The Golden Era of the American Muscle Car was over by the mid-1970s. However it was the best of times for the Pontiac Trans Am. The 1976 Trans Am was the king of the performance cars back in 1976. Watch the video to find out why.
@William Schwartz Don't forget about the G8 gt. Baddest American 4 dr sedan of the 2000s. I love TAs and I own a 4th gen ws6 but sadly I got smoked by a G8. Speaking of re-branded Holdens, the GTOs from that era are badass too.
@William Schwartz I hear ya, brother. Especially on the cheap, plastic interior. Crappy in my TA as well, but that's the General Motors way, focus more on performance and handling and less on interior design. Whatever works, I suppose. I still love 'em.
My brother has a '76 with the 455. Bought it in '79 while he was still in High School. His first car and still driving it in the summer to more than just car shows.
That's awesome! He listened to ALL the older crowd that all wished they wouldn't have sold their classic cars. Every single one of them had one, or two, that got away. NOT your bro!...I can relate.
I had a black '76 with the 455 and the hood decal. It was kind of a dog performance-wise, but the handling was great for its day. Man, I loved that car! That was the car I had when I met my wife. Our first date was to see Smokey and the Bandit. It's a wonder that she went out with me after that. It must have been the car! 40 years later we're still together!
We have a 76 Firebird 400, 4SPD and a 77 S.E. T/A, Y82 with White interior, tilt, ps, pdl and rear disc brakes. Took 10 yrs but worth it. Thanks for keeping these cool 70's cars alive. Love ur vids.
My cousin had a ‘76 with the 455. I saw it on his wedding day in June 1976. He told me brusquely “don’t touch!” He had that car till just a few years ago, drove it a lot of miles. Not as fast as his 69 GTO, tho...
The Smokey and the Bandit movie sold a lot of Trans Ams. I was 17 in 1976. Almost everyone was buying 1960s to 1972 muscle cars used then adding modifications, instead of the same cash for a used car. I was driving a very used, rusty Impala with a smallblock 327 V8. I bought a 1972 Barracuda with a 318 smallblock in 1978, because it cost less than a similar Camaro. I sold it in 1980 to buy a motorcycle (Yamaha 650 parallel twin).
My previous wise-acre comments aside...I was blown away with the 1973 Trans Am when it came out. It was like some sexy alien spacecraft. Nothing could replace it. But as usual you put up a great argument and really make me appreciate the later models. Cheers 🍻. Don't forget to wash your hands for twenty seconds.
I bought one of these in '76. It was the best handling car I've ever had. One problem with the '76 was the undercarriage. You couldn't have true - to the back- dual exhaust.
I had a 76 trans am with a 455. No cars could come close to me off light. Only car that ever beat me was a 911 on open highway. It developed shudders around 140 mph. Pretty much king of hill when I owned it from 79 to 82.
I drove a White with Red bird and interior had a 455 4 speed Hurst Shifter My older brother got it Brand new from our Dad my brother got a 77 Grad Prix and my Dad drove the Trans Am till I got my DL and then it became mine what a Awesome Fun car
A friend of mine received a 1976 Trans Am for a high school graduation gift from his grandmother. He babied it. I bet he wishes he had held onto it all these years.
Is it weird that I prefer the pre-plastic urethane bumper firebirds? It's in my opinion similar to the Lambo countach, yes they look cooler and have those typical late seventies to late eighties macho appearances, but without the plastics they look cleaner and dare I say more elegant.
@@amarilloaristocrat8435 Only season one was Esprit's, after that Garner wanted faster cars to film chase scenes with so Pontiac supplied them with Formula Firebirds that the production company modified to look like Esprit's by changing hoods, removing the rear spoilers and painted them like the first season cars which was actually a custom color that the production company used from day one, they named it Sierra Mist or something like that, if you look only season one cars have the Esprit badges on them, the only exception to that is a few episodes in later seasons had some season one footage edited into them for chase scenes, ie the car flying around a corner or something. After Pontiac went to the new style front bumper Garner didn't like the look and didn't take anymore new cars from Pontiac so they had to keep fixing up cars from the last season that they got new cars from and even tracked down some of the cars from former seasons and bought them back off the the owners they'd sold them to, that's why some season one footage was edited into the last few seasons, the cars were getting pretty beat up mechanically and they were having a hard time keeping them on the road.
