PY Online Forums - Bringing the Pontiac Hobby Together - Long read, about my 70 TA and how it came to be

This is my review and history about my 1970 Pontiac Trans Am.

I am the second owner of a 1970 Trans Am. I fell in love with this car in the summer of 1975 when street racing was hot and everyone did it. At the time I was driving a 1967 Ford Mustang GT, the car was my first, it was a fastback, 4 speed and had the engine replaced with a 302 with a hot cam, and a few bolt on parts like headers, intake manifold, carburetor, exhaust, and also had 4.10 or 4.11 gearing, it was a long time ago and I don’t remember, I also had a Shelby GT 500 style hood on the car, car was black with chrome centerlines. I use to go to the races a lot with my friends, we didn’t think we owned the streets, but myself and my buddy (boss 302) pretty much one a lot of the races.

I remember the night I raced the Trans Am. Someone walked up to my car and started looking at it, and asked what I have done to it, I told him and he wanted to race for $20. He said he had a stock car, all he said was 400 and 4 speed, and the year, 1970. I took the offer, upon hearing this my friend with the Boss said that it was a stupid bet, he said that we had no idea what car he had, but I thought I would take him up on the offer instead.
We drove to the race area with a bunch of cars and lined up, and a white Trans Am pulled up right next to me, and the starter got out of another car and started the race. When the flashlight flashed we went for it, we where dead even tell about 30 and then he started to pull on me a little, when I went into 2nd gear I was catching him a little, but the second he went into 3rd gear he was gone, he started to pull on me, showing me no mercy.

After the race, I confronted him about this car of his, I had thought he used nitrous or was lying about what he did to the car, he popped the hood and I could not believe it, he had a factory carburetor, factory intake, and exhaust manifolds, and no nitrous. He took my cash and asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in it. So I jumped into the strangers car with him and went down the street. The first thing that I noticed was the interior, it was beautiful, looked like an Exotic sports car’s interior, and then he floored it, and my second impression was wow. I was at a lost for words at how hard this car pulled, it spun the tires and wanted to get sideways in 2nd gear, the car and tremendous amounts of torque, and a lot of gear. He drove me back to my car and I was a believer in the Pontiac Trans Am

When I got into the Mustang to drive off, I could not help but to feel I was in an inferior and under powered car all of a sudden, I knew I had to do something, I needed a car like his. A few weeks later, I looked around in the magazines and newspapers, and could not find any for sale. A few months later, I was driving down the road and saw one parked at a used car lot and pulled in. It was the same car the guy at the races had! Literally, because I recognized the plates, and asked for a test drive, and I witnessed first hand the power of this car. I sat down with the salesman and we worked out a deal, he took my fastback in trade for this Trans Am, he was a Mustang fan and wanted the car for his personal collection. I drove the Trans Am home a few hours after the test drive.

After I got home, I jumped on the phone with my friend Larry who owned the Boss 302 and told him that I was coming over, with a surprise. When I showed up at his house he was in shock, he asked me where the GT was, and I told him “it’s history”, after he looked at the car I took him around the block, and he was almost a believer, he was impressed about the power, but asked me about the handling, so we went out into the rural part of town and tested it out, we where both shocked! I had no idea that at the time, this car was capable of out handling Corvettes and Mustangs, even the Z28. I found this out when I spoke to the guy at the dealership, he even showed me old paper work that confirmed this. I drove the car for about 3 months without taking it to the street races, then all of a sudden one evening I heard a car pull into my driveway, I walked out and it was a Trans Am! It was a 74, the shaker out of the hood said SD-455. Larry sold his Boss 302 and got a Trans Am.

We went for a cruise that night, my 70 and his 74. We both went thorough a set of tires each that night, burning out at every light, racing every second we got, doing figure eights in parking lots, you name it we did it. During the races, we pretty much broke even in each race, sometimes I would be ahead and sometimes he would be ahead, and it wasn’t by much for both of us. We decided to go back to the street races that night in our new cars with a few other friends. David had a 68 Chevy Camaro, with a “hot” 396 and a 3 speed auto, and Alex had a 71 Camaro with a 350 in it, that was pretty well built. We took turns and each raced them, and we won each time we lined up to them. It took a while of us talking to them, about 2 months, but they sold there cars. Alex picked up a 73 Trans Am 455, 3 speed auto, David got a 71 Firebird 350, and Mike picked up a 70 Formula, we all had Firebirds and Trans Am’s.

We started a car club (Pistons and *****es) and started going on cruises and racing each other a lot, but what shocked us all is that Mike’s 400 4 speed seemed to be the fastest car, wasn’t a surprise seeing as how it was a few hundred pounds lighter and had the same engine as mine. Sadly he crashed the car one evening, we where racing and he started to pull on me, he had about 3 cars in on me during the race, then a tire popped on his car, he over steering and ended up going sideways in front of me and hitting the guard rail. He had a broken wrist, and banged up head, that was all. He sold the wrecked car and moved on, he stopped racing and devoted more time to his kids and wife, we never saw much of him after that, it changed him.

