How to tell Car # on a cloth TTA....
- Thread starter fatride
- Start date
IIRC they were numbered with grease pencil on the rear bumper (I think on the underside.) However, mine is cloth and judging from the VIN I'm virtually positive it was a festival car -- and it had no such marking. But, it's entirely possible that a previous owner had no idea what it was and cleaned it off.
The only odd marking mine does have, and I have no idea when/why this was done, is that the overflow tank has "FN 7-21" in permanent marker. For all I know, a previous owner wanted to remember the last time he flushed the coolant...?
The only odd marking mine does have, and I have no idea when/why this was done, is that the overflow tank has "FN 7-21" in permanent marker. For all I know, a previous owner wanted to remember the last time he flushed the coolant...?
I don't think car #242000 was at the 89 Indy Race ? The highest serial number at that event (festival cars) was 2356XX. The festival cars ALL had "sign-out sheets" that were used to keep track as to who had which car during the month of May, and the highest one I have in the pile is the 235XXX number listed above. The real festival cars were marked with the sequence of arrival number on the rear fascia where the license plate would cover it. This was done with a grease pencil so it could be removed later. Most were never cleaned, but some were. It just depended on the delivering dealer when the vehicle was sold. Hope this helps.
As far as the writing on the coolant bottle, it's a good bet it is the initialsl of the dealer tech that prepped it for delivery (retail) and the 7-21 is probably the date it was done.
Good Luck. Turbota.
As far as the writing on the coolant bottle, it's a good bet it is the initialsl of the dealer tech that prepped it for delivery (retail) and the 7-21 is probably the date it was done.
Good Luck. Turbota.83ttypecooled
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2003
car number
Not that it matters much, but can't you read the car number off the trans info plate? They are hand etched, last digits would be the car number. mine is 52something, can't make out the last digit. If this fails, there is always that Pontiac info source,can't remember their name either. Lots of help I am today, sorry for that.
Dale
Not that it matters much, but can't you read the car number off the trans info plate? They are hand etched, last digits would be the car number. mine is 52something, can't make out the last digit. If this fails, there is always that Pontiac info source,can't remember their name either. Lots of help I am today, sorry for that.
Dale
WARBIRD1989
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2004
phs
http://www.phs-online.com/order.htm
Contact Pontiac Historical Services, here is a link, I have two of these cars both original, I have personally found the number on the transmission does not correspond to what Pontiac tells me as being the number of my car.
http://www.phs-online.com/order.htm
Contact Pontiac Historical Services, here is a link, I have two of these cars both original, I have personally found the number on the transmission does not correspond to what Pontiac tells me as being the number of my car.
83ttypecooled
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2003
ID
Thanks for the information. Is it possible that transmissions could have been changed in the past on your cars? I mean this as an honest question, not a jibe. Thanks, warbird!
dale
Thanks for the information. Is it possible that transmissions could have been changed in the past on your cars? I mean this as an honest question, not a jibe. Thanks, warbird!
dale
WARBIRD1989
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2004
I believe the odds about my cars having their transmissions changed, and having them changed with a Turbo Trans Am transmissions, would be nearly impossible. Both of my transmissions have the handbuilt unique plaque that designates them for the Turbo Trans Am. Neither of these tags correspond to the records that Pontiac historical services have. When I inquired about the transmissions I was told this was nothing more than a sequence number for the transmissions only not the cars, because each one was handbuilt. They received a hand scribed serial number. Pontiac historical services has wonderful information about these cars. Even down to who drove your car if it was a festival car like mine, for example, my production number is 77, the number my car had at the track was No. 140, as far as Pontiac is concerned the number that was given at the track to festival cars does not correspond with production numbers, also I was told that not all festival cars came with cloth interior some had leather.
83ttypecooled
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2003
info
Thanks for the information, warbird. You have a mighty fine stable there, I'm envious.
What do you think about a detonation problem I'm having with my TType? To refresh, it has '87 drivetrain and light modifications.I can't run more than 15 boost and 20 spark without pinging. I personally suspect oil passage from the turbo, intercooler and uppipe are lightly coated. Time for a new turbo, I think. How about you? I would appreciate your insight.
Dale
Thanks for the information, warbird. You have a mighty fine stable there, I'm envious.
What do you think about a detonation problem I'm having with my TType? To refresh, it has '87 drivetrain and light modifications.I can't run more than 15 boost and 20 spark without pinging. I personally suspect oil passage from the turbo, intercooler and uppipe are lightly coated. Time for a new turbo, I think. How about you? I would appreciate your insight.
