For any car lover, the various automotive offerings of their teenage years often leave indelible marks upon their consciousness. These various cars and trucks are forever associated with their youth, with many people later spending years and fortunes as adults trying to recapture the carefree feelings they experienced during this impressionable time.
To a not insignificant portion of readers at CC, particularly for those in North America, the Pontiac Trans Am GTA is a contributor in creating those indelible marks we possess. It is certainly true in the case of the guy typing what you are now reading.
Chalk up this indelibility to Lou Wassel. Wassel, who came to work at Pontiac in 1982, the year the third generation F-body was introduced, was in charge of developing its successor. This was short lived as by 1984 Wassel was promoted to what has been described as director of sporty car marketing.
As a side note, GM had envisioned replacement of the 1982 era F-body by model year 1987 or 1988. Obviously that did not happen as the next F-body, the one Wassel had been briefly associated with, wasn’t introduced until the 1993 model year.
gtasourcepage.com
In his new directorial capacity Wassel had access to every car found at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds. Wassel took full advantage of this resource, driving Mustangs, Supras, Sciroccos – everything – to better familiarize himself with the competition. In looking at these various models and their available trimmings, then comparing them to the General Motors offerings, Wassel identified two gaps in the Firebird’s market, primarily in mid- and upper-price range (circled above).
The first gap was reflected with the Firebird SE, the trim available from 1982 to 1986, which bridged the gap between base Firebird and Trans Am models. The Firebird SE was intended as a competitor to the Mustang GT, but its problems were two-fold; one, it was offered with both V6 and V8 engines whereas the Mustang GT was V8 only. The SE lacked the definitive attributes of the Mustang GT.
Second, despite the sales expectation likely being of a lesser standard than the Mustang GT or Camaro, SE production volumes were truly miserable, bottoming out at 2,259 Firebird SE’s for 1986. The base Firebird outsold the SE by well over 25:1 that year – and the base Firebird still had the 2.5 liter Iron Duke four-cylinder as a standard engine.
On the upper end of their market, Pontiac was discovering those who purchased Corvettes and Supras were not considering Trans Ams. At this time the Trans Am was still festooned with screaming chickens and other assorted visual trinkets, physical traits that did not hold universal appeal. Wassel identified room for improvement.
In January 1985 Wassel made a trip to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The purpose of the trip was to study the Air Force’s use of heads-up displays in its air fleet and how it could be applied to GM vehicles. While there, Wassel saw an SR-71 Blackbird. He was smitten.
He was also inspired.
Wassel was captivated by the stealthy black paint and minimal striping. He said it appeared to going Mach 3 despite being on static display.
Returning to Detroit, Wassel married his observation and inspirations. He immediately proposed the idea of jettisoning the SE for the return of the better known Formula trim. In turn, he wanted to bring about a more mature Trans Am.
Selling the idea of the Formula was not overly difficult; John Schinella, a design manager at Pontiac studios, had a graphics package prepared the same day Wassel floated the idea. Receiving buy-in for this more mature Trans Am, a concept Wassel was now calling the Blackbird, was less straightforward.
www.gtasourcepage.com
In a smart move, Wassel contacted acquaintances at the Van Nuys, California, assembly plant. His request was for a new, 1985 Trans-Am to be painted black and built devoid of all exterior graphics. It was to be Wassel’s company car but also his guinea pig for the concept.
Wassel took this car to Schinella at Pontiac’s design studios. Schinella said he needed the car for ironing out various details of Wassel’s concept. Schinella also informed Wassel his idea of using “Blackbird” was not going to happen, informing Wassel it would be called GTA for “Grand Turismo Americano”.
Various different exterior graphics designs were tested but it was ultimately decided to leave the car monochromatic and with minimal trim. The various exterior badges proclaiming it to be a GTA are referred to as cloisonné badges.
In regard to parts, these badges and the seats are the only unique parts on the GTA. The standard WS6 performance suspension used nothing but off-the-shelf parts, as did the rest of the car. It was strictly the combination of parts that melded to create the GTA.
One of those off-the-shelf parts is the gold lace wheels. From statements Wassel has made on two separate occasions, it seems the weight of the ordinary Trans-Am wheels, combined with whatever weight was added due to the use of various suspension parts, would have triggered EPA gas-guzzler status. These gold wheels were just enough lighter to escape this undesirable certification.
The Trans Am GTA is no lightweight, being in the 3,500 pound weight range.
These gold lace wheels had been around since at least 1982, having been used on the special edition “Bandit” Trans Am that year.
