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Posts Tagged: Trans Am

Pontiac Trans Am 1970 to 1975

by Ross Mills

Pontiac’s second-generation Trans Am was supposed to launch with the rest of the 1970 lineup, but tooling delays pushed it to a February 26 debut — creating a “1969 1/2” nickname collectors still use today. From the Ram Air III and IV through the emissions-fighting SD-455 and the shrinking engine lineup of the mid-1970s, the Trans Am’s first six years tell the story of muscle car performance colliding head-on with new safety and emissions law. Read on to see how the numbers changed year by year.

Pontiac Wouldn’t Sell You a 1981 Trans Am With Both a Stick and Real Power – This Owner Built the One GM Never Offered

by Jack Harmon

Pontiac never let 1981 Trans Am buyers have real horsepower and a manual transmission in the same car — the factory forced a choice. This owner refused to accept that trade-off, dropping a 400-horsepower crate small-block and a four-speed stick into a genuine WS6 Trans Am. Recorded in POV binaural audio so you can hear exactly what the factory never let buyers experience, this build answers a forty-year-old complaint.

Jay Leno Fires Up a 1979 Trans Am — And Everyone Forgets This Was the ‘Bandit’ Car’s Biggest Year Ever

by Jack Harmon

Jay Leno takes the wheel of a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am on loan from the Audrain Automobile Museum — the same black-and-gold decal car most people know from the movies, but with a mechanical story that’s easy to miss. According to fans in the comments, this was the year Pontiac’s W72 400 actually out-accelerated the Corvette. Watch Leno find out if the reputation holds up.

A red BMW M3 E92 driving on a winding road.

The Perfect IROC? – /BIG MUSCLE

by Wes

The third-generation Camaro does not get much respect, dismissed as the awkward middle child of Chevrolet’s muscle car lineage. One owner spent years proving that reputation wrong, building an IROC-Z so subtly refined it looks nearly stock at a glance, no loud stripes, no attention-seeking mods, just years of careful work reserved for how the car actually drives. The Drive tracked it down for a proper test drive. Watch to see whether it lives up to the title.

Classic white muscle car with black racing stripes at a car show.

First of only 8 1969 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Convertibles

by Kiril

Pontiac built exactly eight 1969 Firebird Trans Am convertibles, and V8TV has now featured every single one of them, including this fourth car, the one with the lowest VIN sequence number of the group. The eighth car in the set went missing for years before finally surfacing and getting restored in 2016. See what makes this particular Trans Am worth a second look inside an already impossibly rare set of eight.

Chevrolet Small-blocks Number 5

by Ross Mills

Chevrolet’s small-block V8 family produced far more than showroom horsepower numbers. One race-built variant powered Trans-Am championships and outran a factory V8 on the other side of the world, while a separate production variant quietly set a naturally aspirated output record that stood for nearly forty years. From mechanical fuel injection to Checker Motors options, the small-block’s reach went places most engine families never get close to. Here’s how two very different small-block Chevrolets earned their reputations.

Classic black muscle car in a showroom.

Dodge Challenger 1970 T/A

by Kiril

Dodge built the 1970 Challenger T/A for one purpose: SCCA Trans-Am homologation, and only 2,399 left the factory before the model vanished for good. This triple black example is one of roughly 50 wearing that scheme, powered by a 340 Six Pack Dodge officially rated at just 290 horsepower. Read on to find out why that number was suspiciously modest.

Camaro RS-SS-Z28 options 1967 to 1969 cont…

by Ross Mills

Chevrolet built three very different Camaros under one badge in the late 1960s, one dressed to be noticed, one built to go fast, and one so quietly race-bred that Chevy barely admitted it existed. The RS brought hideaway headlights and showroom flash, the SS brought big-block muscle, and the unadvertised Z28 brought a 302 small-block engineered specifically to win Trans-Am races. Read on to find out how rare that racing option really was, and why so few dealers even knew to offer it.

Red 2013 Plymouth Superbird with iconic wing and decals.

2013 Plymouth Superbird Gateway

by Wes

Plymouth hasn’t built a car since 2001, so how does a 2013 Plymouth Superbird exist? Underneath the nose cone and wing is a modern Dodge Challenger, transformed by a specialty conversion kit into a tribute of one of NASCAR’s most famous aero cars. Watch to see how the illusion holds up.

A classic silver sports car parked outdoors on a sunny day.

1978 Pontiac Trans Am 4-Speed WS6 Survivor

by Kiril

This 1978 Pontiac Trans Am checks nearly every box serious collectors look for: the handling-focused WS6 package, the rare four-speed manual, and the big-block-adjacent 400 four-barrel, all still together after more than four decades. Viewers are already piecing together its origin story from small details, including a telling clue about why its interior plastics never baked in the sun. Filmed on a real road test with Rob at Street Machines, not a static show floor. Watch to see how it actually drives.

Classic silver Porsche parked on a driveway beside a house.

Pontiac Firebird 1979 Formula

by Kiril

1979 was the biggest sales year the Firebird ever had, and the Formula sat in an interesting spot between the budget-focused Esprit and the flashier Trans Am. This example carries the shaker hood and dual exhaust that made Formula buyers feel like they’d gotten the enthusiast’s Firebird without paying Trans Am prices. Read on to find out what made 1979 such a pivotal year for the second-generation Firebird lineup.

Pontiac Firebird 1976 Trans Am 455 V8

by Kiril

1976 was the last model year Pontiac put a 455-cubic-inch V8 in the Trans Am, and by then emissions equipment and a tightening regulatory net had cut its rated output to a fraction of what the same displacement produced five years earlier. That number is also the least interesting thing about the car. The 455 survived into 1976 largely because Pontiac refused to let it die, and it was gone the moment the model year closed. Read on for why this particular Trans Am matters more than its window sticker suggests.

Pontiac Trans-Am 1976 – 455 V8 Four-speed

by Kiril

By 1976 the muscle car era was supposedly finished, yet Pontiac was still selling a Trans Am with 455 cubic inches under a shaker scoop and a four-speed behind it. The catch is how briefly that combination existed and how few people could actually order it. This is the story of Detroit’s last big-inch holdout and why 200 horsepower meant more than the number suggests.

Pontiacs Fiftieth Year

by Ross Mills

By 1976 the horsepower war was over and Detroit had lost. Pontiac marked its fiftieth anniversary with a black and gold Trans Am that looked far faster than it was, and then its engineers did something nobody else in the industry managed that decade: they made the numbers go back up. Read on to find out which two sets of cylinder heads they used to do it.

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