I owned a couple. I was a real Pontiac freak for a while, along with the rest of my entire neighborhood I grew up in. The 70s Firebirds are not particularly well engineered, seem to have a lot of rattles, they are very heavy cars lousy on gas, and they have trouble with doors closing properly, exhaust system is always falling apart, just kind of a loose car in general. On the plus side, they are the best handling cars GM ever made in that era, and will outcorner just about anything, and most of all, T/As with T-tops, cool paint and flares are major babe magnets.

If you buy a cheap one, your going to get one that has had the crap beat out of it for years. I would suggest always running a car fax. Never buy one that has been in an accident - they are loose enough to begin with, and if they have been hit they ain't worth a ****. Always, always have a mechanic look at one of these cars before you buy it, they are the most abused cars in the world. On any typical used TA made in the 70s you will probably need to replace all the subframe bushings, rebuild the front end, replace front and rear springs, etc. The suspensions on these cars just don't hold up. When you buy one, if any of this stuff has been recently replaced its a plus for the car. If your going to really spend some money and buy a low mileage example, you might as well buy a vette instead, they have got better resale and endurance. Most of the guys I know who have collector grade models never drive them because they know they will be loose, worthless pieces of **** as soon as the odo turns 70k.

If you do buy one, stay away from the Pontiac 301 engine, they have a lot of problems. Pontiac 326, 350, 400 and 455 engines are the most desirable. The 326's are really hard to find but it is the best one for this day and age, you can get about 15/18 mpg and they perform as well as the 350. Any engine bigger than that, and you better get ready to buy some serious gas. The Olds 402 is real peppy but nowhere near as strong an engine as the Pontiacs - it's a cheesy excuse for the older Big Blocks that GM stuck in later to cut production costs.

Pontiac bottom ends are strong as hell and don't have to be rebuilt as often as Chevy's, and they love a good top end overhaul. If your lucky and you get one with a Pontiac engine that still has good compression and shows no sign of serious ring wear, have the stock Q-jet carb rebuilt at a speed shop, get a stock Edlebrock Performer manifold, have the heads 3-angled, polished and ported to the manifold at a speed shop, add roller rockers, hipo pushrods and guides, and the thing will scream like a banshee without having to change the cam or pull the engine, for under $1500 if you can R&R the parts yourself and take them to the speed shop, or around 3k if your going to pay a mechanic to do it.

You can do neat things with them if you just get a rolling chassis or one with a blown motor. They are so big and roomy under the hood and they were engineered to take so many different drive train combos, they will take just about any GM drivetrain combo you can get your hands on - the only thing you really have to change is the front coil springs if you upgrade to a 455 from one of the other models.

We built a '72 once by pulling a 71 Olds 455 drivetrain out of an Olds 98. The only soup up we did was a shift kit for the 400 tranny and an Offenhauser manifold, and the thing ran 13s at the drags, and I think we did the whole thing for around $700. A friend of mine had an 80 model where he put a new Chevy 427 Crate motor with a 400 tranny out of a Suburban in one, and it was an animal and a half - without a doubt the most drivable TA I ever experienced and it was also a good reliable car. The way parts and machine shop prices are, a new complete 427 for $2500 is a pretty tempting way to go for the DIYselfer.

Personally, I'd rather pay double to get a decent 70-72 Camaro than mess with the 70's TAs. There are a lot of nice ones that have been well maintained out there and they have a better reputation, are not as heavy and have much better resale.