It was 22 years ago when a beautiful little blond walked into Frank Serafine�s office at his restoration shop. Lisa was looking for someone to build her a 66 Mustang to replace the one she totaled a couple weeks earlier. Seems Lisa was racing her little Mustang at 2AM, approached a curve at a bit too much speed and did not quite make the corner. After flipping the car end over end and rolling it side to side countless times, the car landed 150 feet away. Lisa crawled out and dusted herself off! A trip to the hospital was required. She had a few scuffs but was basically unhurt. The little Pony was not so lucky, it was totaled beyond recognition! The roof flatten even with the hood and trunk.

Lisa had full coverage and the insurance paid off $5000 for the mint Mustang. So Frank and Lisa reached an agreement to duplicate her little Mustang using a clean donor car Frank had. The process took a few months and Lisa would visit every Tuesday to check progress. About 8 weeks into the build process, Frank convinced Lisa to go on a date. A year later they were married and had a son on the way. Frank and Lisa each had 2 year old boys from previous marriages, so the new baby Michael would make 3. Having 3 boys made it rough for Lisa to keep driving 2 + 2 sports cars. But Lisa loved muscle cars and kept struggling to cram 3 kids into a variety of different muscle cars trying desperately to �hold on� to her Hot Rod. Eventually the kids simply got too big and Lisa had to cave in and give up the Hot Rods for Vans and SUVs.

Fast forward to 1998. The boys are 16, 15 and 12 years old and dad and the boys build a drag car. The middle son Nicholas and dad raced the car, while the youngest Michael was crew chief. Later Michael would race the car when he turned 15 years old. Lisa patiently supported Frank and the boys while they built and raced cars together. Moving forward to 2003 and Lisa�s muscle car desires were again held in check while Michael and Dad built Michael�s Project Prodigy Camaro. A couple years later, in 2005, 18 year old Michael and family would make their SEMA debut with Project Prodigy launching a turn in the family business build style, and a name change named after the prodigy son, Michael, and Prodigy Customs was born.

All the while as Lisa supported dad and the boys, and all their fun, she had said for years that when the kids were gone, the nest was empty, she was getting her Hot Rod back. And now that the 3rd baby, Michael, the son that essentially forced mom to give up 2 + 2s, is now a car builder in the family business, it is only fitting the very kid that pushed Lisa out of her Hot Rod in 1985 should help mom build that new Hot Rod. And Project EmptyNest was born!

So what would Project EmptyNest be? Being in the custom car and restoration business all those years, Frank and Lisa had many different muscle cars run through their fingers. And over those years both Frank and Lisa took a particular liking to Firebirds. So it was decided that Lisa�s Project EmptyNest would be a Firebird. It also had to be a convertible. And Lisa always loved Trans Ams. So it would be a Trans Am themed Pro Touring Tribute of sorts. To follow Project Prodigy, the pressure would be on to build something special. So the plan was put into effect to build what could very well be best all around Trans Am ever built. To achieve the best all around goal, the car would have to be excellent in every way including styling, power, handling / braking, versatility, comfort, and modern conveniences.

Styling would be very important. The 1969 model in a convertible was the obvious choice. A Modernize Pro Touring Trans Am theme would pay tribute to the original ultra rare 69 Trans Am convertibles of which only 8 were built. The original white and blue theme would be maintained, but colors would be changed ever so slightly. The exterior color is a custom Pure White Pearl from Sherwin Williams, the blue stripes are House of Kolor candy Oriental Blue. Reproduction Trans Am hood and fender scoops were used. For the rear spoiler, the team at Prodigy was not happy with any of the reproduction spoilers available so they hand built a plug, made a mold and made the one off spoiler with a few �minor adjustments�. A roll bar would be a must as we already know Lisa likes to race around! The roll bar was fabricated using a pair of tubes and boxed with 1/8th plate. A lot of care was taken in arching the tubes to match the arch of the windshield frame. The roll bar uses hidden stanchions welded to the rockers and has hidden back bracing into the trunk, and tied into the rear suspension crossmember, making the roll bar functional and structural part of the car. Also, a 36� LED strip is encapsulated in the rol bar and acts as a doom light and really lights the interior.

A custom removable hard top boot cover was built from fiberglass and incorporates a pair of scoops to match the hood scoops. The boot protects a Royal Blue Hartz cloth convertible top from Robbins Tops. To smooth the transition from the boot to the body, the stainless trim around the convertible top well opening was eliminated so the boot blends right into the body.

