The EPA HATES This Rare Muscle Car - The 1973-1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty 455 

I've always been more of a Mustang guy but the 1973 S/D 455 Trans Am has always been one of my favorite cars. And the turned-aluminum dashboard is my all-time favorite of any car.

These cars were a product of their time, took an emission strangled low compression 455 and retooled it into something that wasn't supposed to happen. Thanks Pontiac motor division for a really great car.

I have a 1973 SD 455 4,-speed that l paid $5000 for in 1991. It had 23k miles and was garage kept by it's 78 year old retired GM employee. It was for sale for over a year because no one paid that kind of money for an old Firebird. It now has 87k miles and looks almost new. It has most of it's original paint, not known for quality materials the dash, door panels, console and headliner all have been replaced. As mentioned in the video it has the Ram Air 3 cam, head work, headers and Borla exhaust vintage air and Wildwood brakes. My other cars are old Italian sports cars which l love but the old bird will hold it's own against any of them

That's OK I hate the EPA, an unconstitutional, bureaucratic, non regulated, form of tyrannical, government overreach, illegal operation, that should be disolved at once

When I was in High School a guy in our small town of 5,000 had a white SD 455 I used to see cruising. I hope it's still out there somewhere.

I had a 73 Formula SD 455 that I had factory ordered in the fall of 72 after I had read about the car and engine. I ordered everything except all the 'bird' stuff. A long wait, then removed the restrictor plate the day I brought it home. The SD455 motor upcharge was only about $600. The motor, lowest gears, and HD suspension = fun to drive!

Absolutely love this car. This is when manufacturers still had balls and not run by marketeers. Thanks for the car history lesson. We don't get all these intricate details in Europe, so a big thank you.

I'm in the UK. American muscle cars aren't exactly common over here, but from 1996 - 2005 I had a '76 T-top, 4 speed manual Trans Am. Originally it had a smog 455, but somewhere along the line it acquired a spicy '73 400 motor. I wish I still had it.

When I was 6 in 1974 my grandmother bought one, it was a hideous lime green, with a green interior(she actually ordered it that way). When I was 10 she gave it to my mother, who sold it 2 years later. I always hated the way it looked! I'd love to have that car now.

The F bodies might be little rough by today's standards but they were a lot of fun especially with manual transmissions, I loved my 79 Z28

Man, that dark blue '73 Formula with poverty caps is one of the coolest looking cars I've ever seen, and I'm not a Pontiac guy at all.

I love that green 73' at 0:55. A tractor motor was required. I'm a Ford guy, but I'd take Firebird over Camaro any day, especially the years you are talking about, 1973 + 1974.

I remember when new cars switched to unleaded fuel and catalytic converters. That was when our interests shifted to Japanese cars, because regulations killed American cars overnight. Be very careful when you say, "There oughta be a law". They're doing it again, by the way.

The real reason sales numbers dropped in '72 was the gas crisis and on top of that was the UAW strike in '72 which cut production of cars in the US that year. Shame that this was just skipped over in this video.

Rare Cars…. You are inaccurate in one area.. 290HP for 73 and 74 SD. This only applies to California built and sold vehicles. Mine has the 310HP, built in Norwood. Sold in Ohio. My cam/valves were confirmed. This has to do with emissions. Also my SD… stock internals, 1/4 IS 12.8 @113 at Kill-Kare dragway, (Ohio) on Goodyear NCT tires back in the day. What was done? Remove air plate, shut off EGR, slight distributor timing curve change, turbo 400 mild shift kit valving, slight rework of how the secondaries opened, remove/replace small portion of flattened exhaust piping. Once I found the factory (local installed) dry sump oil system, and installed, unofficial 1/4 time dropped by .5. The dry sump was worth est 40-60 wheel HP. Mine is automatic, no gear changes, loaded with all options. No lightweight. What is better than the straight line? The handling. The slight external uncorking of the motor, with the dry sump add 650 safe red line RPM.

Still my favorite TA body-style even in '23.

