1984 Pontiac Firebird Custom ‘GT’
I loved everything* about the first glances at this car so I went looking. I had to search quite a few sites as the links to all the times this car have been sold are no good anymore.
*P.S. Everything BUT the yellow pinstripe ... wtf?
Road & Track/Bangshift
This car started out as a V6-powered 1984 Firebird. Now, it's a completely unique muscle car that's full of '60s flair.
If we hadn’t put “1984 Pontiac Firebird” in the title, would you have
honestly guessed that was the vehicle you were looking at? I doubt it
highly. While the car has some generic and blended touches. the overall
shape screams 1970 Ford Torino/1971 Ford Australia Falcon, with just a
hit of Mopar here and there, like the hoop nose front end and the bright
blue color. Let’s make it clear right now: we are not dogging on this
creation one bit. For a totally overhauled custom car, it’s surprisingly
good. It’s doing a great job of hiding a third-gen F-body. Every body
panel seems to have been drastically altered. Look closely and you'll
begin to recognize the Pontiac windshield and factory door glass, but
other than that, it's totally bespoke. And unlike a lot of custom jobs,
this one looks nearly factory in terms of quality. The finish on the
paint, the panel gaps, and all of the proportions look spot-on. A
majority of the body parts are fabricated out of fiberglass. The front
end is inspired by the 1971 Plymouth Fury, while the rear takes after
the 1969-1970 Mustang Mach 1 and 1970 Mustang Shelby. The rear glass is
actually taken directly from a 1971-1973 Mustang, as well. The brothers
were also heavily inspired by the Ford Falcon XB GT when building the
car. The gills on the front are from a 1971 Barracuda, but placed ahead
of the wheel. They’re functional, too, containing amber lights that
illuminate with the parking lamps. The deep-set grille with tunneled
headlights was inspired not by a muscle car, but by a big sedan, the
1971 Plymouth Fury. For a modern touch, the headlights are aftermarket
replacements for mid-1990s BMW 5 Series, with halo rings that illuminate
with the parking lights. Even the interior wasn’t untouched…there’s
strong hints of Mustang in the dash and some of the control surfaces,
while certain GM parts, like the 1996 Caprice-sourced gauge cluster and
GM AM/FM/CD player offset. And that shifter…we’re pretty sure that was
raided from a Lincoln Mark VIII. The grunt is provided by an LT-1 V8
(260 hp, from a 2000’s Cadillac DeVille sedan, along with the exhaust
system) and whoever signed off on those turbine wheels, excellent
choice. The gas cap came from a modern Dodge Challenger.
There’s also a Chevy ‘SS’ badge on the dashboard, calling upon the car’s GM roots.
There’s even a bit of Toyota in this car, believe it or not. The
metallic blue exterior color, officially called Electric Storm Blue, was
first spotted by one of the brothers on a neighbor’s 2017 Toyota RAV4.
It looks every bit a 1970s hot ride, but would leave everybody
wondering, “What the hell was that?!” How much is individuality worth to
you?
The car was built by Dmitry and Arkady
Khudobin, brothers who emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine 30 years ago,
following the collapse of the Soviet Union, who earn a living making
custom H-D motorcycle fairings.
Dimitry had the car listed on Craigslist in 2019 in Miami, Florida for $45,000. The link is gone.
The car was listed on Hemmings in 2020 for $25,000, that link is also gone.
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