The little bit of reading I've done, some Trans Ams had what was called Radial Tuned Suspension and by all accounts I've read, it was much better than otherwise stock and Camaro suspensions.

Dash pics of 2 TAs in Maine, one a Turbo Trans Am

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687466336.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687466336.jpg

Shaun, the Turbo has a unique and I think great looking hood. Rather than the center shaker, it swept up from center to in front of the driver, and inside it were 3 lights that came on sequentially as boost increased. It also had a unique fire-chicken decal on the hood. The other updated thing on them was the 4 wheel disc brakes, a rare thing for the day. As I said earlier though, it was painfully slow. They need an engine swap asap.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687470361.jpg

Turbo T/A had the same motor as the Grand National, I believe. If this is the case, simple matter of dialing in more boost and fuel

No, there was a Turbo Pontiac but it was later. The one above is a V8 not the V6 in the GN and later turbo Pontiac’s.

Googled a bit and it is a great hood. Tried to go the FBMP ad with the 2 cars and it was gone, less than 2 days up.

A crate engine would be a must have.

Years ago I was being chased by somebody I knew in his turbo trans am, I was in my 1971 stock BMW 2002 he could not catch me, lol.

^^^

that reminds a little of having a 240Z with dual Webers and headers and the only other cool car in high school was a Dodge Demon 340. We raced each other all the time, neck to neck up to 60 or so and then my 240 was .01 mph faster. I would pass him in ultra slow motion given a long enough straight.

It might be slow, but that ^^^^^^ turbo car really is good looking.

The 89 Anniversary Turbo car is the one with the Grand National engine.

My first car was a '81 Firebird. 4.3L V8. Neither fast, nor nimble. But, it was red. Very red. Everywhere. I'd love a pre-80's Trans AM today. You just don't see many, as most rusted away.

^^^ same for Sciroccos and so many old cool cars.

I am fairly certain I will turn my attention to states like Texas:

Turbo here: https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/d/aransas-pass-trans-am/7630347109.html

Prompted by this thread, a quick search showed a remarkable number of T/As for sale. Some looked pretty nice. If that is an indication of cars available everywhere, you can be quite choosy--a tremendous luxury as you're certainly aware.

To what extent do T-tops diminish chassis rigidity? Is it a 20% hit? more? less? Were T-top cars reinforced to offset the issue? Are you looking for them or wanting to avoid them?

I can't answer the rigidity question other than to say it was GM in the 70s so I don't think anyone even thought about chassis rigidity then.

A T-top black or gold manual would be my preference. While I think it's relatively easy to drop in a new motor I have no interest in converting auto to manual.

I hated them as a teen in the 1980s, but nostalgia is a powerful drug, and I dig them now. We have a trio of mid to late 70s T/As and Z-28s that show up for our local autocross series. They are all gorgeously restored -- and although they aren't the fastest cars, everyone is smiling all the time after their runs.

The Fire-Chicken decal isn't a deal-breaker for me any more.

Converting one would be really easy. Especially if your already pulling the motor. An added bonus is converting to a 5 or 6 speed tremec. Much better drivability over the factory 4 speed.

Good to know, thanks!

Just thinking out loud...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687533669.jpg

i owned the last '74 SD ever made.
it was near perfect. ran unbelievably strong. 12 mpg. sold it for 8200 bucks. circa 1984.
i shoulda' kept it. :)

They were high watermarks of the muscle car era.

Damn you guys. I really don't need these kinds of distractions.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hZkHfVPTr9I" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Burt Reynolds Got A Trans Am Every Year For Life...But Not His
 

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From what I remember every GM car from the mid-70's had the Radial Tuned Suspension tag on the dash on new vehicles that had radial tires. It was around the time that radial tires were being offered on new cars. I think they were an option

This is my favorite. One year only Brewster green ....I've built that car with a LS crate motor, tremec and serious suspension a million times in my head. If I didn't think we would be doing some serious traveling in the next few years, that would be my next project. FYI, Porsche GT3s also look great in Brewster green.

Same here. Ever since seeing McQ as a kid, I thought it would be cool to have a McQ clone with modern equipment under the skin.

