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If you own more than one car, has your Firebird become your 'collector' car? ?
It seems the days are vanishing when I take my T/A out for errands around town. Inclement weather?? Forget it. Shopping?? Rarely. Future long distance vacations?? No, I'll be taking my other rides.
I never used the T/A as a daily driver but ever since our Rte 66 trip back in 2021 I find myself using the Trans Am just for day trips and fun short drives. Of course car shows and cruise-ins are part of that. Getting older is playing a role in our use of the car as well. Our Rte 66 trip was flawless (outside of a flat tire) but we were pushing our luck on the desolate roads. A 20 year old car is still 20 years old no matter how well cared for.
Has your Firebird now ended it's life as a 'second' or an 'everyday' car?
A final farewell tour on Rte 66 Tucumcari NM A final farewell tour on Rte 66 in NM A final farewell tour on Rte 66 in NM
New England trips are now unlikely. Drive in snow?? No more!!! Has probably seen the last of the Arizona desert. Western US road trips not likely anymore.
It has been a sun only car for nearly its whole life. Not sure my particular example is a collector car by any stretch, but the hassle of keeping it clean means I prefer to keep it from getting too dirty to begin with.
Last edited by lees02WS6; 02-26-2023 at 09:48 AM.
Reason: grammar
Neighbor has 4 of them. A 6 cyl one fore winter, and 3 v8 ones. One with less than 20,000 miles that is a garage queen, one for shows, and a beater one he got a good deal on. Winter 6 cyl one is what sees the snow
When I purchased my '94 M6 Z28 'vert in '97, I got a good enough deal on it to include a $850 winter beater '84 NISSAN King Cab on my loan so I didn't have to drive the Z28 in the snow / bad weather. Nothing changed a year later when I traded the Z28 on my WS6, or a year after that when I traded the NISSAN for a '99 Dakota R/T club-cab for winter duties. At 23K miles, my WS6 is one of my two fair-weather only cars, but I drive it as much as I can in the summer to work. If / when my Z06 number comes up, it's going to be tough to justify 3 toys for me and one for my wife. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.
I've taken my WS6 to Prince Edward Island, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Quebec, and all over Ontario.
Last year I drove to Wentzville, Missouri for work and on the way back the clutch went to the floor in Indianapolis. I mended her by using the fluid in the master cylinder condom and got her home. She needed a new master and slave.
You couldn't do that with a 2023 Camaro and if you blow out a tire on a new Corvette or Camaro good luck trying to find a replacement.
I will continue to drive her. Just seeing her sit is like watching your parents rot in their armchair.
If / when my Z06 number comes up, it's going to be tough to justify 3 toys for me and one for my wife. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.
I'm a recent member of the 3-toy club, I joined last summer by adding a '74 Cutlass to my collection. It's been a bit more stressful than I'd hoped, but that's mostly because the car really needed to be caught up on a lot of maintenance. It's a very low mileage, very original car that hadn't really been touched since 2006, so it needed a bunch of refreshing. Should be easier to manage going forward.
My other two toys ('98 & '71) have already been living the life of collector cars since the day I bought them (19 and 15 years ago, respectively); rarely driven, and only for fun - in fact I've never even turned their wipers on.
We've always had some type of hot rod. My current hot rod project that will never be a daily driver is 80 Camaro with a LS3 swap. It's about 99% complete and it will be our car show hot rod. Second hot rod is a 98 Wrangler with a LS6/4L60E swap. Has been great for almost 15 years but no cruise, no tilt, no ac and it rides rough. We've had it on the power tour. Fun driver but tiring. What we call our long distance cruiser is a 2014 Mustang GT 5.0 6 speed vert. I'm a big time GM car guy but the Mustang with the 5.0 is sweet. Cruise, tilt, air, power seats and XM what's not to like. A top down summer breakfast/lunch cruise is a lot of fun.
We've always had some type of hot rod. My current hot rod project that will never be a daily driver is 80 Camaro with a LS3 swap. It's about 99% complete and it will be our car show hot rod. Second hot rod is a 98 Wrangler with a LS6/4L60E swap. Has been great for almost 15 years but no cruise, no tilt, no ac and it rides rough. We've had it on the power tour. Fun driver but tiring. What we call our long distance cruiser is a 2014 Mustang GT 5.0 6 speed vert. I'm a big time GM car guy but the Mustang with the 5.0 is sweet. Cruise, tilt, air, power seats and XM what's not to like. A top down summer breakfast/lunch cruise is a lot of fun.
Nailed it with the '14 Mustang GT 'vert. It will also be our long distance vacation car after our Vanishing Point trip this year in our R/T.
2014 GT with 11,000 miles now. Brother from another mother.
Our 14 is ruby red. 28,000 miles. We bought it used. We are the second owner. The only major option is the Brembo big brake option. The only mod so far is Mustang GT 500 mufflers. The stock GT mufflers were just too quiet. The GT 500 mufflers are 3" and sound perfect IMO. No drone. Paid $200 used. They bolted right in.
