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Darren's been on me to share some details about a car I picked up earlier this summer. In fact, I think he was getting slightly PO'd that I hadn't shared anything yet, so here it goes......
I get a little uncomfortable sharing this stuff because I tend to like to keep a low profile. I hate to have people perceive that I'm somehow bragging or arrogant. I'm pretty fortunate to be able to enjoy my "hobbies" with a small collection of vehicles, I'm also keenly aware that not everybody is so lucky. Therefore I usually just keep quiet. Heck even the neighbors don't realize what I own, they just see another white/blue or red car coming into the drive and think nothing of it. When I was leasing new trucks I'd get the same color and style just so nobody would know it was new. It took the one neighbor a year before he realized that the GMC was now a Chevy, and the other neighbor never caught on.
I guess I just feel that it's better to be humble than proud.
Obviously some of you have seen photos floating around of this car already too, it's a 1984 15th Anniversary Trans Am. There were only 1500 15th Anniversary TA's built. There are no real clear records on these cars to breakdown how many were built with what options. Based on production percentage trends, it's safe to assume that 1000 were automatics, and 500 were 5spd cars. Mine is an automatic, I would've liked a 5spd car, but with so few nice examples of these cars left you take what you can get. It has the stock 305 H.O., that is if you can call 190hp "high output".
I found the car at a dealer north of Chicago. We negotiated for a month or so before we finally came to a deal both of us could agree upon. At the end of June I became the 2nd or 3rd owner ??....I ran a vin check and the car only had 2 title transfers in it's history. Prior to being in the Chicago area the car spent it's entire life in Vancouver, Washington. So what I haven't been able to figure out yet is, did the person who owned it in Washington move to Chicago causing it to have to be retitled in Illinois, or did it trade hands??? I have plans to research this further over the winter. I'll be ordering the PHS documents soon too. They won't help in determining ownership, but it will provide me with the dealership info to whom the car was delivered, an invoice, and a reproduction window sticker.
The car is 90% original with only the tires, battery, and a couple hoses replaced. There's a small portion on the front of the hood that has been repainted, but other than that I can't find another paint line anywhere on the car. It's a clean, well kept car with 86,000 miles...not perfect, but it's dang nice considering. Besides, what fun is the hobby if there aren't a few things to bring up to snuff.
It has a couple of rarely seen options on an '84 car...a power driver seat, the lockable rear cargo compartment, locking gas cap, and strangely one locking T-top. Not sure if this was a mistake from the factory or one was replaced somewhere along the lines.
It's a Van Nuys car with a build date of 03/84. Interestingly my other one has a build date of 04/84 but a lower sequence #.....my guess is it's because the two plants didn't coordinate their sequence #'s between each other, the other 15th is a Norwood built car.
Something really interesting with the car is that it has a ventilation fan with a hose running from behind the battery area up to the carb. (you can kinda see it in the engine pic....notice the plastic tube by the alternator.) When you shut the car off it will kick in and run for awhile before shutting off itself. This was GM's fix to the famous/infamous "vapor lock", and would've been installed by the dealership as a service bulletin.
Anyways enough rambling, on with the pics......
I get a little uncomfortable sharing this stuff because I tend to like to keep a low profile. I hate to have people perceive that I'm somehow bragging or arrogant. I'm pretty fortunate to be able to enjoy my "hobbies" with a small collection of vehicles, I'm also keenly aware that not everybody is so lucky. Therefore I usually just keep quiet. Heck even the neighbors don't realize what I own, they just see another white/blue or red car coming into the drive and think nothing of it. When I was leasing new trucks I'd get the same color and style just so nobody would know it was new. It took the one neighbor a year before he realized that the GMC was now a Chevy, and the other neighbor never caught on.
I guess I just feel that it's better to be humble than proud.Obviously some of you have seen photos floating around of this car already too, it's a 1984 15th Anniversary Trans Am. There were only 1500 15th Anniversary TA's built. There are no real clear records on these cars to breakdown how many were built with what options. Based on production percentage trends, it's safe to assume that 1000 were automatics, and 500 were 5spd cars. Mine is an automatic, I would've liked a 5spd car, but with so few nice examples of these cars left you take what you can get. It has the stock 305 H.O., that is if you can call 190hp "high output".
I found the car at a dealer north of Chicago. We negotiated for a month or so before we finally came to a deal both of us could agree upon. At the end of June I became the 2nd or 3rd owner ??....I ran a vin check and the car only had 2 title transfers in it's history. Prior to being in the Chicago area the car spent it's entire life in Vancouver, Washington. So what I haven't been able to figure out yet is, did the person who owned it in Washington move to Chicago causing it to have to be retitled in Illinois, or did it trade hands??? I have plans to research this further over the winter. I'll be ordering the PHS documents soon too. They won't help in determining ownership, but it will provide me with the dealership info to whom the car was delivered, an invoice, and a reproduction window sticker.
The car is 90% original with only the tires, battery, and a couple hoses replaced. There's a small portion on the front of the hood that has been repainted, but other than that I can't find another paint line anywhere on the car. It's a clean, well kept car with 86,000 miles...not perfect, but it's dang nice considering. Besides, what fun is the hobby if there aren't a few things to bring up to snuff.
It has a couple of rarely seen options on an '84 car...a power driver seat, the lockable rear cargo compartment, locking gas cap, and strangely one locking T-top. Not sure if this was a mistake from the factory or one was replaced somewhere along the lines.
It's a Van Nuys car with a build date of 03/84. Interestingly my other one has a build date of 04/84 but a lower sequence #.....my guess is it's because the two plants didn't coordinate their sequence #'s between each other, the other 15th is a Norwood built car.
Something really interesting with the car is that it has a ventilation fan with a hose running from behind the battery area up to the carb. (you can kinda see it in the engine pic....notice the plastic tube by the alternator.) When you shut the car off it will kick in and run for awhile before shutting off itself. This was GM's fix to the famous/infamous "vapor lock", and would've been installed by the dealership as a service bulletin.
Anyways enough rambling, on with the pics......
Scott! 
Thank you for posting this up. I think I can speak for most people here in saying none of us think you are bragging or anything along those lines. Hell some of us live through you with some of these cars 
This is one of my favorite 3rd gen trans am's and it was more of sharing the knowledge and history of the car! Thanks for posting it up and very nice addition Scott! That car does look really clean and well preserved as well. 
357ci LT1, cammed, stalled, and driven. 
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