Custom headlight fascias were modified and molded to eliminate the rubber impact cushion strip cleaning up the front of the car. The Prodigy crew also molded the original front bumper and made the fiberglass front bumper. On the rear of the car, the rear body panel was modified extensively. A more petite 69 Camaro bumper was section and welded to the body flush. A 68 Camaro gas filler opening was inserted and uses a really trick gas cap made by Larry Callahan. John Parson of IIMuchfabrication.com made the custom stainless exhaust tips

Completing the smooth and detrimed exterior, all the windshield stainless was eliminated, smoothed and painted, and a flush mounted windshield was installed.

Stance is very important and Prodigy Customs likes LOW ride heights. True ride heights, like driving and racing ride height, not fair ground ride height. At ride height the top of the windshield frame is 47 3/4� from the ground, which is a full 3 �� to 4� drop. To get the car to ride down the road so low, a lot of tricks were done including eliminating the body bushings completely, raising the rear trunk floor, and custom front inner fenders were made with tire pockets in them, and the fenders were bulged and beaded for strength. Custom 4 into 1 �zoomy� style collectors, exhaust tunnels through the floor and tailpipe plenums over the rear suspension keep the exhaust from dragging.

The interior is done a in combination blue leatherette and swede. Four C5 Corvette sport bucket seats were sacrificed for bucket seating front and rear. The stock Corvette seats were too tall so Howard of Complete Auto Upholstery in Altamonte Spring, Fl trimmed the seats making them shorter and covered the seats. Meanwhile back at the shop, Lisa was sculpting the full front to rear console and door panels. William Fonsaka from One off Rides brought his artistry and helped with the blending of the interior plugs and dash. The crew at Prodigy then made molds and built the interior parts out of hand laid fiberglass for lightweight, strength and durability. Completing the interior is polished aluminum IDidIt steering column and a Momo Millennium Sport wheel puts control in Lisa�s hands. A set of Autometer Cobalt gauges monitors the engines health. A Vintage Air Gen IV A/C system helps keep her cool, and Electric Life power windows are controlled by central located switches in the center console. A 2000 watt audio / Visual system includes a JVC DVD deck, combined with Infinity Perfect 6.1 speakers and 10 Kicker Solo Baric L5 square subwoofers, all pushed by a pair of Infinity Amps for awesome concert sound. William Fonsaka also did the sound system install and awesome trunk trimming.

A Pro Touring suspension and brake system are very important. Pro Touring cars must handle and brake with performance equal to new performance cars. Ride was also very important to Frank and Lisa. So to be the best all around combination of ride and handling, Air Ride Technologies Shockwaves are used for ultimate adjustability of ride and handling at the touch of a switch. On the rear, the Shockwaves were combined with Prodigy Customs own Prodigy Bar 4 link rear suspension and sway bar. Up front, A Speedtech Performance subframe Debut in Project EmptyNest and is just awesome. The trick subframe uses rack and pinion steering , tubular upper and lower arms, and a Nascar style splined sway bar. The subframe is tied into the body with DSE subframe connectors to eliminate the �Cowl Shake�, or flex, normally associated with convertibles. The ride is incredible for a performance car. And on it first ever autocross at the Street Machine of the year competition in Columbus Ohio Goodguys, Scott Pruitt made a pass in Project EmptyNest. On his very first pass in the car, having never driven the car 1 foot, with zero suspension or engine tuning, Scott posted a 18.5 second time. While the run did not count because it was not done by the owner, the time was faster then 4th place time out of 27 entries. Frank is no autocross driver and posted a 10th place 19.3 time. So the suspension works!

Braking is handled by one of Prodigy Customs Total Car G Machine Brake Packages including huge Wilwood 14� front and 14� rear brakes with monster Superlite (6) piston front and (4) piston rear calipers in powder coat blue. The brake system uses a Wilwood 7/8� Tandem Master Cylinder designed for manual brake systems. Wrapping the brakes and keeping things hooked to the road are custom designed Forgeline TA3P �Snowflake Tribute� wheels. 19 X 10.5 front and 19 X 12 rear with Huge 295 / 30 / 19 front and 345 / 30 / 19 rear Michelin PS2 tires are stuffed in the mini tub front and rear wheelhouses.

To be �the best all around Firebird ever built�, the engine would be very important. Prodigy Customs is known for big horsepower Pro Touring cars, so the engine would have to make some serious power. For Project EmptyNest to remain true to its pedigree the engine would have to be a Pontiac there was no question about it. Weight balance and overall weight were very important also, so a lightweight aluminum engine would be perfect. So a call to All Pontiac and Butler Performance was made and the Holy Grail of all street Pontiacs was planned. The decision was made to do a Fuel injected All Aluminum 535CI monster with a little nitrous for good measure. It would start with one of All Pontiacs / Butler Performance prototype Aluminum blocks and All Pontiac�s raised port Tiger heads and 4340 crank.

