We all wish we had a crystal ball to predict which cars will explode in value in the coming years. If the past gives us any clues, the fastest cars for each given model year always seem to be a good investment. Who wouldn’t want to have a garage full of sixties muscle cars with high horsepower engines under the hood? For cars built in the seventies and eighties, this becomes a bit more difficult. Fast became a relative term. However, things were looking up by the late eighties, and cars like this 1987 Pontiac Trans Am GTA were capable of putting down some credible acceleration and top speed numbers for the time. For sale on craigslist in Greenville, Tennessee, this good looking Trans Am needs some work. For an asking price of $2,700, is this GTA a good investment?
The 1982 redesign for the Firebird and Trans Am was Earth shaking. The car was lighter, more aerodynamic, and quite futuristic for the time. While the early cars were still slow by today’s standards, each model year brought more refinement and more speed. In 1987, Pontiac came out with a GTA model of the Trans Am. The big change was the inclusion of a 350 cubic inch small block V-8 rather than the usual 305 engine. Many thought that this was the engine out of the Corvette, and they would be half right. The block was the same, but the Pontiac had iron heads rather than the Corvette’s aluminum ones. Still, the iron heads were well designed, helping the engine put out 215 horsepower. Tuned port fuel injection rounded out the package under the hood.
Backing up the 350 was GMs excellent 700R-4 automatic transmission and a Borg Warner rear axle with a 3.27 gear ratio. The suspension was upgraded to teeth rattling WS6 specs, and the body was enhanced with special ground effects to theoretically enhance aerodynamics. Inside, special door panels, seats with inflatable lumbar and side bolsters, and a special GTA horn button let you know you were driving something other than a run of the mill Trans Am. With the gold BBS wheels, the GTA ended up being one of the best looking cars of the eighties with performance to match.
This particular GTA has had something of a rough life. The 41,505 miles on the odometer is likely not the true mileage. The seller tells us that the car needs some speedometer cable work. It also needs a new dash pad, a thorough cleaning, and some other cosmetics. However, we are told that the transmission has been rebuilt and that the car runs and drives fine with no squeaks and rattles. It is also sporting a new set of tires. If you haven’t bought a set of tires lately, then let me tell you that is a big financial plus given the cost of this car.
All and all, this looks like a real bargain. It would be nice to have some more pictures and information. Electrical gremlins are a problem for some of these cars, and working on the engine in that cramped compartment is best left for a spider monkey into contortionism. Still, the price makes it worthwhile to call or go have a look. This one, after all the cosmetics are addressed, might be money in the bank.
Shockingly sweet GTA given its habitat. No offense intended toward its current owners but flat ground & garages are scarce in the Smokies. Vintage cars & trucks that ran-when-parked slowly become one with the mud fairly fast.
Extra points for being a hardtop, decent looking interior, new tires & big engine. And they look great in white, though i prefer the dark red metallic.
For the money, if it runs decent & isn’t hiding any damage on the non-pictured panels, buyer can’t go wrong at $2500-ish. Buy a set of center caps off eBay, give it a thorough cleaning & enjoy!
I’m a Mustang guy to the bone, but I’ve always thought the late 80’s Firebird/Trans Am were good looking cars. From ‘67-69, they definitely had it going on, but after ‘69, only the Bandit T/A really does it for me for nearly twenty years. For my $3500, that would be a fun ride.
Here’s my crystal ball prediction of cars to stash for the future. Cars will be running all electric driveteains in the near future so an obvious choice will be a Tesla Roadster for the high dollar crowd and the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt for the rest of us. That big old honkin’ electric truck that’s been on here a few times would be worth stashing and that wooden slat car from a few days ago also will be heald in high regard. Both Ford and Harley Davidson will have all electric vehicles on the road soon, wrap ’em in cosmolene for the grandkids.
Electric Smelectric. They will have to have a recording of a honkin’ V8 with duals playing through the subwoofers before anyone will buy them.
nice fantasy,till everyone realizes how much crap dead electric cars leave behind that’s toxic death and weighs 5000 pounds with dead lithium batteries.they really arent as great as people think,crappy range,not enough charging stations,charge too slow,ugly cars,heavy as a tank and the common man can not fix them.
Nice car, good price but the last, real Trans Ams were built in 1979. A friend of mine had a car similar to this one being offered, and while it ran very well, the lack of Pontiac torque was quite noticeable. The ’79 Trans Ams and Formulas, fitted with the stockpiled 400’s from 1978 delivered actual horsepower figures closer to 260hp rather than the advertised 220hp. My stock W72, WS6 ’79 Trans Am ran a 14.93ET quarter mile albeit I ordered the car without A/C and the only other options I checked were 4-wheel disc brakes and rear window defroster and radio delete.
However, the car for sale here is something to consider in that it definitely would make a great, drivable piece of nostalgia!
Good that you did not order troublesome power windows.
& power is probably more now if the highly restrictive cat converter was removed or replaced with newer less restrictive one(s).
Opening the hood scoop would be worth some more power.
I remember, tho, a road test of a ’76 455 t/a where they said the shifter was balky & could not get consistent times with it.
Not sure if the 4 speed only ’79 pont 400 cars had a better shifter, tho no doubt that could be cured with hurst linkage.
Interesting also i remember reading a road test of an older t/a with rear drums that, oddly, stopped shorter than a 4 wheel disc brake vette.
I am not sure if the ’79 t/a’s optional rear discs are the same as the vette’s.
By far the sharpest looking T/A of the ’80s was the GTA, in my opinion. The spoiler and skirting isn’t overdone and those mesh rims really give it a classy look. I’d put money into a GTA over a T/A or IROC, in terms of future worth.
I have to call bs on no squeaks or rattles.
These cars rattled and squeaked when they were they were parked.
Is the back seat really big enough…?
I still have my ’87 GTA that I bought in the early ’90s. To me, the car was fast (350 TPI, Auto) and handled like it was on rails. You point the front end where you wanted to go and that’s where it went. I took some younger friends for rides after they would tell me about going for a ride in their friends ricer and it was quick. I told them you don’t know what quick was and take for an exhilarating ride thru some turns at a generous speed (though still not as fast and fun as the ’60s muscle cars, but handles better). Their response: “Holy Sh*t!…Holy Sh*t!”… and smiling when they got out of the car. I can tell you that this car at $2700 would be a lot of fun, even as a daily driver. The GTA was produced 3 years. ’87 being the first year. I prefer the basic steering wheel of the ’87 vs. the additional buttons for the radio, etc…of the ’88 and ’89. I wouldn’t condier this for a first car for a 16 yr old to start driving as it is pretty hard to hold back on the throttle smashing.
these were more money then the Mustang GTs.
Many varietes from the base model, formula, trans am, and the king of the hill the gta with the 350. While the manual transmission 305 Formula with optional 3.forty something rear end was the quickest the GTA was the best. Priced very close to corvette pricing. My first car was a 84 transam and these GTA were new on the streets- always loved them and swear one day Ill get one.
Had sometime early 2000s a flame red metallic hardtop 89 Formula 350 with WS6. Fun car and nice driving car, especially when I changed to Koni shocks. I was first thinking of buying a fox-body but they were so…bland..boring..Styling like bloated up Escorts. Always liked the styling of these 87-92 Firebirds.
Stock ws6 disc brake 9bolt Borg Warner rear end, made in Australia, had a hard time surviving behind 305TPI+manual and 350TPI+Th700. And harder to get parts than gm 10 and 12 bolts.And parking brakes on those were crappy, if needed at yearly inspections…