Words: Tommy Parry

Always enamored with Firebirds from the early seventies, Jeremy jumped on the chance to acquire one when this tarnished beauty went up for sale. This ‘72 Firebird, which he bought from a friend for peanuts, reminded him of a car he lusted after in his youth: a Formula 455 in Buccaneer Red.

Motivated by childhood enthusiasm, Jeremy began on the biggest build he’d partaken in up until this point. His prior builds were mildly modified, but with this car, he aimed to create a complete Formula clone. However, as the build progressed, the aim changed and Jeremy decided to go a bit further.

Given that it’d had a vinyl top at one point, the rear quarters of the car had rusted over completely. That corrosion and the evidence of a rear hit pushed Jeremy to replace the end of the car, stick on a set of beautiful 18” Boyd wheels and coat it in ‘73 Buccaneer Red paint. Things were off to a good start.

Though he wanted to upgrade to a coilover setup, he browsed the forums and ultimately decided on what he felt to be the most cost-effective approach. The Pro-Touring F-Body suspension, which effectively gives him the suspension setup of a fourth-gen F-Body, granted substantially better roadholding than the stock setup could. This simplistic but effective package included upper a-arms, lower a-arms, subframe connectors and g-braces – pretty much anything they sold for the car. Along with the renovated suspension, he added a set of Kore3 C5 brakes. Again, not expensive top-shelf items, but modern and large enough for his purposes.

Then came time for a new motor. His friend helped him find a 400 – one with a ‘74 YT block and 670 heads for 10:1 compression and about 350 horsepower. Handling that power is a second-gen rear end with a posi, disc brakes and drilled rotors.

Out went the suspension, which simplified the removal of the original motor, and in went the new 400. All the room made fitting the Headman headers a breeze.

After doing what he could, he took the car to South Texas Muscle and Classics to have it finished. They installed the Speedhut gauges and Vintage Air, finished setting up the brakes and got the rest of the wiring and exhaust sorted out.

As it sits, Jeremy is installing the interior, new carpet, panels and dash. The seats are actually the ones which came with the car, but he had them cleaned – testament to a well-chosen car. Once the windows are installed in the next few weeks, he plans to give it the full Cannonball  treatment with blue and yellow stripes.

“I have a handful of TV/Movie cars, so this was a natural choice. The other movie cars I have are a Bandit Trans Am, General Lee, Fast and Furious Grand National, 10th Anniversary Trans Am from Joe Dirt and I am currently building a ‘66 GTO like the one Cameron Diaz drove in Knight and a Day,” he said.

Stylish and subtle, this car will be a weekend machine with some classic film influence. If you want to keep tabs on the progress of this gorgeous Pontiac, you can visit Jeremy’s build thread here.