The only things that were close in '73 were the Boss 351, Buick 455 Stage 1, LS5 454 and the Mopar E86 440. By '74 there was even less competition in factory trim. It wasn't until the '78 EM1 360 Lil Red Express truck and the Pontiac W72 400 that performance began to pick up again. By 1980 and 1981 performance again hit an all time low with 305 Corvettes, 318s, Pontiac 301s, Olds 307s, the death of the Buick 350, weak knee'd blow through carburetted turbo Buick 3.8L V6s. Performance begain heating up again in 1985 with the 210hp 302 H/O Ford, 230hp L98 350 Corvette, Buick Grand Nationals.

I have a 73 SD-455 4-speed that l bought in 1996 for $5000 which at that time was a premium price but the car only had 48k miles and was a one owner garage kept car. At 70k miles l had the engine rebuilt with a more aggressive cam, higher compression pistons and head work. Nothing super radical but it still dynoed at 412 hp at the crank. That along with 373 rear gears transformed it from a quick car to a total beast. I've had to get some interior work done and have had it's dark green paint refurbished but it still wears about 60% of it's original paint. For having that huge heavy engine up front the car handles surprisingly well and is fun to hustle through twisty back roads. I have a collection of mostly older ltalian exotics which l love to drive but the old Pontiac gives up no performance to any of them.

Everyone is talking horsepower, but the torque numbers were crazy good on these SD 455 cars.... maybe 450 ft-lbs of torque. Torque is what separated American muscle from anything else! Also having an M22 rockcrusher trans and you were hard to beat.

According to one of the Performance Mags. at the time, IF you put High-Compression Pistons in that engine, it would put out about 500 hp! There would be NOTHING at the time that could touch it on the street, except High-End Exotics that aren't practical to drive on the street. As a Gearhead, I wished for one of these, so I could have "the Fastest Car on the Street"! 🥰🤠

The 290 hp motor still had the Pontiac HO cam. Still something like 218/220 duration with 410. Lift. Not terrible and they use this cam in the standard 350hp 400 GTO and Firebird motors. It’s actually the same cam used in the 1971 455 HO motor.

70-73 were the best looking Trans Ams.

The one that got away when I saw the thumbnail instantly took me back. Mine was the same color red 455 automatic, but it was the HO not DS and it was definitely a muscle car. I could only imagine trying to keep an SD in a straight line and anything with the shaker hood scoop. Well need I say more lol.

290 hp was severely underrated.

I had one. It was the most dangerous car you could imagine. If you floored it at 40mph it could spin off the road. I ran mine off the road alot. Just trying to pass a car could unleash a fury. It died when I let someone use it to go to the store and they spun off the road and rammed a bridge support. It cracked the block. That car could kill you . Mine was automatic and when it downshifted it went bazerk. The drone from the engine coming through the shaker hood when you floored it would vibrate the dash. It would have been safer with a manual trans. It was a widow maker. I'm lucky to be alive.

Damn, I wasn't gonna take my manual transmission supercharged V8 to work tomorrow but now I'ma gonna!

I had a '71 455 H.O. with the M22. It was a fun, fast, and, for it's time, a very well-balanced car. Beautiful, too.

The SD-455 was a near racing engine with a provision for dry sump oiling, forged rods, among special other features like Super Duty only exhaust manifolds. I believe the heads were developed by working with AiResearch, they flow like few other factory produced cars ever. It goes back to their not well publicized racing engine program in the late 60s, like chevy, ford,and mopar had, such as the Ram Air V, or the 303 that they didn't get ready in time before GM told their divisions they were getting out of the 5 liter & under trans am racing series. The block is very similar to a NASCAR 366 block they were working on as well. Pete McCarthy put out a book in about 1989 that goes into detail about Pontiac V8s, especially the ones that were high performance, even these racing program engines. From what I read years ago, GM really didn't want to let Pontiac put out this engine, the high performance era sort of ended in 1970 or 1972 depending on your criteria. But from what I understand, the tooling was ready, the blocks, heads, intakes, exhaust manifolds, rods, that were all unique to the Super Duty 455 had been in development for years, so the tooling was ready to crank them out. The 455 H.O. which had many of it's own unique parts was sunset in 1972. It reads like or sounds like the engineers or whomever, at Pontiac basically begged "please, please let us build this & get it out into the public, please,this would be so cool." That what I get from decades of collecting a lot of Pontiac literature. Story goes, you could drive it off the lot, just put slicks on, (no need to swap headers in), take it to the strip and run deep into the 13s at 104 mph

I have a fond place in my heart for the SD455. In '78 I beat one at a stoplight race on Metro parkway outside of Detroit with my L88 '68 Vette. I think the SD was a '73 that had some serious emissions stuff in it did not help. Back then, folks would remove the emissions stuff, reset the timing & pull the plugs out of the base of the carburetor to reset the fuel to air mixture for better performance. The oil companies were lowering the octane in premium gas & switching to unleaded didn't help. 106 racing fuel was crazy expensive also.

