Hey guys just wondering the desireability of my car, its kinda an interesting set up. its an 88 Formula 305 5speed. the motor is a factory refurb, apparantly. but the interesting thing, is that its got no ac components. it has the ac delete pulley. just wondering how many of these old girls came with that set up. no power windows, locks, or trunk release. its got t-tops though. i figure okfoz will have all the stats. thanks!
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oh and i forgot to mention it also has a factory working shift light in the dash. which ive never seen before.

 

I will be the first to ask for pics. Sounds like a cool car.

 

well i pretty much listed all the options it has, which are few. no power anything, i think it has cruise control, but i havent tried it. i have to fix the directional arm thing, because it wont engage the washer fluid for some reason. the only real "option" that i see is the shift light. other wise it doesnt really have anything, besides the t-tops. heres a few pics i took. i'm planning on doing a chip and otherwise just getting it to run nice and clean. i plan on ripping the cat off, and doing long tube headers to straight pipes. not really sure on what i wanna do yet though.




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also now it has a white fourth gen interior now. and i got the correct center caps. but id like to get some gta rims.

 

Check the hood, on right hans side will be sticker with vin. Maybe someone wanted a formula or needed a donor body. Most of these cars are pieced together so never assume. I thought mine was a standard (rear hatch light at top, flat spoiler)that someone had put bulge hood on, but saw the vin on hood. There is no diffrence in vin to denote formula. second if it was desirable, the minite and thing is hacked off it loses any value it has. Reminds me of the punks that take a Vega cosworth, do an engine swap, then wonder why they cant get 10,000.00 for it.LOL

 

Factory A/C was not standard or a required on any 3rd gen car. It was a expensive OPTION and people special ordered cars without it. Just a car with few expensive options. Somebody just wanted a cheap performance car.

 

In the vin S21 appears so im sure that its a formula.

 

According to the Standrd Catalog of Firebird (John Gunnell) 93.7% of all firebirds had AC, that leaves 6.3% without AC.

If you have the LB9/M5 I would suspect someone wanted a weekend racer.

In either case W/O AC is pretty unusual, a keeper in my book. Unfortunately low optioned cars are low desirability, unless they have a 1LE RPO, or a TPI Engine... then its a GTO of the 80's

WE need to remember that the Formula was the Budget Go-fast car from Pontiac. It was more or less like the GTO from the 60's insofar as it was targeted to be a basic no frills ride with all the go-fast stuff if you wanted...

JOhn

 

hey thanks, thats pretty cool to know. yeah its got TPI. i like it. its fun. hehe. hopefully ill be getting some paint on it soon. and the original owner was a lady. i still have the warranty card i found it with a bunch of paperwork. maybe she was a racer? who knows. cool stuff though.

 

Have you checked the RPO label? What options are listed with this car. One of the first places to look while attempting to learn a bit about the car.
Nice ride.
-Andrew

 

RPO label is long gone.

 

See if you can take your VIN to a dealer/parts counter, and ask him to run the options that came with the car. You never know.
-Andrew

 

alright maybe if i got time. do they charge you for that?

 

They shouldn't..., but you never know tho. If I were in your position, go up to the parts counter, and tell them that you are not sure about a particular part; for example front brakes; tell the dealer that you don't know what style of front brake rotor you need, or rear rotor (if your car has disc brakes on all four corners) or something along this line. He/she will probably want your VIN, and away you go. From there you will have to 'feel out' the counter person to see if they will print out the RPO's or at least let you know if you have for example RPO 1LE or RPO J65, or RPO G92 or,or, or... Ask about all the 1LE options, and or other performance options. This will give you and idea about the car, and who knows, it may be well worth your time
Just my
-Andrew

 

I found one of them in a local boneyard a couple weeks ago. It took me by surprise as it's the first time I ever saw a firebird with the "vent" cables under the column. The set-up doen't appear to be to highly desired. I posted a classified add 2 weeks ago explaining what I had found and have not gotten a single response to it.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...ebird-non.html

I've seen the non AC set-up in the Camaros several times - but NEVER in a FireBird before. The car was an 86-88 MPFI V6 with a 5-speed and T-Tops, & no power options other than a rear defroster. However; It did have exactly the right set of front springs I needed for my 87 Coupe !!!!

 

Actually A/C was standard on all 89 Firebirds with a V-8 (TBI & TPI) that wasn't a 1LE car. Don't know about 90-92.