Those of us fortunate enough to be around in the 70s when this amazing auto came out drool whenever we consider it. Imagine getting a vehicle from the factory with a 455 cubic inch engine in it!This automobile kicked butt! Then if you probably did some work, like we probably did to ours, as in having the engine blue released, balanced and a ton more, it probably did even better. Let’s just say it was doing much better then one hp per cubic inch!
This was the era of Smokey and the Bandit movies. Good ole boy Burt Reynolds drove a black Trans Am in the flick and everybody and his uncle all of a sudden wanted one. Of course, by that time the ones they were selling were watered down versions with no where near the power of the original ones.
Since we’re not sure of the statute of limitations, let’s just say that any stories are thought to start’Once on A Time’.
One of our favorite stories is when we were getting onto dawn road late one evening and a Camaro rolled up next to us and started revving his engine, well you can imagine the rest.Here was a poor soul who had not a clue of what was in store. Since we don’t believe in street racing, it definitely was a good thing we were both going onto the entrance ramp. When we were satisfied that no one was on the parkway at that point of night, we let the Beast Out To Play. We never did see any more then his fading headlights.
One of the funniest moments was when we lived in upstate NY and my hubby went to the store to pick something up and this fellow in a Mustang 2 pulled up next to him and my man had fun ( hey, we are all entitled infrequently ). As Chuck tells it : You see at that point a local car dealer was running a TV spot featuring a Mustang two just destroying a Trans Am. So this gentleman pulls up next to me, gunning his engine for all he’s’s worth. The light changes, he chirps his tires and flashes me a giant grin as he is taking off. Well, I idle away from the light,give it enough gas in first to pull even with him, then drop the hammer, lighting up both tires, throw 2nd, light them up again and then ease off. Drive down the road to the store.
When I come out of the store this man has finally got there and is waiting for me and says,’but the commercial claims Mustangs will beat the pants off the Trans Am.’ I very blithely responded,’Not this Trans Am!’
They don’t make them like this anymore. It’s sorrowful when you think about it! Those of us who lived and grew up in the era of the muscle autos, street rods, Sat. night cruise nights were very,very lucky. I feel sorry for the youth of today that they missed out on all of this.
So what happened to that great 455 Trans Am, unfortunately the oppressive upstate NY winters are not kind to autos and rust took the Trans Am from us. However, we probably did replace it - with a customised 1973 Vette, which we drove cross country to California, but that is a whole nother story!
If you can have any car in the world, what would it be? Visit thesupercars.org for information and specs on the greatest cars in the world, also take a look at Pontiac Trans Am used car.
Tags: Pontiac, Pontiac Trans Ams, Trans Ams, Used Pontiac