Archive Road Test: 1989 Pontiac 20th Anniversary Trans Am

From the June 1989 issue of Car and Driver.

When the intercooled version of Buick’s turbocharged Regal T-type hit the streets in 1986, we suddenly found ourselves in the strange posi­tion of being captivated by an obso­lete mid-sized sedan. Old and crude, the potent T-type was nonetheless irresistible. Here was a car costing barely $15,000 that could run from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds. A later version, the GNX, was quicker still. Judging by the bidding frenzy that arose when the 500-unit run of GNXs went on sale, we weren’t the only ones seduced by the Buick’s old-fashioned big-horsepower performance.

Much as we enjoyed the Regals, however, we couldn’t help but won­der how the mighty Buick turbo V-6 would feel in a modern, sophisticat­ed car—a car with the taut handling and sleek aerodynamics to exploit the engine’s heroic output fully. Why not the Pontiac Trans Am? we wondered. Here was a car within the General Motors corporate umbrella that was not only considerably more contemporary than the Regal but that also needed some mechanical differentiation from its Chevrolet Camaro sibling. General Motors was apparently thinking the same thing, for now the Buick-turbo­-engined Trans Am is a reality.

To celebrate the twentieth anni­versary of its muscle car, Pontiac is producing a run of 1500 special Trans Ams powered by a modified version of the lusty Buick turbo 3.8-liter V-6. This limited-production 20th Anniversary TA has also been selected as the pace car for this year’s Indianapolis 500. Like the Corvette convertible that paced the 1986 race, the turbo TA pace car will be completely stock—except that it won’t have air conditioning and will wear special lighting equipment.

Of course, the hoopla surrounding this car would be hollow indeed if the 20th Anniversary Trans Am couldn’t outperform the old Regals. Rest assured that the turbo TA is equal to the accolades.

Our test car scorched the drag strip with a 0-to-60-mph blast of 4.6 seconds and a quarter-mile run of 13.4 seconds at 101 mph. That means, as we go to press, that the turbocharged Trans Am is the quickest 0-to-60 sprinter available in any U.S. production-car showroom—at any price.

Achieving such stunning times doesn’t require high-rpm clutch drops or other test-track trickery. Just pop the automatic transmission into drive, hold it with the brake while you raise the engine speed to 2100 rpm, release the brake, and floor the throttle. The turbo Trans Am instantly shoots forward like a runaway rocket sled. The roar from under the hood builds as the boost-gauge needle dances around the 16.5-psi mark. And the Turbo Hydramatic T200R4 four-speed automatic snaps off shifts crisply at just over 5000 rpm—without a nanosecond of lost thrust. The rush is so strong that the turbo Trans Am reaches 130 mph in just 30.2 seconds.

You’ll recall that Buick engineers calibrated the engine-control com­puters in the turbo Regals to douse the fires under the hood at 124 mph. The speed cutoff was necessary to keep the old Regals within their modest handling and braking limits.

No such precautions are needed with the turbo Trans Am. Thanks to its performance-oriented plat­form, the turbo TA can run without a speed limiter. Thus freed, the turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6 is able to push the Trans Am all the way up to 153 mph. At last: straight-line performance that delivers on the promise of both the Trans Am and the Buick V-6.

The engine providing the motivation for these fireworks is basically the same turbo V-6 used in Buick’s Regals. The most significant change is a new set of cylinder heads, borrowed from the trans­versely mounted version of the 3.8-liter six that GM uses in many of its front-­drive cars. Pontiac adopted the new heads because they fit more easily within the narrow confines of the Trans Am’s engine compartment. In addition, the new heads provide better exhaust flow and have a more efficient combustion-­chamber shape than their predecessors.

A new set of pistons match the cavities in the new heads to preserve the engine’s 8.0:1 compression ratio. The exhaust gases are collected from each cylinder head via short-runner equal-length headers and are fed to an AiResearch T3 turbocharger mounted in the front-right corner of the engine compartment. The turbo blows through an intercooler mounted just behind the radiator to pressurize a tuned intake system fitted with sequential fuel injection.

