Found hiding in plain sight, advertised on craigslist & Racing Junk but not as what it was.

Pole sitter, winner & track record holder in SCCA A/S at Daytona, Sebring, Road Atlanta and Homestead/Miami, raced by Jim Crist of The Toy Store in Florida, built & raced by John Bennett of Michigan.

 

High fives on this one Chris! I believe the steering wheel RPO showing a credit may be due to requesting down grade from the normal T/A leather wrapped wheel to the standard rubber 'bird steering wheel? I cannot imagine GM issuing a VIN on a car and then removing the standard air bag. Someone smarter than myself can chime in with the RPO for the standard bird wheel with airbag.

With regards to crushing, I believe that the majority of 1LE birds were treated poorly or crushed as there are no external indicators of the package. Folks enjoyed them as fast cars and used them up!

 

Confused? Looks more like a 91 Formula? What's the story on that?

 

I dig it!

 

Race cars get yearly updates/mods to stay competitive and within class rules or even owners mod them.

 

so you bought it I assume (you don't say)? Very nice and we are all very jealous!

 

Love this car!!!!

 

Love the fact that car had a $4,000 markup in it.

I sell brand new Cadillacs starting at $34,000 with barely $1,300 in markup...

 

Me too! Hoping for more pictures of it.

 

I did - once I discovered what it was I'd have been an idiot if I didn't.

A friend of mine locally is trying to get me into club racing at Lime Rock & the new track up in MA - in fact he has an event this weekend. I went looking for a car that I could track for not a lot of money and found a Camaro close by that was advertised as a 1LE but was also converted to A/S. Looked at it and the story came out that they had ordered & raced a 91 1LE and had wrecked it so they bought a 87 6 cyl car and swapped everything over.

Came home and went looking again - this one was on Racing Junk (and Craigslist) in Minnesota. We talked about it at length, he sent me all of the pictures he had, read me the VIN and I told him I would call him back the next day. I ran the VIN through Compnine and almost called him back that night - but the next day we agreed on a price, and the following I wired the money. It's now sitting in my friend's garage outside of Detroit where I'll pick it up this weekend.

The plan is to get it home, have it's certification & log book updated, get it decal'd like it was when originally raced and then....who knows?

Here are a few more pictures:

 

Wow, Chris! Another nice find!

 

The more I see, the more I like it!!

 

That's impressive. I thought that I had seen it all in the Third Gen world. Way cool. Enjoy!!

 

Fun! You must be starting to get low on space in the barn!

 

Congratulations!

 

Looks like that will fit your needs perfectly. As someone said you are running out of space i bet

Bet you got it for a song too wow. congrats!
I am moving from Ohio to California and will need to transport my baby. any suggestions on company? PM me if so.

[QUOTE=PurelyPMD;6030594]I did - once I discovered what it was I'd have been an idiot if I didn't.

A friend of mine locally is trying to get me into club racing at Lime Rock & the new track up in MA - in fact he has an event this weekend. I went looking for a car that I could track for not a lot of money and found a Camaro close by that was advertised as a 1LE but was also converted to A/S. Looked at it and the story came out that they had ordered & raced a 91 1LE and had wrecked it so they bought a 87 6 cyl car and swapped everything over.

Came home and went looking again - this one was on Racing Junk (and Craigslist) in Minnesota. We talked about it at length, he sent me all of the pictures he had, read me the VIN and I told him I would call him back the next day. I ran the VIN through Compnine and almost called him back that night - but the next day we agreed on a price, and the following I wired the money. It's now sitting in my friend's garage outside of Detroit where I'll pick it up this weekend.

The plan is to get it home, have it's certification & log book updated, get it decal'd like it was when originally raced and then....who knows?

Here are a few more pictures:


/QUOTE]

 

Damn! Sweet ride! Are you going to put the GFX back on? Or keep it looking like a Formula? I will definitely be paying attention to this car!

Correction, in that first picture I thought it was GFX, but I think it is the air dam...

 

Thanks guys! No the car is going to stay with the 91-92 Formula body panels on it since that is how it was raced. The decals will be re-done to match the as raced scheme with the yellow lower stripes and the windshield banner as well as the other contingency and SCCA stickers.

Couple interesting items from the invoice is the early VIN but the late ship date, VIN likely coinciding with the August order date. The other item is the Ship To: 60-278 (60 would be the zone, 278 would be the dealer) which does not tie out to the dealership it was billed through, or any other known zone for that matter, so we're trying to determine where the car went when new.

http://www.ultimategto.com/art18.htm

Car also appears to have the floor reinforcements found in a T-Top car but in a hardtop body...and the hood is aluminum.

 

Nice find! Id love to see this car in person once its in New England.

 

Wow! That isn't something you will see very often. Be a lot easier to change that fuel pump out huh..

 

The 1LE is pretty sweet, but personally I'd rather have the Orbit Orange '70 Judge that's parked next to it....

 

Very cool! Great find!