David Butler specified and provided all of the components needed to make the motor come alive. Final compression was squeezed up to 10.9:1 for maximum pump gas power. A Solid roller Comp Cams and valve train combined with Jessel shaft rockers nets 265 / 273 Duration @ .050 and .780 lift on a 112 lobe center. A totally one off Twin Throttle body Cross Ram sheetmetal intake was built by Hogans manifolds and uses dual 70MM Accufab �Viper� throttle bodies. Again keeping with the original tribute theme, Pontiacs are known for �RAM AIR�, so that feature had to be incorporated. Twin air cleaner boxes under the hood scoops are plumb into the individual throttle bodies. An Accel Thruster EFI system was another SEMA debut item on EmptyNest and manages all the vital Fuel Injection functions. Another debut item is the March Style Track serpentine pulley system. A Prodigy Customs radiator with dual 13� fans keeps things cool. And to top things off, As if it needed more power, A 400HP NX fogger nitrous system is plumb into the intake just in case�������..

Hartbeat Racing in Mt Dora, Fl did all the machining and assembly of the engine. Dave Hartman needs to be commended for sticking with this thing through some very trying times. R and D with prototypes can be frustrating to say the least. I think many shops would have given up. Dave never even thought about throwing in the towel and kept fighting. When the engine was finished we nervously accepted the final bill for the machine work and assembly as Dave handed it to us we were absolutely SHOCKED to see that none of the R and D time was reflected in the bill. With all the time he spent on the phone, scratching his head trying to figure out what the heck was this? He could easily hit me for twice as much as he charged and I could not dispute it. But I think he knew we were way over budget on the engine, and just wanted to see the thing run. Thanks some much Dave!

Final horsepower numbers are not in at time of print. The engine was dyno, partially. After a 30 minute warm up a short pull to 5500RPM was made. The plan was to look everything over after the little pull, make sure everything was OK, then make the full 7200RPM pull. After the small pull a little water was found mixing in the oil. It is very common with aluminum engines to need to use a block sealer of some kind, alumiseal was out choice and did fix it in the car. But on the dyno we were not able to do that so the one pull is all we got. The results, With only 32 degrees timing and with the Air Fuel ratio very fat, the unturned engine made 610HP at 5500RPM and 645 TQ at 4200RPM and the horsepower was going climbing rapidly at the end of the pull. It is safe to assume there was another 100+ HP coming at the end of the abbreviated pull. Even if we use just the 600HP number, with 400HP of NX nitrous on board, there is well over 1000HP available.

The fuel system consist of a custom Rick�s Hot Rods stainless steel tank with a Aeromotive A1000 pump inside. The trick tank is made more narrow, but deeper then the stock unit to allow the 3� tail pipes to pass inside the frame rails for the smooth tailpan exit. Speaking of tailpipes, Welder extraordinaire John Parson�s built the can of snakes stainless steel headers using 2� primary tubes and custom built �zoomy style collectors� which exit all 4 pipes side by side for ultimate ground clearance. Magnaflow pipes and mufflers tone things down to a nice cruise level sound. My good friend Mike Norris spent a bunch of hours on his back helping John with the exhaust and headers, great friends I must say.

To transfer the power to the tires, a Tremec TKO 600 5 speed overdrive transmission is connected to a Moser �Prodigy Bar Ready� 12 bolt rear. A 33 spline Tru Track differential, 3.73 gears, Big Ford Torino ends with 3.15 bearings and Performance Cover make the 12 bolt as strong as they come in a street friendly package.

So now that fall is here, it is great convertible weather here in hot Florida. So the Firebird will get a lot of evening cruises over to Daytona for dinner, maybe some beach cruising now and then, we will do some local shows, do a little drag racing and hit some autocrosses on the weekends. Did we achieve our goal? The reception the car has received is fantastic. Best all around Firebird ever???????? I don�t know, but the car does everything we wanted it to do, so for us, we feel we nailed it..




Lisa and I have to give Special Thanks to a few people that went far beyond working late, LATE hours, for free, just to see the project through. The project simply would not have Made the deadline without this extra help.

Michael Serafine, You make mom and dad so proud!

David Serafine, my brother, thanks for the endless hours!

There are friends, and then there are FRIENDS! Just wow!

Andrew Stephens

John Parsons

Mike Norris

Bob Trathon