The limited edition of 1500 cars serves dual duty as the commemorative and pace car models, so the Trans Am you know so well is modified, and with goals influenced as much by the sacred oval as by the street. So it should be of little surprise that we think the car is near perfect for its Memorial Day duties at the Brickyard, but in need of improvements for the street.
First, the good stuff.....
Stroke the accelerator pedal at highway speeds and you’re Han Solo, far, far away, launching the Millenium Falcon into hyper-space; you’re Chuck Yeager dropping out of a B-52’s belly and lighting the wick on the X-1; you’re Art Arfons, charging toward the start line in the Green Monster.
Pontiac claims 5.5 seconds for the run to 60 mph. With brutal brake-torquing to build boost at launch, it also eats a quarter-mile of pavement in 14.0 seconds, give or take a tenth or two, by which time it will be doing about 100 mph even. That tops Porsche 944 Turbos and Corvette L98s.
Yet, true to pace car necessities, the Trans Am delivers its real charge not from a standstill, but in between “rolling” and “steaming,” good for bringing the field up to speed between parade and pace laps, or passing an old Buick towing a Winnebago on your favorite two-lane. Drop the pedal al speed and it’s instant tunnel vision, building, as only turbo-surge can build, toward the car’s claimed 150 mph top speed without the axle hop, sidestep and nose-high pitch that marked the old Buick Grand National, the source of this engine.
The Trans Am is a better home for it, though, and if the road is relatively smooth and straight, banging into the boost delivers an "on-rails" feel that puts new meaning in the rocket sled cliche. The rush as the car shot from legal highway speeds to “you’re going to jail, son” reduced us to giggles once.
But, like certain other forms of juvenile behavior, the hard, keen edge of the thrill diminished with repetition. Like a fighter jock who’s just fired the afterburner in anger, we soon tripped into analytic slow-mo: There’s a job to be done, what tools are at our command? Thrust alone isn’t enough.
And neither is an aged, albeit hot-rodded, F-body platform. Not on the road.
At Indy? Yeah, buddy. At Indy you won’t pull to a stop in traffic and detect the lumpy idle, or hear the BIG BANG of unspent fuel, or even turn the wheel sharply enough to find the serious GRAUNCH as big front tires meet the limits of wheel wells and steering lock. At Indy, it won’t matter that this thing is huge outside (as wide as a Bonneville, as long as a Taurus wagon), but no roomier than an RX-7 inside; or that it squeaks, rattles and groans over every bump. Or that the doors are long and heavy enough to crush a CRX, or that the optional T-tops (standard at Indy) leak wind and water both.
No sir. At Indy you’d like knowing the V6 Turbo is lighter than the V8s that normally serve in T/As, so there’s a 50-50 front-rear balance (vs. 58-42 with the V8). That means a near-neutral attitude in high-speed corners, though tight turns still involve too much understeer.
At Indy pace car speeds, flooring the throttle in top gear will generate acceleration, rather than an agonizingly long wait while the four-speed automatic ooooooozes its way into kickdown mode to make revs, then turbo boost. Our sample suffered far more from trans-lag than from turbo-lag; shifting it ourselves, we found the power easier to modulate than in the all-or-nothing Grand National. Too bad there’s no five-speed gearbox of sufficient caliber in GM’s arsenal.
At Indy, you probably won’t notice that the toe of a size 10 Weejun scrapes against the top and side of the footwell. Or that minor surface ripples don’t make enough impact to move the stiff springs until you’re going very quickly, when you can finally sense the refinement of deflected-disc struts and gas shock absorbers. Some parts that do translate to the street are the grip of Z-rated Gatorbacks, and beefier four-wheel disc brakes (but no ABS).
Away from Indy, this Trans Am is a cartoon car, fitting into our world like Roger Rabbit. It looks like it’s interacting with reality, sometimes even convinces you it belongs, but you can’t help feeling something about it is a little odd. In this case, it’s the anachronism of high-flying ‘90s performance in a car conceptually grounded in the ‘60s. The Pontiac is still one of the sexiest shapes ever put on wheels, but its emphasis on dramatic styling is also why it’s too big and too heavy. Introduced three years after the current Mustang (the Ford in ‘79, the F-body in ‘82), the Trans Am is, by comparison, a caricature of a pony car.