Dale
WARBIRD1989
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2004
Obviously this is a problem that needs to be fixed immediately, if this was a 2.3 l ford I would say don't worry you can put a head gasket on in 40 minutes, but not these cars. So I would be very careful about any detonation.
I used to have a problem with detonation before I installed the RJC POWER PLATE this little piece of magical metal allowed me to run as much as 20 pounds with stock Turbo and run low 12,'s after increasing my Turbo and spending 5k on a transmission I am now running 15 pounds and running 11.98et's.
If I were you I would try running some octane in a can and see if this control's the problem. I also have an adjustable few regulator, so sometimes I will just at a few extra pounds and detonation is under control, unlike the Fords I used to race, these cars do not allow you to adjust timing by simply turning a bolt. Obviously there are methods available if you would like to spend some money. You may just have a problem with cheap gas, I know different gas can make a big difference in my car. I always use 2 cans of octane whenever I fill up.
You say you're getting oil? I have had some Chryslers and Fords that used a lot of oil. As far as I remember this never created much of a problem with detonation. Unless you have had this problem for a long time and you have actually built up a lot of carbon on the Pistons. Even something like the wrong size plugs can create this problem.
You may look at motor temperature as well, even with both of my fans running continuously, I still run over 200 degrees in the summer. This too is an issue, especially when you start adding modifications that will produce heat. With any high-performance car I have ever built my first performance item is a good breaking system and then a large cooling system. I have several for 460 powered mustangs, even with 4 row aluminum radiator, heavy-duty eight blades fan, custom shroud, high-performance water pump, I will still run hot.
Have you done a compression check, it is not a fun thing, but maybe a necessary thing for you to do. Honestly I did not have much problem with detonation, I stopped playing games a long time ago, and realized it is much cheaper, to spend a lot of money on good parts and invest your time, then it is to try to go fast cheap, I have nearly $13,000 in a motor&trans, but this combination allows me to run high 11's on pump gas with drag et.s. I still get 20 miles plus and have functioning air-conditioning.
If you have a stock Turbo I would definitely consider replacing it yes they are a lot of money but well worth it in the end. I guess what I'm trying to say is I learned a lot from svo mustangs and Thunderbirds. But now that I have a serious Turbo car I am investing serious time and money, I do not know what your ultimate goal is as far as speed, so it is hard for me to conclude what advice to give you.
15 pounds is not that far from stock so even something like cheap gas can be an issue, like I said I had issues at fourteen pounds at one time until I installed rjc plate. So if you do not have one try it. Even the new supercharged mustangs have a distribution plate just under the blower. So the technology is there.
I do not know if any of this will help you without actually standing in front of a car and driving it is hard to tell anything. I love my wonderful Trans Am, if one tire, is a pound low on air I know it.
I used to have a problem with detonation before I installed the RJC POWER PLATE this little piece of magical metal allowed me to run as much as 20 pounds with stock Turbo and run low 12,'s after increasing my Turbo and spending 5k on a transmission I am now running 15 pounds and running 11.98et's.
If I were you I would try running some octane in a can and see if this control's the problem. I also have an adjustable few regulator, so sometimes I will just at a few extra pounds and detonation is under control, unlike the Fords I used to race, these cars do not allow you to adjust timing by simply turning a bolt. Obviously there are methods available if you would like to spend some money. You may just have a problem with cheap gas, I know different gas can make a big difference in my car. I always use 2 cans of octane whenever I fill up.
You say you're getting oil? I have had some Chryslers and Fords that used a lot of oil. As far as I remember this never created much of a problem with detonation. Unless you have had this problem for a long time and you have actually built up a lot of carbon on the Pistons. Even something like the wrong size plugs can create this problem.
You may look at motor temperature as well, even with both of my fans running continuously, I still run over 200 degrees in the summer. This too is an issue, especially when you start adding modifications that will produce heat. With any high-performance car I have ever built my first performance item is a good breaking system and then a large cooling system. I have several for 460 powered mustangs, even with 4 row aluminum radiator, heavy-duty eight blades fan, custom shroud, high-performance water pump, I will still run hot.
Have you done a compression check, it is not a fun thing, but maybe a necessary thing for you to do. Honestly I did not have much problem with detonation, I stopped playing games a long time ago, and realized it is much cheaper, to spend a lot of money on good parts and invest your time, then it is to try to go fast cheap, I have nearly $13,000 in a motor&trans, but this combination allows me to run high 11's on pump gas with drag et.s. I still get 20 miles plus and have functioning air-conditioning.
If you have a stock Turbo I would definitely consider replacing it yes they are a lot of money but well worth it in the end. I guess what I'm trying to say is I learned a lot from svo mustangs and Thunderbirds. But now that I have a serious Turbo car I am investing serious time and money, I do not know what your ultimate goal is as far as speed, so it is hard for me to conclude what advice to give you.
