Rare Firebird Rises from the Ashes

This is a pretty rare Firebird find. Rob Youngblood gave us a call to see if we had any information on his 1983 Pontiac Firebird, which happens to have a Banks legacy of sorts. “I’ve known about this car for about 30 years and bought it when I had the chance,” explains Rob. “It’s a 1983 Pontiac Trans-Am Daytona 500 Special Edition. They only made about 2,500, and of those only 520 were manual transmissions. This car is an ultra-rare Stage 2 Banks 600 horsepower twin-turbo small block and was prepped by Gale’s American Turbocar Corporation. ATC prepped these F-bodies in 500, 600, and 700 hp configurations. Check out this link for more. Tom Foster of Foster Farms was the original owner of the Trans-Am, who was a gearhead and loved NASCAR.” 

The Banks gauges inside the rare Firebird

“I bought this car to restore it. It has only 17K miles on the odometer! There are so many modifications by Banks on this car. Including a Ford 9” rear end, Koni shocks, a bigger radiator, and even an 8,000 RPM Banks tachometer and 200 mph speedo. (The speedometers are actually hand-screen print here at Banks). About 25 years ago a state-of-the-art Holley Commander port-fuel injection system was put on it to replace the carburetor.”

The interior of the rare Firebird

A BFFF (Banks Foster Farms Firebird) would be a legendary car to own. Good find Rob! Indeed, we love to know when someone finds a rare Firebird or any of the Banks Builds!

The engine compartment of the rare Firebird.