![]() ![]() “I really wanted the car so I phoned him again and he finally agreed to sell. “I agreed immediately, then for the next six weeks the seller kept changing his mind.” At this point many of us would have considered giving up, but not Joe. It was solid, never welded, with next to no rust and, for me, total love at first sight.” The Trans Am was on axle stands because the wheels and brake pipes were removed and it had sat unused for two years, but it was only £1600. Then in 2003 my dad Joseph heard about a car for sale in Great Yarmouth, about 45 minutes away. “I started searching all over, but every example I looked at was rusty and after a while I just lost heart. “Smokey and the Bandit was what influenced me to buy the car,” admits Joe. Joe London really began wanting a Pontiac Trans Am after he’d watched a certain Seventies movie, and there are no prizes for guessing which one. Production of the Turbo Trans Am continued for another year but with 10 fewer horses thanks to an electronic carburetor and no major improvements, sales figures plummeted even further.Having purchased his dream 1980 Pontiac Trans Am, Joe London began restoring the car and added a few individual touches along the way – as you do! Unfortunately, these efforts weren’t enough, and the sales of the whole Firebird lineup fell by 50% compared to 1979. The company even went as far as replacing Bo " The Bandit" Darville’s 400 Trans Am with a Turbo in the 1980 sequel “ Smokey and the Bandit II”. Furthermore, the Turbo was used as a pace car for that year’s Indy 500 race, leading to a limited-production T-top Indy Pace Car edition. Unlike the analog gauges we are all accustomed to, this one stood inside the hood scoop and featured three orange lights marked "Normal", "Medium", and "High" next to a Turbocharged label. The starting price was just $350 higher than the standard model and it was available with one of the coolest boost gauges ever created. Pontiac tried their best to convince customers that the new Trans Am was worth it. The car could only be had with a three-speed automatic and a 3.08 rear axle ratio, whereas its predecessor was available with a four-speed manual, a factory Hurst shifter, and a 3.23 rear axle ratio in 1979. Although these were great figures for the 1980 market, they weren’t quite on par with the discontinued, 400-powered model which led to poor sales.īut this wasn’t all the new turbocharged unit’s fault. With this crazy engine under a hood that gained a unique scoop on the driver's side, the Turbo Trans Am could reach 60 mph (97 kph) from a standstill in 9.05 seconds and could run the quarter-mile (402 m) in 17.02 seconds. This was a noticeable improvement over the naturally aspired version that was now the standard option for the Firebird or the newest addition to the engine line-up, the Chevy 305 small block. The first turbocharged V8 developed by Pontiac was capable of delivering 210 hp (157 kW) and 345 lb-ft (468 Nm) of torque. To cope with the boost, the compression ratio was reduced from 8.1:1 to 7.6:1 and an electronic spark controller (ESC) with a knock sensor was fitted to retard timing in case detonation was detected. Engineers also reinforced the block, added forged pistons, heavy-duty head gaskets, a bespoke single plane intake, turbo-specific exhaust manifolds, and a high-pressure oil pump. It force-fed air through a modified Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor and was controlled by an electronic unit borrowed from Buick’s turbocharged 231-ci (3.8-liter) V6. The engine received a 9-psi (0.62 bar) Garrett TBO-305 turbo. With no funds or time to develop a completely new powerplant, they decided to give the lazy 301 the forced induction treatment, allegedly inspired by a student’s garage project. The now-defunct GM division needed a miracle to keep selling their aging performance model. This meant that for the 1980 model year, a mediocre yet emissions-compliant 155-hp 301-ci (4.9-liter) was the most powerful V8 Pontiac had to offer, a huge drop from the 300+ hp eight-cylinders available a decade earlier. In 1979, the last of these great large-displacement engines still available was the 220-hp 400, but due to evolving emissions restrictions, it too would be discontinued by the end of the year. Initially marketed as a performance and appearance package, it became a separate model a year later, once the second generation of the famed pony car was introduced.ĭuring the 1970s, the Trans Am earned its place among the most iconic muscle cars ever built, thanks to the 400 and 455 cubic-inch (6.6 and 7.5-liter) V8s it was equipped with. Since March 1969, enthusiasts who wanted the most muscular Firebird available could buy the Trans Am. ![]()
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