Richdub

Hey folks, nice to find a website completely dedicated to such an awesome set of cars. I'll graduate from college soon (geology) and I was surprised with the keys to this 2001 Firebird Formula w/ T-tops! WOO!! It is completely stock, 6 speed manual, and only 54k miles.

The car has been in the family since it left the factory, no wrecks just a few dings.

It has been about 5 years since I've had access to it (the car was several thousand miles away) and it has sat outside in Wyoming for a long time. The sun, snow, wind, and dust have not been nice and there is dust in every conceivable spot, along with several scratches and lots of swirl marks. I have a lot of work to do on the car, but thankfully most of these problems are superficial and shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Any general advice or thoughts are totally appreciated, I plan on spending a lot of time on this forum!

~Rich

RJDio

well congrats on the degree and your 'new' car. the sky is really the limit, tons and tons of options of where to start. Here is what I'd consider: Where will you live and work? There are states like TX where you can roll up with a cam bigger than the block, dual exhausts, no cats. And states like CA where cars are sniffer tested, mods and tunes must be tame and pass a state 'computer interfaced' inspection.

So that said, If you are going to live in a mod restricted state, put the time, money and sweat on the appearance, wheels, tires, vinyl, etc.... Or Suspension, do a full suspension upgrade, lowering springs, etc..... Your Fbody will love that!

If you are going to make it fast, here is a good link: https://ls1tech.com/forums/new-ls1-o...anna-fast.html tons of good info and take your time to read through it all. then when you research each and every mod take your time and review, check prices and vendor specials, e-coupons etc.

Richdub

I'll be keeping it in Washington. Not sure what the regulations are here but I will look into it.

A question about lowering the car, I already crawl over speed bumps and dips and I really do not want to hurt my car. How much does lowering it increase the risk of actually scraping and causing damage?

RJDio

Most lowering springs will decrease that fender well area and make it look more to the ground like a vette. I have vogtland springs and they are quite low and still settling. I do not have factory exhaust, I have Headers, electric cutouts and they are what really scrapes over grocery store lot humps, speed bumps, etc.

Your Formula is rare, there aren't many of them, and then when you include color - well that reduces the number of them like that in the world. You have many options, or just keep it bone stock. If you want a car to put at car club meets, shows, etc....put the time and effort into making it mint condition looking. Take to a detailer or detail it yourself, see if you can buff out any imperfections, shampoo the carpet, clean every speck of dirt and dust off inside engine bay and out. If you want a hotrod to take to the track or redlight race, well these cars have a good base LS1 platform, but takes money to make it fast or relevant compared to a new Camaro or a new Mustang 5.0. I'd enjoy the car for a year or two and decide what you want, fix anything broken, replace hoses, do a VATS resistor mod so you don't get stranded somewhere. If your kinda guy that races and lose a few, chances are mods follow. If you are cruiser, then aftermarket stereo and alarm! If you are a car show guy, mint condition is good. Tons and tons of good advice here no matter how you go about it. You could put a WS6 hood on it, a lot of Formulas do that. Vette wheels, a lot do that. Oh yea forgot to mention, drilled and slotted rotors are cheap, go it yourself ceramic brake pads, paint the brake calipers, easy mods that really pay off. good luck

Richdub

I've never owned a car with power before, so I can honestly say I'm a little bit scared of racing with it. I just want it to last a long time and look pristine. A WS6 hood would look amazing, along with the vette wheels and painted calipers, that looks really really nice... If I were to change the hood, would I need to modify the air intake so the ram air actually serves a purpose and isn't just for show?

RJDio

I don't think you'd need to change the intake. I could be wrong tho. I'm sure a body shop could match the paint easily. Firehawk hoods look good too, they have two big nostrils instead of 4. There are many many mods you can do yourself, like install a power steering cooler, or a transmission cooler, or bigger sway bars, just endless stuff. drop in a K&N high flow air filter, put in some good synthetic oil. Put is some MSD spark plug wires, some NGK plugs. Just stuff you can do yourself while learning the car and becoming familiar under the hood. Take your time, enjoy it, summer is almost here and the T-tops look and feel great when off