Good god, another one? 1996 Formula, 6spd
 

Story time.

2 weeks ago was one of the largest music festivals in the US, Austin's South by South West, or SXSW. I volunteered for it in exchange for the 700 dollar pass to everythang. I took advantage of this pass Friday, and went out to a great concert.

I leave around one to go find something to eat. I missed my turn thanks to a bike-cab using the right turn lane, but no biggie, the road I'm on will get me to the same place. So, I'm on this bridge and doing about 40 when a guy walks out into my lane, spreads his arms and legs wide and blocks it... :o Laying on the horn, I bring the Jeep down to a stop. And I'm ****ed. The guy comes to the passenger side window and starts *****ing at me, and maybe 5-10 seconds after I had stopped, BAMP. I was rear ended by a girl who tried to change lanes. In the end, good thing she didn't, had she made the whole lane change, she would've hit the guy.

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ot/photo13.jpg


The Bimmer was ****ed right up, it had gone under the Jeep, so far as to wrap the exhaust pipe, which is normally straight back, around the tire. In the end, he was arrested, and we swapped info. The Jeep drove home and her car was towed. With more looking, the exhaust was royally kinked up over the axle, shock was bent from the exhaust pipe being shoved against it. The actual bumper (what sits behind the plastic bumper you see) had taken most of the hit, as did the hitch. The plastic bumper was bent up some, tail gate was twisted up, I could stick my whole hand in some of the gaps. :lol:

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ot/photo15.jpg

Well, they totalled it. And I got enough to buy THIS.

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ot/photo10.jpg
http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...iot/photo8.jpg
http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ot/photo11.jpg
http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ot/photo12.jpg

And it came complete with the uncomfortable, but kind of badass/cheesy:
http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...iot/photo7.jpg


Needless to say, I'm not too unhappy about this. :D 1996 Firebird Formula (Trans-Am, with the V6 body work, lighter weight too), 285 hp LT1 V8, T56 6spd, 95,000 miles, and a fresh motor. It's fun. :bigwink:

Nice looking ride man. I always liked the body kits that came with the lt1's & on the later ls1's. :nod:

But yours looks great the way it sits, got any plans for it? I am thinking you should do slp headers, slp exhaust, Cold Air Intake (although the one on it seems to be fairly decent), drop it and inch or two, and replace the shifter knob. lol

Then make a vid of it.

Nice car!

I cannot believe the insurance company wrote off a vehicle that could be driven home. Wow!

Man that's nice. Someone can crash into my tahoe so I could get one

Come to Philly, I have a intrepid I would love to get rid of. With your truck and the damage they would do to each other they would probably total BOTH our cars.....................:bigwink: :nod: :lol:

I am really suprised they did write it off as totalled, however I guess in a way it worked for the best. Very nice color too always liked the T/A's in black and green as favorite colors.

Daily driver was supposed to be good on gas. Now you've got two gas guzzlers. At least this one can get to the gas station significantly faster than the Jeep.

It's pretty good on gas, on my standard of things. The Jeep was worse, while driving slower. And it's not 10 mpg at a steady 65 mph like the chevy.


Apparently since the tail gate had to be replaced, that put it over the edge. But I mean, I had planned to flip it anyways, so it's awesome that I got more than I could have reasonably sold it for (thank you Libya).

And I got one of the best year lt1 cars: obdII, dual cats (285 hp vs the earlier 275), the revised optispark, and revised shifter that (apparently) doesn't miss third as easily.

Sucker apparetly has a fresh motor (looks it, clean and many new gaskets under the hood) and has 95,000 miles on it. The trans and clutch are swell and quiet too. Once the a/c is charged, it'll be the nicest car I have owned yet.

Does need a decent shift knob, really awkward to shift fast with the skull. Lawl

Funny mistake today. One of the annoying features of the GM 6 speeds (and everyone else who used the T56) is the Skip-Shift "feature", that when the engine has a light load and is under 20 mph it will force the 1-2 shift into 4th. This was done to avoid the gas guzzler tax as it raised the average fuel economy in EPA testing.. A solnoid blocks the gates for 2nd and third, and will unlock the gates after 20 mph or if you depress the clutch long enough.

Despite having the torque to usually get away with this, it's annoying as hell to lug the motor into 4th at 15-20 mph. I usually skip shift 1-3-5th anyhow.

The simple trick is to unplug the solenoid and place a resistor into the plug so that the computer still thinks that the solenoid is working (and doesn't throw a check engine light). Well, there were no good pictures or descriptions on which of the 2 solenoids on the side of the trans to do this trick to when I was looking at it this morning. So, I get home after morning classes, pull the plug closest to the shifter, put in the resistor, wrap it up and tuck it up out of the way. Being lazy, I didn't test drive it and napped until it was time for my afternoon class. Well, I goto put it in reverse and...

