Great Stories and photos Bill!
Anthony

Triple green 69 Z28 that I bought in January of 73 for $300 (!) minus engine, trans, hood, grille, and probably several other items. Had green Deluxe interior and AM-FM Blue light stereo radio, none of which I cared about since I was making a car to drag race. Also had factory 4.10 rear axle which I eventually traded to a guy for one with a 4.88 gear. The LT-1 from my 70 Z28 went into this car, with the 140 off-road cam, an Edelbrock Tarantula manifold and 750 Holley double pumper, and Hooker headers. After getting it all sorted, it ran a best of 11.98, twice.

First pictures as-bought, with the M22 trans (out of a Corvette) that went in it, on the garage floor in front of it.

Powertrain installation day on my mom's driveway in the spring of 73. I had plenty of moral support as well as helping hands! Also a couple pictures at the old farmhouse where I lived for a while. My friend's 68 L89 Camaro (which I eventually owned - briefly - in 1980) is barely visible in the background of the second picture.

The 73 Z28 which I bought new in March of 73. Swore to my bride-to-be that I would leave it completely stock so it would be dependable. That promise lasted about 3 years :naughty: Wound up keeping this car until August of 2000. Third picture is my wife and I on the way home from our honeymoon in April 74.

By 1976 we had stopped driving the 73Z daily with about 32000 miles on it. Pulled the intake and heads off of it, replaced by a set of angle plug heads, a 70 Z28 cam & solid lifters, an Edelbrock Torker intake, a 780 Holley, and Hooker headers. Also put a B&M shift kit in the T400 trans. In late 1977 had it repainted the original Midnight blue metallic color but with blue pearl flames replacing the white stripes, and added a 70 Z28 spoiler. Also added American 200S wheels. It stayed like this until I sold it to a friend of mine in August 2000. He still owns it.

Cool pics Bill! How are you and Marilee doing?:biggthumpup:

what prompted you to sell it? cant imagine it. what is the silver firebird in the picture?

Berger COPO 1971 pictures
 

Wanted to add to the baby pictures thread with our Berger car from the early summer of 1971. Just got returned from the Army ( thus the haircut ! )and got the car out of storage. My fiancé and I posed for these at the end of my parents driveway. We were married in August and took the car on our honeymoon to upper Michigan for @ 5 days. We were out of gas $$ and came home early ! Notice the copper colored rally wheel centers. I could never afford mags, so we painted the wheels different colors, to change up the look. After we were married I wanted a Baldwin Motion look so we added Corvette side exhaust to go with the 427 numerals we had already added to the hood. We traded cars with a friend in 1974 to get a 66 Corvette. The car had 33,000 miles on it and was still under factory warranty. Bought the car back in 1994 and all the original paperwork from Berger was still in the glove box.
Yesterday I pried those numerals off the hood to strip it, but my buddy and I are putting them back on with tape after the new paint job. ONLY painting the car because it had been painted in 1986, when it was in a large car collection and had lots of bad lacquer checking.
My wife, same one from 1971, and I will be hauling the car to Berger in 2025 for their 100th anniversary.

That's AWESOME Kevin:headbang:

Long complex story that I don't want to bore everyone with, but suffice it to say this was really NOT the car I wanted to buy at the time. There was a silver RS/Z with 4 speed I really wanted, but it got sold before I could buy it. I was starting a new, good paying job in a few days and needed a reliable car to get me to work and back. Fast forward....As I was approaching retirement, I no longer wanted three collector cars so had to sell two, and this was one of them. It wasn't an easy decision.

The silver Firebird belonged to my college roommate. IIRC, it was a Formula 400.