This Tahoe Blue 1980 Pontiac Trans Am has been stored for the past 25 years. Advertised with a factory rating of 210 horsepower at 4000 rpm and 345 lb/ft @ 2000 rpm of torque, the Turbo Trans Am looked impressive on paper. The Trans Am is located in York, Pennsylvania and can be seen here on Facebook Marketplace. The seller is asking $6,500.
The dark blue standard vinyl interior shows the car was equipped tilt steering, air conditioning, cruise control and automatic transmission. The seats appear to have incurred water damaged and the odometer reflects 102,056 miles. The engine picture below shows the car is fairly unmolested. The engine still has its air injector and even the rare air cleaner intake boot is still in place. Unfortunately, surface rust is prevalent on many components.
The blue paint is faded and surface rust covers much of the body panels. With the end of production of the W72 400 cubic inch engine in 1979, Pontiac introduced the new turbocharged 301 cubic inch V8 engine in 1980. While the horsepower and torque numbers were comparable to the W72 400 cubic inch V8 engines of the past, their street performance was lacking. The Garrett TB305 turbocharger used on these cars was small and the boost was turned down to 5-6 psi from the factory.
I love the turbo hood on 1980-1981 Trans Ams. Barry Johnson is one of the foremost collectors of Turbo Trans Ams and many other enthusiasts are starting to be drawn to this model. Before the edict by GM to use corporate motors across all GM brands, Pontiac was expecting to use their turbo 301 cubic inch V8 in the new body style Trans Am in 1982. It would have been interesting to see its development much like the Buick 3.8 liter turbo V6 was improved from 1978-1987.
This car is equipped with 15×7 aluminum wheels which indicates that the car is not equipped the famed WS6 performance suspension option. While these cars were not fast from the factory, several aftermarket performance items are now available to make them respectable. TTA Performance is a company in Kenosha, Wisconsin that specializes in improving Turbo Trans Ams. Currently, they are restoring a Tahoe Blue car just like this. I think this car is overpriced if you want to fully restore it. Maybe in a couple of years this will look like a better deal.
I still want a definition of the term “Stored”. From what I have seen on this site, “Stored” ranges from something found in a pond to a car that has -5 miles on it and was only touched by angels wearing booties and white gloves. If this car was “Stored”, somebody should get their storage fee back with interest.
store
/stôr/
verb
past tense: stored; past participle: stored
keep or accumulate (something) for future use.
Doesn’t state how well.
Way too much money for a moldy project or as a parts car. Buyers with discipline will keep looking.
Steve R
Too often the term “stored” is just a euphemism for “parked”, which it usually means about 90% of the time.
I’d always thought all the turbo T/As had the new “turbo” rims instead of the snowflakes that are on that car – maybe they were a delete-option or they were replaced somewhere along the line. Anyway, I know the turbo T/As aren’t quite a high-ticket item but hopefully someone can still save it.
I found my 81 Turbo trans am in a potato cellar after it was parked there for at least 25 years. Popped the hood and found a 71 pontiac 350 and I couldn’t be happier considering the fact that I wouldn’t have to swap in a better motor. I bought it for 400 bucks and all it has is a little bit of surface rust, floorboards are solid and I have a brand new interior and the motor is on an engine stand fully rebuilt with a mellings cam and edlebrock intake and carb. I’ll be ready to drive it in high school once all this covid bull crap is done.
You’ll be ready to drive it in high school? Very cool Logan! I am ALMOST old enough to be your grandparent, and we drove these in high school in the 1980’s. Your parents raised you right! I must have made some mistakes with my Honda Civic loving boys, but one commented to me the other day how much he likes an old Packard I showed him. There is hope for that one lol.
Good luck with your project Logan! If you need any suggestions or help, the guys on this website are a wonderful source of information & I am sure any one of us would help you find answers.
Thanks, Someday I hope to supercharge the car and make it a “super trans am” instead of a turbo trans am. Give your boys a ride in something with open headers and a big v8 and I bet they’ll come right around haha. One of my big memories is my grandpa brought us to a neighbors house saying come look at this car it’ll only sound like a small toyota race car, I looked at the motor and even at age 8 or so I noticed 8 spark plugs and go oh boy and that 440 hemi had a huge cam and open headers and it was a glorious sound and I’ll never forget it.
That radio is worth 10% of the cars price item if it’s clean/working.
Pioneer Super Tuner kp500 separate bass and treble loudness switch and Auto auto reverse
Seeing that the pics of it are on a roll back, it’s not clean at all and it’s on facebook of all things , I bet the person got the car for almost nothing and is trying to make a fortune off it. No decent person would try to sell a car on facebook let alone ask that much without taking a day or 2 and clean the mold off the seats and wash it to actually make it presentable.
You got that right md.
The once popular Pioneer Super Tuner. I always like seeing one in some forgotten car on this site.
I was telling my kids about the stolen stereo market in the late 70’s and 80’s and pointed out that it’s funny how they cost the same then as they do now which is averaging about $150 but that was a lot of money in 1980 and getting one “slightly used” for $35 worked for a lot of kids and the a**holes that swiped them
Well , with the 301 under the hood, we can guess why it was parked ; those were no good from day one.
It more than likely is WS6, I’m not sure if all turbo cars were, but I think so. The wheels are incorrect for a turbo in any event, I believe the seats are as well, those resemble Camaro seats.
I believe the Camaro style seats are actually correct for the standard trim Firebird & Trans Am. I have an uncle that had one of these but his was a 1978. He bought it in 1981, and it had the same seats. Odds are they were factory in his car, since it was only 3 years old at the time.
I like that all blue interior.
For that price, i would yank out all that junk under the hood & put in some big motor & put a ’70-73 bird nose on. The rear end styling is just fine, however,
Thanks, Someday I hope to supercharge the car and make it a “super trans am” instead of a turbo trans am. Give your boys a ride in something with open headers and a big v8 and I bet they’ll come right around haha. One of my big memories is my grandpa brought us to a neighbors house saying come look at this car it’ll only sound like a small toyota race car, I looked at the motor and even at age 8 or so I noticed 8 spark plugs and go oh boy and that 440 hemi had a huge cam and open headers and it was a glorious sound and I’ll never forget it.