10k Miles: 1989 Pontiac Firebird 20th Anniversary Trans Am

Anyone who watched the 2026 running of the Indianapolis 500 was treated to a barnburner, with some last lap heroics vaulting Felix Rosenquist to the win by the closest margin in race history, just .0233 seconds over David Malukas. Back in 1989, the race was decided by a lap 198 altercation between Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr., sending Unser into the wall and Fittipaldi into Victory Lane. The gap from first to second? Two laps. The two were so far ahead of the rest of the pack that Unser was still scored second at the end of the race, two laps down. The pace car for that event was a 1989 20th Anniversary Trans Am much like this one, for sale with 10,876 miles on the odometer here on eBay in Ocoee, Florida. The high bid is currently 35,100, but the reserve has not yet been met.

In 1989, the Indianapolis classic earned a very special pace car, a 20th Anniversary Trans Am. Pontiac sold 1,555 pace car replicas that year, all powered by Buick’s turbocharged 3.8-liter engine, which powered the defunct but still revered Buick Grand National and GNX. The engine itself was certainly underrated; even though it used a slightly freer-breathing pair of cylinder heads for Trans Am duty, the factory horsepower rating was 250, the factory torque rating 340. There is no drama to the Firebird’s ferocity: bring the revs up against the brake and hit the gas. Doing so, Car and Driver recorded a staggering zero-to-sixty run of just 4.6 seconds, and a quarter-mile time of 13.4 seconds at 101 miles per hour. That was elite in 1989, and it’s not too shabby today. It was all done within a 5000 rpm range, as well: Peak power was produced at only 4400 rpm, and shifts took place at 5000. Anyone lining up against the Trans Am wouldn’t even hear the car that dusted them.

Here’s the obligatory odometer shot. Looks pretty good to me.

Although the 1980s wasn’t the most tasteful decade, at least it was exciting. Pontiac interiors featured all the buttons and seat bolstering you’d want in your new car, and the Firebird might have been the most theatrical of all Pontiacs. I was 12-years-old in 1989, and I still remember my aunt and uncle showing up in a new bright-red Firebird Formula. I was completely envious of my cousins.

This particular Trans Am presents itself like a gently used car; even the leather is in very good condition after all these years.

The undercarriage isn’t show-car new, but it’s obvious that the Trans Am was never driven in snow or salt, and the seller has posted a number of pictures of the car up on a lift.

At least in my neck of the Midwestern woods in 1989, any V8-powered Firebird was cool, but a Turbo Trans Am would have been even cooler, if we ever saw one. I don’t remember anyone driving one around my mid-sized community, but they certainly would have had some fun baiting unsuspecting 5.0-liter Mustangs. Indy magic, indeed.