A knock sensor reduces the chance of engine meltdown by signaling the engine-management system to slow spark advance and reduce boost pressure whenever it senses uncontrolled com­bustion. (To minimize these power-re­ducing measures, Pontiac recommends premium fuel.)

Pontiac’s output claims for the V-6 are exceedingly modest: 250 horsepower at 4400 rpm and 340 pound-feet of torque at 2800 rpm. Judging by our performance fig­ures, we estimate that the engine pro­duces closer to 300 horsepower.

Bigger front brakes are the only other important mechanical change on the 20th Anniversary Trans Am. Beefy 11.9-inch-diameter rotors with twin-piston calipers replace the 10.5-inch rotors and single-piston calipers used on all other Firebirds. The big brakes provide the additional fade resistance needed to cope with the turbo’s penchant for high speed. Unfortunately, front-rear brake balance is poor. Our test car needed 217 feet to stop from 70 mph, largely because the rear discs locked up prematurely. Pedal feel was also disappointing.

The 20th Anniversary Trans Am shares its other underpinnings with GTA and Formula Firebirds. For the suspen­sion, that means struts in front, a precise­ly located live axle in the rear, and de­flected-disc gas-filled shocks and stiff coil springs at all four corners. A 36-mm anti-­roll bar is used up front; a 24-mm bar is fitted to the rear. Traction is provided by 245/50ZR-16 Goodyear Gatorbacks on 8.0-inch-wide aluminum wheels. The only nonstandard suspension parts are slightly softer front springs, which are suitable because the blown V-6 weighs about 100 pounds less than the V-8 en­gines normally fitted to Trans Ams.

The turbo TA’s suspension works su­perbly on smooth surfaces. The car steers precisely and adheres to the road with a vein-popping 0.88 g of grip. Best of all, the TA is wonderfully stable at the limit—although the engine’s surgy pow­er delivery can make fine adjustments difficult. There’s just enough understeer to instill confidence, but you can easily kick the tail out by flicking the wheel or stepping into the boost.

Unfortunately, the turbo Trans Am loses its manners when the road gets rough. There seems to be a mismatch be­tween the springs and the shock absorb­ers—a mismatch that keeps the Trans Am from ever settling down and feeling planted. Big bumps bottom the rear sus­pension easily—causing the car to bounce and lose traction when you’re cornering hard.

Small bumps can be almost as irritat­ing. Tar strips and misaligned pavement slabs pound through the suspension so brutally that you’d swear the tires were made of solid rubber. Fender clearance is also on the tight side; both the front and rear tires occasionally rub against the bodywork in normal driving. All in all, the old turbocharged Regals were infinitely more comfortable for relaxed cruising.

The nonabsorbent ride would be less bothersome if the anniversary Trans Am were tight and solid. But every bump summons another in a seemingly endless repertoire of creaks, groans, squeaks, and rattles. Admittedly, our test car was at a disadvantage—being equipped with the optional T-top removable roof pan­els—but even solid-roofed Firebirds suf­fer from this unbuttoned feeling.

All 20th Anniversary Trans Ams are being built in a special production facility (see “House of the Specialty,” below), where an additional quali­ty-control stage attempts to tighten up the car as much as possible. But there’s only so much that can be done with the Firebird’s basic structure.

House of the Specialty

Where anniversary Firebirds are made, not hatched.

The dream of building your own car, free from the bounds of corpo­rate conservatism and bureaucracy, is a common fantasy among automotive engineers. It was certainly a frequent topic of discussion when I was at Ford nine years ago. Many of my contem­poraries from those Ford days have since dispersed to other companies and other careers, but one has made impressive progress toward achieving the elusive dream.

Jeff Beitzel was 28 years old when he left Ford in 1983. He decided to trade his declining prospects within Ford’s shrinking engineering com­munity for a consulting career.

Beitzel hooked up with a small company that had begun to service Detroit’s increasing contract-engi­neering needs. Under intense foreign competition, the Big Three had discovered that they could often get things done faster and cheaper by hir­ing outside enterprises to do their en­gineering work.

New operations were springing up rapidly to take on this new business. Within a year of leaving Ford, Beitzel found himself in a position to buy a portion of the company he had joined. With the help of family and friends, he made the down payment on his dream.

