Despite the 455 being near the end of its lifespan in the Pontiac Trans Am by 1975, it wasn’t quite there yet, with the 7.5-liter displacement option still holding on for one additional year before becoming history at the end of the car’s ‘76 run. The good news regarding this 1975 Pontiac Trans Am here on Facebook Marketplace is two-fold, going back to the original buyer selecting a 455 engine, and more recently it undergoing a complete rebuild, so this one should already be a reliable driver. The T/A is in Wallingford, Connecticut, with the asking price set at $27,000. T.J., we’d like to thank you for sending us the excellent tip here!
Surprisingly, the seller doesn’t show us an engine photo with the hood raised, but we do get to see the bottom view plus a couple of other photos from the underside, which appear to show a solid platform with no obvious issues to speak of. Also provided is a two-page scan of all the recent work that’s been performed here, which is extensive and costly, so this one should be mechanically sound for the foreseeable future. It’s always a plus to find three pedals on any F-Body offering, with this one retaining its original 4-speed manual transmission.
So far, most of the effort has been put into the drivetrain here, with the exterior still wearing its factory finish. The outside is nowhere near perfect, with some cracks and other imperfections showing in the paint, but there’s something to be praised about a nearly 50-year-old Trans Am that’s never gotten a respray. With the recent mechanical attention this one’s gotten, I might have to consider just enjoying this cool Pontiac as a fun driver for a while before addressing the body. On the other hand, I could also understand the desire and excitement a fresh owner might have to immediately begin taking the cosmetics up to a higher level.
The interior features a combo of both black and white components, with the inside area looking like it’s been well cared for over the decades, and probably remaining in decent enough condition for most owners. It seems like the question regarding this 1975 Pontiac Trans Am is do you spend your twenty-seven grand and continue driving this one as-is, or quickly axe the original paint and invest in a shiny new red respray- what would you do here?
Awesome car with the biggest big block,a 4 speed and no T tops,but for a car with a supposed rebuilt engine,the bottom shot shows the oil pan which looks pretty beat up and rusty…
This gen has become very overpriced and here’s another example of a seller with an average car riding the wave. No engine bay pics after a rebuild suggest detailing still needed and the condition of the oil pan was pointed out by another member. The interior isn’t anything to brag about either. To get it really nice, at this price you could easily be into it for $40K especially with paint. I’ll pass.
MarkyMark, I agree with you 100 percent. I can not believe what people are asking (and presumably selling) these for. While I agree that some of them a reasonably attractive, this ain’t one of them. Even with a 455. these things are so choked down that I bet a good running 327/250 would cook one. As they say, all that glitters are not gold.
You should also remember the engines available for ’75 vettes & that the z28 was on vacation for a couple of years & was nothing to brag about when it came back from ’77-’84.
I bet ’75-’81 corvette owners are not too happy at all what THEIR cars are worth today – even in nice condition.
“Corvette Summer” did not help.
But “Smokey & the Bandit” & “Rockford” sure helped the birds.
I’m very surprised how many people picked the optional fat/low in height delux seats vs the IMO much better looking standard “tuck & roll” seats on later 2nd gen T/As.
Probably because we really like these, we’d seriously consider it worthyofinspection, if it were closer to home… and price similarly in CAN $.
My ’76 400 4-speed was plenty fast – 13s, I remember, and my best friend’s ’74 455 SD automatic was a beast. This one should be an amazing drive and would be nostalgic as heck for me. Glad to see survivors like this still around.
13s? That’s interesting as all the performance data that I can find from testing at the time says quarter mile times of 17 seconds at at about 85 MPH.
Well, when they guy behind him in the hemi cuda can’t wait his turn, the Pontiac does seem to go down the strip somewhat faster…
The muscle car elites are at it again. Not every car needs to be 400 hp. Not many even in the era even were.
Plenty of reason to like these. Nice looking cars, handle and brake better than anything made in the late ‘60s, generally better luxury, ride etc.
As for performance, the main things holding engines back at this time were: 1. Catalytic converters, 2. Poor advance curves, 3. Super lean carburetion. Improve exhaust flow (the right way w/headers and crossover), improve induction (square bore carb of appropriate size and good intake) and another 8 degrees of advance, and you have an engine that runs wholly different than factory, without any internal changes needed.
If then you want more HP, you can add a longer duration cam, but this mainly makes sense with higher compression, a higher final drive ratio or both.
The point is that it is easy to make these cars runners. Not everything needs 400 hp out of the factory to be worthwhile.