The GTA (and Formula) was introduced for model year 1987. The introduction of the GTA also marked the first use of the Chevrolet 350 V8 in any variety of third generation Firebird. All Firebirds from 1982 to 1986 had a 305 cubic inch V8 as its highest output and largest displacement engine. However, to its credit, Pontiac was thinking performance by offering three versions of the 305 in 1986 – there was the four-barrel, four-barrel high output, and port injected high output versions. These weren’t exactly nosebleed-mobiles for the time.
The 350 utilized by the GTA was also off-the-shelf as it was a Corvette engine with different cylinder heads. It was standard fare for the GTA although a 305 was available as a delete option; the 305 was also the only engine available for anyone who wanted a GTA with a clutch pedal.
For its forty-five cubic inch advantage, the 350 only made five horsepower more than the 205 found in the smaller engine. However, the 350 had a 45 ft-lb advantage in torque. The 350 would continue to grow its horsepower output, peaking at 240 for 1991. Similarly, the 305 kept getting healthier, making more volumetric horsepower than the bigger engine, particularly when mated to a manual transmission.
For someone who had just turned fifteen when these were introduced, the GTA seemed like one of the most powerful and fastest production cars in the history of the planet. Hey, it had over 200 horsepower, breaking a threshold that had not been touched in quite a while. It was heady stuff.
Squawking buzzards had been a fixture on all Trans Ams for the bulk of my life at that point. Now, here was a Trans Am free of such tacky things, painted in black, and bestowed with wheels that provided a distinct visual pop. These weren’t the wheels of the regular Trans Am, wheels which appeared identical to those found on nasty Sunbirds and goofy Fieros. The GTA being a special Trans Am was obvious from the start.
It was the Trans Am I would have purchased had my father coughed up the money. It was the Trans Am I could envision myself purchasing had I been ten to fifteen years older at the time. It was a Trans Am presenting a higher degree of sophistication and with a minimalist aesthetic absent on all other Firebirds.
This was the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees, the berries, and a bag of chips.
Naturally, the one I mentally purchased had the 350. Anything less was simply undesirable, unworthy, and a waste of my time.
But, as is typical in life, other things happened and I forgot about the GTA. Pontiac continued offering it until the next generation came about for model year 1993. Production numbers for the GTA ranged from 7,400 to 9,500 for the first three years it was offered, dropping to less than 1,000 for 1990 and settling out at 226 for 1992.
The GTA was also offered in Canada, with numbers being predictably less, peaking in its first year at 1,509 and ending at a mere 48 in 1992.
Rightly or wrongly, GM gets a lot of crap for the cars they built during the 1980s. Sure, these Firebirds had their own various issues and the interior of the GTA didn’t present itself in a manner much different than a basic Firebird, except for perhaps the abundance of buttons.
However, with its GTA, Pontiac helped pull automotive enthusiasts out of the doldrums that had existed since the early 1970s. The inherent inertia of despair is hard to overcome and Lou Wassel along with everyone else associated with the Trans Am GTA worked diligently to change this undesirable course.
For that alone, this automatic transmission GTA with 156,000 miles on the odometer is a remarkable car and this fine specimen of the breed deserves its due attention. Not many cars are able to generate thirty years dormant teenage optimism quite like a black, upscale Trans Am, especially one meant to appeal to a more mature and cultured clientele.
Found June 2020
Wellsville, Missouri
Thanks for this. My knee-jerk response to “1980’s Firebird” has always been “screaming chicken”, so it’s good to read that saner heads prevailed by 1987. I had mostly stopped paying attention to Firebirds by 1987; I was 31 and engaged, and Firebirds were more for hanging with the bros, so I missed out on these. Otherwise I might have been tempted.
Having cut my automotive teeth on 454 Chevelles and such, it’s funny to think that 200 hp was a big deal 15 years later.
That was my initial impression also when I stumbled upon this T/A. Then, seeing the badges, I knew it was unique in the F-body stable.
It is funny what a few years of difference in age will do. I was of car-buying age when these came out but these were simply invisible to me. It was the Mustang GT that captured my attention, and for some reason these never even made it onto my radar. Even now, had I come across this car I would have gone “Hmmm, black Firebird” and moved along on my way.
Now that you have educated me a bit (OK, more than a bit) I can see something of value here. But based on those production figures, it appears that I was not alone back then.
These were on my radar as I read Motor Trend and Car & Driver – it seemed like they were testing some variety of F-body about every other month. So I had exposure.
Plus these had more engine than a Mustang as more cubic inches always equates to superiority, at least in my 15 year old mind. If I were choosing now, it would be Mustang GT all day long.
An admission…I am fairly confident this is the first F-body I’ve ever bothered with writing about. There is one other I need to address someday, a rather brougham-y mid-70s Camaro. But I haven’t been sufficiently inspired.
