New member looking for input

[Yellowdog24]

Hello all!

Brand new to this forum.

Got interested a couple of weeks ago when I went to the local cars and coffee gathering every Saturday morning in Great Falls, Virginia and saw a beautiful Buick Skyhawk parked near the center of the action. Not only was it clean from top to bottom but someone had put a lot of love and wrench time in that car.

Wow, what a treat to see! Moreover, I wasn't the only noticing it. Even with all the Corvettes, Ferraris, and Porsches surrounding it, the Skyhawk was still getting noticed.

So I'm hooked. Started looking online and am interested in the Starfires. Got two candidates so far: one in Montana--needs a ton of work but has a 5speed tranny AND one in Maine that seems in pretty good shape with an auto...both have the 231.

For anyone who owns, has owned, or ever driven a Starfire, I wanted to ask what your take is on its handling, roominess (I'm 6'1" so can I get in and out without scraping my head?), and whether it would be better to try to boost performance of the V6 (to around 250-300hp) or just get a 350 (seen crate motors with 325 and 365hp ratings).

All advice/comments/flames welcome!

Cheers,
Yellowdog24

[gt350fme]

Welcome to to the h body forum, there are members here that have starfires and hopefully one will chime in soon.
Your questions are definitely on topic and maybe you should repost on general discussion, things have gotten a little slow lately, time of year and perhaps the Facebook groups are taking its toll here?
As for your height and head room I am 6’1 + and ended up lowering my seat mounts and now have plenty of room, though I have a Vega I believe they are similar, the wagons with slightly more headroom.
As for handling you should be happy with that after everything has been renewed or upgraded.
As for power I obviously went with a solid sbc 350 v8, a lS motor better yet but all this will take a lot of work and $.
My opinion on picking a project car would be to find the one in the best shape to start with.
Good luck on your project
GT

[zeke]

I'll vote for the v8, need frame plates used from somebody and the engine mounts are available on v8monza.com

Tons of help at Monza Madness on FB also

[Monza Harry]

YD welcome as noted by others. The 3.8L does have a following, head over to "Turbo Buick" for a taste, and that engine does have some wicked potential, just cheaper to do either the SBC or LS the latter will be a little more crafty [and expensive]an install! So season to taste, and make it fit your style/tastes, nothing inherently wrong either way. As to fitting, our Bryan McCready is easily 6'1" or more and he fits with out any groaning and he is a firefighter with the build you'd expect [large/fit frame with a 3.8L Monza] Starfire, Alan Wilcox (5.0L Starfire) he too is a tall guy (compared to my 5'8ish" 220#) again with a fairly large/fit build [even bigger shoulders than Bryan or myself] and he hasn't complained that I have heard, about fitting. There are others, these are just the ones I know best. As for handling these cars did quite well in SCCA against BMW etc. back in their day but that was 40+ years ago, some upgrades are still available. If you are old the low ride height will more likely be the issue, at least for my knees. And Chris [Zeke has two H's one 5.7L powered and one with a "Duke" not as fast but if you don't have much room for using the speed that "Duke will hang with the best of them from filling station to filling station, a real "fuel sipper" again no wrong answer, find the best one you can and go from there, the H-Body wasn't built in a day, and the shells are the same from Chevy to Buick to Olds and Poncho, just Notch and Hatches will be different for the second Gen H's Vega's Astre's are very similar but not exact fit size wise. Harry