By 1975 the Trans Am was a sheep in wolves clothing. The 400 engine was rated at 185 horsepower. The introduction of s large catalytic converter pretty much killed off power. The '76 Trans Am was a carry over from the previous year, the only difference being different front and rear bumpers. The best year performance wise for the Trans Ams were 1969 thru 1974. The 455 Super Duties were only available from 1973-74.
1975 and1976 were my favorite years for the Trans Am. I never liked the 1977 front end, and definitely did not like the add on T tops that ruined the lines of the car and weakened the structure. They also leaked.
my dad had a bodyshop in those years and he made a fortune by 'birdirising' all those firebird that were born without it...in those years those stickers were crazy priced
Just for the record.. the Dodge Monaco 440 Police Pursuit and the Ford LTD 460 Police Interceptors were the fastest AMERICAN MADE cars for those years til 1979! with 1/4 mile times of 15 seconds and top speeds of 130+ MPH!!!!
@@melrose9252 not sure what you dont understand about it.. The 440 Monaco Police top speed was 132 MPH and the Ford Ltd 460 Interceptor was 140 mph.. versus 128 for the W72!! its not rocket science bud... the W72 was only like 30 horsepower more than the TA and that car was only capable of 120 mph I believe and a 16 sec 1/4 mile time!
I owned two 1976 455 -4 speed Trans Ams in the early to mid 1980s - a completely stock Firethorn Red one, and a slightly modified Goldenrod Yellow one. The stock one was fun to drive - the 455 had a lot of torque - but those car really responded to getting a real dual exhaust (that and a set of headers was worth about 40 hp alone) opening up the shaker scoop, and installing a Pontiac HO camshaft, even with the low compression. They had performance-oriented rear axle ratios (a 3.23) in the very stout GM 10-bolt rear ends, and the Borg-Warner Super T-10 was a strong transmission. One of the things that made them attractive was that even though the engines were less powerful because of primitive emission controls, the rest of the car was still built to handle it. Trans Ams always handled much better than their Camaro counterparts, and with the suspension upgrades that you could get from Herb Adams VSE (ever heard of a Fire Am?) a properly prepared 2nd-gen F-Body can pull .9 g.
Really enjoy your videos. But I have a question - it seems every time you mention T/A's you never seem to mention that they are Firebird T/A's. Why is that?
If this was the king in 76, it just goes to show how pathetic Detroit was, and what the government did to ruin performance and styling. It was a God awful period, (and only got worse), and the people of today who find these cars "exciting", have no clue what they missed out on in the previous generation.
That 400 was a beast. Good transmission. Great power. Too bad those door bottoms rusted completely through. The northeast winters also rusted out the radiator supports. They made so much noise when they got loose and you ran over pot holes.
Yeah, pontie was always the tulip in GM's garden of cheap weeds (GTO, Firebird, Can Am, Fiero, Solstice... need I say any more?). Such a shame they're gone now 😔
My mom had a 76 Trans Am with the 400 and auto, in Silver, red interior and that big old bird on the hood. She was the coolest. Then I came around and she got a Sunbird...
Does she hate you? Lol! Your mom sounds like a pretty cool lady. When I was a kid in the 70s, my cool aunt bought a brand new 77 T-bird. No, it wasn't the fastest car in the world but, she'd pick me up off the farm about 1 Sunday every month in the summer and drive my cousin and I to the beach in that T-bird. It was candy apple red with a white Landau top and white interior. Every time I see her and/or my cousin, we all reminisce about the fun we had back then. Aunt Suzzie is still cool to this day and she'll turn 78 in a few months!
@@MikeBrown-ii3pt Hah no, no hate... most people just get a car with four doors and an accessible back seat when you have kids, and child seats, I guess. I swear I'll never get rid of my future 87 Trans Am due to kids!
I remember these cars. I was a kid in school in 1976 and always thought the Firebirds were cool. Also, Jim Rockford always drove a Firebird so theres that :-)
Is it just me... or is it just nostalgic how i miss muscle cars of old. I would purchase these compared to todays mostly trash. Dont even get me started on manual transmissions 😊😁😎
Rick my uncle Dave had two in ‘76, a white one with the blue border outside of the decals and the yellow one with black, orange and red trim. He was a firefighter back then so not sure how he could afford both with the 455. Maybe he was selling coke at the station.
