Firebird Trans Am doppelganger is a Dodge Demon destroyer

Pontiac hasn’t built a Firebird since 2002, yet a Florida restomod shop is turning out brand-new Trans Ams with carbon fiber bodywork and up to 1,000 horsepower under the hood. For the Firebird’s 50th anniversary, Trans Am Depot limited its special edition to just eight convertibles and eight hardtops. Read on to find out how a dead nameplate keeps finding new life.

Pontiac hasn’t built a Firebird since 2002, and the Trans Am nameplate had already been dead for years before that — so how is a brand-new one sitting in a Florida shop today, wearing a badge that says otherwise? The answer isn’t a barn find or a forgotten prototype. It’s a small restomod outfit that spent the better part of a decade quietly building the car Pontiac never got to finish, and for the Firebird’s 50th anniversary, they pushed the idea further than anyone expected. What that car is actually capable of changes the question from whether it’s allowed to wear the badge to whether anything else deserves to wear it more.

Reviving a Nameplate Detroit Left for Dead

The answer is Trans Am Depot, a Florida-based restomod outfit that spent years figuring out how to build the modern Trans Am that Pontiac itself never got around to finishing. Rather than restoring an original car, the shop builds new examples from the ground up, wrapping a genuinely modern chassis and drivetrain in bodywork that unmistakably echoes the first-generation Trans Am’s proportions.

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Why Pontiac Disappeared in the First Place

Pontiac’s disappearance wasn’t a slow fade — General Motors killed the entire brand in 2010 as part of its bankruptcy restructuring, ending a lineup that had included the GTO, the Firebird, and the Trans Am among its most celebrated performance nameplates. That abrupt shutdown left a genuine gap in the market for buyers who wanted a modern car carrying that specific badge and history, one restomod builders have been trying to fill ever since.

Building the Trans Am Pontiac Never Finished

Trans Am Depot’s approach leans on genuine carbon fiber body panels rather than steel or fiberglass reproductions, functional Ram Air induction feeding the engine exactly the way the original design intended, and thoroughly modern brakes and suspension components underneath. That’s the whole appeal: the classic proportions and presence of a first-generation Trans Am, backed by underpinnings that can actually keep pace with modern performance cars instead of just looking the part at a stoplight.

Carbon Fiber Where Steel Used to Be

Building the body panels from carbon fiber rather than heavier traditional materials does more than save weight — it lets the shop hand-finish panel gaps and surface details to a standard closer to a low-volume supercar than a mass-produced muscle car, since every panel is being custom-fitted rather than stamped on a factory line.

An Anniversary Edition Limited to 16 Cars

For the Firebird’s 50th anniversary, Trans Am Depot limited the special edition run to just eight convertibles and eight hardtops, a scarcity that turns what could have been a niche restomod curiosity into a genuine collector piece from the moment it leaves the shop. Sixteen cars total, split evenly between body styles, is a small enough number that tracking down one for sale years later is already a challenge.

Horsepower Options From Sensible to Absurd

The flexibility built into the ordering process is what separates Trans Am Depot from most restomod builders — customers can spec anywhere from a comfortable 450-horsepower cruiser all the way past 1,000 horsepower for buyers who want a legitimate street-legal drag weapon wearing ’69 Trans Am bodywork. That range covers everything from a relaxed weekend driver to a genuine Hellcat-and-Demon hunter, all built to order rather than off an assembly line.

How Restomods Differ From Numbers-Matching Originals

Restomods like this occupy a different collector category than numbers-matching original Trans Ams, and serious buyers in each camp tend to stay firmly in their lane. Original-car collectors chase factory-correct drivetrains, broadcast sheets, and casting numbers that prove a car left the factory exactly as documented; restomod buyers are paying for modern reliability and performance wrapped in a shape that still turns heads at every stoplight, with no illusions about factory authenticity.

Other Builders Chasing the Same Idea

Trans Am Depot isn’t the only shop building modern interpretations of dead nameplates — restomod builders like Ringbrothers and SpeedKore have built similar reputations reviving classic Mopar and GM designs with modern drivetrains and carbon fiber bodywork. What sets Trans Am Depot apart is its narrow focus on a single nameplate rather than a rotating portfolio of different classic designs, letting the shop refine one specific body style and engineering package over many build cycles rather than starting fresh with each new project.

What the Original ’69 Trans Am Actually Was

The original Trans Am that inspired all of this launched for the 1969 model year as Pontiac’s answer to the growing Trans-Am road racing series, distinguished by its functional hood scoop, rear spoiler, and a specific white-with-blue-stripes livery that became instantly recognizable. It sold in tiny numbers that first year — fewer than 700 units — a scarcity that makes genuine 1969 originals some of the most valuable Pontiacs in existence today.

What a Build Actually Costs

Pricing for a Trans Am Depot build starts well into six figures before options, reflecting the hand-built nature of carbon fiber bodywork and the customer’s choice of engine package driving costs up from there. That price point puts these builds closer to low-volume specialty manufacturers than typical restomod shops, a positioning the company has leaned into by keeping production numbers deliberately small across every special edition it has released, the 50th Anniversary run included.

A Nameplate That Refuses to Stay Dead

Pontiac may be long gone as a brand, but the Trans Am nameplate clearly still has an audience willing to pay for a modern take on it, whether that means a numbers-matching original commanding six figures at auction or a Trans Am Depot build with 1,000 horsepower under a carbon fiber hood. Somebody still cares about finishing what the Trans Am started, badge or no badge. As long as that demand exists on both ends of the market, the Trans Am nameplate looks likely to keep resurfacing in one form or another for years to come, carbon fiber panels, functional Ram Air, and all.

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