1983 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am ; A special Daytona 500 pace car replica.(Brief Article)

No matter how you judge it, in the early 1980s the American car industry was in rough shape. Performance, economy, build quality, styling-there was little that Detroit seemed capable of doing right. With one of the Big Three bankrupt (Chrysler), another nearly so (Ford) and the third in a state of disorganization (General Motors) that it still hasn't straightened out 20 years later, it's amazing that any notable cars were produced during this era. Snickering aside, one of the highlights of this dark time in our domestic automotive history is GM's third-generation F-body.

When Pontiac restyled its version for model year 1982, it faced a rather daunting task. The 12-year-old second-generation pony car had been through more facelifts than Liz Taylor, and given the paucity of power that was available from emissions-challenged engines, the car was just too big. In a New Wave world, Firebirds-especially in their ``screaming chicken'' Trans Am clothes-were too disco.

But despite a seven-inch-shorter wheelbase and EPA classification as a compact, the new-for-'82 models were still bloated, with the top-of-the-line Trans Am weighing all of 3300 pounds. The good thing was, it didn't show. The T/A's contemporary styling screamed sportiness and was as attractive as anything on the road that wasn't European. The interior also benefited from the redesign: Cargo volume increased dramatically in the hatchback coupe, due to a curved, frameless glass hatch. Even better, the styling was engineered for aerodynamics; the Trans Am boasted the best drag coefficient (0.32) of any car sold in the United States at the time.

Pontiac ditched its unreliable 4.9-liter turbocharged V8 in favor of a single powerplant for the new T/A, a 5.0-liter Chevy V8 in both carbureted and dual throttle body injected form. The TBI engine was rated at 165 hp with 240 lb-ft of torque, but was only available with an automatic transmission. The four-barrel engine made 20 less horsepower, but came with a four-speed manual. Due to a low torque peak, just ...