1980 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am - "Turbo" Is Supposed To Mean Fast

If you didn't know better, you'd think Pontiac created the Trans Am specifically for the 1977 Burt Reynolds star vehicle, "Smokey and the Bandit". While sales of Pontiac's flamboyant 2+2 more than doubled after the premiere of the movie, Pontiac had been making a "Trans Am" since 1969. Ironically, the car was named after a short-lived road race series that had a stipulation that no car in the race could have an engine displacing more than five liters or 305 cubic inches. Pontiac Trans Am's, if anything, were famous for their massive engines - some as large as 7.4 liters or 455 cubic inches. The Smokey and The Bandit T/A's had 400 cubic inch Pontiac V-8's. I wonder, though, where it not for sales of the T/A after "Smokey and The Bandit" came out, would Pontiac have continued to make the Trans Am come 1980 when said large and powerful engines were no longer available?

 

Of course, we'll never know the answer to that and sadly, Pontiac did. With their downsized Firebird not ready for prime time by 1980 and the 6.6 liter Trans Am engines having been dropped after 1979 because they couldn't meet government-mandated fuel economy standards, Pontiac bolted a turbocharger onto the small V-8 they were still building and created the Turbo Trans Am. Why they didn't use a version of the engine Chevrolet used in their Corvette or Camaro Z28 or even Buick's turbo V-6 is a head-scratcher for the ages. Who knows.

Keep in mind that General Motor's myriad divisions were still fairly autonomous as recently as the late 1970's. Therefore it's fairly safe to assume then that the idea of Pontiac using a Chevrolet V-8 engine in the image-conscious Trans Am was verboten. Chevrolet could have said no too for all it matters. Anyway, the reality was whether the hamstringing was self-inflicted or not, Pontiac's engineers went back to the lab to do what was deemed virtually impossible at the time - bake up a high performance, fuel-efficient engine that could pass ever more stringent federal fresh air regulations.

What they come up with was the "Turbo 4.9". Using an AiResearch turbocharger on top of a beefed up version of their 301 cubic inch V-8, Pontiac claimed it made 210 horsepower and 345 pound-feet of torque. Quite impressive considering the Oldsmobile 403 that powered 1979 T/A's made just 185 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. Quite impressive - on paper. 

Despite higher horsepower and torque ratings, published year-to-year drag tests indicate a 0-60 time a full second slower and quarter mile time 10 miles per hour lower. Might not sound like much of a drop but to the seat of your pants, those drops were enormous especially in a car that had sporting pretension. There's no way "The Bandit" was too happy with his 1980 Turbo T/A in "Smokey and the Bandit II". If you're wondering, "I" was the one with the beer while "II" was the one with the elephant. Yes. An elephant.



The problem with the "Turbo 4.9" was in the real world it just didn't work very well. The little AirResearch turbo made just 9 pounds of boost and the charge it made was forced through tortuous plumbing upstream into the carburetor. The literal heavy lifting that the engine did, these cars were quite hefty, came primarily from modifications done to the engine above and beyond the turbocharger. To increase airflow, Pontiac used an oversized Quadrajet on a high rise, offset (note the hood bulge) aluminum intake manifold. To make the most of the twist, they used a 3.08 rear axle. Pontiac would probably been better off just hopping up the 4.9 sans the turbo, again if the Corvette or Camaro engine was not available, but selling a car with a new engine that was 102 cubic inches smaller than what it replaced was a long enough putt. "Turbo", implies power and speed even if, in the case of the 1980-1981 Turbo Trans Am, it's little more than a sticker. after  At least the Turbo Trans Am got this lovely nose job and oh, those rims. To die for.

Notoriously difficult to modify, most Turbo 4.9's were yanked in favor of torquier, more powerful and reliable 400s and 455s. Which makes any remaining running Turbo Trans Ams very rare, ahem, birds. Sorry. Pontiac, wisely, charged only $350 for the turbo option above and beyond "base" Trans Am's and Formula Firebirds, yes, the turbo was available on the Formula Firebird (Turbo Formula), with non turbocharged 301 engines.

About the only thing more disappointing than the performance of the Turbo Trans Am was the dreadful "Smokey and the Bandit II". Panned by critics and a box office dud, Pontiac didn't see anywhere near the sales increase for the T/A they had when "I" burst onto the scene. So, that's the impetus for my wondering if the T/A would have gone on as long as it did without the success of the first "Smokey". Let's not even go there about "Smokey III" - yes, there was one featuring a 1983 "little" T/A where Snowman was Bandit and...oh. Never mind. Not that the "Smokey" trilogy was really about Pontiac, but with Pontiac dead and buried, I wouldn't hold my breath for a fourth installment. That's probably a good thing.