Mitchell G found this nicely optioned 1976 Pontiac Trans Am listed here on Craigslist. The car is located outside of Atlanta in Monroe, Georgia. Besides being 49 years old and in great condition, this Trans Am is equipped with a Pontiac 455 cubic inch V8 which was the last year for the big engine in the Trans Am. The seller is asking $39,500 and the car has been listed for over a week. It is hard to find much of any flaws with this car.
Pontiac built 46,704 Trans Ams in 1976 and only 7,528 were produced with the 4 speed L75 455 cubic inch V8 engine. In 1976, buyers had two engine options available. The base engine was the L78 400 cubic inch V8 (Z code), rated at 185 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. This engine was available with either an automatic transmission or a 4-speed transmission. Of note, there were actually fewer 4-speed L78 400 equipped Trans Ams built (5,424) than Trans Ams with the 455 cubic inch V8 that only was available with a 4 speed. The optional L75 455 cubic inch V8 (W code), which was rated at 200 horsepower and 330 lb-ft of torque.
The black interior looks to be in excellent shape. Based on the seats and door panels, the car has the deluxe interior which had “horsecollar” front bucket seats. The car has some modifications including the factory 3.23:1 rear gears have been changed to 3.73:1 and the low compression 4X heads have been swapped for Pontiac 6X heads raising the compression to a streetable 9:1 compression ratio. The intake manifold has been switched to an aluminum Edelbrock Performer. The car has some nice options including air conditioning and power windows.
The 1975 Trans Am was available with either Rally II rims or Honeycomb wheels. This car has the 1978-1981 aluminum 15×8 snowflake wheels with aftermarket tires. The rear exhaust tips appear to be incorrect or missing. All in all, this car looks to be in great shape with some tasteful modifications that should increase performance and the enjoyment of the car.
Love this car. Looks sharp in silver, big motor w the stick, well optioned, and steeper 3.73s…. she’d leave Bandits T/A in the rearview. Good find Mitchell. 🏁
Too funny, I was thinking along the same lines as you Stan. Mechanically speaking…… This is what Bandid should’ve been driving Eastbound and Down.
There were some modified 455 T/As used in the ’77 movie & ALL of the many ’77 movie cars(400s & 455s) were ’76s! with upcoming ’77 hoods, shakers & front bumpers bolted on – since the ’77 models were not available yet!
My favourite year as i was not a fan of the 77′ Banshee look.I’m a round eye guy not a fan of square eyes..also applies to colonades..LOL.
I learned to drive stick in a white 76 TA 400/ 4 spd back in the early 80’s. It was my older brother’s car. He passed away in 2016. Back then he and my dad uncle and oldest brother pulled the 400 and had it rebuilt. I recall them swapping earlier model heads on it as well. Crane cam, headers, aluminum intake and a big 750 Holley. Trans was swapped for a Suoer T10 and a Hurst Super Shifter. It ran gooood.
A young guy on my block bought a ’76 new in white back when I was a kid. I still remember the new car smell.
I would love this but 40 large is too much for me to justify for a mid ’70s car whose value in ten years seems dubious, but I still like it! I would swap out those ’78-81 WS6 rims for the correct Rally IIs.
Very nice. My favorite year of malaise era Trans Ams.
Nice car but rather humorous to think that GM’s big 455 all those years was only 200 hp by the 70’s. I had that much in my factory 289 65 Mustang! My new 75 Camaro’s 350 was only like 165 hp. Firing squad on all the “muscle” cars back then for sure. 😂
Your ’65’s hp was the higher GROSS hp rating. By ’71 or ’72, the rating was changed to the lower NET hp rating with accessories attached to the motor.
The low 14 sec 290 hp ’73-’74 sd-455 firebird with heavy 5 mph bumpers was definitely underrated..
GM started to use its VERY restrictive PELLET cat conv to meet tougher emissions standards in ’75 – with a carburetor.
Your 289 would lose a lot of performance with that GM cat on your exh system.
Well I can’t be the only one who likes the 71 HO 455 TA over the rest.
I am going to have to take the 1.5 hour trip to Monroe and cruise the streets – seems like they have a lot of collectibles over thataway.
The first picture shows plenty. Almost everything up front has fitment issues.