This is probably one of the coolest Trans Ams we’ve ever seen on Barn Finds, as it’s claimed to be a real-deal “Fire Am” which featured a host of in-period upgrades developed by horsepower pioneer Herb Adams. The Fire Am cars were either built by an aftermarket manufacturer or by customers themselves who purchased one of the performance packages offered through Adams’ company. The Trans Am shown here on eBay features a 455 V8 with twin turbochargers and numerous other performance upgrades that likely make it an absolute blast to drive. Bidding is at $10,000 with no reserve.
The reason a guy like Herb Adams even came into the picture is that Pontiac was looking for an edge when deploying its Trans Am to do battle in the IROC racing series. When that series and another proposed venture with the SCCA never materialized, Pontiac had little interest in offering a higher performance model to the public and then adding a few grand in cost premiums as well. A handful of cars were built, including eight models for road testing by magazines, but aside from a trickle of cars assembled by Cars & Concepts, the Fire Am (and Camaro version called the Cheverra) was essentially stillborn. Kudos to Motor Trend for the deep dive they provided into Adam’s ingenuity and the overall development program.
We don’t how this Fire Am came into existence. Adams did sell his kit across a few ranges of performance options, so Trans Am owners could pick and choose just how far they wanted to go when upgrading their own cars. However, given how detailed this one is in terms of the additional badges and decals that all seem to be cleanly integrated into the design, along with the high levels of fit and finish quality (at least for a 1970s GM product), I’m inclined to believe that this may be one of the eight testing cars built in preparation for the failed IROC series. This is a total guess, but it’d be extremely helpful if the seller could shed some light on the pedigree of this particular car.
Regardless, it looks like an absolute hoot to drive, and the fact that the overall condition is still so solid makes it even more of a win. The seller notes original mileage is well below 30,000, so the current bid price for a low-mileage Trans Am with period speed modifications seems like bargain basement money to me. A twin-turbo 455, Doug Nash 5-speed, and bright yellow paint – where do I sign up? I’m curious what the Barn Finds collective hive mind thinks: is this a $30,000 muscle car or is it seen as less desirable because it’s not entirely original – hence a potentially lower sale price?
I really used to enjoy the early IROC series. Cannot imagine how much fun throwing a twin turbo 455 around a road course would be –
If the car is a ’77, the nose and tail have been changed to ’81.
With Herb Adams in the picture it was an 81 Turbo 4 wheel disk WS7 package and it went from there.
This Yellow Bird should be searching for a Demon to slay.
I had a 78 with a 71 455 HO and total Herb Adams suspension and 160 mph speedometer. Pegged it several times on the track of course.
It appears that it is a ’77, ’81 nose is most likely more aerodynamic. The interior is clearly that of a ’77, you can tell by the early style 2 piece door panels, as well as the earlier dash bezel. For ’80 and ’81 there were 85 mph gauges, different font, and round Turn Signal indicators, vs earlier triangular ones.
When I was a teenager, my next door neighbours son had a brand new white Fire Am. The guy was like late 30’s and still lived at home. I owned a 70 Camaro. My buddies would come by in their 69 Z/28 and 71 Cuda. The boy would rush to close the garage door because everyone would chuckle about the money he paid for that slow car!!!
Slower than yours? Probably, but his was pristine in appearance and a much more comfortable ride. Bet it had air too. Speed isn’t everything. Of course a teenage brain is not mature. The sad part is being 30 and living with your folks.
Forty five years later, his car is more comfortable, still slower, worth half as much as any of the three mentioned and he probably still lives at home!
Tony, only if they preserved them. Most teenagers wrapped them around trees, blew the engines. Almost all became Toyotas and Hondas. The teenagers of the 70s bought cheap stuff that no one wanted at the time, and treated them as such. Any teenager if he had the cash, would have had a brand new car. That attracted girls. They had these cars because it was what they could afford. If the guy closed the garage door when they were around, it was not out of embarrassment, it was to protect his car.
The Fire Am was designed to be a track car, it would run circles around other cars of it’s day on a race track. Unfortunately the engine mods in the catalog were simple and smog era cars were not fast. One can build a truly vicious Fire Am like mine very easily with some decent engine mods.
When I was a teenager I bought a 70 Roadrunner with a 426 Hemi and ate Trans Ams up! Even raced a 455 for pinks and won! Sold it because changing plugs was a super Hassel. My Roadrunner was 3200.00 new. But my 67 GTO with the 400 pkg was my fav Pontiac. I loved that ride.