I unconsciously unbuttoned a couple of upper buttons on my shirt and wistfully rubbed my mustache area while reading this…All stereotypes aside, this combination of options (or reduction of them) hits the sweet spot and gets it closest to the usually comparatively more restrained Mustang competitor. Actually even more, as this was the time that the Mustang GT was a little extravagant with the body kit and those busy wheels, leaving the LX 5.0 as the “mature” choice.
Nice find and proof that with a parts bin as deep as GM’s anyone can judiciously select a good combination of them as long as there’s a will to do so.
Add me to the Mustang Lx camp, I always thought the GT was too cartoonish. It’s my version of a time machine, I feel 17 every time I get behind the wheel.
No doubt the cleanest, strongest version of this gen. Firebird. Designwise the Firebird version of this generation F body is a bit sleeker looking than my ’88 IROC-Z 350, but to my retired deeeezignurr eyes the IROC-Z is more “muscular” visually.
The Firebird seats at least appear more supportive than the flaccid buckets in my Camaro. If the Firebird suspension matches the F-41 under my car, both would still be enjoyable today on a curvy moutain road…..:)
Thanks for the interesting write up on this version of the Gen 3 Firebird; I had forgotten about this relatively unknown model. DFO
Really nice IROC, Dennis. I like that color on it a lot.
I never knew the real story behind the GTA. What I find somewhat ironic is that the GTA was envisioned as a more mature Trans Am, but your title here (“Generating Teenage Appreciation”) was completely accurate. As a teenager in the late 1980s, I recall these GTAs being even more coveted than Camaro IROC-Z among the aspirational teenage crowd.
But I have to wonder, Who actually bought GTAs? I’d love to know if the demographics actually skewed measurably older than for other F-body cars… I have no idea about that. But regardless, the general concept (essentially ‘less is more,’ especially relating to garish displays of fastness with which F-cars had become synonymous) was pure marketing brilliance. I think the GTA did inject some interest in the Firebird line at a crucial time.
Like with many other cars, I’m reminded of the one person I knew who owned one. In the mid 1990s, I worked at a store located in a somewhat run-down strip of older commercial buildings – the kind of place with stores and take-out restaurants on the first floor, and then scrappy apartments on the second floor. A guy who lived in one of those apartments drove a white GTA. It was probably about 7-8 years old by that point, and rather ragged, as was its owner, who was going through a tough time in life (which was why he was living in a cheap apartment). From what I recall, he was a landscaper, and had bought the car new when he was in his 20s, after which time his life sort of fell apart.
Perhaps these appealed to teenagers because so many teenagers strive to look, appear, and be granted privileges of those older than them. This would be another mechanism to reach that goal.
Plus, it was different.
Growing up in Toronto it was believed that only young Italians bought the IROC. (It Runs On Cologne). The GTA in any colour was the car most of my friend’s drooled over.
The GTA was also the basis for the 1989 Turbo Trans Am.
I think “Blackbird” would have been a better name, but then “GTA” has become quite the popular acronym. Is there a GTA in GTA?
As a matter of fact, kinda sorta. As per GTA practice it’s an amalgamation of Camaro and Firebird and other 80s sports car bits called “Imponte Ruiner”
This guy in Portland actually cloned the graphics onto a TA!
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/members-firebirds/754297-imponte-ruiner-mine.html
FWIW, Ford might have been the first to use GTA on the ’66 Fairlane and Mustang. Back then, the ‘A’ meant it had an automatic transmission.
AMC also had the Alliance GTA around the same time.
I never understood the reasoning for segregating transmission options from the same family of engines, a 350 5-speed would have been too much fun I guess. For that reason, I’m out. Hello Mustang GT.
The common manual transmissions back then was the Borg Warner T-5, it was fairly fragile compared to the old 4 speeds of the 60s & 70s. Yes you could put one behind a 350, but don’t ask much of it. You couldn’t order it that way anyways.
Like Bob mentions, it had to do with the T-5 transmission. The L98 TPI 350 produced too much torque for the transmission and so it wasn’t even considered to pair the two. The T-5 only had a 300 lb-ft rating, so even the 5.0L Ford engine maxed it out since it had a peak torque of 300 lb-ft. The 5.0L Chevrolet engines usually made well under 300 lb-ft so it was okay.
The L98 was used in the Corvette, and it made more power in that application. However, the Vette used the Doug-Nash 4 3 transmission, which was essentially a Borg Warner Super T-10 with an auxiliary overdrive. In 1989, the Corvette got the ZF 6-seed, but this was never an option in the F-body. It wasn’t until 1993 that the F-body 350 a got a manual, the much stronger T-56, now combined with the more powerful LT1. This combination made the 1993 F-body the clear performance leader in the pony car class.
