I keep on hearing different stories about when the TA convertibles were produced by ASC. I hear 1989 and then 1991. I happen to own a 1988 GTA convertible that was converted by ASC. I purchased the car from the original owner and she said the dealership told her that ASC converted the car as a prototype for future production. The car has a 305 5.0L, Auto Trans W/OD. I verified it is a GTA by the Parts Replacement sticker and it had the Y84 code. How rare is the car? Does anyone know the facts?

 

ASC started performing convertible conversions on the GM F-bodys at their plant in Livonia(MI) during the '87 model year.

 

I saw in "Old Car Trader" about a year ago an '89 GTA convertible for sale. The ad claimed it was an ASC converted car, 1 of 10 or so '89 GTA convertibles made.

Does ASC have an email address where we might be able to confirm the existance of pre-'91 Firebird convertibles?

 

I actually got in touch with the ASC Marketing Division the other day. After talking to 10 operators and 10 answering machines I finally got to talk to someone who looked up the production records. He told me that they do not know how many GTA's were built but just how many "Firebirds" in all were done for a particular year. Thier records aren't that detailed. The numbers are:
1987- 173 cars.
1988- 104 cars.
1989- 330 cars.

I didn't get the numbers for 90-91, sorry!
Even if half of the Firebirds for each year were GTA's it still seems to me that they are pretty rare. Well even if my car is not rare or worth that much I really don't care because it is one bad a$$ looking ride!
You can check it out at http://home.earthlink.net/~mgen10

 

The one thing that I do know and can add to this, regarding specific quantities, is that 2 TTAs were convertible-ized in 1989 by ASC.

 

Here's the confusion.
In 1987 GM agreed to send Camaro's to ASC for conversion and sold them thru dealerships. The Firebirds werent GM authorized till 91. However a dealership or private individual could send any camaro or firebird to ASC and have it converted.

------------------

 

You are probably right. Yesterday, I called the person that I purchased the car from to see if she had the window sticker still, to see if it would say convertible on it. I also wanted to clarify this "prototype" thing she mentioned. What she told me was that when she bought it from the dealer it didn't come with a sticker because the dealer said they purchased the car directly from ASC. It was thier show car and they were using it for all the car shows. Do you think if I went through the Pontiac Historic Services they could tell me who the previous owners were?