While everyone else was busy with there cars, racing them around town, I took the liberty of getting a few parts for the car. I went out and got a Holley carburetor, hooker headers with exhaust kit, and air cleaner. I also ordered a pair of cheaters that I would pick up 3 days later. I waited tell the tires came before I did anything to the car, finally they came in and I went to a friends house and we worked on the car half the day, getting the timing just right, changing the oil, hooking up the exhaust and carburetor. I meet up with the guys the next evening outside of town, they knew right away that something was up with my car. They looked at the car and then we decided to go heads up, I raced the SD455 first, and it was humiliating to say the least, I ended up killing him like when I had my mustang and the Trans Am killed me, I had him by multiple cars. Soon after we where having dinner and we decided to go to the drag strip the following weekend.

Mike with the Camaro sat this race out, it was just Larry and myself. He went first, he has been to the track before so I watched him go first to get an idea. He ran a 13.80 on his first pass. It was soon my turn, and off the line I spun the tires very bad, 2nd gear was just as bad. You need to know what your doing when you race a car like this at a strip. I ended up running a 14 second flat. I felt a little bad, because I knew that when my car was stock I was beating Larry, so I should at least be running as fast as him. On the second run it was the same, no traction, spun the tires, and missed a shift, ran a 14.21.The third run was the same story, I pulled off a 14.11. The fourth run is when I found the secret for launching the car at the track, I pulled off a 13.60 with wheel spin in first gear! And on my 5th and final run, I was able to run a 13.40, it felt really good.

I didn’t modify the car for the next few years, just drove it like I always did, then gas started to become an issue and I ended up putting in the garage, only to take it out every once in a great while to race and cruise. My daily driver was a slant 6 65 Dart 2 door.
The car stayed in the garage like this for many years, then it was as I forgot about the car. Larry still drove his SD455, and David ended up selling his 71 350 Firebird. I honestly forgot about the car, I let it get neglected in the garage when I picked up my “fancy” new Mercedes.

I didn’t get to my Trans Am until 1996. By then neglect had taken it’s toll on the car, it looked just like it did when I picked it up, so I started a restoration project. Oh, and Larry with the SD 455, he decided to keep it and show it off, he turned the car into a low mile show car. I went to work on the Trans Am after work in the summer of 96. I removed the engine and transmission, filled up the tires and had it taken to a paint and body shop to have the body taken off the frame and completely repainted and detailed. I got the body back in 2 months, the car looked newer then new, it never looked so good in it’s life time.
The engine was taken apart, I did all the engine work with Larry who knows a thing or two about building engines as well. We put in a new rotating assembly in the newly painted block, the rotating assembly was to stock specs, we installed the new camshaft, also to stock specs, and added powder coated headers, and new 3 inch exhaust with an H pipe, installed an Edelbrock intake manifold which we sanded the part number off and painted it to match the block, and rebuilt the rest, the heads also received minor work (mild porting and polish job as well as installation of new intake and exhaust valves.

The transmission was rebuilt, clutch was also replaced with a better one, the differential was also rebuilt, the limited slip came out and a Detroit locker found it’s way into the car with 4.10 gearing. The suspension was all redone, new brakes, everything under the car, and also had the Rally II wheels restored, they had a lot of rust and one looked to be chipped. The car was finished a year later. I showed the car at shows for the next 5 years. But it didn’t go back to the track tell 2004.

Back on the track it reminded me of the old days, and everything came back to me. With new cheaters installed, the car ran a 13.20 on the first pass, pretty impressive for a pretty much stock 400. As the day went on the car ran a best ET of 12.60. It was insanely fast now, and didn’t take long before people started to notice it.

That’s pretty much the story of my Trans Am. Larry still has his SD455, we plan on making it to the Trans Am nationals in 2007.

Also, I wonder if someone here could clear up a few things? Why do all the road tests for the Trans Am show it running a 13.9 in the 70 issue of Hot Rod when I ran a 13.40? I have seen other tests that show it going as slow as a 14 second ET. I know I’m not the only one out there that got into the mid 13’s with a stock Trans Am, remember I had exhaust, cheaters, and a carburetor, but I have seen some numbers matching cars down to factory exhaust run as fast as 13.60. So why is it that these cars never got the reputation that it truly deserved?

Am I alone when I say magazine such as GM High Performance, and Hot Rod, as well as some TV shows on speed should feature these cars and re-test them? So that the public can finally see the real times that this car was capable of. Same goes to the Formula, I ran a 13.40 but he seemed to pull on me a little, how fast where those cars?

Thanks for your time, look forward to your answers and questions.