So what’s a poor potential buyer to do? Pontiac has always prided itself on allowing buyers to tailor make their own cars on the assembly line via the option sheets, but this year may prove to be too much even for the most intrepid Firebird buyer. We even had trouble deciding which Firebird to road test for this issue, the first of the new 1987 model year.
Being a top-of-the-line magazine, we decided to go for Pontiac’s top-of-the-line – the Firebird Trans Am GTA.
This is clearly Pontiac’s pride and joy this year – and the price tag shows it. Ever think you’d see a Firebird that cost twenty grand? Step up and take a look. Right now, the GTA is an option on the Trans Am order blank. In a year or two, Pontiac may decide to carve the pie up in even slimmer slices and break out the GTA as a separate Firebird model, as with the Formula this year. When that happens, the GTA may even get its own non-fastback notchback coupe roofline to distinguish it from the rest of the Firebirds.
In our June ’86 issue, you may remember that we mentioned that we had heard about a run of a thousand ’86 Trans Ams with the L98 Corvette 350 engine installed. Pontiac wouldn’t talk about it, so we had Ed Bloom at Myrtle Motors Pontiac (address deleted) build us one for testing purposes. Why was Pontiac going to build a thousand Trans Ams with the Corvette engine….. which, by the way, they never did. It’s mostly sister division Chevrolet’s doing. The fact of the matter is, Chevrolet got tired (not to mention embarrassed) about the Mustang GT kicking the Camaro’s ass. The Mustang GT is easily a 14.50-second car out of the box in reasonable tune on any dragstrip in the country. The fastest Camaro, the IROC-Z with the 305 tuned port engine, could muster a high 15-second elapsed time on a cold day with a tailwind at a strip that’s slightly downhill.
It was embarrassing to General Motors management, to the various Chevrolet division heads over the past few years, and especially to Don Runkle, Chevy’s chief engineer. But a fact is a fact. The Mustang GT could blow away any Camaro being built.
The solution was either less weight or more horsepower. Since the Mustang GT weighs about 600 pounds less than a Camaro Z28, with about the same horsepower, Runkle saw little chance of catching the ‘Stang by cutting weight. Rather than take two or three years developing and certifying a higher horsepower version of the Camaro’s 305 V-8, Runkle merely took a shortcut and dropped in the 350 Tuned Port V-8 out of the Corvette. Rated 230 horsepower in the Corvette, and with gobs more torque that the 305, a 350 IROC-Z would be ready, willing, and able to do battle with any 302 Mustang GT at any stoplight in the world.
Enter Pontiac. It’s a sad but true fact that Pontiac doesn’t build its own V-8 engine – a fact we’ve decried many times on these pages. However, in this case, Pontiac was the beneficiary of GM’s short-sided management policy. See, what Chevy gets for the Camaro, Pontiac gets for the Firebird. So if GM management allows Chevrolet to build a 350-powered Camaro, then Pontiac gets to build a 350-powered Firebird.
And so, say hello to the Trans Am GTA.....
For the purpose of this test report, we actually drove three different GTAs. The first was a bright red car that we blasted around and up through the foothills and winding roads of lower New York State as part of a ride and drive pre-preview last spring. The second was a dark gray car that wasn’t running right, so it could be used for photography only at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, MI. The third was another bright red car that was running right, also at the Proving Grounds. It’s this last car that we used for our quantitative test results.
You get a pretty good idea of where Pontiac is coming from with the GTA by reading their press release material: “It’s up-level sports car styling and a unique blend of understated appearance, handling and performance is capable of competing with the best the world has to offer.” Obviously, Pontiac hopes to lure a few potential buyers who might be considering such cars as the Porsche 924 and 944, the Mazda RX-7, the Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Starion, and maybe even the more exotic makes like Lotus and Ferrari. The fact is, the Trans Am GTA can run rings around most of the cars we just mentioned. However, car buyers seldom make a selection based on numbers alone. So it remains to be seen whether the GTA can establish the elan needed to lure the yuppies who buy these cars. Buyers of these cars are buying image as much as the performance.
Pontiac has toned down the exterior of the GTA quite a bit, compared to last year’s Trans Am. The rear spoiler is now body color rather than flat black. In fact, the whole exterior is very monochromatic. All the decals are gone. In their place are just two gold-toned cloisonné emblems on the front fenders. The only other exterior identification for the GTA is a set of special gold-laced wheels that look like something out of a BBS catalog. Very European.
