I do not believe I have ever seen an example on the street. No idea about production numbers and value. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Never seen one in the wild either. Internet says 5,700 were built. Price ranges from about $15,000 for one with 100+K miles to $40,000 for a low mile vehicle. Hagerty shows a range from $12K to $54K. Here are 2 available on Hemmings: https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/?adtypeFacet=Vehicles+for+Sale&makeFacet=Pontiac&modelFacet%5B%5D=Trans+Am&range_zip=&distance=&price_min=&price_max=&year_min=1980&year_max=1980&categoryFacet=&country=&q=pace+car
I remember these type of cars. A high school dream. 85mph speedometer with 55mph highlighted. Special decals and slight cosmetic modifications to the interior. Most sales brochures did not list power output and performance stats. Mazda advertised the RX-7 - zero to 50mph times. The Demon available today, is from another planet.
I had an '81 turbo TA back in the mid 80's. The stock motor was a 309ci and rated at 200-210hp with the turbo, 160-170hp without. Made great noises and the boost lights on the hood felt like Knight Rider. Overall, it was a dog. Something like 16's 1/4mi in the mid to high 80's tops. Was glad when the motor blew. Put a built 350ci in it and some other tricks. Had a GN pull up next to me at a light, laugh, rev and I left him behind. But like everyone has said, you did not see the pace cars often end back then.
Wow! Beats a 1949 Ferrari 166 by 0.2 sec and a 2017 Hyandui Ioniq by 0.1 seconds. Source: https://www.0-60specs.com/0-60-times/
I had a 1980 z28 same car with achev 350 at 7.5 secs 0-60. Still they were stable at speed and really held the road. the tarns am were superior tot he chevs in that the had 4 wheel idsk brakes instead of drums at the rear. T roof off v burbling, not bad for a cheapo 70s car, build quality was simply awful. Today there are any number of 4-500hp crate motors to drop in. The hot ones were from the early 70s the Ra3 and RA4, as well as the 455SD.
No way I would buy a stock one for that price. Your seeing a lot of resto modded ones popping up. Those are cool. And I misspoke earlier. They were 301ci not 309ci. But whats 8ci amongst friends.
The turbo trans am 4.9l turbo looked good on paper only 210hp 345tor but thats where it stopped. The motor was choked from the factory and was a turd in dependability dept. I had a buddy who bought one cheap years ago and opened it up to let it breathe but it still was a dog. He traded it for a Smokey Bandit TA with the 6.6 & 4spd Manual and with a few mods had it running low 14's.
Saw a few Pace cars on the Bandit run last week. Here's our car also (1978 TA). The turbo guys really love their cars. Many said they eliminate the mufflers altogether. Dave Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
My first car was an "80 Trans Am...killer car for a 19 year old...Gold..no T-tops.. God, I loved that car !
