"The girl at the Taco Bell drive-through stares. And stares. The Rolls-Royce driver cranes his neck to get an eyeful as he goes by. A clique of green-eyed, well-to-do adolescents at the gas station huddle and whisper. among themselves, threatening to "go get Daddy’s Lam".

Ten minutes into your first ride aboard Pontiac’s high-flying 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am, you realize that you are experiencing a very special vehicle. Other people realize it too. Never has a test vehicle drawn a crowd the way this one does, and that is exactly the way Pontiac wanted it.

Being selected to pace the internationally renowned Indy 500 is an honor second to none. With the job go bragging rights and a hangar full of publicity. When the nod went to Pontiac for the 1989 Brick-yard classic, Pontiac seized the moment and created a vehicle that will be remembered long after the name of this year’s winner is forgotten; a vehicle that justifies their advertising slogan. "We Build Excitement!"

- To make the Trans Am go fast, the first thing Pontiac did was ditch the 5.7-liter V-8 in favor of the lighter-by-100-lbs. 3.8-liter turbocharged Buick Grand National V-6. Space confines dictated the use of Buick’s smaller 3800 V-6 heads. Port and valve size are unchanged but a smaller combustion chamber meant increased piston dish to retain the 8.1:1 compression ratio. Substantial upgrades were made in some key areas aimed at increasing both output and reliability. The capacity of the fuel delivery system was increased with a larger fuel pump and larger injection nozzles. High nodular main caps secure a cross-drilled crank. A project engineer told Musclecar Review that dyno testing was conducted with higher inter-cooler temperatures than would be encountered in the real world. What this translates to is that the advertised 250-horsepower figure is less than what the engine is actually making. Shades of the 1960s!

It is significant that the car Bobby Unser drove to pace Indy used a turbocharged V-6 identical to those installed in turbo T/As sold to the fortunate 1,500. That’s a compelling testament to the power level and top-speed capabilities possessed by this urban assault vehicle. But the most compelling evidence is the seat-of-the-pants sensation that accompanies a full-thrust afterburner upon takeoff.

To extract the maximum forward acceleration from Pontiac’s 250-horsepower engine, hold the brake pedal down as if you were stepping on the head of a wild beast. The GTA-based Trans Am has four-wheel disc brakes, but with the engine on-boost, they are working at 100 percent capacity to restrain the proud bird with the hard-to-catch tail. If you have applied too much throttle and broken the rear tires loose, you may now look in your rearview mirror and see a cumulonimbus cloud of Goodyear ZR50 tire smoke. On the other hand, if you have been sufficiently brutal in applying the brakes and throttle simultaneously, you are now sitting stationary in a vehicle making tremendous horsepower on boost levels up to 16.5 pounds. Stab the gas, release the brakes, and you will be a quarter-mile away in 13.5 seconds, give or take a tenth or two.

Launching in a more civilized fashion, the big bird is away quick and clean. The 231-cubic inch V-6 fuel injection gets you rolling, then the boost comes on early and hard. Immediately you’re at redline in first gear. Second gear hits and the turbo pulls hard. Very hard. Is this really a six-banger? Sure wish it had a ratcheting shifter. Third gear. The speedo rolls steadily clockwise. The long-legged T/A is really stroking now. At 120 mph there’s a lot more power on tap. The WS6 suspension has its hands full with what were minor dips and rises at normal speeds.

How fast will it go? How much nerve do you have? Our test car was a little on the well-worn side, having taken 8,000 miles of lead-footed abuse from other magazines. However in a separate test with a different car, our sister magazine, Corvette Fever, pitted an Anniversary Trans Am against a 245-horsepower Corvette on a closed course with surprising results (See sidebar).

Considering that the intercooler (the big one from the GNX) creates a rather lengthy distance between the turbo and in-take plenum, GM engineers have done an admirable job minimizing turbo lag. By manually controlling shift points, you can exceed redline, but there is no reward for doing so. By the time 5000 rpm rolls around, a noticeable drop-off in power makes you wish you had shifted 700 rpm earlier.

Open the Trans Am’s mammoth door and drop down into the low slung, adjust-it-anyway-you-like bucket seat (leather upholstery and T-tops are the only options available but they are decided by the zone office, not the buyer), and you’re ready to take off for the wild blue yonder in pursuit of bogeys. Pontiac’s equalizer-equipped, steering wheel-controlled stereo will belt out Matthew Ward’s Fade To White with watts to spare. A cluster of analog gauges are partially obscured by the thick, padded steering wheel, a minor annoyance.

While enjoying the gusto of the T/A’s horsepower, you can experiment with the Anniversary Trans Am’s surefooted chassis. At around-town speeds, the turbo T/A feels quick and competent - as if it enjoys the corners as much as its driver. A quick 12.7:1 steering box ratio is well suited to the F-body chassis, creating a lot of wheel movement from a minimum of steering wheel input. Howling through high-speed sweepers will bring out some understeer but the chassis does an admirable job of staying planted, and it telegraphs an early warning if pushed too far. Overall we gave the T/A high marks for handling.

This isn’t a car for the undisciplined. It takes the utmost in restraint to keep from constantly dipping into that ever-anxious surplus of horsepower under the hood. But at $31,223, it’s not likely that many turbo T/As will fall into unappreciative hands.

By the time you read this it’s a safe bet that all 1,500 Pace Car Trans Ams will already be gone. But fret not. Unlike Buick, which created a red hot market then walked away from it, Pontiac will be back with a similarly powered model for 1990. We won’t look for Pace Car graphics, but neither will we mourn their passing; the GTA is already a looker. And with the same fire-breathing V-6 under the hood, Pontiac’s Warbird Trans Am will return to do battle next year."