Michael Bujnowski
The story behind my 1999 Formula WS-6, purchased on January 11, 2003.
I'd had the '97 Trans Am for a few years, and although I still really liked it, some things happened that made me decide to upgrade it. First, since the day I bought it in 2000, I had kicked myself for getting an automatic. My buddy Pete asked me when I first told him about the car, and he was right. Doh! I should have gotten a six-speed, that was stupid. Also, I had bought the Trans Am with the LT1 because I was a big fan of those motors and didn't know very much about the LS1s at the time. If I had read up on it a little more, and realized what great motors they are and just how under-rated they are by the factory, that would have made me think twice in the first place. Bone stock F-body LS1s have almost the same output as the Corvette, and they are very easy to modify. I had been thinking about all these things since I bought the Trans Am, but I decided to just deal with it since I was with a girl that I was nuts about and we were thinking about the future. Well, after some wacky times, she decided to dump me in December, and it got me to thinking. Since the Trans Am was almost out of warranty, I had additional justification for moving up to a newer model, and with the F-body recently discontinued, I thought it would be a good idea to pick one up at a good price before the lack of a replacement American muscle car (GTO=Australian=not American) drives prices up. I had been planning to upgrade some things in the T/A anyway, like 17" WS6 rims, a 3.42 axle and maybe even a WS6 hood. All of these things together would have cost in excess of $3,000, and still wouldn't have gotten me to the level of a WS6.
So that was it, I was in the market for a 6-speed WS6 LS1 F-body. I really liked the styling of the Trans Am, and since I still have the SS, I decided that I would replace the T/A with another, almost identical car with the exact options I wanted. After all, I really didn't want to get rid of the T/A, just improve upon it. I started looking, and quickly discovered it might be difficult to find just the car I wanted. Black was a big preference, and it almost looked like black was not a very popular color in recent years, at least judging by what was out there. Of course, if I did find a black car, the odds were very good that the paint would be hacked. No one seems to know how to keep a car looking nice, much less a black car. (I'm sure you've seen those people using the foaming brushes at the car washes to wash their tires, then the undercarriage, and then the hood and roof...the ones whose cars look like they were buffed with sandpaper...)
Well, I found one finally, a 2001, and it looked like it had just appeared in the classifieds. I was surprised to find out it had exactly what I was looking for too, WS6, 6 speed, t-tops, leather, black, it was perfect. I went out that evening to check it out, figuring it might be a hot item. As it turns out, it had been sitting on their lot for about three months. They were asking a fair price, and if it was in good condition and they were able to meet my trade-in requirements, I would make a deal right away. It looked alright, but I wasn't too happy with the massive swirling in the paint. The used car manager agreed and said it was time for a detail. He told me how the porters liked washing this car, and maybe they were a bit overzealous. It looked like they had gotten carried away with the foaming brush on this one. But it was exactly the car I was looking for, so I continued pursuing it. I hated having to unpack the T/A from it's carbag to drive it over the next day to get it appraised. Its time was limited though, and I would have had to do it eventually anyway. I was not very happy with the trade in value they offered. It was actually less than what I still owed. I tried to negotiate with them, but they weren't into it. I had an offer, they even gave me the exact monthly payments of the best offer, and they weren't budging. I asked them to show me the underside of the WS6 just so I could see if it looked like it had been abused, and then I would think about it for a day or two. I got under it and found some things that didn't make me too happy. First, the differential was leaking a bit, enough to cause several drops of fluid to be hanging off of the torque arm bolts. I know this isn't totally unusual, but for such a new low-mileage car it concerned me a bit. Also, someone had jacked the car improperly behind both front wheels, which had caused some of the sheetmetal to cave in and expose bare metal. This was really troubling since bare metal rusts almost instantly. This would need immediate attention to reverse any rust damage that might have already ocurred. Finally, I also noticed that there was paint peeling on the back bumper. Combined with serious hazing on the top of the cover, it would need a re-paint to look decent. I left that evening, not too happy with what I saw, but resigned to the fact that I might not find the exact car I wanted, and that I should take this one.
I thought about it all evening, and woke up still thinking. I really wanted a car just like this, and so I figured I should go get it. Before that though, I figured it couldn't hurt to stop by one dealer I know of, a prominent national used car dealer that will buy your car outright. If they could offer more, I would sell them my old car, and get a ride across town to the other dealer to buy the 2001. I drove around for several hours, just looking for something somewhere that was in better shape than the 2001. Nothing. One dealer still had new 2002 Ram Airs, but I couldn't stand to look at them since they were way more than I wanted to spend at the time. I figured that I had exhausted my resources, so I made off to get the final appraisal on my car before buying the new one.
It was January 11th, extremely cold and nasty outside. Nobody seems to care about muscle cars at this time of year. I walked into this dealers showroom, hoping to get a few hundred more for my old car. I was shocked when I walked in and saw, right on the showroom floor, right in front of the door, almost the exact car I had been looking at at the other dealer. I couldn't believe it. It was black, it was obviously a '98-up style Ram Air, it had t-tops...the salesman approached me and started rattling off all kinds of details about their dealership. I tried to be polite, but the noise this car was creating in my head prevented me from hearing him. I dismissed him so I could gawk. I peeked inside, and was amazed to see the 6 speed shifter poking up from the console. I noticed that it had a cloth interior, which was a downer, but hey, it was a nice car and seats are easy to replace. Then I saw the price...oh man, it was $5,000 less than the other car! Right about that time, I realized that this was no T/A, it was a Formula...a WS6 Formula. This was strange and interesting indeed. I needed time to think.
I went home so I could look up this car's history, all that. It had a clean past, and it was a one-owner car. The black was almost perfect, almost new-car like. Whoever owned it took good care of it for sure. Then, out of curiosity, I looked up the history of the WS6 Formula. As it turns out, this car that I had fallen into was one of just 175 made in 1999. How unbelievable. Apparently, they only made these with the LS1 from 1998 to 2000, with no more than 250 being made each year. This was quite a rare automobile. Although I really appreciated the looks of the T/A, I liked the clean styling on this one, especially when contrasted against the 17" rims and the huge hood scoop. This was the kind of car Steve McQueen would drive. I always wanted a stripper muscle car, I had owned a Daytona Shelby Z and always wished that it had been one of the C/S models, the basic car with the top engine and suspension. So the decision was made. I went back and picked it up, just in time to drive it right back to the garage where it sits.
2/6/03 Update: Well, I just received a whole box full of parts ordered from TByrne Motorsports. I wasn't sure which intake system to go with, but I figured with the Ram Air that it would be one of the lids, so I got the K&N filter. Also got an SLP smooth bellows, Pro 5.0 shifter, the CAGS bypass plug, and the ASR switch override. I can't wait to start driving it and working on it, but I'm going to hold off on any of the engine bolt-on stuff until after I can get it to the track and the dyno. I really want a baseline this time. I figure with some of the smaller stuff, I can switch it and take both readings/runs on the same day. I'm planning on ordering the rest of the initial bolt-on stuff within the next couple weeks so it's all here when it gets nice out. I'm dying now because it's been so cold and nasty out, the car is just sitting at the garage under a cover. I figured it would be about March when I could start working on it, but that's less than a month and it's pretty winter-like out still. We'll see...
© 2003 Mike Bujnowski - All rights reserved
Attention: All material on this website is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use of any material or information from this website for any purpose other than personal viewing, including but not limited to images and written information, constitues an infringement of this copyright and is expressly forbidden without prior written permission of Michael Bujnowski.