Hemmings find of the day: 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am

[Stéphane Dumas]

From Hemmings blog
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...bird-trans-am/

[Tone]

I saw that. Lovely car and incredibly original. But nearly $40K for a newly new Trans Am with the 170 hp 4.9? That seems a bit steep. Plus, you can't actually drive a car like that much without hurting its vaunted originality -- what fun it that?!

[CaptainDan]

Yeah....I remember the snout grille. The ugliest version of the Firebird. No wonder they redesigned it so heavily after that. Pontiac just should have called it the Firebird Aztek.

[bouda]

Love that colour.

[CorvetteAddict24]

I like them in black but its a nice car.

[sonjaab]

While nice and a rare color and crappy motor $40k is the moon for that car!
The 85 Z-28 with less than 10 miles that was found in a trailer in NJ a year or so back (info at http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/03/02...miles-on-ebay/) couldn't even fetch $28k at auction.

[ljtyphoon]

While nice and a rare color and crappy motor $40k is the moon for that car!
The 85 Z-28 with less than 10 miles that was found in a trailer in NJ a year or so back (info at http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/03/02...miles-on-ebay/) couldn't even fetch $28k at auction.

Could be worse it could have a Chevy engine.
LJ

[ponchoman49]

Could be worse it could have a Chevy engine.
LJ

Neither the 301 or the 305 were particularly noteworthy and each suffered it's own problems back in the day. The 301 had a fragile bottom end if not serviced religiously and being kept from overheating the rod bearings would easily get wiped out on the lightweight reduced counterweight crankshaft. It also had Siamese (shared) intake ports which killed power above 4000 RPM's and no aftermarket intakes were made to enable the owner to switch over to some better Pontiac heads. The 305 suffered from soft cams and valve guide wear and it really couldn't be brought over anything but 5K RPM's without hurting the bottom end. Still the 305 was a small block and had far superior aftermarket support and the soft cam was a simple swap away from a Corvette grind with a performer intake and a properly tuned carb these would make some decent power.

[skylark68]

Could be worse it could have a Chevy engine.
LJ

I was going to say it could be worse, it could have the turbo engine.

Out of the 2nd generation F-bodies, '80 and '81 are about the only 2 years where I would have gone with the Camaro. At least with the Z28 you could get the 350 (albeit only with an automatic in '81).