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I hate to see a car die. Plain and simple.Why am I saying this now? Well, I have a 1988 Firebird Formula that's a Tuned Port Injected 5-speed car that has a strut tower that is rusted through and now the car structurally unsafe. It's also showing signs of rusting in other places and the body has 154,000 miles on it. The harsh reality is simply this... it's time to put it down.   Now, I know what some of you are thinking, Dan, it's just a car and an 80's car at that but you don't understand. I had this car saved from the junkyard 13 years ago and we've had tens of thousands of miles of driving and racing and traveling together. I've put that WS6 suspension through it 's paces on back roads and the car's even been on the track at Watkins Glen. Doggoneit, we have HISTORY! Granted, if life has taught me anything, it's taught me that all good things must come to an end but that doesn't make the task at hand any easier.   Naturally, a car of this pedigree must be an organ donor. The body may be shot but the car has some pretty good bones! The engine has about 40 thousand miles on it and the T5 has been rebuilt and it has the Australian posi rear end with 3.73 gears. The WS6 suspension stuff would bolt right on to my '84 T/A and the fenders, doors and hood are good pieces. Heck, I bet somebody could even use the Tuned Port Injection set up off the thing. Even though I will get some solice in the fact that parts of this car will live on, I'm still going to have send some of this car to the scrap yard.   I mentioned that I've had this car for 13 years and that may seem like a long time but I have owned half of my cars for more than 20 years. I feel that we didn't enough time together or enough miles. Maybe the answer is find another Firebird that's 6 cylinder car with a good body and change everything over. It would be the next best thing to having my Formula. So, I guess I have options as to what to do with the parts but I still have to let her go. It's been 15 years since I junked a car and I had someone take to the junk...uh, salvage yard for me. I'm going to miss that car but maybe through organ donation another car be saved and enjoyed. I guess that's really what it's all about. Dan Davis

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