The 1969 Pontiac Trans Am
Lot#1
The
1969 Pontiac Trans Am
Lot#1
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The Firebird Gallery is proud to bring you some photos of one of the original 8 convertible Trans Ams. This is it folks!! This is the real thing. This is one of the eight Trans Am convertibles and one of four 4-speeds. Surprisingly the car was auctioned off by a museum in Tennessee. The description that was included in the auction is as follows: "This is a 1969 Pontiac Trans Am convertible. This car is 1 of 8 that were made. 4 automatics and 4 standard transmissions were made. This one is a 4-speed. This is absolutely on of the rarest Pontiacs made. This car is triple white. The only one made with this color combination. It has a WS4 HO Ram Air III 335HP motor and a 4-speed. The car has a special hood made just for these cars. The car has a woodgrain steering wheel, Quadrajet 4BBL carb, chrome valve covers, free flow dual exhaust, rear spoiler, heavy duty suspension, Safe-T-Track, blue body stripes, power disc brakes, power steering, F70-14 tires, custom trim interior, front fender air vents, factory console, wood shift knob and tinted glass. The first owner of this car was a Pontiac executive who ordered it for his company car. The first registered was a gentleman in Lauze-Washington, Pennsylvania. The second owner bought it in 1991 and he was from South Carolina. He had the car restored in 1994 by a professional Pontiac specialist Scott Tieman. Over $40,000 was spent on the restoration. 2 miles have been put on it since the restoration. The last 7 years this car has been in a museum in Tennessee. We have all the paperwork with this car. This is the real deal. This car is in absolutely show condition." Sadly I was unable to contact the winning bidder so I have no idea where this car is now. If anyone would like to offer further info on this car it would be greatly appreciated. Firebird Gallery |
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This pic was contributed by Kenny G. Its the picture he received from Pontiac Historical Services in the documentation package they prepared for his Trans Am (see below). |
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Kenny G owns this Trans Am. The bird is
currently awaiting a full restoration; Kenny is currently restoring a 64' GTO. Kenny says
he's already picked up all the N.O.S sheet metal he needs to perform the restoration and he's
hoping to start on it next winter. The restoration itself may be chronicled in the Project
Firebirds Lot and once its finished I'm sure I'll be posting pics of the finished product
here so keep your eyes out. Kenny owns two other Firebirds: A 1967 Firebird that can be seen at 1967 Firebirds Lot#1 and the newest member of the family a 1973 Formula that can be seen at Projects Lot#3. |
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ITS A CONVERTIBLE!!! Is it a pic of one of the eight? Well I found this one surfing the net so sadly I cannot verify whether or not if it is, but at least you know what one of the eight SHOULD look like and who knows maybe this is one of them. Its a beautiful care either way. Enjoy..... |
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Interested in purchasing a '69 Trans Am model kit? |
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This Trans Am belongs to Lance Kramer
and is powered by one of the legendary RAM AIR Vs. Lance bought the car in 1988 in
Michigan. The car was disassembled but came with several N.O.S parts. The TA retains the
original wide ratio Muncie 4-speed, and 3.55 rear end. The Ram Air Tunnel
Port was
installed during the cars 5-year long frame off restoration. The RAV is outfitted with the
correct crank, rods, pistons, N.O.S cam/lifters, distributor, valve train, and harmonic
balancer. The block code is "WI". Lance has been collecting RAV
Tunnel Port parts
for 15 years. He even has a set of the extremely rare factory F-Body exhaust manifolds.
Less than a dozen were made. He also has another complete RAV waiting to be installed in a
car. Lance also owns a '70 RAIV Orbit Orange Judge and is a subscriber of The
GoatFinder. In fact the car was featured in The GoatFinder in
the March '95 issue. Photos and Info Courtesy of The Classic Firebird Page and The GoatFinder GTO Classifieds. |
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In 1969 the Firebird was a well established Pony Car but the Camaro had the Z28 and Pontiac needed something to compete. John Delorean (the top man at Pontiac at the time) appointed Herb Adams to head the project. Instead of totally redesigning the car a decision was made to make improvements on the existing Firebird. The project was called "Pontiac Firebird Sprint Turismo." Thus the Trans Am was born borrowing the name of the popular road racing series at the time. An interesting factoid about the name is that Pontiac had to agree to pay the SCCA $5 for every car sold carrying the Trans Am name. |
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This is a true Ram Air III Trans Am. At first I thought this might be a Firebird "dressed-up" to look like a Trans Am because of the chrome "Firebird" emblem located on the front fender. I have since learned that these were installed at the factory but only very early in the production run. Only 697 of these beautiful cars came off the assembly lines in 1969. Of those 634 had the Ram Air III installed and a scant 55 (only 9 automatics) received the Ram Air IV power plant making these cars one of the most collectable and desirable musclecars on the market. |
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This is a really nice picturesque shot of a Trans Am at dusk. The moonlight really lights up the black tires and throws a sheen over the whole car. A very aggressive appearance is the result. Everything was functional on these awesome cars. The hood scoops fed cold air through a foam-sealed air cleaner to the carburetor, the fender air extractors routed hot air out of the engine compartment and the perfectly functional rear spoiler provided a huge 100lbs of down force at 100mph. And you thought it was all cosmetics!!! |
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