Yeah buts that stupid. In a way the emissions controls were a blessing in disguise because it forced American auto manufacturers to get off their lazy asses and innovate. We had to improve engine efficiency in order to comply with emissions regs and it led to modern fuel injection systems that we know today that are far more powerful and far more efficient than anything a carbureted. Now look at us, we have the most amazing sports and muscle cars in the world. Just goes to show, sometimes a road block like that can lead to something even more amazing later down the line
@ LincolnTek...& also due to the higher insurance premiums that all of the insurance companies started chargin' for the sporty muscle cars once they finally caught on/figured it out...that was a pretty big factor in the demise of the powerful muscle car era back then.
@@elitewarrior0076 I'm only 47, and I know plenty of guys who lived the glory musclecar days. But alot of them agree that what's coming out of the factories now is downright amazing. There really wasn't such a thing as the common man walking into a dealer and driving out in a 600-700hp brand new car with a warranty back then. Muscle has never been easier to get , walk-in and plunk down a check for a 700hp car.
I remember cruising down the road listening to Framton Comes Alive on the 8 track player turned up all the way, drinking a cold beer with the T tops off. Man those were the days!
Awesome! I still have my 76 Trans Am I’ve had it 23 now. She’s made it thru 3 divorces I’ll never get rid of her! Black with red interior and gold honeycombs.
These cars were DOGS! The most powerful engine was a 200 HP 455 (in a 3,800 pound car). CAR AND DRIVER tested one in their April 1976 feature, "Civil Disobedience." It ran the quarter mile in 15.6 seconds @ 90.3 MPH and topped out at a wheezy 117.6 MPH. The L82 350 Corvette tested in the same issue was both quicker and faster than the Trans Am, with the 360 Dodge Dart being only a tad slower than the Trans Am in terms of acceleration, but ultimately proving 4 MPH faster in top speed! That's a sad statement, given the Trans Am's substantial advantage in engine displacement (455 vs. 350 and 360 cubic inches)!!
The 78 “TA6.6 had 20 more advertised HP than the 76 455. In 76, this Trans Am was among the fastest cars made. You can’t compare it’s numbers to today.
Its interesting to see the US history around the early to mid 70s where things were bad on the V8 front. In contrast, Australia from 1971-78 had its peek in V8 performance. This was due to the rise in popularity in touring car racing that saw the two big names, Ford and Holden (GM) go head to head on the race track at Bathurst and as such, our Ford XY GTHO Phase III with a 351 Cleveland saw an output over over 350 HP. The XA GTHO Phase IV in 1972 was to be the grand achievement. Same V8 at an output of a top speed of around 160 Mph. It never went into production. But the GT was the closest we got. Till the GT was discontinued in 1976 the the XB being the last of it.
We had the demise of the musclecar hp in the 70s , yes , but like you guys our big 18 wheelers were in a massive hp war of their own. K series Cummins with 600hp, wow that was king of the hill back then
smokey and the bandit, rocky 2, and the rockford files sold tons of those things. That, and it was really the last real muscle car you could buy brand spanking new.
paaa pa pa pa PA PA PA PAAAAA paaa pa pa pa PA PA PA PAAAAA pa pa pa tadi tadi dudaaaa, CHUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN CHUUUNNNNNNNNN DA TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, TA DA DA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ahhh my child hood lol
My sister's beau had a brand spanking new red on red '76 Pontiac Trans Am with a 455-CI, that he personally tweaked. I didn't know much about drag racing, just enough to ask my sisters boyfriend what she ran in the quarter mile, it was "in the low 12's", according to him. During regular school hours I was just another average slob who sucked at math, but, when my sisters beau came to pick me up in his rumbling '76 Trans Am, I was the coolest kid in school lol!
I had one that looked like the one @ 7:51, white w/blue striping & black interior. It had the 400 w/automatic. It was a pretty good runner, compared to other cars of the era (Camaro, Mustang, etc.). The only thing I would've changed would be having a set of those honeycomb wheels on it. Good times...
