"Walt" finds insanely low Mileage '89 TTA Barn Find... link at NECF

by Walt » Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:58 pm
I just put a deposit on a true barn find.
A 1989 Firebird TTA with 986mi.on it. It was stored in 1989 an hasn't seen
daylight since. I need to know where to get the best documentation on it. Thanks
Walt (He also PM'd me)

Some Back story.. like all Festival TTA's, they were offered for sale to all GM Employees. The owner of this car was a secretary at a GM Engineering Lab that worked on the GNX and the TTA. She, along with a couple of her co-workers bought these and stored the trio in another Co-worker's garage, an engineer who still work at GM to this day... one TTA was owned by a young GM engineer who drove it hard and it eventually went MIA, the second was owned by another engineer who babied it and sold it to someone in Chicago.. it too is MIA, this car was driven in 1989 by this woman. She was in her late 30's/early 40's in 1989.. she too babied it, and bought it to store away as a retirement plan ($$$). Unfortunately or Fortunately, the car sat relatively untouched and un-started since late 1989 with 3/4 of a tank of gas... fast forward.. Walt stumbled across the car through a friend. Apparently, the owner had passed away several years prior, and her son, (guy with woman by the trailer), really had no use for the car, no way to go through it properly, and wanted to sell it. Walt, a former Dodge employee, is a true gearhead. (pic of him with the TTA on a lift). He owns an original V12 Lincoln, has a Nova that he drag races, and even raced a Turbo Buick for some time. Thinking that the car might be a fun cruising car or something worth reselling, he looked into it further. Upon seeing the car, he realized it was absolutely mint, but very dusty. She still had her original tires, which surprisingly still had air in them, albeit a little low... in the rear was a bunch of GM parts boxes and paperwork. They struck a fair deal and Walt bought the car.

He brought her home, cleaned off many years worth of dust, and went through everything with a fine tooth comb. Everything is in working, minty shape, but he did need to replace the fuel pump... after draining the gas tank, replacing all of the filters, changing the fuel pump, pre-lubing the Turbo, fogging the cyls, hand turning the engine, and changing-out all of the fluids... he added some fresh gas and gave the key a twist... nada.. tried again and she came right to life.... oil pressure came all the way up, he walked her through a longterm storage re-break-in period, she stumbled a little, every so often... but after about 5 minutes of idling she was running perfectly...

I forgot the MOST important part.. she is TTA #113 and Indy Festival Car #108, as seen on the rear license plate area.. that's how Pontiac marked them.. with a sharpie.

Over the last few months, we reached out to a bunch of people in this hobby and...

Howdy everyone, figure I would update you all on the B.F. I finished it last
Saturday ,and it shines an runs great. It took about 40 hours to clean it up and
change all the fluids and filters and I also had to change the fuel pump.(good
luck with that if you have to change yours)I was amazed as to what remarkable
shape this car was in after 23 years in a building. I also wanted you to know
that I will be listing my BARN FIND on Hemming's Auto Sales with all the
pictures and story line that is attached to it. It will be on there online site
and also in there magazine. Thanks again for all your help and interest and I
hope the Hemming's listing will catch everyone up on the TTA.