From a Jalopnik “most overrated performance car” thread:


eam1
hoser68
7/07/23 8:20pm
I agree. They look fantastic and thanks to Smokey and the Bandit I developed a crush for Trans Ams. I had a specially ordered ‘82 with the cross-fire infected engine, WS6, blah blah blah. It was a slow, unreliable POS but looked like a million bucks. Then I traded it in on an ‘85 with the TPI engine and that was a whole other animal. Good car, not a great car, but lots of fun back in the day and quick enough for 1985. Around that time I drove my friend’s ‘79 TA and that thing was a fossil compared to my ‘85, which literally did everything better. Even though it was only 6 years old and had around 50K miles, it rattled like it had been driven in the Dakar rally and the suspension and brakes felt like they belonged on a Caprice. Looked great though.

ends tomorrow

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1977-pontiac-firebird-46/

Back in High School my friends' dad bought them 2 brand new 79 T/As. One black stick, the other a silver anniversary auto. The stick had the poncho motor, while the silver was an Oldsmobird 403. Both got modified with cams and exhaust later on. Last I heard, my friend's brother still has the black T/A. It was set on jack stands for 20 years at their dad's house, when he sent it out to be made streetable again. That was about 15 years ago.

Thanks for posting! Looking forward to seeing where that ends up.

In looking at these cars on FBMP, it is amazing how much people want for piles of rubble. A few have been rubble asking $6K.

These belong to a guy in a car club that I am a member of. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1689876842.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1689876842.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1689876842.jpg

By today's standards they are pigs, definitely. Good for cruising in the summertime. Like driving a boat. I think you should drive one and get it out of your system.

So that turned out well.

Yup. Everyone is different but I'd have serious buyer's remorse knowing that is nice GT3 money.

I couldn’t agree more

To me this was a $60k car and you might be able to duplicate it for that if you did a lot of the work.

$150k starts getting toward 512BB money

What’s the story on the General? My buddy has one from the movie. Bought it from the studio.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can answer this question definitely but, a friend had a Trans AM GTA in the late 80's early 90's, I recall the GTA did not come from the factory with T-tops due to chassis rigidity.

Pretty sure you're right on this ^^^^. My older brother was the service manager of a nearby Pontiac dealer in the late 80's / early 90's. The last gasp of those cars was the turbo version with the 4.3 V6, which is 2/3's of a SBC. They were very limited production and at that time amongst their contemporaries, they were no joke. They had so much potential with small mods. They way outclassed the closest competitor Buick Grand National that had a smaller ( 3.8 ) engine and weighed @400 lbs more.

I came close to buying one, but at the last minute had reservations about affording that as the economy in late 1990 was just starting to tip downwards.

Back in the day, I used to hang out at the beach and there was this hot chick that used to drive this. That car was hot...just like her.

https://journal.classiccars.com/medi...ition-main.jpg

Pro:
400, 4 Speed.
Summer is over in Nebraska.
No T-topped T/A price

Con:
Not a T/A. No T-tops.
Still not cheap.
Looks ok-ish in the ad but left to wonder/worry about the underside.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1544591729644809

Otherwise:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/27-years-family-owned-1977-pontiac-firebird-trans-am-y82-4-speed/

Both of those are really nice cars.

I stopped looking as there is literally nothing in between $6000 piles of junk and $30K+ beautiful cars. I think if I did a consistent SearchTempest query and made a few FB accounts around the country I could find cars in the south that would work for me.

I'm also really into the 77-79 look headlights more than the molded plastic of 80-81. Pre-77 doesn't do much for me.

Almost bought an Audi wagon two days ago. Sort of glad I didn't.

I found this on Reddit a couple weeks ago. It searches Facebook, but a lot of the results are old and they won't load if the post is already taken down. But hey, it's free and you get what you pay for. Unfortunately there's no way to filter by transmission type.

https://collectorcarfeed.com/cars/?bat=on&cab=on&eb=on&fb=on&make=Pontiac&model=Fire bird&yearmin=1977&yearmax=1979&pricemin=5000&price max=20000&searchradius=