The 1982 to 1983 Trans Am

The Trans Am legacy all started when Pontiac introduced for the 1969 model year a limited edition Firebird called the Trans Am. The 1969 Trans Am only came in one color however its great looks and powerful Ram Air III and Ram Air IV 400 cid V8 engines made it and instant hit with muscle

car and pony car fans. What Pontiac did not realize is what was a limited production car in 1969 would soon become the performance king in the 1970s

and an instant cult classic. The 1970s saw the introduction of such things as the shaker hood, fender flares, the screaming bird hood decal, and front fender air extractors. All of which were all made famous by the Trans Am. The 1970s brought about economic slowdown in the U.S. economy, Presidents such

as Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, two major fuel crises, disco music, loud and wild looking clothing. The 1970s will never even come close to being America's

best decade, however it was a great decade for the Trans Am. By the end of the decade it was given that the Trans Am was America's only remaining true performance car. Ford made the Mustang a Pinto clone in the 1970s with its Mustang II and even Chevy had lost its course with its move to discontinue the Camaro Z28 for a few years. By the mid 1970s, not even the Corvette could be had with anything larger than a 350 cid. V8. If you wanted the

best handling and large displacement V8 muscle car, there was only one car that had these items by the mid to late 1970s and it was to the Trans Am. Pontiac,

after everyone had stopped putting large displacement engines in their performance cars was still stuffing as many 455 cid V8s and 400 cid V8s as the buying public would buy. And they found they could not meet the demand by the

late 1970s, since the L78 and W72 400 Trans Ams were flying off of the Pontiac dealer lots as fast as Pontiac could make them. The folks at Pontiac were happy with the formula until they received the news late in the 1978 production

year that GM was forcing them to cancel the production of the 400 cid V8. Pontiac after saving around 8,000 L78/W72 400 cid V8s for the 1979 Trans Am soon realized they were left with only their 301 cid V8 to work with for the 1980 model year. Now it was beginning to look as if the fate that most performance cars had

fallen to in the 1970s (with getting their performance wings clipped) was going to occur to the Trans Am in 1980. The 1980s were not looking very good for the

Trans Am. Pontiac's solution to the problem was to offer a turbo charged 301 V8 as an optional engine. On paper this engine had good horsepower and torque numbers but it fell short when compared to the L78/W72 400 cid V8 of the previous year. Still the 1980 to 1981 turbo 301 Trans Am was among the fastest cars available in the U.S. at the time. However the engineers at Pontiac were working hard on an all new Trans Am, one that would take the Trans Am through

the 1980s. It was to be a bold car one that had to bring back the high sales numbers that Pontiac had become used to in the 1970s and had slowed down

for 1980 and 1981. Just as the early 1980s brought a new President, Ronald Reagan, so too it was to unveil an all new Trans Am. The designers of the new third generation Trans Am wanted the car to be a modern version of the past Trans Am, so some of the styling cues had traditional Trans Am accents however the

designers wanted the car to also be a modern showpiece. They wanted it to embody the old muscle car attributes of rear wheel drive and V8 power yet they

wanted it to handle and look more like a exotic Ferrari. However there was a problem lurking for Pontiac, if losing the 455 after the '76 model year and

losing the 400 after the '79 model year were not enough, they were informed by GM early in the '81 model year that the 301 V8 was to be canceled. GM had

decided on a new corporate engine policy which did not have any Pontiac V8s in the plan. This was a major blow to the Pontiac folks who had it all figured out, they were going to put the turbo 301 in the top-of-the-line '82 Trans Am. With 200

to 210 horsepower on tap on an '82 Trans Am weighing in at 3,200 lbs

(around 700 lbs less than the '81 Trans Am), this turbo '82 Trans Am would have been a high 14 second /low 15 second 1/4 mile quarter mile car. Unfortunately it was just not meant to be. Pontiac was forced to use in the '82 Trans Am two Chevrolet built motors the LG4 4bbl 305 cid (145 horsepower) V8 and the optional LU5 Cross-Fire injected

305 cid (165 horsepower) V8. When the 301 cid turbo was given the axe by

GM, the folks at Pontiac had running prototypes of the 301 cid turbo '82 Trans Am with a turbo hood scoop just like the one on the '80 - '81 turbo Trans Am. Pontiac engineers liked the hood so much they kept it anyway and decided to make it fully functional on the '82 Trans Am equipped with the LU5 (Cross-Fire) 5.0 liter V8.

