turner over here.
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Old Nov 30, 2015 | 05:25 PM
  #2  
Linson's Avatar
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From: Washington
Car: 89 Formula 350, TTA
Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

perhaps you might delight us with just an image or two of the interior and that little V6 under the hood...
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Old Nov 30, 2015 | 05:50 PM
  #3  
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Car: 1989 GTA
Engine: LS coming soon
Transmission: 80E coming soon
Axle/Gears: S60/35 Spline/S-Trac/3.73
Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Beautiful! Well deserved
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Old Nov 30, 2015 | 06:20 PM
  #4  
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Car: Trans AM GTA 1989
Engine: 383 HSR AFR195 JRC Cam280/286
Transmission: T56 Conversion
Axle/Gears: 3.27 9bolt
Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Congratulations

Especially with that elite competition there was this month - all of those cars are winners, no matter if they were well kept over time or if they were saved from a junkyard and beautifully restored to their former glory or got some nice extras in terms of performance and other aftermarket products.


I'm sure, JC will upload some detail shots from the interior and the engine bay as both look like the car was built yesterday

Some weeks ago I made some lightroom editing on the pictures his girlfriend took from his Firebird and my GTA , on these pics I corrected the coloring more to green (seen with the own eyes it looks a little bit more green than blue, but my editing was certainly too extreme) , but I still think the pics turned out nice.















Last edited by PeterFeix; Nov 30, 2015 at 06:37 PM.
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Old Nov 30, 2015 | 08:33 PM
  #5  
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Congratulations! It's a beautiful car.
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Old Dec 1, 2015 | 09:10 AM
  #6  
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Car: 1988 Trans Am w/ WS6
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Congrats. Great looking car. Love the photos.
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Old Dec 1, 2015 | 11:58 AM
  #7  
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Wow, an all original V6 won? Beautiful car!! I had a 1991 Firebird V6 in black and I miss that car
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Old Dec 1, 2015 | 02:41 PM
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Wow, thank you all for voting me to the COTM winner! I'm totally delighted!

Ok, a few more facts about the car. As I said, it is an original 3,1 Liter V6 Firebird, original 48k miles, built in July 1992, RPO W68, with glass T-Tops and N90 15" Diamond Spokes from the factory which I changed to the original 16" Diamond Spokes. I like them much more than the 15".

Someone might ask: Why a V6? Well... over here in Germany, it is VERY hard to find GOOD or MINT Firebirds or Camaros. When you need a BMW, VW or a Mercedes, you can find thousands of them just across the street. Finding a 3rd Gen isn't easy, and most of them are V6. V8 were never that popular over here like in the US, I think because of the horrible gas prices we have. Today it was 1,30 € / Liter... just filled 54 Liters in my Daily BMW today.
The Bird was in best shape when I bought it, i knew the PO and the Bird for over 9 years and he was as crazy as I am. This car is 100% rust free, always kept in a climated garage at 20°C with a controlled air humidity of 55%. The PO owned the Bird for about 13 years, so I couldn't resist buying it.

My baby is in mint condition overall and has the stock grey interior. I like the grey color, most people seem to change it to black or tan. I must admit that I don't have a single photo of the interior! But you can imagine how it looks, I guess. I am a real perfectionist, so nearly everything is in best shape. The headliner began to sag last year so I threw it out and installed a new ABS Headliner from Hawks. Perfect fit, I was very pleased with it. I added a mint original overhead console for stuffing my sunglasses in the pouch. And I like the look of the console. I also changed the standard plastic e-brake handle and the shifter to mint leather wrapped ones from an 88 GTA.

Technical details: Everyone who ever drove a stock V6 knows, how ugly the suspension and the steering gear is. GM calls it "comfort", I call it crap. So I changed the struts and shocks, I installed Monroe SensaTrac shocks and Moog WS6 struts, black powder coated original WS6 sway bars (36mm front - 24mm rear) with the Topdown Solutions zinc plated 1LE Endlinks and the greasable bushing kits. I also changed the crappy steering gear to the WS6 gear and finally installed a complete Spohn steering kit. Now it drives like a V8... partially...
Exhaust is stock except a Flowtech Afterburner with 4" chrome tips. I also got rid of the old A/C system and installed a whole new A/C and retrofitted to R134a because R12 is strictly forbidden over here since 1995, so no chance of refilling the old system.
After that I got rid of the CS130 alternator and upgraded to a CS144 along with a new Optima Red Top battery, to a Delco AFS-74 heated O2 sensor and an aluminum drive shaft.

But now let a few more pics talk:

The engine bay with the tiny V6 with the old CS130 alt




... and with the new CS144


View from "down under"








And this is how it looks now for the winter


I guess, that's it. If I made any grammatical mistakes in my writing, I apologize to you. I don't write in english that often and I am a bit out of practice. High school is over for 9 years...

Greetings and thanks again for voting,
Oli
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Old Dec 1, 2015 | 07:31 PM
  #9  
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Originally Posted by J.C. Denton
My baby is in mint condition overall and has the stock grey interior. I like the grey color, most people seem to change it to black or tan. I must admit that I don't have a single photo of the interior! But you can imagine how it looks
Or look here:




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Old Dec 2, 2015 | 07:49 AM
  #10  
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Axle/Gears: 3.23, 3.42, ?
Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Congratulations. Very nice car. Love the 89 GTA in the nose to nose pic also.
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Old Dec 2, 2015 | 02:43 PM
  #11  
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Car: 1991 Firebird
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Your English is very good for learning it in highschool. I lived in Germany for 7 years and can't hold a conversation. Wish I could though. Beautiful car, very well kept. Congratulations.
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Old Dec 4, 2015 | 09:41 AM
  #12  
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Car: 1991 Trans Am GTA
Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Very nice and congratulations! Forgot to mention the swapped rear spoiler...
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Old Dec 4, 2015 | 01:04 PM
  #13  
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Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Sweet car indeed! Very nice! Like that color!
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Old Dec 4, 2015 | 01:16 PM
  #14  
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Transmission: T56 Conversion
Axle/Gears: 3.27 9bolt
Re: December 2015 COTM **WINNER**

Thanks akanitro

Btw the rear wing is the factory one. Nothing changed here.
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