My Formula on steroids

One of my friends from college picked up this car a year or so ago. It's an '88, but aside from that, nearly identical to my Formula, though it is a hard top. It only has like 30,000 miles on the odometer. While I paid $5,700 for mine, he paid $5,000 for his with a siezed up engine. The engine siezed a short time after it's install, but I told my friend that the parts alone on this car are worth more than the $5,000 he paid, even if the engine was trashed, which is very unlikely.

This car has everything done to it that I would do to mine, if it wasn't my daily driver, and money was no object. I'll start with the engine. While I don't know all the specifics, I recall it has some serious aftermarket rods and an industructible crank. The block I believe is a bowtie block, the intake is a custom built one off piece, as is the dual air intake made from carbon fiber. The cubic inches are 400 for this build.



The transmission that backs up the engine is a T56 out of a Dodge Viper, is it was stronger than the version that came in the Camaros and Firebirds. The rear end is a custom built 12 bolt to be bullet proof as well, with 3.90 gears. All four corners have disc brakes that appear to be the 1LE setup. The suspension is all aftermarket, konis, lowering springs, and poly bushings. The chassis is all tied together via a 10 point cage, one of the tightest cages I've seen in terms of fit and form. The trans, rear, and cage alone would probably surpass the $5,000 he paid for the car.









He also has a 73 Chevelle Laguna which he bought about 7 years ago. His first car at 16 was a Laguna, and like me and my desire to buy another Firebird like my first car, he too wanted another Laguna. While I didn't much care for the car and it's styling at first, it has really grown on me, much like my friend's Fairmont he is building.




This car initially had a lowly 307 power plant, but it has since been replaced with a healthy sounding 454, reminds me a lot of the way my 454 in my Camaro rumbled. You can tell that it puts down some major power to the tarmac. He also swapped on some 17 inch rims and wider tires, and there ya have it, it was transformed into a serious street machine right before my eyes, one in which I thought was pretty damn cool now.