The 20th Anniversary Pontiac Trans Am Was What The Buick Grand National’s Motor Was Looking For

When some underpowered car is upgraded with a suitably powerful engine, it’s very common to hear people say it “finally got the engine that it deserved in the first place.” But what about situations where it’s the other way around?

I’m talking about those rare but not unheard of situations where an engine somehow got placed into a car that simply couldn’t take advantage of it. One of the most memorable upside-down “wrong engine” scenarios involves the turbocharged V6 monster mill that was initially used in the Buick Grand National.

When that personal luxury coupe finally died in 1987, the GN motor sat unused for a spell, but it came back with a vengeance in the car we’ll explore for this week’s Pontiac Pthursday: the 20th Anniversary Trans Am.

Darth Vader’s Personal Luxury Car

Almost forty years on, it’s still near impossible to believe that a car like the Grand National ever existed. What started as a skunkworks after-hours project involving a group of Boy Scouts with a GM engineer leader turned into a production turbocharged engine that gave malaise-era Buicks a performance boost with an eye towards fuel economy. Then, while almost nobody was looking, this turbocharged V6 slowly gained more power over each consecutive year. By the mid-1980s, it had become a powerhouse and outgrew the milquetoast family two-door it was put into, much like The Incredible Hulk pressing the limits of his pants. The whole “economy” part of the equation was gone, and now the focus was purely “how much can we actually get out of this 3.8-liter V6 if we pull out all of the stops?” The answer was output so high that Buick had to flat-out lie about how much power it really made.

The GN (and even-more-powerful GNX) was an incredibly badass ride and a riot of a sleeper. Don’t get me wrong: it’s an awesome, enigmatic classic, but if we’re being honest, it wasn’t what you’d call an outstanding all-around driving package. The new-for-1978 A-body Buick Regal was a great car that I’d recommend to someone in the eighties who wanted reliable, comfortable transportation. But is it a car I’d put a 300-plus horsepower motor into? With the Regal’s grandma-grade steering, brakes, and suspension? Forget it.

No, the Buick Turbo motor needed to find a new and more agile home, and for GM that meant a limited number of options at the time. The Fiero was about to go to Pontiac Heaven in 1988, so don’t get any ideas there. A V6 in any form was never going to live under the hood of any ‘Vette, so that left the General’s primary big sport coupes: the F-Body Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. GM would choose the latter, and this time they were going to make a turbo ‘Bird right.

I Wish It Were Painted Black, Though

You see, Pontiac had made a turbocharged Trans Am before: the rather disappointing 1980-81 model that replaced the much-loved W72 400 V8 with a less-than-great blown 301 V8. The chicken on the hood breathed fire onto a scoop festooned with Fisher-Price-like “TURBO” lights, but the motor failed to deliver on its promise to give 6.6-liter performance with 4.9-liter economy.

Still, the idea of a turbocharged Trans Am was a good one. As luck would have it, the Trans Am was about to celebrate twenty years of being the hot Firebird as the ’80s drew to a close, and an invitation to pace that year’s Indianapolis 500 meant the great turbo-six found a place to stay. Conversion of the standard Trans Am to turbo power was done by an outside firm called PAS Incorporated, and a mere 1500 of these 20^th Anniversary models were planned. Inevitably, it would become something that certain collectors would purchase, put into a car cocoon, and never touch again.

That’s a shame, because the 20^Th Anniversary T/A was something to behold out on the road. The new-for-1982 Firebird shape still looked fresh, and despite being a “Special Edition,” Pontiac avoided putting a massive screaming chicken on the hood or outrageous graphics onto what was essentially a loaded GTA ‘Bird. While I love the early bowling-ball wheel covers of the “KITT” Trans Am, the later GTA with bigger tires and subtle body mods might be my favorite  – though I’d prefer to forgo the mandatory white finish of all 20^th Anniversary cars in favor of black, or even Dwight Schrute maroon. “Indianapolis Pace Car” door and “PONTIAC” windshield decals were shipped with the car to be added at the owner’s discretion; thankfully, a fair number of buyers realized that it needed those stupid stickers like Emma Stone needs an additional left ear.

Notably, Pontiac never officially called it this TA the “Turbo,” according to the car’s promotional materials and any literature I’ve encountered. Maybe that was to hide the whole Grand National lineage or any connection with the previous Trans Am Turbo, which had TURBO plastered over every square inch. Either way, that downplaying of the legendary motor only adds to the mystique of the 20th Anniversary Edition.

The top-of-the-line Trans Am GTA included rather complex multi-adjustable seats, a full set of analog gauges, and plenty of steering-wheel buttons. The rear seatback folded down to give extra cargo space, but the third-generation F-body design with the protruding “box” for the axle meant you’d end up with a sort of mountain-range-looking area that’s less useable than you might first think (I like how some models had a flip-up cover over the rear “pit” to at least level that area out).

