The Law of Attraction is the idea that like attracts like. If you have positive thoughts, positive things will happen. If you have negative thoughts, negative things will happen.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." These words have become a metaphor for life for these two Firebirds and me.

In 2009, General Motors sold off a sizeable portion of its private Heritage Collection cars to the public, via a series of high-profile Barrett-Jackson auctions. High Performance Pontiac readers already learned about one such car-the Piranha Concept Mule Car-in our Dec. '12 issue.

Ron Schultz may be 53 years old now, but his fondest memories of this W72 400 ’78 T/A reach back to when he was just 18. Why? Because he bought it new from Kole Pontiac in his hometown of Oak Lawn, Illinois, in December of 1977.

Being the perennial underdog has forced many Pontiac fans to take innovative approaches to getting the job done. When there was a lack of aftermarket support for the tried and true Pontiac V-8, racers learned to port their existing heads to flow as much air as the competition, substitute forged big-block Chevy connecting rods to replace the flimsy cast rods, and build headers where suitable units were not available.

Patriotism is something that falls in and out of fashion over time, but if you’ve served in the military, you carry it with you regardless of who says it’s cool or not.

There are rare occasions when everything falls into place as it should—the planets align, the plan comes together, and all is right with the world. On June 23, 1961, at Pontiac’s South Gate, California, plant, the planets in fact did align when this special-order ’61 Bonneville convertible was produced in striking Bristol Blue (code E) with an Ivory top (code 1) and Silver, Ivory, and Blue leather interior (code 283).

Firebird Tans Am:

Back in the glory days that nurtured the co-existence of the musclecar era and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), passionate Pontiac drag racers would look forward to every weekend that they would fight for the win (and hopefully divisional and national titles) in Stock Eliminator quarter-mile competitions.

There may not be any other Pontiac engine that harbors as much mystique as the Super-Duty 455. Introduced in ’73 as a maximum-performance effort capable of sustained 6,000-rpm operation, it was hampered by production regulations, but possessed a seemingly-infinite amount of power potential for those looking to extract it. It created significant buzz within the industry, and several magazines were praising its virtues for months before its actual release.

In 1964, Pontiac’s top-of-the-line mid-size performance car was supposed to be the Tempest LeMans H.O. Packing a 280hp 326ci engine with a Carter AFB four-barrel carb, dual exhaust, and demanding premium fuel, it was going to be a runner. Then Pontiac snuck the GTO through the back door, and the LeMans H.O. became Pontiac’s forgotten musclecar.

The GTO was the number 1 musclecar when I was growing up,” says Kevin Callahan. “After owning several collector cars that looked great but handled like ‘60s cars, I wanted something different—one that was quick, comfortable, handled well, and was eye-catching. I also wanted to be able to take it to a car show and hopefully drive away with a trophy.” Due to Kevin’s heritage, it would also have an Irish theme.

Back in the ’40s and ’50s, publishing companies would often take out ads in magazines such as Boy’s Life and others for flashy go-karts, custom bicycles, and other items that would appeal to youngsters and capture their imaginations. The item advertised would usually be priced well out of reach for most parents to give their kids, though they all would sell you an informational brochure for a small fee.

I remember my dad, Linwood “Dennis” Robbins, working on a ’37 Pontiac Straight 8 Sports Coupe when I was a toddler,” Brian Robbins of Windsor, Virginia, tells HPP. “When he got older, his tastes changed to Firebirds. Pontiac muscle has always been welcome in my family’s house. We parted out several Birds over the years, and restored the ones we felt had a significant place in our collection. Pretty soon my dad became known as the ‘Trans Am Man’ and the ‘Firebird Man’ in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.”

The world of the developmental mule cars is much like ghost writing for a famous celebrity—you do all the hard lifting and take all the bumps and bruises, only for the star to get all the accolades. Such is the case with this particular Pontiac Sunfire. Its story is one of those where the true qualities of the vehicle are somewhat lost by its rather plebian platform. True, this prototype Sunfire has a lot of boy racer-style wings and graphics, but its true beauty is very much under the skin.

When Jim Kowalski bought his ’69 GTO Judge new, he knew it was a keeper but couldn’t imagine it would still be handing down high-performance justice more than 40 years later.

So you’re 19 years old, a year out of high school, you have a good job and a good head on your shoulders—what do you do now? If you’re Joe Rizzo from Inwood, New York, a life-long Firebird fan, you tell your parents, “If I can find a red WS6 with black interior and a six-speed, I’m buyin’ it.”

Three of the first five cars I ever owned were Pontiac Grand Prixs. I bought a used blue ’89 with a manual transmission after college, then a used black ’94 GTP a few years later, and finally an ’01 GTP in Redfire Metallic, which was my first brand-new car.

When the legendary ’64 GTO hit the streets, it was almost exclusively ordered by customers looking for high performance in a midsize package. It struck such a chord with the emerging postwar baby boomers that it launched an all-new market segment, originally called supercars by the enthusiast press at the time. They are now known as musclecars.

Every once in a while you’ll come across a car that catches your eye in a way that no other vehicle has—it radiates an almost indescribable glow that makes it much more than the sum of its parts. Russ Van Camp’s ’67 GTO convertible is one of those vehicles that gives other show car owners fits—you just know that Best of Show has been picked as soon as it rolls off the trailer.

I’m writing to share this story of my amazing husband Stefos Laberis and his love for his Trans Am. When he was a boy, he used to dream of someday owning the ’77 Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit, later followed by the third-generation Trans Am from Knight Rider. When he first laid eyes on an LT1-powered ’93 Trans Am at the Detroit Auto Show, he had to have that, too. That’s where this story turns from fantasy to fact.

It’s a surreal experience seeing a famous, long-lost vehicle for the first time. There’s a certain radiance of the moment—that instant you realize it’s the very same machine that was in those grainy black-and-white photos in a copy of some yellowed magazine from a half a century ago. The historic significance can leave you scratching your head, thinking of the complete unlikelihood that this car somehow beat the odds. For whatever reason, it didn’t end up as some rusted-out, forgotten and recycled chunk of metal that was melted down and is now running around as a new Ford Focus.

What does it take to stand apart from well-built Pro-Touring cars and Restomods? More mods…where you can see them. Barry Penfound of Elyria, Ohio, has built his business around creating modern concept custom cars for clients. For his personal project, he decided to employ all he had learned from past builds. “Having already built the ’59 Buick LoSabre, ’64 Cadillac Cambiar, and ’63 Chevrolet Impala SportsRoof, which were well-received by the public and media, the idea was to build a ’64 GTO using modern technology and make it a fun, street-driven performance car,” Barry explains.

In the summer of 2005, my friend Doug Smith and I were on our way to a car show and cruise in Vernon, Texas. We had heard rumors of a ’72 column-shift Trans Am in the area. I had never actually seen one with a column-shift, so we had to search this car out. We were told that it may be sitting by a motel on the south side of town, so when we got to Vernon, we headed down that way.

When factory high-performance was toughing out the last days of the first musclecar era, Pontiac boldly introduced the ’74 GTO on a compact-car Ventura platform. Based on the X-body also shared by Chevy Nova, Buick Apollo, and Oldsmobile Omega, the Division’s designers and engineers overcame the models’ close kinship with the WW3 GTO option.