1988 Pontiac Firebird Formula - Formula For Excess

Twists And Stops
Hawks was tapped to modify the chassis. Up front, the factory control arms received new bushings and were powdercoated silver, as was the stock WS6 35mm sway bar, which also had its bushings replaced with Energy Suspension's polyurethane parts. To dampen the road imperfections and further increase performance, the stock strut setup was replaced with Bilstein Sport shocks combined with an Air Ride Technologies CoolRide system.

Bilstein and CoolRide components were teamed in the rear as well and Spohn adjustable lower control arms with relocation brackets limit wheelhop. The stock 24mm sway bar was powdercoated silver and all bushings were replaced with Energy Suspension poly pieces. Finally, a Spohn torque arm replaced the weak stamped-steel factory unit.

BFGoodrich KD G-Force tires measuring 275ZR40-18 front and rear help glue Terry's Formula to the road. They're mounted to a set of 18x9.5 Boze Boost wheels, which complete this Bird's custom look.

Sitting behind those wheels are Baer Sport Claw brakes, front and rear. They are a bolt-in replacement and use 13-inch drilled and slotted rotors on all four corners as well as two-piston floating calipers.

Visuals
With over 120,000 miles on his white Formula, the paint wasn't in the best shape, but the body was. Terry decided to change the entire image of this F-Body with the help of Doug Johnson at Expectations Body Shop in Easley.

All the factory panels were retained and the old paint was sanded off. Four coats of PPG Urethane Primer were applied, followed by three coats of PPG basecoat Electric Blue and two coats of PPG clear. Wet-sanding with 1,200-grit was performed between coats and 2,000-grit was used for final wet-sanding, followed by 3M Perfect-It polish. Doug added a special touch by having the Formula decals and the Bird on the nose airbrushed.

Though the factory grey cloth interior was in excellent shape, with the Bird's newfound cornering abilities, more supportive seats were needed. Hawks installed a set of custom Corbeaus with red Formula stitching. For safety, a custom four-point rollbar was added.

Wrap Up
The extensive mods performed on this '88 F-Body are very tasteful. The bright blue paint will blind you in direct sunlight, and the screaming performance from the heavily-modified L98 will leave many in the dust. Terry enjoys taking his Formula out to local cruise-ins and car meets now. "I think I took the car a lot further than I had originally planned, so I'm scared to race it right now because it's so fresh," he says. "Maybe when it's not so new, I'll take it out racing more."

Until then, he'll just have to settle for dominating his class at car shows. He has won more than 10 trophies in the first year since the build, including a First Place at the All-GM Nationals at Carlisle in 2007.

With an eye-grabbing hue, corner-grabbing handling, and seat-of-the-pants grabbing straight-line potential, this Third-Gen will never get overlooked.