It is pretty amazing to think back and see oil prices and insurance rates skyrocketing in the early 1970’s and yet, Pontiac provided enthusiasts with an optional engine in the Trans Am that could run the quarter mile in the 13’s. Guys like Herb Adams have to be admired for their grit and getting this legendary car to the market. This 1971 Pontiac Super Duty 455 Trans Am appears to have a fresh rotisserie restoration. It is located in Katy, Texas which is a suburb of Houston. The seller is asking $107,500 which seems like a good deal for its condition. The car has been listed for about a week here on Facebook Marketplace.
The camel interior looks pristine and the Trans Am is documented as a true Super Duty car by the Pontiac Historical Services (PHS). PHS can provide Pontiac owners with the build sheet and other information based on the cars VIN. This car is equipped with the deluxe interior which came with upgraded seats and door panels. The car is optioned with power windows, automatic transmission and air conditioning. The car rides on Rally II Pontiac wheels.
The Trans Am is said to be numbers matching including having the proper carburetor, heads and block. Pontiac designated the Super Duty 455 engine as UPC code LS2 and RPO code 35X. It was rated at 290 horsepower and 395 lb ft of torque from the factory, though some enthusiasts believe this rating might have been understated based on the RPM range used for reporting. The base engine for the Trans Am in 1974 was the L-78 400 cubic inch V8 engine. The L75 D Port 455 engine was the other optional engine but only came with an automatic transmission. This was also the last year before the introduction of the catalytic converter, which ended the era of true dual exhausts.
The exterior colors of the Trans Am were limited to Cameo White, Admiralty Blue and Buccaneer Red. This one is Admiralty Blue which is simply gorgeous with the camel interior. In 1974, Pontiac produced 73,729 Firebirds in total. Of these, 10,255 were Trans Ams—more than double the previous year’s count. Only 943 Trans Ams had the Super Duty engine in 1974, with 212 featuring 4-speed manuals and 731 equipped with automatic transmissions.
Beautiful BJ. Eye watering price tag too.
If you have money to burn 🔥 by all means
Literally a racing motor!!
Good grief. I guess someone will pay.
For reasons I cannot fathom, people pay more than this asking price for 220 hp 78 and 79 TAs. Gimme an SD 455 any day. This engine was very powerful. Got to drive a 73 SD 455 with a stick about 20 years. What a thrill.
I will admit that I don’t follow the TA market very closely because they almost all seem to be overpriced, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint in that respect. The 70 Ram Air IV and the ’71 SD 455 were real honest to goodness street sweepers. Once you get into the government regulated era, no one, including Pontiac was making a true high-performance automobile. If this one at least had a 4 speed it could produce some modicum of smile inducing performance. Now I’m sure that Pontiac lovers far and wide are going to rake me over the coals for such blasphemy, but I am a Chevrolet kind of fella through and through and I would say the same thing about Vettes and Z-28s.
Take a few minutes and look up on the net the full rap sheet for the SD455. This engine EARNS the Super Duty name and all the hype surrounding it. Even though it comes from the beginning of the smog era, this is the L88 of Pontiac world. It doesn’t have compression, but those engineers went all out for the last gasp and unbelievably made it happen in the environment of 73/74.
Look, I get it. You’re a Trans Am fan and and any perceived “bad mouthing” of one is unacceptable. I feel exactly the same way about Corvettes but the bottom line is that they were a mere shell of what they had been. That’s all I am saying. It wasn’t meant as an insult.
Your comments are not taken as an insult at all, on balance they are correct.
If you take an absolutely bone stock (zero mods – Including no fuel or timing changes from factory spec) with similar option loads and drivetrain specs a 70-71 TA vs 73-74 TA, earlier model is going to win the acceleration contest.
Which is kind of a shame, Engineers did an incredible job w/SD455 but had bullets coming from all directions: smog regs, horsepower robbing timing and fuel curves as well as Crude new untested components added to meet them.
Pig heavy platforms with the new bumper regulations.
