1987 GTAs and drum brakes

[TripleTransAm]

1987 GTA with 305 TPI/700-R4 here, with all the trimmings except for the rear discs... my car has drum rears from the factory without any spacers of any kind (I don't think they are aluminum). Everything authenticated with GM of Canada, so the car's legit.

I saw on the FAQ that in the 90s, 305 GTAs could be had with drum brakes. Well, here's one 1987 with drum brakes. Many heated discussions with car show judges over the years over this, it got to the point where I had to bring my GM documentation to prove my car was legit.

It's been about 6 years since I last hit Pontiac Historical Services for information. Has there been any significant increase in Mattison's details for the 1987 model year? I'm looking to narrow down my car's rarity based on factory equipment, and last we spoke (1999) there just wasn't enough info available for the 1987 model year to be able to break things down sufficiently.
(for example, how many black 1987 GTAs with 305 TPI/auto and drum rear with every option except auto-tilt mirror sold in Canada, etc.)

[budfreak1]

i've only seen one and it was a 87 with the 350, t-tops and aluminum rear drums it was sitting in a junk yard just going to waste but i checked on it and it was a real gta. i wonder how rare it was since you weren't supposed to have t-tops and a 350 in 87 plus drum brakes!

[TripleTransAm]

Originally Posted by budfreak1

i wonder how rare it was since you weren't supposed to have t-tops and a 350 in 87 plus drum brakes!

Geez. That one would take the cake as far as rarity due to weirdness. When I bought my car I was so enamoured by the car due to its shape (18000 miles, 6 years old, no one ever sat in the rear seats, original owner in his mid 40s looking to sell because of unforeseen change of career) that I looked beyond the 305 TPI/automatic combo and only began to worry about the car's authenticity about 25 minutes after I got the car into my garage.

I was just so happy to have a car in such a pristine shape that I easily got over the fact of not having the 350, but the drum brake thing had me worried, honestly. But within a month, mr. Frank Agueci of GM Canada sent me a package authenticating my car (this was 1993, before GM of Canada made any sort of money on this service). Oh well, no big deal... I've only run my car down the 1/4 mile 3 times during my ownership and in 100% stock form the car has pulled a 15.6@88 mph. Good enough for me.

That's why I'm interested in knowing if this drum brake thing can help narrow down the rarity of my particular car. Not for resale reasons, because I'll most likely ask to be buried in it when I die, this car has so defined my existence for the past 13 years. A young pup fresh out of school at the time, there was no way I could swing the $$ for this car back in 1993 but interest-free loans from my grandparents and parents made it a reality... this car will always represent "family" to me.



(don't mind the car's dirty appearance, I rarely have the opportunity to wash my cars before winter storage)

[LrdNexus]

My 87 gta also has drum brakes, and the donor wrecked 87 gta also had drum brakes. (much to my disgust I really wanted to put disk brakes on)

So theres 3 so far that have had them.

[TripleTransAm]

Wooho! So my car is one-of-three ( so far)



Okay, seriously though...
would you happen to have any photos of this setup? Curiously I have owned this car since 1993 and have NO photos of the rear end. This should change sometime this week or early next week, as I plan to swap the rear sway bar end links and rear shocks before a nice country "fall-colours" drive this coming weekend (as long as it doesn't rain, then it'll be the WS6 doing the drive). Lately I've gotten into the habit of photographing everything I do to my cars as much as humanly possible, for reference mostly but sometimes while sitting at my computer looking at the photos I'll spot something else and go "WTF is that? Uh oh...".

Any idea what the criteria was for drum brakes in 1987? Do you have the 305TPI/auto combination as well? My rear end is a 3.23:1 posi (so is the differential gear ratio in my GTA... ).

[LrdNexus]

The car was orginally a 305tpi/auto trany, it's a 5spd T-5 now and it also is the 3:23 gears in the rear.


the wrecked one was a 350tpi/auto, also with a 3:23 rear.


So very similar.

[sswain]

Make that one of four...
Mine is also a 1987 w/ 305/auto, 3.23 posi rear... rear drums.
I'd also like to figure out rarity for my car, but given there aren't many of them down here in Australia anyway, who cares?

Stu

[FrankieRider2]

Most times you will find it's the 305 cars that got the rear drums, but not always. The best chance you would have to find out the hows/whys of this would be to get a copy of the Dealer Technical Bulletins publication for your particular year and see if there was any kind of memo or other communincation between Pontiac and dealers and/or the factories about this particular setup. Any memo between PMD and dealers might have the reason for this particular combination listed on the memo.

Then again, it might not even be noted or listed at all....