15 pounds is not that far from stock so even something like cheap gas can be an issue, like I said I had issues at fourteen pounds at one time until I installed rjc plate. So if you do not have one try it. Even the new supercharged mustangs have a distribution plate just under the blower. So the technology is there.
I do not know if any of this will help you without actually standing in front of a car and driving it is hard to tell anything. I love my wonderful Trans Am, if one tire, is a pound low on air I know it.
The number on the transmission "I.D." tag means nothing to the sequencial build number for the vehicle itself. The build operation at the General Motors transmission plant at Three Rivers, Michigan built our transmissions "off-line"
These were built in an area of the plant that used to do "low-run" products, and were assembled and tested manually. Once past the dynamic test they were numbered by hand - hence the shi#$% number orientation on the plate. Bottom line is that number means nothing to the car, just the transmission. Thanx - Turbota
These were built in an area of the plant that used to do "low-run" products, and were assembled and tested manually. Once past the dynamic test they were numbered by hand - hence the shi#$% number orientation on the plate. Bottom line is that number means nothing to the car, just the transmission. Thanx - Turbota
ALXTTA 1 I do not have the sheet for VIN # 227632. But based on the vin, it could have been at the race festival. Sorry !
DaveG your car (227409) was driven from May 9,1989 untill May 22,1989 by Bob Tezak from UNO. The plate that was assigned to it was number 130. I have no further info on the car after May 22, 1989
Hope this helps, Turbota.
DaveG your car (227409) was driven from May 9,1989 untill May 22,1989 by Bob Tezak from UNO. The plate that was assigned to it was number 130. I have no further info on the car after May 22, 1989
Hope this helps, Turbota.
Dave, The best guess is a Communications Company (radio, television) No "for Sure" info on it. Most of the people, other than Indy guys and G.M bigwigs, that were given the cars to drive were media types. UNO ia a big media company in europe, so this makes sense. Maybe the race was televised in Eurpoe ?? Turbota.
turbota,
Thanks for the information. The guy did not drive it much compared to other Festival Cars I know about. Mine had less than 900 miles on when it was delivered to the first owner in Dec of 1989.
I remember back in 1989 the local dealer had a festival car they offered to me and it had like 4800 miles on it. Nobody wanted these cars because they were "Used" and did not have the leather seats like the new ones, which were available.
Thanks,
Dave
Thanks for the information. The guy did not drive it much compared to other Festival Cars I know about. Mine had less than 900 miles on when it was delivered to the first owner in Dec of 1989.
I remember back in 1989 the local dealer had a festival car they offered to me and it had like 4800 miles on it. Nobody wanted these cars because they were "Used" and did not have the leather seats like the new ones, which were available.
Thanks,
Dave
turbota,
I did a search on the web for "Bob Tezak" AND "UNO".
I came up with the following link: http://www.bjwor.com/ariein90.html
It talks about Arie Luyendyk in 1990 racing at Indy.
>>By the start of May, Shierson had sold half interest in Luyendyk's car to Bob Tezak, and then shortly after the race, sold the rest of the team to Tezak. Tezak was, I believe, a former Will County, Illinois prosecutor and invented the popular card game Uno. He also helped bring Tim Richmond into big time racing. If I recall, Luyendyk had problems collecting his share of the "500" winner's purse, from Tezak. Tezak basically sold the team to Vince Granatelli at the end of 1990, which included Arie's contract and the right to lease the Chevy Indy V8 engine for 1991.<<
If this article is ture it looks like Bob is associated with the UNO card game. Who would have thought.......
Just bits of useless trivia....
Thanks,
Dave
I did a search on the web for "Bob Tezak" AND "UNO".
I came up with the following link: http://www.bjwor.com/ariein90.html
It talks about Arie Luyendyk in 1990 racing at Indy.
>>By the start of May, Shierson had sold half interest in Luyendyk's car to Bob Tezak, and then shortly after the race, sold the rest of the team to Tezak. Tezak was, I believe, a former Will County, Illinois prosecutor and invented the popular card game Uno. He also helped bring Tim Richmond into big time racing. If I recall, Luyendyk had problems collecting his share of the "500" winner's purse, from Tezak. Tezak basically sold the team to Vince Granatelli at the end of 1990, which included Arie's contract and the right to lease the Chevy Indy V8 engine for 1991.<<
If this article is ture it looks like Bob is associated with the UNO card game. Who would have thought.......
Just bits of useless trivia....
Thanks,
Dave
