Valarie’s Story:
Valarie’s birth was in the year when the Firebird’s name took a serious downfall, never to recover again. Through VIN decoding, I was able to determine that it carried a 301 cid engine (non-turbo’d), a depressing way to replace the 6.6L 400 cid torque-beast it had under the hood just a year before.
After purchasing a 1995 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in 2002 as my first ‘real car’ (yes, I bought it with my own money) I began to look for ways to make it faster. Much to my dismay, most things that should be done in order to accomplish this need for speed either cannot be accomplished by regular joes without specialized equipment or couldn’t be accomplished in any reasonable time frame. Though I love the car for what it is, I needed something easier to learn auto repair and be worked on. So after many overtime hours and a couple years, I began to search yet again for a Firebird, but this time something a little older, a little easier to work on, a little more…. uncivilized power.
Upon my searching, I became quickly disappointed at the prospects that were on the market, that is until my friend whom was helping me look was able to find a potential buyer up in Battle Creek, Michigan – about an hour away from me. When I first saw the car I could barely contain my disappointment, this was not what I had bargained for I thought, a beat-up paint job, a hole in the floor pan, and wiring problems up the ying yang. Chris was with me and we had only stayed about 30 minutes before I had already decided to leave this hunk of junk where it sat. Chris and I talked a little bit before we headed our separate ways, he was much more impressed than the car than I was and tried to talk me into giving it a second chance, and after several weeks of turning up nothing, I did just that.
The second time I visited the car, it was better than I remembered it from the last visit. Though not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it was in a lot better shape because I gave the owner a few weeks notice that I was coming for a second look and he really fixed it up nicely. After one fun test drive, any doubts I had about the car were pretty much gone and I was interested in buying it (with a little pushing from Chris – I am hesitant to spend large quantities of money). The car has an interesting past; the man I bought it from, Gary, had originally bought it from the son of one of his past friends. He trusted the kid against his best judgments and bought the car, a few months later he was contacted by the true owner of the car. The true owner didn’t really want the car too badly, but he did want to be paid (obviously); so they made an arrangement, Gary forked over more money, and finally got the title.
After another month or so I went up to purchase the car, received the title and Chris drove it home while I followed in my Trans Am. Along the trip home Chris got a little itchy with the throttle and I tried to play keep up with my Trans Am – poor Bridgette didn’t stand a chance. So for the next couple months the car sat at home while I worked on it, then I had to leave for college. I asked my parents to send down the car in a month or so, six months later I finally got it. So now I can work on it down here between classes and work.