Where the GTA is really at, though, is under the hood. The L98 Corvette 350 cubic inch engine has been transplanted intact into the GTA’s engine compartment. Its 5.7 liters are rated 210 horsepower at 4000 rpm in the Trans am due to a slightly more restrictive exhaust system dictated by chassis differences. Torque is rated a 315 lb./ft. at 3200 rpm. The induction system consists of eight individual injectors, one at each port of the aluminum manifold. The ECM is controlled by time pulse at 44psi. The ram induction tubes are tuned more for low rpm response rather than top end horsepower, which is the way you’d want it in a street engine. Contrary to popular belief, you can order air conditioning on the 350 GTA. They’ve made room under the hood by relocating brackets so that everything fits.
If you want a GTA with the 350 engine, then you’ll have to take a 4-speed automatic overdrive transmission. It’s the only way it comes. Likewise, you’ll have to take a 3.27:1 rear axle ratio with limited-slip differential. There are no powertrain options.
Of course, no one said you needed any, at least to whip ass on any Mustang GT in the world. At the GM Proving Grounds, we knocked off 6.2 second 0-60 times all afternoon long. Our quarter mile times averaged 14.2 seconds at 94 mph. These times are slightly better than the times we got testing our cobbled up 350 Trans Am last spring. Pontiac engineers tell us they can be duplicated by just about anyone with just about any GTA. We believe them.
The thing about the GTA is that it’s so easy to drive that quickly. At the proving grounds on our makeshift dragstrip, we could run 14.40s in any number of ways. We could roll out or launch hard. We could shift manually at the redline, or let the automatic do it for us. It didn’t matter. There is so much torque available with this drivetrain combination that the car literally takes over and delivers a strong ET for you, time after time, run after run. In fact, this car is so consistent that it would make a great bracket racer.
One other thing. If you’re into having fun with your car via burnouts, this 350-powered GTA may indeed be the champion of all time. Lock the brakes and rev up. In a second, the 350’s torque overpowers the rear discs and the back wheels are spinning against the pavement, making smoke and raring to go. Pop off the brakes and bury the throttle. You’ll be laying rubber from here to Hoboken. Is doing this sort of thing childish and unsophisticated? Sure it is. Is it fun? You bet.
Like every Trans Am, especially those equipped with the optional WS6 performance suspension, all the Trans Ams we drove for this test handled fabulously. As the Pontiac literature says, with anything the world has to offer. This year, the WS6 package consists of 36mm and 24mm front and rear stabilizer bars, quick 12.7:1 power steering, stiffer specific spring rates, gas-charged shock absorbers, and 4-wheel disc brakes. You move the steering wheel, the car responds in the precise amount you dialed in. The car remains flat and stable no matter in what attitude you put the car. The brakes are massive and true. In short, the car becomes an extension of you, working with you, responding to your whim, almost anticipating your thoughts.
Driving a car like this is pure pleasure. You get into a rhythm with the car that is hard to describe on paper. You move. You make time. You work the traffic. You pass and move to the right. You accelerate to the next car. Pull out. Pass. Move to the right. Cleanly. Safely. With supreme confidence. In a rhythm. Pure pleasure. Yes, with the best the world has to offer. And then some.
The interior adds to the pleasure. All our test cars had the fully articulated bucket seats that are an option on lesser Firebirds but standard on the GTA. These seats feature pneumatic lumbar and back wing bolsters as well as mechanical thigh support and a 4-way manual seat adjuster. Power adjuster is available on all models. Even the headrest can be adjusted up, down, fore, aft.
Standard is custom cloth upholstery that we didn’t care for. Check into the cabin of any world-class car and you’ll find leather. Despite its drawbacks, leather is still the class choice in interior fabrics. The GTA should have a leather interior of Pontiac wants it to be a world-class car. The GTA’s dash is standard Trans Am, which means excellent. You’ll find the familiar orange backlit instrumentation including, hooray, a 140-mph speedometer. It’s about time the auto manufacturers got honest again about speedometers. On GTAs both the steering wheel and shift lever are covered in leather. So why not the seats themselves?
Seat fabric aside, if we had to drive from St. Louis to New York City in one blast, and then go street racing once we got there, the Trans Am GTA would be our car of choice."