I am soon adding a Barton shifter. The stock 6 speed shifter is junk.
Pic of my Wrangler and Camaro. Yeah I plow snow with my Wrangler.
My WS6 Convertible was purchased as a toy to replace the recently sold convertible toy before it which was purchased to replace the sold convertible toy before that and so on, and so on....... When multiple workplace injuries forced me off my Harleys I replaced them with ragtops still craving the wind. Before that happened to me my toy cars had roofs as those were cheaper and I could have more of them.
Our 14 is ruby red. 28,000 miles. We bought it used. We are the second owner. The only major option is the Brembo big brake option. The only mod so far is Mustang GT 500 mufflers. The stock GT mufflers were just too quiet. The GT 500 mufflers are 3" and sound perfect IMO. No drone. Paid $200 used. They bolted right in.
Geez, I think every GT owner does this. I am NOT a 'mod' guy but had to have those too. Same reason. $660 new.
I've taken my WS6 to Prince Edward Island, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Quebec, and all over Ontario.
Last year I drove to Wentzville, Missouri for work and on the way back the clutch went to the floor in Indianapolis. I mended her by using the fluid in the master cylinder condom and got her home. She needed a new master and slave.
You couldn't do that with a 2023 Camaro and if you blow out a tire on a new Corvette or Camaro good luck trying to find a replacement.
I will continue to drive her. Just seeing her sit is like watching your parents rot in their armchair.
It's not quite as bad as that but there comes a point where you are pushing your luck I would think with those long trips you mention. We certainly have done the long trips over the decades as I showed in my 1st post, and I would do them again if I had no other cars. I've had nothing but success with my Trans Am and my 1996 Formula before that. Day trips will still be fun and if something happens, at least close to home for towing/repairs.
One more mod we did. When we bought the GT it had about 20,000 miles on it and had the stock Goodyear tires. Per the manual said do not drive the tires if its less than 40 degrees. We bought the car in south SD in December. Put it on a U-Haul trailer and brought it home. Took it off the trailer at the U-Haul dealer and drove it home. There was about 2 inches of new snow. With the stock tires we barely made it home. The stock tires were horrible in snow.
The next spring we upgraded to 275 40 19 tires all around that are snow rated. We went BFG tires.
NO on the collector car question due 169,000 miles, 416, lots of mod's and as long as the roads are salt free, the car can get out and get dirty.
However use is much more limited now than five years ago. I travel far less these days than before the pandemic. Wife has knee issues so getting in/out for her is an issue.
Later the same day as first picture, after being washed, out running errands & getting groceries like we used to do. Those trips are fewer and fewer...
Of the four cars the 72 Vette is probably closest to my "collector car". My 91 RS was daily until 2015, while the LS swap & restoration are nice and rock, I really miss the car as my daily driver and sometimes doing 25,000+ miles a year in the 91 RS.
Last edited by 99 Black Bird T/A; 03-03-2023 at 11:59 PM.
I’m fortunate enough to have several cars to choose from, but I drive them less and less. As I get older the kids have more going on, I work 60-70 hours a week and I still want a little bit of wrench time. I’ve found that I spend a lot of time drinking beer looking at them making plans and less time driving them. If it’s not raining I will usually take out two cars a week. Ironically now my kids have started to drive them too.
At Easter drove from Michigan to Kansas and back. Never saw one 4th Gen F-Body. She is now 25 years old and there isn't one new car on the market that interests me. Getting Michelin Pilot Sports soon so the road trips can continue.
Go ahead and keep yours locked up. I'm gonna need spare parts down the road.
My CETA has been down for over a year patiently waiting on me to get off my backside to finish the sidetrack re-wiring and prepping for the stereo install to get the new carpet back in. Between kids getting older, changing jobs (to keep from dying from overwork), home repairs before/after foundation fix, I just haven't had enough time to really do anything other than knock the dust off every few months. I inherited a Sentra from my mom after her passing and it will go to my oldest whenever she decides to get a driver's license but in the mean time with gas what it is the 37+ MPG that car gets is just too good to pass up. My MDX is now the weekend driver as it is lucky to get 22 MPG around town. I did start the CETA last weekend after conditioning the battery. Its registration expired in 2021 so this fixing the clutch master cylinder leaking into the floorboard just grew to being too much work. I bought the car to be a daily driver and thought the pandemic was a bonus allowing me to get all the mechanical issues fixed so it would be super reliable, well it didn't.
02-26-2023, 07:34 AM
If you own more than one car, has your Firebird become your 'collector' car? ? 
but there comes a point where you are pushing your luck I would think with those long trips you mention. We certainly have done the long trips over the decades as I showed in my 1st post, and I would do them again if I had no other cars. I've had nothing but success with my Trans Am and my 1996 Formula before that. Day trips will still be fun and if something happens, at least close to home for towing/repairs. 
