Chocolate Thunder was a name Darryl Dawkins of the Philadelphia 76ers NBA team gave himself. Here we have a dark brown 1979 Trans Am that could claim the same name. This car is listed here on Craigslist for $20,500. Thanks to Rocco B. for bringing it to our attention. The car is located in Bonita Springs, Florida and is 1 of 8,693 regular production Trans Ams in 1979 that was equipped with the famed W72 400 cubic inch engine. I think the price is right. I sold a Nocturne Blue W72 Trans Am a few years ago for the same price.
Of the 117,108 Trans Ams built in 1979, a buyer could order the W72 400 cubic inch V8 engine which was the highest engine performance option available. The engine was factory rated at 220 horsepower but the NHRA dyno’d a stock W72 at 260 horsepower. The W72 engine option was available from 1977 to 1979, During this production run, Pontiac built more than 350,000 Trans Ams and Formulas and 20 percent were equipped with the W72 engine. The only other car to get the W72 was the 1977 Pontiac Can Am.
Hot Rod Magazine tested the W72 400 equipped Trans Am and reported a 14.7 second quarter mile time. I had a 1979 Trans Am equipped like this in high school and it beat all the Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs and imports of the day. The W72 engine was special in that it came with a 800 cfm 4 barrel, high capacity 60 psi oil pump, special cam, baffled oil pan, special piston rings, 6X-4 heads that raised the compression ratio to 8.1 and dual turbo mufflers.
Code 69 Heritage Brown was a little dark than the prior year’s Chesterfield Brown which had more copper in it. This car is equipped with the standard black vinyl interior, power windows and air conditioning. All 1979 Trans Ams ordered with the W72 engine came with 4 speeds, 4 wheel disc brakes and the legendary WS6 handling package. Car and Driver magazine named the WS6 equipped Trans Am the best-handling American car in 1979. Many enthusiasts consider this car to be the last great muscle car.
I have a LT1 Corvette with a ZF6 6 Spd manual that will destroy this over weight Pontiac in a 1/4 mile. Fast fwd to 2020 cars produced today…….FORGET ABOUT IT!!!!!!
Can’t compare a Vette, how bout a Z28 sticker show, this would blow those air dams off that Camaro
Beware a ’73 stripper formula with no power steering or power brakes or radio or a/c or p/w or cruise ctrl with YOU KNOW WHAT MOTOR for < $4500 new. Especially with super simple exhaust & ignition mods most likely made by now. T/A always came std with heavier power steering & brakes.
damn skippy i own a 71 formula 0 option car and she runs mid 11s with 3.23 gears
and a nearly stock 69 428
The ad is light on pertinent information and pictures of rust prone areas. It’s a 40+ year old car, it’s good to know if and when there has been body or paint work done. It’s one thing to leave that information out when you are dealing with a $2,500 beater it’s another if you are asking more than $20,000.
Is originality important to buyers of this generation of Trans Am? If so, how well will the intake swap and dual feed Holley he received? The plastic fuel filter is not indicative of quality work.
Steve R
Agree with Steve R that the seller doesn’t provide nearly enough info or pics to justify his $20k asking. Don’t get it as the person selling the 1987 Sunbird Turbo Convertible here does much better in this regard and he’ll probably be lucky to get $4k.
I notice no mileage was mentioned. Took a picture of half a dash so you will see the shifter and radio. The car looks great ,but too questions not seen. 🇺🇸
The writeup (not the advert) lists some of the W72 features and mentions “turbo mufflers”. I know what a muffler is. I know what a turbo is. What’s a turbo muffler?
Jackrbt…I remember a Turbo muffler was a name used back in the early 80’s. Hot rod muffler. Today we have many Magna Flow is one. It’s a short type with less baffles Turbo muffler. That’s the best I can do for a answer . 😄🇺🇸
I think that they first came out on turbo charger equipped Corvairs. I could be mistaken though.
Pretty sure both the WS6 TA, and all Z28s did not have mufflers after the catalytic converter from the factory, they used resonators.
Turbo mufflers are short, high flowing mufflers used on performance cars. They improve performance and are low profile to fit under muscle cars. The free flowing exhaust added to the W72 package increased hp by 20 hp in 1978 compared to 1977.