Racing your hemi against a low compression station wagon 400 or 455 seems pointless to me.
I never even encountered any ’69-74 t/a’s on the road, just later ones all over the place. Good luck seeing one even at a car show.The ones you raced most like were heavy fully loaded with automatics & most with rear axle ratios of 2.56 or even 2.41!
It would have been interesting if you raced a totally stripped with no power anything 4 speed ’73 sd-455 formula – only 10 of the 43 came with 4 speed.
Tony, this wasn’t around Texas was it? I own a white Fire Am and i’ve only gotten so far getting it’s history to around the 80’s.
Needs a Chiquita sticker on each door.
Looks like a 79-81 model to me. If it is a 77, then the front end and the rear tail lights have been updated to the later units. So, just what is the story about those discrepancies?
Kent just go to the ad for your answer.
LMAO White letter tires woooooo
This ones been messed with, so be careful.
This is what its supposed to look like, not too shabby.
Not all look like that, those are just two nice examples. There are plenty of 1979 and 1980 F/A’s. But yes, this car started off as a Goldenrod Yellow 1977 Fire Am.
I dig it.
Who remembers Brock Yates epic tale in Car & Driver of taking a Fire Am croas country in the 4th or 5th Cannonball Run? It was a monster…but a blown seal had them losing abt a quart of oil every 75 miles. Great story worth reading
It was also yellow and had this same scoop
It was white with blue decals, normally aspirated, possibly a SD motor, not the same car. The 180 degree headers made it nearly impossible to fix the rear main seal leak without loosing significant time.
Twin Turbo’d 455 w manual 👍🏁 😎
Any internal engine mods, or is this a “station wagon” 455 with CAST rods?
No difference, all were cast rods and cranks, only exception was the 455 SD motor
For a Race Build add Forged Rod’s and Pistons – Crank . Butler Performance does a lot of Pontiac engines like this – A Twin Turbo Pontiac powered 1970 Black Formula was done with Kauffman Heads etc. made 1100 hp and with the Boost Turned up will make 1500 hp :)
The first 8 prototype Fire Ams were crushed according to Herb Adams
They’re still around. One or two are still around and getting restored. One was a white 1976 that was damaged in a road test that had the newer 1977 nose installed and was painted blue. This one is getting restored.
Some weren’t. The magazine test 1976 F/A is still around. It started off as a white 1976 T/A that was damaged by one of the road testers, and repaired with the ’77 nose, and the colour changed. This one is being restored.
$15,900 now, ends today.
Pretty decent price for such a rare car. The Pontiac 455 has torque to spare in stock form. Can’t imagine a turbo 455.
I’ve had many Trans Ams from the 70s starting with the 70 455 Trans Am that’s my first one 72 with a 400 4 speed and several others including 77 and 78 79 and an 81 which I really love and a few 80s models including a GTA but I really like my 72 bright yellow 400 4 speed I think the best of course it wasn’t quite stock and that was back in the mid 80s I liked cameros and only ever owned 2 just always preferred T/a s I would really like to find a 69 Firebird 400 even the 350 that’s my goal of course a 65 GTO would be nice too LOL but as is I would take this Trans Am all day long
Id pay 20k right now.
Sold $28,101.
I just don’t understand EBay bidding nowadays.
One bidder took it from 15K to 25K and then 2 other bidders pumped it up to the sale price.
Is this real, or the new version of shill bidding?
I see what you mean, but the bidder at 4:49 that bid $25k, had all the ones below them beat, and to beat $25k all the times are later then 4:49. The key is looking at the time the bid was placed.
Howie, thanks for the input. I see the times, its figuring out the pattern that gets confusing. The one bidder that has most of the bids looks like they are bidding against themselves, with bids that up themselves by $600 each time, with some $200 bids mixed in, all within a short period of time. It’s as if there is an invisible bidder that they are outbidding.
Then, at the end 2 bidders come in and “snipe” the auction at the last minute. I used to use one of these tools so that I could set my max price that I wanted to spend, and then walk away and let the app do its magic. It prevents you from getting caught up in that last minute drama and make a big mistake by paying too much. It also sometimes got you a decent item at a cheap price.
Maybe the snipe bids are invisible(?)
The guy (11) that was going up $600 each time would be outbid, by the guy that bid $25k because his bid was placed at 4:49, so (11) was bidding after 4:49.