After mentioning the EPA in the video title I''m surprised there's no mention that Pontiac was heavily fined by the EPA for the 73 SD455 and had to change them in 74... Pontiac had installed a delay device in the EGR vacuum control system so it ran for only a minute or so and then was cut off .. just long enough to pass the tests at startup.

Don't forget about the big UAW strike in '72 that affected Firebird production, it wasn't because nobody wanted one...

Nothing prettier than the Brewster Green 73 SDs

Love that raked '70s Charger. Brings back memories.

I think the sales slump of 71-72 had to do with the UAW and them targeting the Norwood assembly plant. You can’t sell what you don’t build.

F bodies didn't have power like that for another 20 years from the lt1 and the early 2nd gen f bodies are things of beauty even 74 to 81 dealt with the bumper regulations with grace instead of the bridge girder I had on my 78 nova great video again

Thanks for the SD engine being made, GM also made extra rods. GM had to limit to customers the forged rods to 2 per customers, due to Factory workers stealing the rods.

I still have my Admiral Blue 1974 SD-455. I purchased used in 1974 for $4500 with just 1000 miles on it. Current milage is just 23K.

The UAW strike had a lot to do with the low numbers for 1972. Not a single car was built for 22 days. I think everybody's numbers were down for 1972.

My buddy worked in a Pontiac dealership at the time. If I remember he said that this was the first engine with a torque to yield bolts.

That SD 455 Firebird is a beautiful sleeper! 😍 Keep bringing these almost forgotten classics!

Sales were down in 1972 because GM was on strike

Ok, I will be 71 at the end of this year. I was quite in the mix when these cars were released. I worked at an Olds dealer at the time (1973). The EXXON fuel station next door had a woman attending that business at the time. She bought a brand new '73 SD in RED. I fell in love with that car right away. I had a brand new '73 Olds Omega custom ordered with the 350 and Q-Jet. Could not afford the auto, so I got bench seats and 3 speed manual. I really wanted a 442, but, at the time, the Olds 455 was only in the mid 200 hp. range. Ended up with a '68 442 only 7 years old, but needed a restoration and I got laughed at by everyone because it was during the GAS CRUNCH, but I KNEW the supercar era would be a mark in auto history down the road and proceeded onward. I had a great time with it for nearly 12 years.... Many cars later................... I am a long time FORD guy, and now have a MINT 1997 SHO that I have owned 25 years now. UNrestored and needs nothing (low miles). Love taking to the car shows and turning heads because there are very few left, being a true limited production. Many attendees, ESPECIALLY the young ones, never heard of a Taurus with a V8 ! I DO find it interesting, that my TINY 207 cid. V8 makes only about 55 hp. LESS that the honkin' SD's 455 ((O: will out handle the Firebird and also run over 140 mph (FACT!) with it's OEM Z rated tires! Amazing what the tech from now, 26 years ago was producing and meeting emissions at the same time! Nearest competition at the time was the Pontiac GTP, but Pontiac had to mount a BLOWER on the top of a larger 3.8 v6 to make 5 hp more then the SHO. It is all fascinating auto history when you have lived through the days of the muscle cars first hand. Thank you for this presentation. (O:

Although I'm a ford fan, I still like these old firebirds.its just a reminder of how it used to back in the early days of musclecars:OH yeah and by the way,I like anything the EPA hates, Long live the musclecars!!

Wasn’t the sales drop due to the strike in 72

Just swap the heads and cam and up the compression to about 10:1 and you'd be easily putting down over 400 hp to the wheels. In comparison, you can get a modern 454 LSX crate engine that makes over 600 hp out of the box. Ironically, nowadays these cars are so old that they are usually exempt from emissions, even in California.

I had a 73 SD-455. It had 10,000 miles on it in 1999 when a UPS truck T boned it.

EPA has done a great job….world is burning to the ground. The parts that are not flooded that is.