SD455 TA in the hands of someone that knew the minimal but most effective modifications to drive around the strangling it’s the performance king of all carbureted TAs, but not stock vs stock………
On a completely different note I have often wondered: what if CHEVROLET
Had that team a performance engineers that Pontiac had(?) 73-74 Z28 – Corvette Would have been a whole different ballgame……..
The 73/74 Super Duty was the Holy Grail of TransAms with the most powerful motor ever installed. It was only made those 2 years.
According to Pontiac, the ’73/’74 SD 455 had 290 HP and the ’70 Ram Air 4 had 345 and the 71 455 had 355. If I’m wrong I will freely admit it, but that is what the literature from that era says.
Anyone who’s driven a Super Duty will tell u the 290hp rating was vastly underrated.
Many say the actual hp was closer to 400.
And, they changed the way they rate horsepower starting in ’71 or so. It went from gross HP to HP at the drive wheel(s).
Don’t believe everything you read. Numbers were not always quoted correctly for various reasons and it’s too bad not one publication has stepped up and correctly published the correct hp and torque numbers. Because the insurance premiums and government mandates inforce,a whole bunch of manufacturers fudged the numbers,so true figures were never disclosed. I wish the true numbers could finally be published. And to think muscle cars ran on bias-ply tires and look at the quarter mile times they ran? Amazing. What a great time in hotrod history.
It’s basically a brand new 74 Super Duty. It’s about a five hour drive from me so I could go look at it to make sure it is what it certainly appears to be.
Technically I can afford it and I’d love to have it. But…..that’s just too much of a financial sacrifice for me. I probably could have and should have bought one in the Fall of 1973 when I had the money back then. Now, it’s just too $$$.
Motorcityman: Maybe so, but ask anyone that has driven a Ram Air 4 or a ’71 455 and they will tell you the same thing. Look, this isn’t worth arguing over so I’m out.
I didn’t think we were arguing, I thought we were having a discussion.
I had a friend in California that had a Red SD455, I’m a little familiar with them.
Ya, with strangling emission standards beginning around ’71, skyrocketing insurance, and the ’73 oil embargo, our gov put the clampdown on most muscle cars.
But the folks at Pontiac seemed to miss this bulletin.
I owned a 76 Trans Am with the 400/Th350 trans.It was a true dual,non-catalytic converter and no filler neck baffle.This was the last year of true dual exhaust.Only the cars built in Van Nuys,CA had catalytic converters.
All firebirds for all US states 1975 model year & newer had GMs very restrictive WIDE “pancake” pellet filled converter & smaller unleaded gas filler. That’s why your t/a had a 350 trans. Or was your car built for export to Canada or overseas? The bigger turbo 400 auto trans fitted to big engine birds 1974 & older would not fit with the 1975 & newer cat in the way.
Actually, no firebird 1967-1974 had true dual exhaust. 2 pipes dumped into a single big sideways muffler parallel to the rear axle. Even for the sd-455 birds.
And to think I passed on a ’70 Sd 455 4 spd in ’88 cuz it had no title but I did get to drive it my buddy bought it. It was a screamer. 2000 bucks
Wow!!
Wow!! Nice but they didn’t make the SD455 in 1970. Only 73/74.
There were no 455 engines available in a Trans Am in ’70, the big dog was a Ram Air IV 400-inch motor. There was a 455 available in 1971 but it was a HO and not a Super Duty. The Super Duty was introduced in ’73 and ’74. Not nit picking, just clarifying.
I can’t believe Pontiac ripped off the Super Duty name from Ford! …no wait, that is what Ford did! GM always had the better names for their vehicles. What is a Ford Rapture anyway???
Raptor
Rupture!😁
Could have been a 72 it was in 1979 so it was a few memories back lol
I called my friend who bought it it was a ’73.
I called my friend who bought it it was a ’73. He flipped it
IMO, for max performance, it makes no sense to order ANY heavy options on a bird with this motor! – a/c, p/w, turbo 400 automatic or even the back then heavy radio!
Save these optons for birds with the cast rods station wagon motors.