The 1979 Special Edition Trans Am
Lot#1

This Special Edition Trans Am is owned by Joseph Galate. It comes equipped with the Pontiac 400c.i. engine, 4-speed tranny, T-Tops, black cloth interior, WS6 Performance Package, A/C, power windows, power door locks, tilt, and cruise control. Joseph has an engine rebuild and interior restoration planned after the current work on the car is finished.. Joseph has already located the correct NOS cloth for his seats, but he is currently looking for a gold dash-bezel and black/gold 3 spoke steering wheel. McBee Cars in Columbia, Missouri is handling the restoration chores. The engine compartment is undergoing a total part off restoration. Both the front and rear suspension are being replaced with poly-urethane bushings, Koni shocks, new brakes and new stainless steel fuel lines for the fuel system.

Paul Maliszewski owns this beautiful Trans Am. Paul writes: "I bought it in March 1995 with 45K on it; it now has a little over 52K.  It is all original although I believe most if not all of the body was repainted its original Starlight Black.   It has all of the usual graphics.  It still had its original Goodyear Polysteels (which are in the picture) when I bought it; all four were evenly worn.   he car originally came from Art Moran Pontiac, Southfield, MI.  However, the original owner's, a thirty-plus year old couple, were from New Hampshire; which is where the car got its first title in March 1979.  To this day the only modification the car has is removal of the converter, by the original owner as far as I know, which I still have. All of the emissions stuff is still intact on the 400.  My primary reason for buying it was its unmolested condition, excellent ride and geographic location; I found her in a dealer's showroom in Lunenburg, MA just before we were moving back to Tennessee. Everything works, she drives real tight and she also sounds excellent, especially with the cat removed." Paul provided me with two new pics of his TA. These were taken at Memphis '98. E-mail: Paul Maliszewski

This Special Edition Trans Am is owned and driven regularly by Leonard and Sheryl Temple. Here's how the TA is optioned: 6.6 Liter 403ci 4bbl V8 Edelbrock Performer Intake & 750 cfm 4bbl Carb Hooker Headers and Flowmaster dual exhaust Turbo-Hydromatic 400 Transmission Power Brakes, Power Steering Tilt Steering Wheel Air Conditioning Power Windows Intermittent Wipers Power Trunk Release 15 x 7 Special Edition "Snowflake" Sport Wheels Black Exterior Finish Black Custom Cloth Interior Leonard's daughter owns, a recently restored, 1978 Formula that can be seen on '78 Firebirds Lot#3.

David Meyers owns this awesome Special Edition Trans Am. This entry on the site marks an occasion. I had the pleasure of meeting David at the 2000 TA Nats and took these pictures of his Trans Am myself, a site first. David writes:      "My 1979 Pontiac Trans Am was acquired in an unusual way... While on a trip to the North Carolina Mountains in 1997 my wife and I passed by a car lot that had a 1987 Pontiac GTA. We went on with out trip and stopped back by on the way back home. I decided that I would like to have the car so I made all of the necessary arrangements with the bank and the car lot and drove 2 1/2 hours back to pick the GTA up. I had only had the car about 1 month when a gentleman followed me home and asked if I would like to sell it, well of course it being new to me I said no, apparently he had several GTA‘s but no white one. Approximately 3 months later the motor problems began... I had the car basically sitting up until I could repair the motor in it when I had a phone call from the same guy who had wanted to buy the car earlier offering to trade me even a 1979 black Trans Am with 21,000 original miles on it for my GTA with a blown motor. I didn’t hesitate one moment when this offer was made we had the paper work done and notarized within a couple of days and he delivered my Black 79’ TA on a rollback... with a little cleaning up and a lot of waxing she was almost perfect... The car is now garage kept and only taken out on bright sunny days and of course car shows... I drove my '79 Trans Am to Dayton, Ohio this year for it’s first showing in the Trans Am Nationals and look forward to next years show when I plan to enter it for judging as well..."

This exquisite looking S.E. Trans Am is owned by Scott Reid. Scott writes:     "You have a great site. Here's my story, in 1978 I bought a new black on black Trans Am. It had every option but it was not an S/E, I had to sell the car late in '78. In the middle 80'S I started looking for an exact match for the one I bought new.  I couldn't find one so A year ago I opened my options to '77 - '79 black on black T/A'S. In July I Found a '77 S/E that was loaded, it happened to be Burt Reynolds' personal car! I'm enclosing a few pictures for you (can be seen in 1977 Special Edition Trans Ams Lot#1) and yes it really was Burt's car. I had the documentation to prove original title with Burt's signature, the auction slip and newspaper articles with the persons name listed as the buyer, a brochure from Burt's home with he and his son sitting on the car (you can see those pictures on the Bandit club site) and a few more things. Anyway while I was waiting for the car to be shipped I found a new convertible, so I decided to sell Burt's T/A. A really nice lady by the name of Teresa from Canada bought the car. While all of this was going one the 2001 T/A sold! So I went looking for a perfect low-mileage T/A again. Well here's what I found. Its a '79 S/E car with power windows, locks, tilt, wheel, cruise control, AM/FM cassette, T-Tops WS6 and a power trunk release. The greatest part is when I bought the car it had 3,451 actual miles! And yes the miles are real. The car is as close to perfect as I have ever seen! I have put about 300 miles on it already, but I think its time to park it. By the way this car will never get sold. thanks, Scott Reid Scott owns several nice Trans Ams including a 475hp monster '77 Trans Am that can be seen at '77 Firebirds Lot#3 and a beautiful and original 21k '78 Trans Am that can be seen at '78 Firebirds Lot#3.

The Special Edition was back in 1979 for its 3rd run, 4th if you count the 1976 "Limited Edition" Trans Am. Engine choices changed for '79 and it would be the last year for the 400 in any TA. Either the Pontiac built 301 (the last V8 Pontiac would ever produce), the 400 or the Olds 403 were available. California buyers could not select the 400 option and believe it or not there were quite a few SEs that made it off the assembly line with the 301 engine-delete option. You actually had to elect to have the smaller engine installed. Approximately 570 SEs were built with the 301, 1,107 were built with the 400 and they all came with the 4-speed, and finally 9,874 were built with the 403 and all of them came with the TH350 automatic tranny.

The Special Editions had garnered quite a bit of attention by 1979 but this particular model had a new competitor in the 10th Anniversary Trans Am that was built to commemorate the 10th year of TA production. TAs were still built in the Van Nuys and Norwood plants. The 403 was the standard powerplant for TAs with the Pontiac built 400 and 301 available. Opting for the 301 gained the buyer a small credit for the smaller powerplant. The 403 was rated at 185hp and the 400 was rated at 220hp. The W72 package was still available as an option. Another delete-option was the Fisher T-Tops. They came standard but could be deleted at the buyers request for a credit.