 

What are the two black stripes down the hatch glass?

 

I was thinking that as well. Is that your friends Judge or the previous owner's?

 

Thanks to all, I'm very excited about this car and can't wait to get my hands on it!

Absolutely, anytime, my garage is always open!

That is a sweet one - and will likely be for sale once his other 70 OO Judge is done being restored.

Strap retainers to keep the glass from blowing out of the car - required for racing. There are similar tabs on the windshield.No that belongs to my friend, he's also the current custodian of my old 71 Judge and the 73 Brewster green SD TA I found him & ....

 

 

So I've started filling in some of the blanks on this car - at least getting answers to some of the questions I had.

The date discrepancy and the VIN issue with the early VIN & the late invoice was answered by the ship to code of 60-278. This car was a program car, ordered by a GM subsidiary or supplier as a demo sometime late in August according to Jim Mattison of PHS who I spoke to about it today. The code 60 for zone determines that for us and the low number VIN and price date of 08/14 go along with it. After the requisite miles were put on the car it was then billed out on 12/22/89 and sold to the employee, John Bennett who immediately converted it into the race car we now have.

The credit for the steering wheel is nothing other than the 4 spoke wheel being substituted for the one with the radio controls in it that would have been standard.

 

I'm not sure. The Trans Am did not get the steering wheel radio controls that the GTA did. Also, 1989 was the last year for those steering wheels with radio controls.

Found this Pontiac Bulletin from GTA Source Page that addresses this:

 

Wow, awesome find. I remember seeing a link to the cl ad I think on Facebook awhile back. It looked and was described as a car converted to what it is now. No mention of what it really is

 

JT, thank you for that!

 

It's home!

Pics are of the hood - it says it's aluminum but it's really unobtainium.

Loading video: Yes, I stalled it.

 

No emissions sticker on that hood LOL...very neat and have not seen an aluminum hood. Date code on the hood from 1982?

 

Very cool! thanks for the post PMD. At our store we sell sunglasses made from unobtainium. Didn't realize the material was also available in automobile hoods. Maybe that is where all the hoods went??

Let me know how much you want for the hood

 

Racecars and over the counter hoods don't have emissions stickers

As far as I've seen (about 12 hoods), all the aluminum hoods were built in 82.

Jim Mattison always told me that the aluminum hoods had the same part number as steel hoods and the box they came in had the correct number.
I looked in my GM parts book and it shows the same part number (as steel hood) for the aluminum hood option. So I guess the parts book and Jims info is wrong.
Checked out my AL hood and it has this same part number but doesn't have the outward stamped "A".

 

I check every bulge hood I come across, still never found an Aluminum in the wild.

The car looks really good in the most recent pics!

 

Beautiful! Are you actually going to compete with ti? I don't think I'd have the will to take such a car out for door to door racing... but I'd love to take it to autocross, Solo I, HPDEs, and especially hillclimbs!

 

No, unfortunately because of it's history and because it's one of the four from 1990, I won't be jeopardizing it's future with any of my rookie antics.

 

I'd do the same, though if there are some historic solo track events or hillclimbs, I'd take it out and just keep the ego down a bit. Lots of guys take old and unique cars to these and aren't pushing at 100%. The Goodwood festival is a great example...

 

Sweet.

So are both the hood inner and outer aluminum?

 

Yes, they weigh around 21lbs

 

Excellent.

 

That's understandable. I'm nervous about taking my own cheap *** heap around the local road course but...

What he said. (If they can take a million dollar Porsche 917 for a Sunday spin...). I think the world would love to see that beautiful 3rd gen out for a drive. I'd bet you'd get some press. Especially with that livery. (Always liked the Sunoco/Donahue/Penske colours.)

 

Nice find

 

I understand that and am looking to do some club style track events but for an inexperienced driver to take out a car that's this nice/rare, I'd be more of a hazard than anything else.

 

This is such a cool find.. I met Chris this past weekend, and I was hoping to see this car, but he did not have it with him... But it is ok, the pictures are way cool for a way cool car...

 

Good meeting you too John, nice to put a face to a name. Great that your son is so interested in cars and knows what he's looking at already!

 

Was this on Detroit Craigslist? If so I don't know how I missed it.

 

Yes it was great to meet you and put a face to a name. Yeah he is an amazing kid... knows his cars especially his exotics, sports cars, Camaros mustangs Challengers etc, I am pretty sure he can identify any new American car... When he was 2 we could show him a picture of a car and he could tell us who drove a car like it, even if it was not the same color... I think he gets a lot of his interest and identification from video games, and my interest in cars. Funny thing, I am a Ferrari Guy, loved the GTO, but he could care less, but show him a Lamborghini, and he is all over it.

Sorry for just bolt on you, he has Asperger's so I have to keep an eye on him and be careful to push him only so far.

 

Minnesota,

and IMHO, from those pictures he literally stole it...

 

Chris,
You mentioned that it has the T-top floors, does it also have the T-top wedges in the doors?