What was very good move on PMD was the cylinder head interchangeably between the tall deck engine blocks... Pick your compression ratio on back to 1965 head bolts right up until GM head office(Chevy) told Pontiac to stop production on the 400cid in 1979... Some TA's got the Oldsmobile engine 403 better than putting a Chevy.. Chevy engines are good engine but the pull is not the same as a Pontiac engine.
I owned a '76 T/A in that bright orange color, it had a 400 backed by the excellent Turbo-Hydramatic trans. It was a great car to take on road trips with its highway-geared rear end it would run all day at 80 mph without breaking a sweat.
Oh yes I agree ☝️ my 4 speed that came with it had a great 4th gear for highway driving! That gave me good gas mileage at the time. Sure miss those days.
I love these old cars! I love the fact that back in those days, they all made their own unique motors, Pontiac, Chevy, Olds, Buick and Caddy. I currently own a 1969 Pontiac Firebird 400 with a Muncie four on the floor in excellent condition (midnight green/black interior). Lord willing, I’ll have this car until I draw my last breath!
All the divisions are meaningless. It's all GM, whether it was Pontiac, Oldsmobile, or Saturn. The names are gone, but a 2020 Pontiac Firebird, for example, would be pretty much be a slightly modified Comaro anyway.
@@Nostradamus_Order33 They all use the same platform/chassis, so how is one going to stand miles above another ? It's still gonna handle about the same overall and have the same feel no matter what model you drive.
My dad worked at the GM plant in Van Nuys making these. We had quite the collection of Firebird Appliques that made their way into My dads garage from the factory
Wilshire Girl - yeah, it seems like lots of stuff seemed to fall off the truck. I’m ashamed to say that we had an endless supply of 12 v bulbs, tire stems and camaro/trans am/firebird badges. I would stick them all over my school 3 ring binders. :)
There was a plant that made a particular aluminum rim for a sports car. Some would toss the rims over the fence into a drainage ditch and pick them up after work. That had to be quite the toss to get it over an 8' fence. But that was back when such items were reasonable and considered a commodity. Today original rims would be priceless.
Fun fact: The Trans Am SE's color scheme of black with gold accents was inspired by Team Lotus's "John Player Special" Formula One cars. GM styling head Bill Mitchell was a big fan of that livery.
Ummmm I think everyone is forgetting about a movie that was released in 1977 that made everyone want to buy this car. I will give you a free adha boy if you can name that movie
Pontiac gave the movie production three Trans AMs to film Smokey and the Bandit. That was the best move that Pontiac ever did because sale went through the rough, everyone wanted that car after that movie came out.
@@tinfoilpope6678 For sure.. I was 14 when it came out and am and still a Mustang fan, but I always wanted a 77 TransAm after watching that move.. Do this day too. :) Oh, I'd take that 76 455 too!
The charger was a Cordoba the doggone Mustang was a pinto Rockford Files was a big hit nobody realize though the Firebird Esprit was really a formula put back into a Esprit trim
Good catch.Rockford drove an Esprit in 74 and after that all Converted Formula's.They needed the bigger engines and better suspensions for the stunts that Jim Garner and Roy Clark had in mind for Rockford.
@@Porsche996driver No, E Meyer's right. It was much easier to take a Formula and change the trim than to add mechanical upgrades to an Esprit. Think about it.
They never put the Esprit badges on the Formulas that were modified to look like the Esprit's, only in 74 when they were actually Esprit's did they have the badges, in later seasons if a car is seen with the Esprit badges that's because stick footage from the first season was edited in for certain shots. The reason they went to the Formulas was because the Esprit's didn't have enough "pop" to perform some of the stunts they wanted for the show and it would have been illegal for them to hop up Esprit's being that the show was filmed in California. Starsky and Hutch had a similar problem, they wanted more acceleration out of their car but couldn't modify the engine so they put a super low gear ratio in one of the cars to get hard acceleration out of it, there's a few interior shots of that particular car where you can see a small warning sign in the dash that says "Do not exceed 50 MPH", that's because it would have over revved the engine.
My greatest automotive regret, and there have been a few, was selling my '76 Formula 400 with the Super T10 transmission, and Saf-T-Trac differential. that car was simply awesome.