Even without the turbo motor, this was one of the most desirable F-bodies ever, and the engine just added to the exclusivity. Well, exclusivity and a bit more performance. Well, actually a lot more performance.

A Chicken Would Have Blown Off The Hood, Anyway

Bear in mind, the turbo V6 as used in this Trans Am was not exactly a duplicate of the one in the last Buick coupes. With the Firebird’s narrower engine bay, different cylinder heads and exhaust headers had to be added, changes that thankfully increased the motor’s already impressive power figures. Check out the makeshift heat shielding needed under the hood for anything near that red-hot turbo:

As with the Buick GN, Pontiac quoted “250” for the engine’s output, a figure that most found as believable as the balloon boy hoax. Most media outlets estimated the turbo to be making at least 300 horsepower.

As Car and Driver noted, this turbocharged Trans Am would have been a disappointment had it been slower than the big Buick coupe that the engine originally came from. That turned out not to be a problem. The magazine was able to rip a 4.6 second zero-to-sixty time form the 20^th Anniversary car, making it 0.3 quicker than the last GNX they ran. The Trans-Am was the fastest production car they had tested that year and, in their opinion, likely the quickest street-legal production car that any amount of money could buy in 1989. Maybe the fact that few people knew that (and it was a very limited edition) was the way Pontiac got around GM executives by violating the unwritten but well-known rule of no car being faster than a certain Chevrolet two-seater? Whatever the case might have been, this thing was a monster.

With the turbo’s output, the Trans Am had to make do with a four-speed automatic transmission to handle the power. Still, the chassis was far, far more capable than the Regal’s, and meant that the 124-mile-per-hour speed limiter that GM put on the rickety old Grand National was deemed unnecessary. You’d get to 130 mph in just over 30 seconds and not run out of steam until you hit 153 (some sources quote over 160 mph). That chassis, live rear axle and all, offered tremendous grip and was good for .94g on the skidpad –  if the road was billiard-table-smooth, that is. Remember, no Firebird ever really had a clue how to handle rough pavement like a European car.

Indeed, if you weren’t driving the thing like a maniac and just cruising, you might miss certain aspects of the old Buick. The Grand National had stiffer springs and bigger rubber than a stock Regal and would never ride like Aunt Katie’s car, but it was still a far more comfortable and spacious place to be in than an F-body coupe. Also, even in diesel-powered GM mid-sizers, that old body-on-frame construction isolated out almost any presence of the engine, so that high-strung turbo V6’s antics were a distant distraction in the old GN. That wasn’t the case with the unibody Firebird; you’d get textbook examples of noise, vibration, and harshness even at idle. That was in addition to the classic GM F-body rattles, squeaks, groans of the structure, and, well, you’ve driven or owned an old Camaro or Firebird, right? The T-tops only made things worse.

Still, if you wanted Acura NSX-like refinement, then the Trans Am was never the sports machine for you in the first place. Attitude combined with unmatched straight-line oomph and, on the right surfaces, ear-bleed grip? If that’s your jam, here’s your car.

Like A Late Eighties Performance Car Super Group

Pontiac made a total of 1,555 1989 20th Anniversary Trans Ams, including three convertibles and 40 desirable hardtops that lacked the structurally-compromising T-tops; it’s truly the last footnote in the Buick Turbo motor story and the final appearance of that legendary motor. As a new car, the 20^th Anniversary TA cost nearly $9,000 more than the most expensive “normal” Trans Am, with an asking price of $31,223. That wasn’t cheap, but considering the exclusivity and that no Ferrari or Lamborghini of the day could beat it in a straight line, that $31K might have been money well spent by those who quickly snapped up all the examples.

Late malaise-era or early Radwood era cars are finally getting the respect that they deserve. With GenXers becoming (hopefully) richer with age and wanting to buy products of their youth and not their boomer dad’s generation, cars like this are unquestionable up-and-comers in the collector car world. The 20th Anniversary T/A is infinitely more capable than any sixties muscle car, looks fantastic, and should have much more potential for appreciation.

Based on current market values, it would seem to be a great investment. Today, the examples recently sold on Bring A Trailer have averaged a sell price of $36,780. A 179-mile, in-the-wrapping example recently went for $82,000 on Bring A Trailer; considering that even bottom-of-the-barrel cars like a Chevette with 5,000 miles can command $20,000 today, those Anniversary Trans Am prices seem criminally low. What’s more interesting is that during this same time period, more-plentiful Buick Grand Nationals on Bring A Trailer have had average selling prices as much as 58 percent higher! This rare ‘Bird was the quickest car money could buy in its day with one of GM’s most notorious motors ever, so to see them going now for the price of a new compact SUV is just alarming.

Maybe I should just shut up and keep the secret so you can buy one while it’s still a relative bargain.

Pontiac Points: 97 out of 100

Verdict: Forget the Grand National. Thirty-five years on, the greatest muscle car you never knew existed is still hiding in plain sight.