This was good news, Ram Air was back after being gone from the Trans Am lineup for 10 years. When the 1982 Trans Am was released to a curious buying public in January 1982, many raved about its beautifully sculpted state of the art body style which had a drag coefficient of .31 making it the most aerodynamic car in the world for 1982. The aerodynamic body style was so modern looking with its pop-up headlights and yet it was muscular looking like past Trans Ams. Many were also impressed with its performance and great handling. A 1982 Cross-Fire fuel injected (5.0 liter) V8 powered Trans Am (as tested by Motor Trend in January 1982) could run from 0-60 mph

in 8.8 seconds. This was not a record breaking number and pales in comparison to the performance of many 2nd generation Trans Ams. However most cars in 1982 took more than 10 seconds to accelerate from 0-60 mph making the ’82 Trans Am a quick car for its day. The Trans Am also had great

handling to compliment it performance. With its optional WS6 handling package the Trans Am could obtain .83 g on the skidpad test making it one of the best handling cars available in America. In other words a Trans Am could handle as well as the best of the exotic European super-cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Lotus. Trans Am sales immediately shot up like a rocket with the 1982 Trans Am to 52,960 which was almost double that of the previous model year. This is remarkable considering that the 1982 model year was short for the Trans Am due to its late introduction in January 1982 which gave it only gave it 8 months instead of the standard 12 months. Also many raved about the new Trans Am interior, its new lear jet cockpit inspired dashboard, and its modern European looking exterior styling. In the Fall of 1982, a new TV show called Knight Rider took America by storm. This popular TV show featured as its central character a car which just happened to be a modified 1982

Trans Am known as K.I.T.T. There were not many changes for the Trans Am for the 1983 model year with the exception of a new 4 speed automatic option (700R4) to replace the

aging 3 speed automatic and new seats. The interior stayed the same except for new seats which now had movable head rests. Unfortunately the leather seating

option which was optional on all '82 Trans Ams did not carry over to the '83 Trans Am lineup. Of course more horsepower could be found under the hood for both Trans Am engines in 1983. Cross-Fire fuel injection was the top-of-the-line engine again having 10 more horsepower than it did

in 1982 giving it a total of 175 SAE net horsepower and 250 lbs/ft torque and the base engine the LG4 was up to 150 SAE net horsepower. Both engines now

came standard with fully function Ram Air induction. The '82 and '83 Trans Ams were selected to Pace the Daytona 500 for their respective years. Pontiac decided to make a limited production of 2,500 Daytona Pace car edition Trans Ams for 1983. The 1983 white and black Daytona 500 pace car edition Trans Am which

had new aero panels on the outside and leather Recaro seats on the inside was a real hit with collectors and Trans Am fans, they were snapped up real quick. By July of 1983 Pontiac gave Trans Am buyers a surprise, with a new L69 5.0 4bbl H.O. V8 offering which produced 190 horsepower and 240 lbs/ft of torque and only came with a Borg and Warner T5 manual transmission. Less than 200 1983 Trans Ams got the L69 engine option. By 1984 the L69 had officially replaced the LU5 cross-fire V8 on the Trans Am, and in doing so it now came with a automatic transmission option to compliment the standard T5. After the 1983 model year the Trans Am continued to improve on the streak the 1982 Trans Am started. All through the rest of the 1980s and through the 1990s performance kept improving. Just as all good things must come to an end, Trans Am production will come to an end by September of 2002 when the 4th generation Trans Am production run ends. When this occurs 33 years of Trans Am history will have been written and it is a given that the 1982 - 1983 Trans Am will have a special place in that history.

Copyright ©2000
Legal Statement: This page is intended for education purposes only, no portion of the 1982 - 1983 Cross-Fire Trans Am Page is to be copied (this also includes pictures) without the express written consent of the author. And of course this page has no affiliation with the Pontiac Motor Division or GM (General Motors).