For a lot of Pontiac fans, the early second generation Trans Am is the high point of the whole Firebird story, and 1971 is the year the 455 HO showed up under the shaker. This 1971 Pontiac Trans Am is finished in Cameo White with the blue stripe, and it has the 455 HO backed by an M22 four speed. It is located in Hampstead, North Carolina, and the seller is asking $105,000. The car is listed here on Hemmings. We appreciate Curvette sending us this listing for such a special car.
The second generation Firebird was a 1970 model, but tooling delays pushed the start of production to February 1970, which is why many enthusiasts call them 1970 1/2 cars. The new body was longer, lower and wider than the first generation car, and the Trans Am wore its own front air dam, flared wheel openings, fender air extractors, a rear spoiler and the rear facing shaker scoop. Pontiac built just 2,116 Trans Ams for 1971, and only 885 of them had a four speed manual. The other 1,231 were automatics. For comparison, Pontiac built 23,022 base Firebirds, 20,185 Esprits and 7,802 Formulas that year.
The Trans Am had only one engine in 1971, and it was a good one. The LS5 455 HO was rated at 335 horsepower and 480 lb ft of torque, and it used a four bolt main block, round port cylinder heads, Ram Air style exhaust manifolds and an aluminum intake. Compression dropped to 8.4 to 1 so it could run on lower octane fuel, but the big torque figure made up for a lot. Trans Am buyers had just two colors to choose from, Cameo White with a blue stripe or Lucerne Blue with a white stripe. Across the Firebird line, interiors came in vinyl colors such as black, dark blue, ivory, saddle, jade and sandalwood, in standard or deluxe trim.
This Trans Am spent most of its life with its original owner in Alabama until 2003, and the seller says it has always been garaged. It still has its original sheetmetal, including the floors and trunk, and it was fully restored in 2004. The seller was told the engine and transmission were rebuilt to stock specifications at that time. The 455 HO, M22 Rock Crusher four speed and 3.42 Safe-T-Track rear are all original to the car, along with the carburetor and distributor, and the PHS documents are included. The interior is now black, but the car originally had a blue interior. The buyer also gets two sets of wheels, the original Pontiac Rally IIs with Goodyear Polyglas GT F60-15 tires and a set of 17 inch YearOne cast aluminum Rally wheels with Nitto NT555 tires.
Interest in TransAm’s are hot and to find a car that is 98% original, is a rare find. The carb alone is worth $2500-$5000. It was a one year only 825 cfm Qjet. It helps that this car was in the south for most of those years. The only negative I can see is the change from a blue interior, to a black interior. If that is the only fault, it’s not a monumental task, to switch it back. Based on the latest sales, the price seems to be in the ballpark.
Bucket list / lottery ticket dream…
This or a new Corvette? This every time.
Would prefer the OG blue interior, but hey, I sure as heck would not kick this TA out of my garage for that. As KH stated, not too difficult to return it back, and the rest of the car looks well sorted. Nice car. It’s kinda amazing to me, all of these past thirty plus years since I got my DL and have been into cars, especially GM and I have never owned a Pontiac…several Olds, a few Buicks and Chevs (now I own one of each), but not one single Pontiac.
There’s a Firebird theme here today, with this being the best by a mile!
Pontiacfettish