i thought all verts got a 305.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ponti...item3a76ee4ea8

 

No, the Firebirds got the 350, but they aren't "vin 3" convertibles.

 

vin 3?

 

Would this car be a real 350 convert? I see cc1 on the rpo he listed. Were converts t-top cars before they were sent to asc to have the conversion done? Was there a rpo for a vert?

 

thats what iv heard a time or few in the past is verts were made from T top cars.

 

It's as real as it gets for a pre-91 Firebird convertible.

Vin 3 would indicate that it's a full GM convertible. IIRC, they still have the CC1 RPO code, but I could be wrong on that. Basically instead of the 6th digit of the VIN being a 2 to denote hatchback, it would be a 3 to denote convertible. These are dealer ordered convertibles, but GM warrantied them as normal to my understanding.

All of them left the factory as t-top cars until ASC cut the roofs off.

 

Yes, some of them had the 350 until '91 when all of them came with the 305. The reason was because GM restricted the B2L/CC1 option combination after the '89MY. After '90, the 350 was no longer available with T-tops from GM. Since ASC convertibles were converted from T-top optioned cars, no 350 'verts were made after '90.

The T-top optioned cars had additional factory bracing that the hardtops lacked so they were the logical choice for GM to be converted by ASC from '87-'92.

There is evidence that a small number of very early '91 cars did sneak out of the GM factory with the 350/T-top option. A member on here actually owns/owned one. However, I don't if any of those cars (which were very rare) were converted by ASC into convertibles. If there were, the number has to be extremely low like in the low single digits or something.

 

It wasn't early 91 that the 350 t-top option was available and they didn't "sneak out". If you bought a late 91/92 Formula with the PW7 crosslace wheels, you could get a 350. However, no Formulas or GTAs were convertibles, so no 350 convertibles were made past 89. I have never seen any evidence of a 1990 ASC convertible Firebird.

 

Well, I was referring to the guy on here who had a documented '91 GTA with the factory B2L 350/CC1 option combination. It was many years ago, but the general consensus is that some '91 Firebird GTAs did sneak out via VIP special order or whatever you want to call it, with that option combination. However, since no GTAs/Formulas were converted by ASC after '89, it's a moot point.

I remember there was a lot of conflict during that thread and threads made after that about the existence of '91 Firebird 350 GTA's with T-tops. The existence of a few more popped up later, I believe, so the conclusion was they were, indeed, a few made very early in the '91 MY. As we all know, the '91's debuted in Feb '90 which was a lot earlier than the normal model year production cycle of past years. Of course, this would exclude PW7 equipped '91-'92 Formulas since those were pretty much readly available and advertised in the brochure for most of the '91 and '92 model year.

It would be interesting to confirm if there were any Firebird 'verts made for '90 by ASC though.

 

Are you talking about blacksunshine91's car?

 

Yes, I think that's the member IIRC. He sounded pretty legit and very convincing about his claims, but I don't know what the real deal actually was.

 

That was the one I was thinking of... however, checking his current sig:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/member.php?u=4606

"'91 GTA w/C&C T-tops, E..."

I don't think his car was a factory t-top car.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

I don't remember him saying the tops were C&C T-tops back then. Maybe he didn't know the difference and just assumed they were factory T-tops or something. lol!