The Pontiac Trans Am and four-on-the-floor went together like the Bandit and Frog, but by 1981, as the second-generation Firebird was making way for the third, only one engine option was available with a clutch pedal. It didn’t make Pontiac fans happy, but perhaps it helped to get them accustomed to the idea of a Chevy-engined future.
The Trans Am’s sales had ebbed and flowed throughout the 1970s. Pontiac sold a mere 3,196 units in 1970 1/2, when this white-and-blue example with a high-revving Ram Air IV 400 was built. By 1979, a mere two years before our featured car left the Van Nuys plant, the car with the chicken on its hood was at its crest: a shocking 117,109 were sold (and you could still get a Pontiac 400, albeit severely emasculated from the days of the Ram Air IV).
Just two years after that peak, in 1981, the shaker hood callouts of “6.6 Litre” or “T/A 6.6” had been replaced by “T/A 4.9” and “5.0 Litre.” The bloom on the rose had been replaced with a canker, and it seems that CAFE mandates, emissions, and plain familiarity conspired to do the Trans Am in. Only 33,492 were sold that year, making it by far the most popular Firebird, but as the public awaited the third-gen Trans Am, sales tanked.
After a year’s hiatus, buyers could once again order a Trans Am with a four-speed manual (none were built in 1980), but in doing so, they had to swallow their pride and order Chevrolet’s 145-horsepower 305 small-block. This certainly sent Pontiac loyalists running to the automatic, but it was a sign of things to come; GM’s Robert Stempel signed a “Notice of Decision” on May 20, 1980, saying that Pontiac’s 265 and 301 V8s would be replaced by Chevy equivalents. Pontiac would thus focus on Iron Duke production, and the Firebird would lose its Pontiac engine entirely upon the introduction of the 1982 models.
That the four-speed was available at all in 1981 was due to the Chevrolet 305’s relatively clean emissions; as a matter of fact, the four-speed was available in California for the first time since 1974. The public responded moderately, and although figures I’ve found are in some debate, around 4,183 Firebirds had four-speeds in 1981.
Even though its acceleration had waned significantly and the wild big-screen looks were beginning to become somewhat stale, the Trans Am was still a competent performance car in a 1981 way. Our 18,000-mile feature car, which was sold on Bring a Trailer in March of 2021, was highly equipped with almost everything a driving enthusiast would want, including four-wheel disc brakes (not as rare as you’d think—23,927 Firebirds and Trans Ams were so equipped out of 70,899).
The interior and dashboard looked much like a 1970 1/2 model as well, showing how well Pontiac had hit the target all those years ago. The engine-turned dashboard still looked great, the instrumentation was still complete, the steering wheel still made the driver feel as if they were in a race car, and the only big changes involved the seating surfaces, which ushered the Trans Am into the 1980s with velour (a $196 option with the custom trim group).
This car is truly well-equipped, with electric windows (a popular option, over half of Firebirds had them), air conditioning (with an over 80 percent take rate), and an AM/FM cassette stereo (15,674 sold across the Firebird line). It seems that the glove box has faded at a different rate from the rest of the dashboard, so nothing had changed since my 1974 Esprit was built.
The Turbo T/A’s wheels were also available on regular Trans Ams as a standalone option, or with the WS6 Performance Package, which this car has (18,348 Trans Ams and Formulas were so equipped).
The nice thing about classic Pontiacs is that original documentation is available from Pontiac Historical Services for a reasonable fee, and we can see that all these options added almost $4,000 to the Trans Am’s $8,670.23 suggested retail base price.
This car came with extensive paperwork, including a build sheet that shows us that the car was built in Van Nuys, California (in the first week of July, according to the body tag), several months after the last Pontiac V8 was built.
And as we know, the updated 1982 Trans Am was only available with the 305, in both four-barrel and Cross Fire Injection tunes. Any plans for a turbocharged Pontiac 265 were shelved upon Stempel’s decree, and that was that. The public would have to get used to buying a Chevy-powered Pontiac. And indeed, Trans Am sales were up for 1982: 52,962. But they would never reach those 1979 heights again, not by a mile.