Great explanations, I had forgotten the T5 was the only game in town for a while. I guess that trans was a product of its time, engineered to be as light as possible for an era of low torque engines.
I graduated high school in 1988 and the GTA, Iroc and Mustang GT were all on my radar. Basically the rich kids got a GTA or IrocZ everyone else got a Mustang GT or if they couldn’t afford that a LX. I remember the Mustangs had such a cool aftermarket support the make them each so unique.. but the king of the road was the Buick Grand National, back then nothing could run with those. This was mid to late eighties in Central NJ. Summertime cruising the Jersey Shore, IROC’s stood for Italian Retard Out Cruising !!! My good friend was the first to get a Saleen Mustang and I thought they were awesome. A lot of good cars can be found from the eighties. Now is the time to pick 1 up for cheap….t-tops for life ! LOL
This was an excellent, super informative read. It serves as a perfect summary of the GTA’s mission statement. I had always been aware of the GTA as being the top-rung Firebird, but I knew nothing of its genesis.
Wasn’t the notchback-looking hatchback thing an option only for the GTA for certain model years?
Also, I hadn’t realized that the S/E was intended as a Mustang GT competitor. I had always thought the S/E was the modernized replacement for the “Esprit” submodel, king of like a Firebird “Berlinetta”.
Great piece, Jason.
Thank you.
There was indeed a notchback. It was offered one year and the take rate was pretty low. The story I found for its brief life stated the supplier could not get them to fit. The supplier had followed GM’s blueprints to the letter. In conversation about the failure to fit, somebody with GM said something to the effect of “yeah, ever noticed how the tail lights never quite fit on the one side? All of these Firebirds are built a 1/2″ or so out of square.”
I believe that was either in the GTA resource page website or in an article I found at hotrod.com
Wow. This would explain the things I’ve read about panel fit and build quality of this generation, though I remain a fan. Firebirds of this generation were the hot new cars back in the day when kids our age all compared our Trapper Keepers.
In black and from this angle, the GTA notchback kind of has a “big Fiero” look to it. I like it better now than I did back then.
You learn something new at CC everyday. The take rate must’ve been very low on these, as I didn’t even know about that notchback until today.
I had book from 2002 of firebirds through the years and one of the pictures in it had a front corner view of a GTA where you could just barely see the notchback hatch. It wasn’t a very good book, it made zero mention of it and it drove me crazy for years before I saw an example.
I’m not sure how I feel about it, I like notchback Mustangs, I like notchback Fieros better than the fastback ones, and in black it looks pretty good on that GTA but the shape is kind of odd, with unsightly seam lines to the body that are hard to ignore on lighter colors, and the purpose of its existence is pretty unclear, being only available on the top of the line model. Weight savings vs the large glass?
Have your hatch on that is aftermarket. Giving it more of a fiero look. Doesn’t have the normal rear windshield hatch which would give it a different look
“yeah, ever noticed how the tail lights never quite fit on the one side? All of these Firebirds are built a 1/2″ or so out of square.”
That is legit! The hatch on a lot of them is noticeably out of line with the quarter panel on the right side. 82s seem to suffer it the worst.
Even this promo car shows it
Fantastic read Jason. I too was a teen who drooled over the pony cars of this era. I used to have stacks of magazines comparing the F-body to the Fox body. This was a really great time for American car performance enthusiast with this resurgence. My older cousin had the means to buy around then, and ended up factory ordering a 90 Mustang GT in the fall of 1989. It was pretty awesome to get to go for rides in that car.
I was pretty well versed in these cars back then, memorizing all the stats and specs. For whatever reason, the Firebird was always the least appealing to me. I much preferred the Camaro over it, and also really liked the Mustang, more so after my cousin bought his. So while I was aware of the GTA, I wasn’t that well versed in its history. So thank you again for a very interesting read.
The way I remember it, the 5.0 Mustang was the leading the pony wars in the mid to late 80’s and the F bodies were trying to play catch-up. The Formula was likely brought back to try to capture sales from the popular 5.0 LX. For a little more than half the price of a new Corvette, you could get an LX and with a few cheap mods that will run with the Vette. The GT didn’t directly with the SE, that doesn’t seem like reality. It was already beating the TA and Z28. It wasn’t until the 350 were introduced as a way to keep up. Unfortunately, without a 5 SPD, it didn’t take away performance value type mustang buyers.
A truly bad ass car. I have a buddy who’s had an ’89 GTA with the 350 that had recently replaced the tired 350 (was blowing blue smoke) with a C7 Corvette engine. The car looks just like this one….black, menacing, and the epitome of cool for those of us that were kids in the 80’s who grew up worshipping these kinds of cars.
Is the gray still available in how much you want for it