We couldn’t afford the insurance back in the day much less the car. I owned a worked 350 69 firebird convertible in the mid 1970s and couldn’t afford the awesome 455SD trans am. We dreamed of owning one. ;)

Do you know what $100,000 isn’t that much money when you compare it to a new dodge ram or Chevy truck 100 grand make it make

From 1975 to 1985 the only way you could get any power was to buy a super car or buy a limited production run car which usually had to be special ordered from participating dealers.

Pontiac was the first to develop a 3 valve. GM said...nope.

I knew this one because the 3 inch book i obsessively read on the history of cars. This was the last listed as the last muscle car

I Love the GTO front end, the '70 1/2 Firebird 400 had the same front end. I had a '79 black and gold TA with T tops, that didn't leak, for 6 years I loved it.

I bought a black and gold1976 455 trans am with a stock four speed in 1978.That was truly the last of its kind .l wished I would have held on to it,but I was an 18 year old kid ...and you know the rest of the story

The '72-'73 sales slump was due to inflation, the recession, and the OPEC gas crisis, but the EPA regs did make those cars less desirable. Yes, the domestic auto industry was under attack on all fronts. It did not help that this was also the time when Japan was beginning to ship their light, simple, well made, and economical 4 cylinder cars which completely under cut the six cylinder base models of domestic manufacturers.

Could you make a video on the Pontiac Mera? It was a factory re-bodied Fiero that looked eerily similar to a Ferrari 308. Ferrari ended up suing pontiac in a large legal battle. I could even put you in touch with the president of the Mera Owners Club.

Love the SD trans am now it's very suaght after today

best looking ta ever

At least the 75-76 still had a 455, so cam and headers and you were rocking again

My dad used to have a 73, but had to sell it. I really did ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long

Lot of potential in this engine too. A few mods into the 12's.

You left out the fact that the SD455 engine was supposed to be available in not only the F body but also the GTO, Grand Prix and the new for 73 Grand Am.

I loved the grilles on the older T/A’s. Looks bossy.

A buddy of mine had a 1974 SD TA, it was pretty badass.. Oh, and the horsepower was rated at least 100 HP below actual..

I’d ❤ one of those. Had a 78 400 ! But this one had no bs or apologies on fast ! My friends mom had one a 75 formula 350.

That speedo at the end 😆

My 1973 Pontiac station wagon with a 455 would run neck to neck with firebirds

Man, as always if I had the cash. Do a modern/retro build. Go back to “pre-emissions” setup, 6 or 8 speed and modern brakes. I can dream.

Another great episode. Thank you.

I have owned T/As most of my life. I had a 71 1/2 ( hexagon grill ) loved that car. This brings a lot of good memories back. Thank you.

Anybody know what Trans Ams had the Chryler A 833 4 Speed? That's what I've heard.

I got a '74 TA, with 455.for my 16th birthday in '86. What a beast it was

Had a friend back in the 80's that had a white 73 455 TA, it was a Brute! hey @dakotastimeout2827 have you seen this?

SD-455 last of the great ones!

what is a BULKHEAD on a engine

There were a few of them around Toronto. Saw them in the early 80's as daily drivers in town. In 1989 there was a white 4 Speed (!!!!) 73 SD455 Trans Am for sale in the Auto Trader weekly newspaper. He was asking $13,500......... mint condition never winter driven.

Hey man, great video! I love the f body. I own a 88 trans am GTA hatchback, and a 99 Trans Am Firehawk. Both are awesome cars. This second gen looks so unapologetically awesome. It knows what it's about and doesn't care what others think. Awesome car

I bought a new 1971 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 455 H.O. It had 335 horsepower. What are the differences between the HO and the SD? The SD had 310 horsepower..... I'm confused 🤔

If I just had 54cents for every time this dude says "super doodie" lol

The Firebird Trans Am from 1973 was a fantastic car. Definitely a better value than the Corvette.

Last stand of the classic muscle car. Who else could’ve delivered the end of the era than the group that started it all almost 10 years prior, Pontiac.

my favorite car of all time

Can you do a vid about the 73 chevelle the first car shown? That's my #1 on the wish list

Ha, theres Bill's car! The yellow one he sold. Funny that the thumbnail is showing right now as up next from two years ago! I guess you watch Curious Cars too hehe.