And if you wanted a late-year 1981 Trans Am to hold onto, and you needed to have a manual transmission, this wouldn’t have been a bad way to go. It has absolutely gorgeous Light Blue Metallic paint, blue velour interior, dual exhausts, a hatch roof, a limited-slip 3.42 axle, and yes, a Chevy engine. Whoever bought this car new clearly said, “Might as well get used to it.”
My production figures come from Rocky Rotella’s book, The Definitive Firebird & Trans Am Guide 1970 1/2-81, a great book for those who like these cars.
Related Reading
1981 Trans Am Auction on Bring a Trailer
Curbside Classic: 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am – Instant Attitude (by Joseph Dennis)
1981 Pontiac Firebird Esprit With The Rare 4.3L (265 CID) Engine, Last Of The True Pontiac V-8s (by Aaron Severson)
I’ve commented before about my own 1981 4 speed 305 TransAm which I purchased new in early 1981 and ended up selling before the end of the year. It wasn’t a great car and it didn’t really fit my “lifestyle” but I do miss it. I bought it very spontaneously off the lot when I just happened to see it running an errand across the street, and it was a pretty unusual option combo for the time: 4 speed (as Aaron mentions, first time in California for several years), WS6 package, and no “screaming chicken decal on the hood”. It was my first new car and my first car loan. As well as my first and last V8.
The convergence of the options led to an interesting experience with GM Customer Service. As soon as the snow melted in the high Sierras, I took it on a brisk drive over the Sierra crest to my favorite hot springs which involved several miles of washboard gravel road. While the fairly smooth pavement and tight switchbacks of Sonora Pass were very fun, even with its modest by 2026 standards power, the gravel road resulted in some parts loss. Two symptoms ensued: a loud rattle in the passenger door, and severe wheelspin accelerating out of tight right hand turns. The dealer took care of the first, but was stumped by the latter, after putting it on the rack and “testing” that the limited slip differential seemed to be working to spec. So – to their credit – they brought in the zone service rep. Except he was very young, and couldn’t drive a manual transmission! So he let me drive it to demo the problem, though he seemed surprised by the aggressive technique needed to show the problem.
Eventually I figured it out … the hardware for the front swaybar link on one side had come loose and fallen off, probably on the Eastern Sierra washboard. So in right hand turns the imbalance between front and rear roll stiffness caused enough inside rear wheel lift to unweight the tire and overpower the limited slip. I called the zone service rep and he made an appointment at another dealership to replace the parts. I watched from outside the shop as the tech lifted the car, and looked at the parts he had in hand, looked at the suspension, and then walked back to the parts department. He came back a few minutes later and finished the job. I tested the car at the first opportunity and the wheelspin was cured.
When I got home I crawled underneath to check out the job. Now one of the features of the WS6 option package was urethane swaybar end link bushings. They were distinguished by their light color. My new bushing was black rubber. I realized that the tech had noticed that, went back to the parts counter to get the right bushings, but they didn’t have them in stock and just installed the rubber bushings. Needless to say I called my now-friend at zone service and he put things right. I’ll give GM credit for hiring a good guy even though he didn’t seem to know much about cars.
I can understand why the mechanics had such a hard time diagnosing the problem to a front sway bar link; that’s one of those things that only makes sense once you find the missing link. Good for them for making it all right, although it took a few more steps that it should have. It’s not a good look that they didn’t tell you about the rubber bushings and tell you to come back when they had the urethane bushings in hand.
I purchased an Olds 403 powered 1979 Trans Am. It was my first car after college. The car didn’t corner flat in one direction and I looked and saw the link to the front sway bar was missing. The power antenna also failed almost immediately. Then the drivers side sun visor fell into my lap on the way to work. The washer which held the spring was never peened over so the greasy tapered shaft fell on my tan trousers.
With all that and 10mpg I sold it less than 2 years later and got a Honda Civic!!
OMG, I traded in mine for a (new) Civic less than a year after buying it. The only trade-ins I’ve ever done were trading in my Scirocco for the TA, and then trading in the TA for the Civic.
Another interesting Ponco, it looks like this low mileage car has been resprayed .
-Nate
This has to rate as a GM Deadly Sin. Imagine putting a 145 hp 305 into a Trans-am? I mean, what were they thinking?The least they could have done was put a four barrel carb on it to wake it up, but nooooo, GM had provide a common or garden variety 305 chuffer in an Firebird.
