One-Owner '85 Pontiac Trans Am Survivor Shakes Off a Decade off the Road Like It's Nothing

After the Mustang’s self-proclamation as the undisputed and absolute ruler of pony cars, the rest of Detroit fiercely contested that supremacy. General Motors issued the Camaro and the Firebird in 1967, Plymouth held on to its Barracuda rightful pony car segment inceptor, and American Motors tested the waters with the Javelin in 1968. Dodge somehow missed the entire show until 1970, when the Challenger hopped onstage.

Pontiac stood as the performance division of General Motors in the early sixties before the corporation axed racing involvement in early 1963. Ever the rebels, the Poncho boys didn’t lay down the guns and retorted against the system with the GTO. Ironically, it was the same 1964 that hosted the eventful debut of the muscle car craze. However, unlike the pony movement, the muscle car fad didn’t last very long. One decade after its high-horsepower premiere, the genre was all but forgotten.

Meanwhile, the pony car endured through the Malaise, the oil embargoes, the plastification, and the gradually increasing computerization of the automobile, ever diluting in numbers with every decade. Pontiac’s Firebird followed the trend, peaking in the seventies due in no small part to the high-performance variant of the model, the Trans Am.

Released in 1969 as a muscle-bound sub-model of the Firebird, the Trans Am was, ironically, unfit for what its name suggested. With a 400-cube V8 (6.6-liter), the Trans Am was above the five-liter upper limit for the Trans American Championship. Regardless of this minor mishap, the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was in a heap of trouble for using a name without permission.

The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) wasn’t very happy about Pontiac making money in the club’s name (literally) and not sharing it (that was the aggravating part, actually). General Motors settled the feud by paying SCCA five bucks for every Trans Am sold. From an initial production of 697 units in 1969, the Trans Am peaked at its ten-year anniversary with over 117,000 ponies, raising the total Firebird sales past the 211,000-car mark.

From 1976 to 1986, the muscular version of the Firebird sold over 30,000 copies every year. In fact, with the exception of 1981 and 1983, yearly sales soared past 40,000 Trans Ams throughout the entire period. With so many spread across the United States of Automobile, the Trans Ams of the seventies and eighties are fairly common finds today.

However, not too many of them are one-owner gems that have virtually no rust after spending ten years under a tarp in a field in Buckley, Michigan. At almost four decades, this Trans Am is already a classic, even though there’s no chrome, no vinyl top, no solid-lifter V8, and no particular following for that model year. However, it is a driver, and it hardly has a flaw in its dust-covered body.

Recently, the car was sold by the original buyer’s son to a dealership in Interlock, Michigan, and the new owner plans to bring it back on the road. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering that the car is in running and driving condition. It does need mechanical upcycling to make it fully road-worthy – mostly from a safety perspective.

Cosmetically, the car is nearly beyond reproach – minus the layer of dirt collected in the ten years off the road. Nothing a car detailing YouTuber can’t handle. Dane Schemwell (going by Detail Dane on social media) got a phone call, the vehicle to his Flint, Michigan shop, and to work (in that order). What came out of it is what you can see in the video attached below, but it’s probably one of the best-looking detailing jobs featured on his channel.

The 87,734-mile (141,194 km) two-door Poncho sports a 305-cube V8 (five-liter) plant sourced from Chevrolet (in 1985, corporate bureaucracy prevailed over intelligence, engineering common sense, and other just as non-critical aspects of carmaking). The engine came in three different versions: two were four-barrel carbureted, and one sported tune-port fuel-injected. The ‘High Output’ badge was applied to the former, but one of the 4-bbl plants also came with the same performance stamp.

Both High Output engines were offered at extra cost only on the Trans Am. 190-hp, 240-lb-ft (193 PS, 325 Nm), 4-bbl carburetor for the five-speed manual, 205-hp, 275-lb-ft (208 PS, 373 Nm) fuel injection on the four-speed-automatic.

Given that the car in the video has a carburetor and a self-shifting transmission, we can deduce that it’s the base engine, rated at a lowly 165 hp and 250 lb-ft (167 PS, 339 Nm). But the detailer got it running with no problems, and that’s a plus for the sleek Trans Am that’s getting ready for a new chapter in its life.