I wonder how the relative handful of '76 4-4-2s built with the 455 Rocket, also in its final year, would have stacked up against the '76 T/A? That'd make for an interesting '70s-themed shootout.
Another great piece of car history. The comparison with the 76 Corvette was spot on. If I remember correctly, Pontiac downplayed the actual HP of its 455 in the smog era and played a little dirty in the emission field. 200HP is not a lot to move a 3700 pound piece of iron. I always dreamed of a Pontiac TA and a (earlier) Corvette back in the day. Thanks for the video.
The last great Trans Am coupes were the 1973 to 1974 with the 455 "Super Duty" V8. Unleaded fuel with lower compression ratio engines in 1975 and 1976 hurt performance, but the 1976 Trans Am still did well for a car of that era. With some tweaking, it would likley smoke a Corvette with its smaller 350 L82 V8.
1Va Dude While the 455 SD was probably the finest factory built V8 ever put in a production car there's a little known fact about them, only about the first 30 cars made perform the way everyone thinks they do, the rest weren't 13.5 ET cars, they were actually low to mid 14 second cars, the reason for that is only the first 30 made had the intended cam in them, the EPA came down on them immediately after they caught on to what they were doing and the vast majority of the 455 SD cars had more mild cams that would pass EPA standards. The only reason Pontiac got away with what they did at all is because Pontiac told them it was the existing 455 engine when really it wasn't, the SD engines had many changes to everything including the blocks, heads and enough that they actually should have been considered a new engine which meant that they never would have passed emissions with even the milder cam since they wouldn't have fallen under a category of the kinds of engines that were "grandfathered in", had they been classified as a new engine they never would have met the stricter standards for a new engine.
@@1VaDude Yes I know, I've been around a long time and have driven more than 1 of them being a mechanic from way back and having worked on them, all I'm saying is only the first 30 cars made are actually the 13.5 ET cars, the other over 1,000 aren't, that's something Pontiac was tight lipped about and never really went around blabbing about it, all the magazine's got some of the first 30 cars for test cars to write articles about, those were the cars provided to them, the vast majority that were actually sold to customers were the slightly de-tuned ones.
@@dukecraig2402 -- Look at how many people still bought the much slower 1977 to 1979 Trans Am and still thought they were "fast" - even with the 403 Oldsmobile V8 that only had about 185 hp. But the screaming chicken decals & ground effects kits made them look cooler. The "Smokey & The Bandit" movies certainly did not hurt sales, either. I bet that even the "weaker" 455 SD would still make a 400, 403 or 350 seem like a boat anchor in comparison.
6:12-6:17 Just look at those body moldings' fit! Made with pride in the U.S. of A. by union workers making triple what other blue-collar workers in the manufacturing sector got.
Good looking Firebird, the urethane bumpers help disguise the 5 mph bumpers, but god were they slow, especially with an automatic. Drove a couple new ones back in the day and it would take a lot of work to bring the performance back. A 4 cyl Camry is almost 3 seconds quicker from 0-60. From 1974 to 1983 there were no muscle cars, just lots of stickers and plastic spoilers.
Everybody was going to small blocks but Pontiac never surrendered. Got to love them. The Trans Am always had the cool factor, nothing looked liked them.
This car was awesome!! My neighbor was a stock car mechanic back then. I bought mine from his wife lol It was a black with white interior, hurst 4 speed manual with the big daddy 455 under the hood! She had it from 76-81 then I had it from 81-86. Her husband tuned it up a little then put on a 200hp nitrous bottle in the trunk that looked like a fire extinguisher lol. It had 2 speedometers on it because the factory one only went up to 100mph lol This monster easily did over 180mph on the track lol. The motor had 850hp without the bottle! Flip the switch and 💥 pow you were instantly over 1000hp ! Had a Holley 850 double pumper carb on it. At the track he use to switch it out for 2/1000 Holley carbs on a custom tunnel ram. This way you could switch the carbs from 1 to 2 for street/strip. You could put 4 beer cans in the top of it for show lol, those were some huge Hollies. Sure miss those days of low gas prices and very few police giving you a hard time, unless you were known for doing stupid stuff lol