I pulled the reverse lock-out solenoid, not the skip shift solenoid. Reverse was locked! Can't get out of the driveway. So up goes the car, and I switch everything around to the forward most solenoid and get on my way. Problem solved! And a much more pleasant drive.

And, that redneck-as-**** skull shifter is gone. It was shockingly hard to find a non-ricey shift knob. Settled on this solid aluminum (Polished "chrome"), acorn shaped one, and painted it black for the time being. Comfortable, a little weighty, much improved over the awkard skull..

http://hphotos-snc6.fbcdn.net/210502..._5918364_o.jpg
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7...0496913579.jpg

Fun car, nice 90mph cruiser, and a ridiculous good time at full throttle. (:<

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/471...5804878579.jpg

Ah yes I can remember how irritating that was, my cousin had a ws6 and that use to make her mad all the time. The fact it makes you was annoying because it almost makes it feel like you are no longer in control of the car(if that makes sense). Never knew about the trick around it though I stick with fords:lol: Nice job avoiding the skip shift though and new shifter is much better.

The T56 Fords (SVT Cobra) use the same feature. And I know the modern GM 6spds still do, wouldn't be surprised if the current 6spd Fords do too. Hey, if it's just to please the EPA nazis and is easy enough to disable, I don't mind.

The skip shift light still comes on, but it's just a good indicator when to granny shift it into third now.

Not sure the only new 6 speed ford i've driven was a 5.0 mustang and they don't have it. I didn't even know the cobra did.

Googling says the new GT has it, but it seems like it's harder to trip than mine. Some Camaro owners say the same, some never run into it.. However, the LT1 is no where as efficient as the 5.0 and LS motors, it'll activate pretty easily in regular driving.

It took me less than 5 minutes to do the mod the 2nd time, extremely easy on the F-Body. There's a lot of plug-and-play devices, which are just the male end of the weather-pack connector with the resister enclosed. But, you can spend 35 bucks doing that, or a buck at radio shack for just the resistor.

You're right I just googled it but I guess it is harder to trigger because a mustang forum says alot of people on there haven't even had it come on for them. I drove my uncles 5.0 nice and soft never taking it about 3K RPM and it never made me skip so I don't know how it works. So do you have any plans for this formula? I know it has to be a blast to drive stock though

When you pull the shifter for the 1-2 shift, it slides over to the right and into 4th. There's a solenoid that blocks off the 2nd gear gate, and in the case of my car, third gear too.. I 1-3-5 skip shift in traffic, so the fact that I can't even use third bugged the hell outta me.

It has plenty of power for the time being, but shocks, (if I can find any) WS6 sway bars will round out the suspension, and a decent set of tires. Should sharpen it up a good bit.

Nice rims; Riceboi. Repaint them. No need for the stockers to be painted black. Find some ZQ8's I do believe they would fit.

16"x8" 6.4mm offset, 5"x4.75" bolt pattern. - ZQ8 rims.

Which one do you have? 5"x4.72" or 5"x4.75"?

Good luck finding parts for it. Seeing as Pontiac is dead and gone.

Seeing as the engine was used in the Buick Roadmaster, Cadillac Fleetwood, Chevy Caprice and Impala, Olds Deltacruiser (?, they had a B-Body wagon, forget it's name), Corvette, and Camaro. It's basically the last generation small block chevrolet, no shortage of parts. The trans was used in the Viper, Vette, Camaro, Cobra, GTO, CTS-V and SSR. The rear axle has been used in just about every RWD GM vehicle for decades. The rest of the components are parts-bin GM parts, used across the board. And the car itself was sold for nearly a decade in high numbers, giving it plenty of junk yard inventory.

There's no shortage of parts for a late-model GM car. ;) Not to mention it's massive aftermarket, you know, being a F-Body and all.

So, you were saying?

I have raced one of these in my car before with just a few mods they are **** fast. The one I raced had cams, exhaust and intake only and man I was impressed. Thats my favorite color for that car and from the looks of it its very clean. Nice work.

LT1s always had a leg up on the 4.6, 275 when introduced, 285 when it left, and a few ticks over 300 in LT4 form. And they lub lub bolt ons.

It's fun :) and it makes beautiful noises.

It's not really hard to find parts for these cars. LT engine parts are more readily available than LS parts and this car shares the same bolt patter with tons of stuff, even the new Camaro, Vette, etc. The only thing you'd have trouble finding is body parts, but there are lots of aftermarket companies that can help you with that. Nice looking car, but the Neon can take it. MOPAR BBY.