There comes the point when many of us have to cry “Uncle!” on a project or set of projects and agree that it’s time to sell. Now, there are plenty more who never come to that point, and we often feature the remains of those vehicles on these very pages. But the seller of this batch of Pontiac Trans Ams is at least willing to put up the lot for sale as he comes to grips with the fact that he can’t get to them all. The whole lot is listed here on craigslist near Texarkana, Texas, and the cars are all very much in the project category. This late ’70s Trans Am is just one of many that the seller hopes to sell as a single batch.
The Bandit era saw many car enthusiasts who were already big fans of American muscle become even more consumed with Pontiac’s premier muscle car. The on-screen antics of Burt Reynolds and Sally Field made it near impossible not to picture yourself riding the interstate highway system with the black and whites in hot pursuit while barking out favors from truckers on your CB radio system. The good news is that most of these cars simply look dried out instead of being up north and completely rotten. The body panels look decent on this sun-burnt Trans Am, which is left to sit outside in the elements.
I’m not a Trans Am expert, but I peg this one as being somewhere around a ’75 model, with the scoop on the fenders being my primary clue. The sight of a car cover is never a good thing for a vehicle stored outdoors; Dennis Collins even railed against this in a recent YouTube video where he snagged several Mopar muscle cars also out of outdoor Texas storage, noting that vehicles sitting outside are better off with no cover at all versus having the dampness of a heavy cover trapped against the paint when it inevitably rains. This Trans Am doesn’t have much paint left, but let’s hope the roof has no rot holes.
Fortunately, not every car was parked outside, as another late 70s T/A would seemingly suggest. With this many cars strewn about, it seems likely that the seller had a few Pontiacs already marked for restoration while others were parts rigs or up in the air in terms of their future. The seller hasn’t told us much about what comes with each car drivetrain-wise nor whether we have any sense of interior condition. The listing puts a price tag of $12,500 for all of the cars – potentially – given that he explicitly says he wishes to sell them all for “…one money.” Does $12K seem like a fair deal for seven Trans Ams? Or is he potentially just tacking that number onto a car like the one shown in the photo above? Let us know in the comments below.
BTW Idabel is in Oklahoma. It is however 59 miles from Texarkana, TX/AR but, You might as well have said it was near Paris. Paris,TX is only 52 miles away. ;)
Sounds like a good deal to me. There have been examples on here rusted to the door handles for more asking money. Could probably build two or three cars from this stash with the others donating needed parts. I don’t have the desire for any more ground up rebuilds or I’d be thinking seriously about this group.
Do you have a 1976 ? The last year with round headlights.
Please tell me that the irony of these Trans-Ams being located in Texarkana, Texas isn’t lost on anyone.
Thirsty in Atlanta and beer in Texarkana?
Roughly 2k a piece..Can’t go wrong on this one.
Throw in a case of Coors and im there!
The owner of these must have had a heck of a lot of fun… when you remember what they do for fun in Texarkana: “Sit around and watch the cars rust!”
Very interesting… I may want to show up with a car carrier, load up and head East bound and Down.
Motor Trend TV seems to love Texas car shows so maybe they can produce a show named ‘Texas Beaters’ about the abundance of sad and neglected cars and trucks..
I am a Native Texan & have Built a Bunch of Scrapped Cars into some Nice Rides, some straight out of the Junk Yard. Like these Trans Ams, had a 67 HO 400, 4 speed Firebird, it was totaled but put back on road thanks to a 68 Camaro Shell from Junk Yard.
Trans Am trivia:
Pontiac licensed the name from the SCCA, who trade market Trans-American, or Trans-Am (with a hyphen). The original justification was based on a small number of cars being sold. Later, they renegotiated it, but it produced a big influx of cash that provided SCCA the ability to get heavily into operating various pro racing series.
Aerodynamicist Paul Lamar contributed to the design of the hood scoop, the fender vents and the wheel well “spats” Lamar co-holds the patent on the first moveable race car wing, along with co-inventors Jim Hall and Jim Musser (then a Chevrolet engineering executive, at a time when GM was officially not involved in racing). John Schinella was the GM Design Staff executive.
The original plan for the 70 1/2 Trans Am was to use the Camaro Z28 springs and anti-roll bars. Herb Adams nagged his boss, Bill Collins, until Collins, mostly to shut him up, finally said to Herb, OK, Herbie.. If you can prove a big improvement in cornering by Monday, I will go argue with the bean counters.” Herb and Dan Hardin, who worked in Herb’s Special Projects group, spent the weekend with a technician and a bunch of parts at the GM Proving Ground and showed Collins greater than .8 G on the skidpad. Bill Collins later became chief engineer of DeLorean Motors Corporation.
Most of the magazines that tested the car raved about the handling and the ride, with it’s software springs and bigger anti-roll bars than the Z28, making it a halo car the dealers loved, and led to sales way above the original business plan.
Much of the credit for the many TV and movie product placements, including Smokey and the Bandit, Kitt, and The Rockford Files, is due to Eric Dahlquist, former editor of Hot Rod and Motor Trend, who founded his own promotions firm, providing services to Pontiac, and later Mercedes, etc.
The first SCCA Trans-Am race won by a Trans-Am was with Milt Minter driving, who started on the pole at Mid-Ohio in 1972, in a car built by the team led by Herb Adams that in 1971 entered the 1964 Tempest, driven by Bob Tullius, nicknamed by the announcer at its first race, “The Gray Ghost” If you search for: memories of the ’72 trans-am firebird, you can find my post about that race.
Iirc Pontiac paid scca $5.00 for every T/A built
Did he mean stash or trash?
This looks like a really fun bunch of cars to piece together and maybe make two or three good cars possibly. For the price it’s a lot of fun if you’re into this sort of thing, mixing and matching pieces and putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Let’s play a guessing game…assuming all the cars are stock…
The first Trans Am looks like a small block 1980 or 81 car judging from the small trunk lettering. The second one being a turbo is a small block also. I think they made a mistake in the ad and it’s not a 1971, but a 1981 Bonneville With who knows, maybe a 4.9 L engine for one of those cars. The red car I think is a 1977 or 78 Trans Am judging from the rectangular headlights that are right next to each other so I don’t think it’s a 1975. I don’t know enough about the side scoops to tell the difference in the different years from 1970 to 1981. White one with the blue tail panel maybe a 1976 to 1978 Trans Am? That would be fun to pice back together. I like those wheels! Maybe WS6 wheels and if original to the car would make that white car with the blue tail panel a 1978 as that’s the first year for WS6 package with those wheels. In the Craigslist ad there is a red one missing the nose and given the thinner section between the t-tops and lack of a tranny dipstick it’s maybe a 1978 (some had thick and some had thin sections?) to 1981 manual tranny Trans Am? Same thing for the gray primered one in the garage missing body parts but don’t know about the tranny. Silver one in the garage with a bunch of stuff in the engine bay judging from the fender lettering a 1979 to 1981 Trans Am, some ‘78s had lettering like that too. The white firebird out in the yard judging by the stripe is a 1979 to 1981 Firebird Esprit.
There are some T/A guys here and I expect these to be going south from here.