The beginning ... ... December 20, 2006
There is something about the understated appearance of the Formula that gives me a half-chub. I have always liked them, but ended up buying Z28's in my LS1 searches because they were much easier to find. In December of '06, I decided that I needed my own LS1 formula. Now, saying that one 'needs' a car is a strong statement, but for whatever reason I was consumed with this idea. Still undecided about what to do with my vette, one day I lazily perused the autotrader.com listings as I often do to kill time. I searched for Formulas just for the hell of it...lo and behold, the very first car on the search is exactly what I wanted, and 30 miles away. Better yet, it only had 26,000 miles on it and was listed for $10,900. Surely it's already been sold, I thought...but called anyway.
The next day I rode up to Hickory to check it out. It looked to be in decent shape. Not perfect of course as it was 8 years old, but not too shabby, either. I took it for a drive and fell in love. That was my first time driving an automatic f-body, and I thought it was really neat. Any auto I'd driven before was some kind of econo-box, I'd never had a fast car that was an auto, so this was new to me. I was less than pleased with the interior and a few other small things, but sat down to talk anyway. I paid $9,900 for it, which I think is a good deal, especially if you look at the f-body market. The cars in the $10k range often have 60k miles or more. I loved the fact that it was a formula. Nothing wrong with a trans am, but I just like the subtle look better. I like the color, also. A lot of folks think white is boring and doesn't belong on a sports car, but who cares. It is super easy to keep clean, and I think it's classy.
I was only able to drive the car for two days, and then I had to take off to NY for the holidays. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and play with it when I got home. When I did return, I drove it quite a bit. I thought the auto came in really handy for my daily 16 mile drive to the horse farm, which is awful stop and go 5pm Charlotte traffic.
Here are some photos from when I first brought it home. The sun was setting as I was taking them, so it makes it look as if the paint is mismatched...it is not.