The company Beitzel purchased was Prototype Automotive Services. When he took it over, it had seventeen em­ployees, a 20,000-square-foot building, and plenty of engine fabricating and testing equipment. Beitzel’s crew performed a variety of assignments—building a prototype of a cylinder head, modifying a truck engine to fit under the hood of a sports car, performing preliminary testing on a new twin-plug engine. Whatever the mission, Beitzel’s company handled it success­fully and quickly. The business grew.

Racing also helped enhance the company’s reputation. Beitzel suc­cessfully campaigned Pontiac Fire­birds in IMSA’s Firehawk Showroom Stock series, achieving six wins in ten races last year. That success made him both recognized and welcome at Pon­tiac headquarters. And it gave him a valuable edge when he began to angle for the contract to build the limited run of 20th Anniversary Trans Ams.

Beitzel successfully engineered the prototypes of the car, but because he lacked manufacturing experience he wisely took on a partner for the pro­duction job. His choice was Triad Ser­vices, a well-established Troy, Michi­gan, production company run by ex­-Chaparral racing engineer Mike Pocobello and Chuck Mountain, for­merly with Ford’s GT40 program.

Beitzel and Triad landed the Trans Am production contract and formed a joint-venture company called PAS, Inc., to build the cars.

Located in a leased, 40,000-square-­foot-facility in City of Industry, Cali­fornia, a mile and a half from Ponti­ac’s local distribution center, PAS assembles the anniversary TA’s turbocharged engines and then ships them to Van Nuys for installation on the regular Firebird assembly line. The nearly finished cars then return to PAS for final assembly, testing, and quality control.

Keeping the shop busy is a big con­cern. But Beitzel seems to have that well in hand: he’s in the running for three other limited-production projects to follow the Trans Am pro­gram. Now that Detroit’s automakers are beginning to realize the benefits of niche marketing, expect to see more of Beitzel’s handiwork in the future. —Csaba Csere

If you’re beginning to get the idea that the turbo Trans Am has more in com­mon with a 1965 GTO than with a mod­ern sports car, you’re right. The TA’s re­markable acceleration and amazing handling come more from brute muscle and huge, sticky tires than from finesse and refined technology. The 20th Anni­versary Trans Am is a muscle car from the traditional mold.

Inside, the turbo TA displays a mix­ture of modern and old. The basic com­bination of a big exterior and a small in­terior harks back to the inefficient days of yesteryear, while the instrument layout, the modern seats, and the excellent driv­ing position seem fully up-to-date.

Included as standard equipment is a set of futuristic-looking sport seats, which offer power lumbar and side-bol­ster adjustments—as well as manual con­trols for the thigh supports, headrest po­sitions, and front height. Equally contemporary are the radio controls in the steering-wheel hub, which work well without interfering with your hand posi­tions on the wheel.

All 20th Anniversary Trans Ams come in white with tan interiors. Further iden­tification is provided by “Turbo Trans Am” badges on both front fenders, Indianapolis logos on both rocker panels, cloisonné “20th Anniversary Trans Am” insignias on the nose and both C-pillars, a new filler panel between the taillights, and quad tailpipes. In addition, each car comes with a set of “Official Pace Car” decals that the owner can mount on the doors, if desired.

Clearly, the 20th Anniversary Trans Am is not for fans of delicate, high-wind­ing automotive works of art. This is a car for muscle-car mavens, pure and simple. And that’s not such a bad thing, because those old enough to have had firsthand experience with the muscle cars of yore are likely to be the only ones who have the $31,198 needed to acquire a 20th Anniversary TA. That’s about $9000 more than a comparably equipped Trans Am GTA with the 5.7-liter V-8.

Many of you may find that a ridiculous sum for what is essentially an engine op­tion and some added logos. And we tend to agree. But there seem to be plenty of buyers who are less concerned with re­finement or cost than they are with pave­ment-wrinkling performance. Buick had absolutely no trouble selling all the GNXs it could build—mostly because they delivered old-time horsepower as few modern cars can.

We’re willing to bet that Pontiac won’t be holding any muscle-car clearance sales, either.

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com