1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am With Now-Illegal Ferrari F40 Body Kit Listed for $21,000
Only a handful of Ferrari F40 kits were built before Maranello rang its lawyers and allegedly shut down the operation.
We've all seen our share of Pontiac Fiero-based dupercars, but it's rare for the Fiero's front-engined sibling, the venerable Firebird, to be given the same treatment. Rare, but not unheard of, as proven by this 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am masquerading as a Ferrari F40.
Posted in Florida's Facebook Marketplace by Michel Filiatrault, this funky Fakerrari is based on a Firebird Trans Am but sports a Ferrari F40 replica kit, whose time on the market was allegedly cut short by a lawsuit from the Maranello-based automaker. It's not hard to see why, with all those Ferrari motifs on the bodywork and interior, and not to mention the sea of red leather.
While both the Firebird and F40 used V8s in their original forms, that's where the engine similarities ended. F40s featured a 2.9-liter twin-turbo engine connected to a five-speed manual whereas this Trans Am had a naturally aspirated 5.7-liter (350 cubic-inch) small-block paired to an automatic. The former is mounted behind the cabin, and the latter ahead of it, which is one reason why the F40's design simply doesn't work with the Firebird's proportions.
This car will undoubtedly appeal to a small niche of the car world no matter its asking price, but at $21,000 it's actually more than double what similar 1982 Trans Ams are going for. Its owner, however, banks on selling this car to a fellow kit car enthusiast, and uses the conversion's rarity as well as its historic significance to justify the price.
Cars are only worth what people will pay for them, and the kind of person who buys and builds a kit car tends to value looking like a million bucks on a shoestring budget. And $21,000, my friends, ain't no shoestring budget.