This 1979 Pontiac Trans Am is for sale here on Craigslist in Smithfield, Kentucky near Louisville. The seller is asking $18,500 and the car has been posted for about a week. The original engine is long gone and in its place sits a Pontiac 455 cubic inch V8 engine out of a 1970 Pontiac GTO. The seller has done some work to the car and just rebuilt the automatic transmission. The mileage on the car is listed at 85k by the seller. We appreciate Tony Primo for sending us this listing.
The car is painted in Code 11 Cameo white with a deluxe black interior. The front seats have cloth seat covers but the rear seats look original. The deluxe interior on the Pontiac Firebird came with upgraded seats and door panels. This car has a few options including power windows, power locks, air conditioning, T-tops and tilt steering. The dash looks like it is not cracked and the car seems to be in pretty good shape. The seller includes some up close pictures of the undercarriage which appears to have been repainted.
The standard engine in the 1979 Pontiac Trans Am was the Oldsmobile L80 403 cubic inch V8 engine. The optional engines were the Pontiac 301 cubic inch V8 engine and the Pontiac 400 cubic inch V8 engine. Since this car came with an automatic transmission, it was either equipped from the factory with the Oldsmobile 403 cubic inch V8 engine or the Pontiac 301 cubic inch V8 engine. The Pontiac 400 cubic inch V8 engine was only available with a 4 speed manual transmission in 1979. The 1970 Pontiac 455 engine that came in the GTO was rated at 360 gross horsepower and produced 500 lb-ft of torque.
This car is riding on Pontiac 15×7 aluminum snowflake wheels which were an option over the standard Rally II wheels. If the buyer had opted for the WS6 special performance handling package, the car would have 15×8 snowflake wheels, bigger sway bars, tuned shocks and a tighter steering gear box. The seller states that the car drives great. I wonder if it is missing the hood scoop because the original scoop for the 403 cid engine doesn’t fit the Pontiac engine that is installed.
I would go with this especially with the 455. I would fabricate the scoop to fit…
I agree! That 455 makes this bird very tempting! Yeah, weird with the scoop missing? The baseplate is missing with the aftermarket air cleaner set up so maybe that why it’s missing. Some people opt to attach the scoop directly to the hood but it looks kinda hokey when you do that.
I kept the hood scoop from my sisters ‘81 Trans Am when my brother totaled it in the mid 80s. Don’t think the wife will go for the line, “Honey, I found a car that will go with the hood scoop I have…” 😂
Yes I agree a 455 HO is the best you can do unless you drop in a SD455 . Long as everything works I don’t think the price is outrageous but find out what transmission is holding court because that 455 is going to burn up a turbo 350
If the engine is actually out of a 1970 GTO, it’s not the same as the 1971/1972 455HO’s. The 1970 GTO 455 used a 1 year only D-port head and a cast iron intake, not a round port head and aluminum intake like the real 455HO engine. There will be other internal differences, but those are the two tells which are instantly recognizable.
Steve R
Very nice Pontiac here! I would just get rid of those red spark plug wires.
what happened to the GTO?
Really!
Way to bad it’s got T-tops I had a Camaro with these same Cars&Concepts and parts just about non-existent and the completely destroyed the integrity of the car not even sub frame connectors could fix the damage the T tops did!