Okay, so you saw the Pontiac Trans Am in the rare Sundance Yellow, but how about a Screaming Chicken against the backdrop of Martinique Blue? Does the color even matter if it has the 400 cubic-inch V8 and other performance goodies? It also has just 6,141 miles on the clock.
"Performance goodies" that produced a whopping 180-220hp...from 400 cubic inches of displacement, lol.
Nice color, and I always liked the styling of that generation, but sometimes the good ol' days weren't really all that good from a performance standpoint.
Someone will pay the Nostalgia Premium for it, though, and there's nothing wrong with that.
When I picture second-gen Trans-Am, yeah, this might be the one.
And you forgot how different things were back then. This car, for the day, was a beast.
Doesn't look bad, but the previous poster is right - it was a sad time for muscle cars. I get double that horsepower from my lightly modded 2.0 4 cylinder daily driver (also a Pontiac as it happens).
Always love the dash face treatment in these, too. I’ll pull the front plate, though. I get it, it’s a Trans Am.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Well, I'm going to politely disagree by saying no, I didn't forget.
Almost nothing mass produced by the big 3 was a beast during The Malaise Era. It was the first era where the current vehicles performed objectively worse than those of the prior era. At best, a person alive at the time could argue that they were "less slow" than the then-current offerings.
220 wheezing hp (at best) from a 6.6L motor provides a good example for why so many of us flocked to the import market.
It remains what it was: a nice cruiser.
Horsepower numbers be damned, I'd still rock it eight ways from Sunday. Great, unique color just ups it's cool factor.
It certainly wouldn't be difficult to fix the horsepower output on that engine to get performance to match the looks.
My friend had that car in that color in high school. I always thought that was the best color for a TA.
We discussed the Sundance Yellow Trans Am plus some other unconventional colorways a little while back but, yeah, I could easily rock the triple blue.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
This one is a WS6 car, so it got wider wheels, bigger sway bars, tighter steering ratio, extra body bracing, and more. It might also be a W72 car, which got you a 400 with better heads on it than the ones installed in grandma's Safari Wagon. It does have "performance goodies", but it could be better.
As with most Malaise Era "performance cars", the aftermarket stepped up to make these cars perform as good as they looked. Back in the day, a quick driveway tuning session on a Pontiac 400-equiped Trans Am would net some free horsepower, and these were a cam/intake/carb/exhaust swap away from being the quickest thing in town. And if you didn't want to do that yourself, companies/tuners like DKM, Nunzi Performance, and Trans Am Specialties would gladly do it for you, for a price. "Day Two" is where these cars really shined.
ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:It certainly wouldn't be difficult to fix the horsepower output on that engine to get performance to match the looks.
Agreed.
David S. Wallens said:I stand by my “beast” comment.
Proof?
Here. :)
Nah. THIS is a beast. ;-)
There are some 'Exotic' cars from that era that would get trounced by a modern 'sporty' car. Americas big three weren't the only ones hampered by the era of gas lines.
Now, having said all that... it's funny listening to all the complaints about how the 6th Gen Camaro is such a pig, when it's a hundred pounds less than a 77 T/A with the 400.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
You know it’s a beast because it says so right there on the chassis: HOT BIRD.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
This one is a WS6 car, so it got wider wheels, bigger sway bars, tighter steering ratio, extra body bracing, and more. It might also be a W72 car, which got you a 400 with better heads on it than the ones installed in grandma's Safari Wagon. It does have "performance goodies", but it could be better.
As with most Malaise Era "performance cars", the aftermarket stepped up to make these cars perform as good as they looked. Back in the day, a quick driveway tuning session on a Pontiac 400-equiped Trans Am would net some free horsepower, and these were a cam/intake/carb/exhaust swap away from being the quickest thing in town. And if you didn't want to do that yourself, companies/tuners like DKM, Nunzi Performance, and Trans Am Specialties would gladly do it for you, for a price. "Day Two" is where these cars really shined.
Was it Pontiac who lowered compression strictly through larger combustion chambers? I remember that while a lot of American V8s lowered the pistons down in the holes as well as larger combustion chambers, there was one who strictly changed it via chamber size, meaning a head swap put them back at the same ratio as years prior.
In reply to NickD :
I believe you are right. I know that as years went on, the chambers became much larger and the valves got smaller. For example, The 1971 #96 GTO heads on my engine have 96cc chambers with 2.11/1.77 valves with screw-in studs. Most of them later on got 110+ cc chambers, 1.94/1.66 or 2.11/1.66 valves with press-in studs. They were plopping out 455's with 7.6:1 compression ratios by the end of that engine's run in 1976.
If this 1978 is a W72 car, it has the 6X-4 heads which are pretty good with 94cc chambers and 2.11/1.66 valves and screw-in studs. A cam, intake, and exhaust would really wake one of those up and add a lot of power.
In reply to NickD :
Cadillac may have done that as well, but Curtis would know.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I think even Mopar did it, at least on the small blocks. The 318 I yanked from my Power Wagon had flat top factory pistons. It had the lowest, sloppiest compression imaginable.
In reply to NickD :
Yes, throughout their V8 years Pontiac adjusted compression ratios with the combustion chamber size.
As mentioned a cam, intake and exhaust mods would make a big difference (or for a little more money swap on a pair of aftermarket aluminum heads.)
This example is a good looking car, although it really should have a manual transmission.
In reply to stuart in mn :
True, this with a four-speed would totally be the one. Still, with the auto you got that sweet shifter with the thumb button. Pretty sure my dad’s ’78 Camaro had the same one.
Interesting that, even in 1978, you could get a Firebird with a three-speed manual box. Manual brakes, too?
This is from TRAN-ZAM.com.
I briefly owned this - a rare 1972 Pontiac Le Mans Sport with a 455 HO engine (they weren't called GTOs that year if they were convertibles). I took it around our road racing track on practice night. Lots of noise (tires on corners) tons of brake fade and wallowed like a drunken cow on a mudbank. Made nice noises, though.
A friend owned a 1975 Corvette. Again, it looked good but only had 165 bhp.
In reply to wspohn :
Sort of related, but at a recent Mecum sale we saw a T-37 with the 455.
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