The only way to top a GTA’s already loud looks is to shout, as only street racers can. And this car’s personality is that of a street racer, a cruiser, a Woodward Ave. dragster of the Old Detroit School. Sure, it corners better than its ancestors, but its size, live axle and rumbling nature make it most at home on boulevards or racetracks. And it looks the part; the cloisonne 20th Anniversary badging and the big pace car sticker (the use of which wise dealers will leave to the customers’ discretion) are the last licks to the already outrageous GTA looks.
We had hopes that this car would slip into a class with 944, RX-7 and 300ZX Turbos, but, performance numbers aside, it can’t be shoehorned in there. It’s too big, too gangly, too Old Detroit. As an indicator of how much better GM’s F-body could be if set free of the pendulous mass of cast-iron V8 pulling the center of gravity north of the driver’s feet, it’s an imprecise compass waving its pointer in the general direction of 1993, when less weight and better balance are expected. The antiquated traits of both chassis and engine so obscure the improved balance and power that 1993 is only a hazy image glimpsed peripherally while driving hard — it looks like someplace you’d like to go, but you can’t be sure.
For now, Pontiac is stuck with today’s F-body and the old, crude 3.8-liter V6, the latter soon to go out of production entirely. (Buick has improved the basic engine in normally aspirated form, giving it roller tappets and balance shafts, and renamed it 3800, but there’s no successor to the turbo). The T/A’s 3.8 Turbo is changed (new pistons, the heads from fwd versions) since its days in the GN, but the amendments are tweaks, not refinements. It has street-racer brute-force credentials, including 250 hp and 340 lb ft torque at 16.5 lb boost (a 25 hp and 15 lb ft gain on the 5.7-liter GTA).
But it’s essentially three-fourths of a 90-degree, pushrod V8. Turbocharged and graced with modern electronic fuel injection and ignition, it makes power, but not smoothly, quietly or efficiently. It’s impressive by the standards of ‘60s-style muscle cars, but if your tastes don’t tend toward nostalgia you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Trans Ams look like quintessential kid cars, but they’re so pricey to buy and insure that most sell to grown-up kids seek-ing a long-deferred juvenile fantasy. A 30 percent cheaper Trans Am GTA with the 5.7 sells to an average customer almost 36 years old who reports nearly $70,000 gross household income to the IRS.
With a near $30,000 price tag and limited production, the 20th Anniversary model will be hoarded by collectors or exploited by speculators, as was Buick’s GNX (ads offering T/A Turbos considerably above list price — as high as $42,500 — have been appearing in AW’s classifieds for several weeks). The few drivers who got in line early enough will probably play rocket sled on a Saturday jaunt to the golf course, come home wearing a sheepish grin, and let their kids help polish the wheels.
It’s unfortunate that the 20th Anniversary Trans Am does not, as Buick’s GNX did, represent the final evolution of its breed; had it been the last of the Mo-Townians, its rorty street-tough style would have more nostalgic appeal.
One of our drivers nailed it down, saying this car was both terribly splendid and splendidly terrible by turns. Here’s hoping that a modern chassis and engine let the 25th anniversary car of 1994 avoid the ambiguity and just be splendidly splendid."
GENERAL
Base Price:.......... $29,839
Wheelbase (in.):.......... 101
Length/Width (in.):.......... 191.6/72.4
Curb weight (lb.):.......... 3434
Powertrain:.......... Front mounted, 12-valve, turbocharged, intercooled, injected, 3.8-liter/231 cid V6, iron block and heads, 250 hp @ 4000 rpm, 340 lb-ft @ 2800 rpm, rear-wheel drive, four-speed automatic transmission
0 -60 (sec.):.......... 5.5
Top Speed (mph):.......... 150
Mph at 1000 rpm in top:..........30
Suspension:.......... Independent front struts, A-arms, coil springs, antiroll bar; rear live axle, two trailing arms, longitudinal traction arm, Panhard rod, coil springs, antiroll bar
Brakes:.......... Vented discs front/solid discs rear
Tires:.......... 245/50-ZR16
MPG/range:.......... 14.9 mpg x 15.5 gal = 231 miles
