Kinion Auto Sales and Service in Clarence, Iowa, has a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am WS6 listed here on its own dealer website for $69,900. The dealer calls it the “Holy Grail of the Trans Ams,” and while that’s a stretch, the underlying car backs up a lot of the enthusiasm. The window sticker and build sheet are said to be present, and the dealer describes numbers-matching drivetrain, a Texas car with one repaint over its factory color, and 45,500 original miles. The paint is listed simply as “Silver,” but Pontiac’s actual 1978 palette calls it Platinum. The red interior is likewise Pontiac’s factory Carmine. Photos show a T-top car with a shaker hood scoop reading “T/A 6.6,” Pontiac’s callout for the optional W72 400 V8, paired with a Hurst-shifted 4-speed manual and WS6-spec snowflake wheels. The dealer’s “Holy Grail” line oversells it since this isn’t one of Pontiac’s factory special editions, but a numbers-matching W72/4-speed/WS6 Trans Am with T-tops is a legitimately strong combination for the year. We appreciate Rocco B for finding this one.
Pontiac’s 1978 Trans Am color list ran to eight shades: Cameo White, Platinum, Starlight Black, Martinique Blue, Solar Gold, Sundance Yellow, Chesterfield Brown, and Mayan Red, each paired with its own factory-matched hood bird graphic. Interiors came in black, camel tan, blue, or Carmine, in vinyl or Lombardy cloth, with white-topped combinations also available. This car’s Platinum-over-Carmine combination sits solidly within that factory lineup. The interior reflects that the custom interior option was checked by the original buyer instead of standard interior. This interior came with upgraded seats and door panels.
Pontiac built 187,287 Firebirds for 1978, and the Trans Am alone accounted for 93,341 of them, easily its best year until 1979. Buyers could choose the base L78 400, rated at 180 horsepower and automatic-only, the uprated W72 400 making 220 horsepower with a choice of the 4-speed manual or automatic, or, for California and high-altitude cars, an Oldsmobile-sourced 403 rated at 185 horsepower. Roughly 33,000 Trans Ams left the factory with the W72 engine that year. This engine compartment looks clean and while the car is optioned well, the underhood shot shows no air conditioning which would be unusual for a Texas car.
The car comes with the factory build sheet showing a number of options including T-Tops, positraction, tilt steering and the WS6 performance handling package. For 1978, the WS6 performance handling package was the first year this option was ordered and came with 15×8 aluminum wheels, fatter sway bars, specially tuned shocks and a tighter steering ratio. This is one clean car and, if the mileage is real, it is pretty exceptional.
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