Pontiac Trans Am | Muscle Car Fan

A classic muscle car driving on an empty road during sunset.

This Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Has Been Transformed

Gregg Hamilton flew to Alabama to buy this Pontiac Firebird Trans Am sight-unseen off eBay, then spent years reshaping it using tricks learned building World Rally Championship cars for Toyota Team Europe and Ken Block’s team. The result is a widened, re-engineered coupe he says is “about as quick as a Z06 Corvette” — and a tribute to the Smokey and the Bandit obsession that brought him to America in the first place. Watch to see what happens when a rally engineer builds his dream car instead of just buying one.

Pontiac Trans Am 1978 images

by Ross Mills

A 1978 Pontiac Trans Am could hide two completely different personalities under the same cross-hatch grille that year. Order the standard 400 and you got a workmanlike 180 horsepower; check the right option box and Pontiac’s W72-code heads bumped that to 220 horsepower off nothing more than a smarter combustion chamber design. Here’s what actually separated a good 1978 Trans Am from a great one – and why the base engine wasn’t even a Pontiac.

Blue classic sports car parked outdoors on a sunny day.

Awesome 1975 Pontiac Trans Am in Blue & White Paint & 400 Engine

by Kiril

This 1975 Pontiac Trans Am in blue with a white stripe has belonged to owner Mike Lorusso since 1989 — and over those decades he has pushed its 400 to roughly 500 horsepower. Filmed by Lou Costabile at an Illinois cruise night, it’s a survivor from the muscle car’s leanest year that refuses to act its age. The startup alone is worth the watch. See why the crowd keeps circling back.

Classic black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with sleek design and hood scoop.

Burt Reynolds Will Drive His Own 1978 Pontiac Trans Am Onto Barrett-Jackson Auction Block

by Kiril

When three of Burt Reynolds’ personal movie cars hit the auction block in Las Vegas, one 1978 Pontiac Trans Am towered over the rest of the sale. Built to be screen-accurate to the Bandit car from Smokey and the Bandit, it fetched $192,500 — more than five times what two nearly identical, non-Reynolds Trans Ams sold for in the very same auction. The gap reveals just how much a direct celebrity connection can move a muscle car’s value. How much of that price was for the car, and how much was for the legend behind it?

A black Mustang GT performs a burnout with smoke billowing from the rear tires.

1978 Pontiac Trans Am FAST EZ EFI Fuel Injection Overdrive Engine Upgrades

by Wes

This 1978 Pontiac Trans Am arrived at the V8 Speed & Resto Shop looking like a bird of fire but driving like a lame duck. Instead of swapping in a crate motor, the crew kept the Pontiac 400 and modernized it with a rare FAST EZ-EFI 2.0 setup, a 2004R overdrive, fresh rear gears, and a COMP roller cam. The result is a screaming chicken that finally lives up to its hood. See how it came together.

Vintage 1979 Trans Am with custom fire wall showcased in a video.

Metal Working Tips: Custom Firewall with Bead Roller and Pullmax 1979 Trans Am

by Wes

A 1979 Pontiac Trans Am arrived at V8 Speed and Resto with a firewall full of rust and factory flaws, and the team refused to settle for a patch. Instead they fabricate a custom panel from 20-gauge steel using a bead roller and a Pullmax, turning a hidden repair into a genuine showpiece. It is a masterclass in shaping metal the right way. Watch to see raw steel become art under the hood.

White Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with black phoenix decal parked outdoors.

Pontiac Trans Am 1980 Turbo Pace Car

by Kiril

In 1980, with emissions rules squeezing the life out of American muscle, Pontiac bolted a turbocharger to a 4.9-liter V8 and built 5,700 Trans Ams to pace the Indianapolis 500. The Cameo White pace car came with T-tops, a hood-mounted boost gauge, and the WS6 handling package. It wasn’t fast by old-muscle standards — but it proved Detroit wasn’t done yet.

Classic red Pontiac Firebird muscle car from the 1970s.

Pontiac Trans Am 1973 SD-455

by Kiril

By 1973, emissions rules and insurance surcharges had killed off nearly every genuine muscle car, except the Pontiac Trans Am SD-455, whose factory horsepower rating was so conservative it hid nearly 100 real horsepower. Only 252 of these hand assembled engines were built that year, and stock examples still ran 13.9 second quarter miles. It is widely considered the last true high performance muscle car before a long performance drought set in.

Classic black Pontiac Trans Am parked outdoors with a Turbo V8 engine badge.

Turbo V8 Chicken: Pontiac Trans Am

by Wes

The 1981 Pontiac Trans Am was the first mass-production car to pair a turbocharged V8 with graphic art elaborate enough to fill a gallery wall — and Mike Musto of The Drive’s Big Muscle series drove one to find out how those two things coexist behind the wheel. The turbo experiment was genuine engineering ambition from a company running low on options, and the results were more interesting than the car’s reputation typically acknowledges. Watch to see what Musto found when he put it through its paces.

Classic brown 1970s muscle car parked outdoors on a sunny day.

Pontiac Trans Am 1979 images

by Ross Mills

This 1979 Pontiac Trans Am runs a 403-cubic-inch V8 that Pontiac didn’t even build – it came from Oldsmobile, another GM division entirely. That borrowed engine marked the Trans Am’s tenth anniversary in an unusual way, right as Pontiac’s biggest engines were being phased out. Here’s why that swap happened, and why buyers kept lining up anyway.

Pontiac Trans Am custom Hurst Edition 2013 – stand out from the crowd

by Ross Mills

Looking to transform your Camaro into a custom Pontiac Trans-Am Hurst Edition? Get ready to stand out with a sleek design featuring a gold logo hood and quad exhaust pipes. At Trans Am Depot, this $29,995 endeavor takes eight weeks, but the retro magic is priceless. The 6.2-liter V8 engine, paired with a supercharger, can hit 575 HP—or go big with 1,100 HP, twin turbo! Add a T-top and this muscle machine tops $100,000. It’s the ultimate blend of nostalgia and horsepower—race lights beware!

Classic brown Pontiac Firebird with sleek design in a studio setting.

Pontiac Trans Am 1979 WS6 4-Speed

by Kiril

Pontiac didn’t let 1979 buyers order the 400 cubic-inch V8 on its own, choosing it automatically meant the WS6 handling package and a 4-speed manual came along for the ride. Only a few thousand Trans Ams were built in this exact configuration before the 400 disappeared from the lineup.

Classic white muscle car parked on a road with greenery in the background.

Pontiac Trans Am 1969 Ram Air III 4-Speed

by Kiril

The Trans Am did not launch with fanfare. Pontiac quietly released it in March 1969 as a barely-advertised option package, borrowing its name under license from SCCA’s Trans-Am racing series. Total first-year production landed at just 697 cars, split between 520 manual-transmission coupes like this one, 114 automatics, and only 8 convertibles. Every single one wore the same Cameo White paint with Tyrol Blue stripes, making this rare 4-speed Ram Air III one of the cars that started it all.

Posts Tagged: Pontiac Trans Am