Such a amazing car ! 73-74 stuck to the EPA!!😁

8.4 to 1 compression, wow, its perfect for a couple of big turbos, I bet that 455 could pump out 800 whp with very little boost.

Damn shame what Ralph Nader and the EPA and regulators did. Big Brother dictating how vehicles are made. Emmissions gadgets can be disabled easy enough to get some of your horsepower back that they stole, aftermarket cam, headers, bigger carb, better gears... All that can be modified, but it costs money, and Big Brother makes sure regular guys like us don't often have that kinda money. The shock-mounted bumpers, yeah, they sucked, and they made the cars look like Mussolini sticking his chin out, can't do much there but delete it. You don't need that extra weight on the quartermile anyways. Cut that mofo off of there. Now for driving in traffic? Then you want a 58 Buick Roadmaster, or maybe a Sherman tank.

I'd stack the Buick Grand Nationals up against that statement .

Ill trade my 80 Z28 for the 73 formula trans am ❤❤

Wish car manufacturers weren’t so fricken complacent with arbitrary EPA Rules today.

In 1976 I test drove a 73 455 SD 4spd. I have been in love with them since. Wish I would have bought it. Couldn't justify the price then, can't afford them now.😢 Still my dream car.

Been reading some of the keyboard warriors below. Seeing how I’m an old fart whose good friend owned one for years I’ll add. Herb Adam’s had to fight GM management kicking and screaming to drag this engine into the car. GM had this rule:Thou shalt not be faster than Corvette. They kept changing parts from the original design to meet EPA regs, which themselves were changing. Add in labor issues and management pissing contests it’s no wonder what supposed to be a true big bore performance mill wound up being a torquey compromise. It’s the seventies. Hp fell off faster than cliff diving! Anything putting out 300 hp for 1974 was a rare sight. The 454 Vette wasn’t fast as compared to 4 years earlier. 250hp? If I remember right. This car was a threat to the GM rule. Remember 5.7 liter mills choking out 165 hp by the mid seventies. It was so bad that I know of a Scout SS2 with a free breathing 345 that beat a 76 350 Vette in the stop light Grand Prix! Trucks didn’t have catalytic converters yet so IH made free breathing dual pipes standard. No smog pumps in that engine either. Yes the SD is a Dino by today but that’s not a fair comparison. For the malaise era, it was memorable. That exhaust note has soul. We are so spoiled today by moms wagons having 300hp. But they sound like refrigerators.

My dad had a 1974 non-SD 455 TransAm for many years. He sold it when we moved to SC and expanded our family in 2001. The next year was the last Firebirds ever built and the price undoubtedly doubled. He says it would foul plugs, but it was indestructible.

Umm, (Sir/Ma’am) ☝️just 1 more thing 🤔. This was way after the SD455, but I drove my sister’s brand new 78’ Bandit to the prom. When I pulled up, got out, fixed my Afro and put the T-Tops on, I got a standing ovation, and was the talk of the school all the way up to Graduation. Imagine, a 17 year old kid driving a Bandit Trans Am to a prom..??🤔😊

I wonder how Greta gerberg John Kerry and Bill Gates all screaming about those cars now. Because that's when I was a kid. And I was a JDM fan but still learning about the muscle cars

The EPA "hates this car"?? You said nothing about the EPA ever having any issue with it. 👎 And if you asked 50 EPA employees, I seriously doubt even one would say he hates 1973-74 SD Trans Ams (and most wouldn't even know what they are). 👎 You ruined a decent video by giving it a completely bullshit title.

Oops, At 8:46. You Mispronounced It. It's Supposed To Be Pronounced De TOM i so! Accent On First Syllable! Now You've Been Schooled!

5:39 4500 RPM is the factory limit placed on grandmothers who were lucky enough to receive the liberty of experimenting with these brutes. Notice that 8000 RPM is the posted extreme limit of theoretic allowable abuse. AWESOME

old school here, You know it's a shame, Pontiac had built the head design on this, To be a world beater, and with some tweaking.......... P.S.... make damn sure you keep that windage tray.... we were making a little over 500hp,570ftlbs Factory cast iron exhaust, Factory intake.... You know, Didn't want to scare off any street races.

I know that voice!! That’s Mr.Angry himself!! Big Mike Musto!!!!