It all started in Texas in 1995 after reading a great article on the limited edition Pontiac FireHawk. Once getting to ride in one from a dealership while on a business trip to Chicago, I was hooked! Trouble is the price had gone up from the high 20K's to the high 30K's. There was no way my wife would let me buy one. I made the decision to purchase a used 1993-1995 Firebird formula and make my own "FireHawk". My wife reluctantly went along with that.

My break came a few months later when my daughter spotted a 1993 green six speed in the back of a dealer's lot that must have been just traded in because it was filthy and looked like it had been ridden hard. I called the dealership the next morning and they said it was available for $17,900.00, had 34,000 miles on it and still on warranty. I immediately drove to the dealer, told them how beat up the car was and offered $14,900 and they accepted my offer.

I started with the usual upgrades like a K&N air filter and an under drive pully, then some Edelbrock headers and a Masterflow muffler. I could start to feel the horsepower increase. As most of you know that's all it takes….I was now hooked on horsepower.

After hooking up with the Lingenfelter folks and ordering all the parts for a stage 4 lt1 and doing all the work myself, the car was up to 410hp. I was really starting to enjoy the ride, but I wanted more. Next was stage 5.

I knew I was making great progress when one Saturday morning I had the car in the driveway with the keys in the ignition and the door open. My wife came running out of the house and exclaimed" I need to pick something up at Jenny's school " She proceeds to jump in the car, slammed the door and took off down the road with the tires lit up ( she had not driven the car since I first bought it). About 10 minutes later she returned, slammed the door, threw the keys at me and said "you wrecked a perfectly good car"! I replied "what do you mean?" She said "it won't go slow!! "Yes"!!! I exclaimed with a thumbs up.

Thanks to G&G Performance out of Tomball ,Texas, the engine was transformed into a four bolt main, all forged 383 stoker. I had made the decision that I wanted to stick to all the lt1major components that I could because I was reading about some really fast lt1's but they were using after market heads, manifolds and distributors, etc and the only thing left that was lt1 was the engine block. I also decided that the engine would be supercharge so went with lingenfelter/ je dished, forged, blower pistons for a safe 8.5 to 1 compression ratio and a lingenfelter/accel blower cam. For extra measure I added a Zex nitrous system to help keep the air charge nice and cool on those hot Texas Summer days. I then utilized all that dead space in the nose of the car for a custom Bell Engineering 1140 cfm intercooler.

Well, after installing a Vortec t-trim supercharger with custom cog pulleys and a mondo racing relief valve, I upgraded to 1.75 inch headers , 3 inch stainless y-pipe with dual Random high flow cats and a Hooker 3 inch cat back exhaust into a hooker aero chamber muffler to help the back pressure issue ( cars in Texas have to be emission legal if they are newer than 20 years old).

Mike Murillo ,Murillo Motorsports in San Antonio installed a fast ecu and 83 lb/hr fuel injectors and did a dynamite mustang dyno tune.

Well as some of you know our mothers never told us that after tripling the torque and horse power of a car, you can't keep it on the road and it will no longer hook up, rendering 1st and 2nd gears useless and the car almost un drivable.

So, with further help from Murillo Motorsports the car was fitted with QA1 adjustable coilovers, a complete BMR extreme drag suspension system and tubular A frames and K members and stiffened with a 10 point wolfe roll cage.

While this was being done we moved from Austin Texas to Palmyra New York. Many people ask why, but that is another whole story. The car arrived at the end of March 2008 via an enclosed transport. Once the road cleared I started driving the car and realized the Comp t/a 315/17/ 35 tires were useless in the rear.

I ordered a pair of m/t 295/17/ 45 et streets ( they had to be back ordered and it seemed like it took forever) and then the fun began. The only part of the drive train that was holding up was the strange 60 rear end with dana 60 pinion gears, 35 spline axels and the Detroit locker differential. The McLeod twin clutch had to be rebuilt and upgraded to ceramic metallic m.i.b.a. clutch pads and the Rockland Standard Gear race ready T-56 tranny had to be rebuilt because of the clutch issues but while I was at it I replaced the notorious 5th and 6th overdrive gears with racing gears. Also went with Polly -rod adjustable rear control arms to further tighten up the rear end.

Well two and a half years later I am happy to report that the car is handling beautifully and hooking like it should and awesome to drive. Next step is to get it on the track.

So, after 14 years of sweat and sometimes tears, hundreds of hours of labor and never having enough money , the car is still not done, but close enough that it has all paid off. We sure must love our hobby with all our heart and soul. I look at other cars in the club, at shows and cruise ins and marvel at what others have been able to do. Amazing!! Maybe my wife should have let me buy the FireHawk. Ha Ha