It was the swan song for the second-generation Pontiac Trans Am and while it was not in the same ballpark in terms of power, Pontiac made sure that the 1981 Pontiac Trans Am drew attention wherever it was driven. This example is a Y84 Special Edition Turbo Trans Am located in Bradenton, Florida. The car is listed for sale here on eBay with 4 days remaining in the auction. The ad has limited pictures and virtually no description of the car but the pictures he/she did include look pretty nice. The car is listed for a Buy It Now Price of $28,000.
The odometer on the car shows 39,000 miles. One of the unique features of the 1981 Special Edition Trans Am in 1981 was the two-tone brown and tan interior that was available. This car seems to be heavily loaded with power windows, cruise control, rear window defrost, power locks, air conditioning. T-Tops and tilt steering. While the seller claims that this is the same year and model as the one used in the Smokey and the Bandit II movie, it is not. The Smokey and the Bandit II movie used a 1980 Turbo Trans Am. It was similar but the graphics and interior were different.
The Y84 Special Edition package has an MSRP of $1,516 in 1981 and came in black exterior paint with special gold pinstriping, gold dash bezel, gold spoke steering wheel, and gold bezel around the shifter. This car probably had a list price over $11,500. The turbocharged engine on paper looked powerful since it was rated at 200 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque. However, the power was high on the RPM range and did not have the low-end torque like Pontiac enthusiasts were used to. The car ran a quarter-mile time between 16 and 17 seconds.
I have owned several of these cars and, while they are beautiful and have great handling, they are not fast in stock form. Joe Rinaldi of TTA Performance in Kenosha, Wisconsin sells speed parts and builds engines for these cars including fuel injection, larger turbos, water injection, cold air induction components, headers, and many internal engine improvements. The 1981 Trans Am was also the last year for a Pontiac V8 in a Pontiac Firebird. Production of the Firebird model dropped for the second straight year to 70,899 with about half of those cars being the top-of-the-line Trans Am.
I live in Bradenton and I believe I have seen this car around town…
What was different about the graphics between the 1980 and 1981 Trans Ams?
The only way I can tell a 80 from an 81 is to look at the gas cap door–the 81 has a molded in Firebird. I must say I would love to have this car.
Thanks. Out of curiosity I briefly looked at Phoenix Graphix who sells the decal and stripe kits for Trans Ams and I saw they have different kits for 1980 and 1981 Turbo Trans Ams so I compared them. The only difference appears to be in the colors. The 1980 decals and stripes come in 5 shades of Gold with Yellow highlights and the 1981 come in either Light Gold/Dark Gold/Clear (GoldV1) or Light Gold/Darker Gold/Clear (GoldV2). There’s a note on the 1981 product page that says “Gold V1 had a very short production term, lasting only until 9/14/80, and is considered rare.”
The main difference was the hood bird. The outlines of the 81 bird were thinner.
The firebird graphic on the hood is different. The “feathers” of the 1980 are colored differently and the 1981 “feathers” are all the same.
The gas door is the difference between 80 and 81 & the Turbo Trans Am in
Smoking and the Bandit ll
didn’t have a bird on the gas cap so it was at 80
Sam K, the 1980 hood bird looked the same as the 1979, with colored-in wings. The 1981 hood bird had “see through” wings wherein the car’s body color could be seen.
Thanks for all the replies. Now that you mention the see through wings of the 1981 hood bird, I see what you mean. I prefer the 1979 and 1980 hood bird because of it’s bigger size and brighter, multicolors compared to 1978 and earlier. Also it stands out more than 1981 which looks faded. Obviously the 1980 hood bird had the flame on the hood scoop which has the turbo lights.
On a related note, if I could make a Franken Trans Am, I’d take the 1978 nose and put it on a 1979. I think either 1979 6.6 liter engine from Pontiac or Oldsmobile are better than the 4.9 turbo.
If you are going to have an 81 (?) this would be the one.
1979 T/A 400 – 220 HP @ 4000 RPM, 320 lb-ft @ 2800 RPM
1981 301 Turbo – 200 HP @ 4000 RPM, 340 lb-ft @ 2000 RPM
The Turbo 301 had a higher torque peak at a lower RPM, so low RPM torque wasn’t the problem, at least not on paper. Perhaps the engine simply didn’t perform as well installed as it did on the dyno, or maybe Pontiac just flat out lied about the HP/Torque rating?
I’ll vote for lying. The manufacturers had a long history of doing so, when it came to horsepower ratings. Though they traditionally underrated engines, but not in this case. One look at published performance results should make it clear to anyone which engine was rated accurately.
Steve R
In no way, shape, or form was the 301 turbo making the same torque as the 1978-79 L78 400. The turbo 301 was not even breaking into the 16s in the quarter mile. The producers of Smokey and the Bandit II famously had to use nitrous to get their Turbo T/As to even spin the tires.
This being said, you can modify these for pretty good power so you’re not embarrassing yourself out there. There is a company called TTA Performance which sells parts for power. Your first step should be to mod this if you care about performance! Stock, it is probably comparable to a current Ford EcoSport.
I have had TTA Performance modify 3 of my turbo trans ams and we have dynoed them rear wheel about 300 hp when done and ran the quarter in 14.8. I highly recommend them!
The Turbo 301 was the only 301 engine to ever own. The motors were bad casting except the turbo block. Hard to get any power out of them .
That’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that all 301’s except the turb engines had “bad block castings”. The 301 was never meant to be a high performance engine. It was built to be a reliable economy engine, which it very much was. My oldest brother had several new Pontiacs with the 301 (including a beautiful ‘80 Firebird Formula) and he still talks about how reliable and economical those engines were. I had an ‘80 T/A non turbo 301, and while it wasn’t fast, it had beautiful styling, handled extremely well, moved the car around just fine and easily got 20mpg on the highway. Never had a problem with it, great car
Being a parts manager back then I was the one that had to get the short blocks in to replace the 301 blocks that just for whatever reason would start leaking the water and oil together . Mechanics said thin wall casting issues were to blame.We were not a big dealer but the amount of engines replaced those couple years was amazing.The turbo blocks never had that happen .I am sure you talk to any pontiac engine builder and he will tell you the engine was a bad design from the start.
Back when they were brand new cars, I have driven both. The W72 400/4 bbl. 4 speed & the 301 turbo. The torque and the “missing” 20 horsepower is a lot & very noticeable driving each. Perhaps the W72 was underrated and the turbo was overrated in their respective horsepower & torques numbers.
Oh goodness. Still have fond memories of a new ’81 Formula with similaroptions list. It was a Ruby Red with silver leather interior. Had too many cars and obligations at the time…
Nice car, I’d like to have this one. This brings back memories. I had a 1981 TA that was brown and gold, 4.9 turbo with t-tops.
Overpriced disco era turd.the 301 was an abysmal engine, had a 77 grand prix with that garbage under the hood, loved the car,hated that weak pathetic engine that spun a bearing at only 70k miles, rubbish engine!
Not a bad car, I have always liked any Trans Am. THe absolute fastest I have ever been in a street driven vehicle was in the back seat of a 69 Trans Am. Scared ? OMG .
The first year 1969 trans am was a muscle car,but these wheezy turbo ones are turds,as stated in previous post, the 301 Pontiac engine is rubbish.