Bruce.. you are correct.. your answer is better than mine. That was the term we all used back in day. Turbo mufflers .. thanks
Brown will keep the price down but this was a pretty common color on both these and the Z28 in 1979.
This was an incredible year for the T/A. They sold over 117,000 of them. That’s just T/A’s, not Firebirds! Nowadays, that’s starting to broach into Honda Accord territory given the collapse of the passenger car market.
Only about 8,300 had the W72. The rest were 403s (vast majority) or 301s.
Nice to see a write up done on one of these special cars by somebody who obviously knows them.
This immediately reminds me of the 1/8 scale kit I bought at Christmas 1988 same colour but tan interior & auto (still have it on display but don’t know how to Inc pics).
Think it was by revell? If memory serves there was an iroc Camaro plus the 55&57 Chevy’s in 1/12 too.
The actual number of pontiac trans am in 1979 built with pontiac 400 + standard transmission is very low.
Last research i did years ago was silver anniversary 79 trans am 4 speed cars only 253 built.
The standard transam i cant remember how many standards were built with the ponch 400.
Not many for sure.
My family owned a pontiac dealership in massachusetts i ordered a special edition black + gold 1979 trans am with the 403 automatic trans -olds engine a great engine BTW..
I located + purchased a new 79 silver aniversary from a Connecticut dealer with real pontiac 400 4 speed..
The silver aniversary had 400 4-speed borg warner transmission with corprate 3:23 10 bolt posi..
The special edition had 403 olds with turbo 350 + 2:73 – 10 bolt posi.
Both cars WS6 package.
The performance of the 400 pontiac was not good compared to 60s -early 70s pontiac high perf cars..
The 403 olds trans am was amazingly powerful ..the vast majority of 79 trans am had the 403 olds.
Check your production numbers on this car for sale ..you may have a diamond in the rough.
My preference is original equipment + stock .pictures of this engine its no longer stock “intake manifold”.. Maybe the parts are available to return to stock ?
Its all about if someone wants it + what they will pay… Good luck on your sale.
“The 403 olds trans am was amazingly powerful”? 1st time i ever heard that. lol
Yeah, I’m sorry, but the 2 things that the 403 was good for, was a boat anchor, or if u pull the pistons out, a place for fish to hide when storms come, on the street they were garbage, and book values reflect it,
Your the first to say its a boat anchor engine..
Even hot rod magazine + road + track boasted the performance + durability was superior to the last years of the pontica 400.
I have seen many 403 olds mount up 200k – 300k miles before a rebuild or any major internal problem.
Anyone who knows Pontiac V-8s knows its a timing chain + gears at 60,000 miles.
I think your confused with the boat anchor pontiac 301..engine that was prone to broken crankshafts…
Yes I agree although the Olds 403 would out run the Z28 pretty good. It would not come close to a TA 6.6 or an L-82 Vette.
They Olds and Pontiac were both similar to build up though.
Hi.. does anyone remember the Firehawk? I seen one in Green with tan interior. I knew it had a stick but was told since it was lighter in weight. They put a special engine in it.. and it blew away Corvettes. I think it was 1980 or 81..🐻🇺🇸
I have a friend who has a black one in his garage here in Oklahoma
I agree with you Don, in these cars I really didn’t notice much difference between the Pontiac 400 and the Olds 403 and if there was ,it wasn’t night and day like some make it sound.
However, having owned a bunch of Buick,Pontiac and Olds, the timing chain issue affected all of them somewhere between 60 and 80k. They all had that same plastic covered cam gear that failed
The reason the 403 felt fast because it had a lot of low end torque. But the TA 6.6 would tear it up pretty good.
Now the 403 would beat the Z28. Chevrolet did not put the hot motor and those L82 was saved for the Corvette to boost sales.
Big difference in performance TA 6.6 low 15 Olds 403 ran high15.
I know because my brother and I bought a brand new 1978 blue four-speed Trans Am. And we also ordered four brand new 4sp 1979 TA’s.
One of them was 10th anniversary. Anyway Pontiac ran out of engine so one of them showed up with the old 403 automatic it was red with silver Wheels it was good looking. We like that car and believe me we race those cars all kind of different ways so what I’m telling you is a fact. There was more horsepower difference in those two than 220 to 180. That TA 6.6 was underrated.
In fact our four speeds never did to get outrun by an L82 Vette.