A new intake, cam and real dual exhaust perks these cars right up. A mild performance upgrade would easily make 200 hp. I should know, we did plenty!
Sadly, I think the LG4 had a four-barrel in 1981!
This was the LG4 engine, and it DID have a four-barrel carburetor, which is indicated on the broadcast sheet: “LG4 V8 305 4BBL.” It was down 5 hp from 1980, but gained 10 lb-ft of torque, probably due to retuning for the tougher 1981 CO standards, better gas mileage, or both.
(In the Camaro, the automatic 305 lost 0.8 mpg from 1980, but the 4-speed picked up 0.8 mpg.)
It had a 4 barrel.
Should it have had a 350? Probably. But – acknowledging that my memories are now 45 years old – the 305 had plenty of low- and mid-range spunk. 245 ft-lbs of torque at 2400 rpm was capable of moving the car with its stiff anti-roll bars and 8” wide wheels along a (smooth) twisty road or an autocross course with good pace for the standards of the time. Steering was precise though feel was merely OK, but the ratio was quick and it was definitely a fun car to hustle through California canyons. Top end wasn’t great and after about 80-90 it accelerated pretty slowly up to 120 mph, nothing more.
The beginning of the end for Pontiac. It was a wise decision for GM to eliminate redundant V-8 engine production and shift the Pontiac engine plant to 4-cylinder engines, but the Pontiac V-8 was one of the few things that made a Pontiac a Pontiac. After this, they were slightly upmarket Chevrolets or slightly downgraded Buicks and Oldsmobiles. Yes there were a few bangers after this era, the Fiero and G8 and the Solstice, but most of the cars were just redundant.
That’s why GM’s plummeting market share was so sad. Dropping brands made a lot of sense because of all the overlap in models, but when you’ve built brand equity for almost 100 years, feelings are going to get hurt.
Nothing like pissing away 3 years of astounding success against the odds for corporate cost cutting and compliance. Trans Ams from 77-79 did very well in sales for the kind of car they were with 400( mostly 403) cubes in spite of insurance premiums or what it cost to feed them, but here comes 1980 with the wimpy(but at least it’s a Pontiac) 301 then this wimpier Chevy 305. Cool it has the 4-speed, and the looks in and out are still mostly there but, what a sad car. They weren’t competing by this time but comparison between it and a Mustang II Cobra II with the 302 might be embarrassing for the Poncho in a way it wouldn’t have in 77-78
But at least we got the beloved Iron Duke out of it
The people who decided the fate of a beloved car line cannot justify its production when it doesn’t sell. Debating whether the Firebird could have been saved if this or that engine, this or that option, or this or that price, suggests that the people running GM were incompetent and heartless. They weren’t.
The market just wasn’t there anymore. I remember this era and the trend was towards smarter, lighter, more practical, flexible automobiles. Better gas mileage, more efficiency, higher quality. Sorry, but compared to its modern competitors, the Firebird had only its legacy. It wasn’t the future.
These attempts to keep the Firebird viable in face of its competition took many forms,. We could have seen Pontiac do to the Firebird what they did to the GTO – turn it into an option on a compact or subcompact line. If the GTO could end up as a festooned compact Ventura, then a Firebird could have been a sportier Sunbird hatchback, right? They didn’t do that, but GM tried other ways to keep the Firebird going.
My mom drove these cars. I wasn’t impressed. I liked the new smaller sporty cars. Firebirds were throwbacks.
The Trans Am submodel (which catrried the entire Firebird line sold at its very peak in 1979 with mandatory 400/403 cubic inch power. It dinininished thereafter with the troublesome 301 turbo and NA 301 and Chevy 305 power. Is that the market arbitrarily deciding the car was a dinosaur or corporate decisions that ruined a successful car?
Yeah the Trans Am wasn’t a Toyota Celica, but it had a market it appealed to regardless until it was emasculated into a restyled Camaro
Neither: It was primarily that the second oil crisis put the brakes on domestic new car sales by the summer of 1979. Total domestic new car registrations fell by 1.6 million cars for 1980, and another 350K for 1981, a result of high inflation, high gas prices, and very high interest rates. The sales boom preceding that could not continue in that climate. By 1981, the F-bodies were also 11 years old and about to be replaced, which didn’t help.
Buyers wanted these types of rides.
Yeah and after a few years slumming it they wanted these…