Rare 1976 Trans Am SE 455 Makes 'The Bandit' Look Mundane, It's One of 110 Ever Made

The Trans Am was issued in 1969 as a performance variant of the Firebird pony car that was launched in 1967 (perhaps not coincidentally, the Judge appeared as the ultimate GTO that same year - 1969). In 1976, the 50th Special Anniversary Edition Trans Am (S/E/T/A) broke cover, introducing a styling cue that became a pop culture icon in 1977, with the ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ silver screen blockbuster.

When Pontiac Motor Division celebrated half a century of the name’s existence, the Firebird Trans Am was chosen to glorify the majestic carmaker. The timing wasn’t perfect, unfortunately, with the Malaise biting hard on Detroit, but the GM division raised a clenched fist at fate and gave it a giant finger with the swan song of the biggest V8 ever in the history of the brand.

The 455 cubic inches of Pontiac’s own uni-block eight-cylinder powerplant were retired at the end of 1976 production, soon after 429 units of the Special Edition were fitted with it. In total, 2,590 Trans Ams were assembled under the limited-edition anniversary production run, most of them sporting the standard 400-cube V8 (the 6.6-liter).

However, out of the 7.5-liter powered ones, just 110 came with Hurst T-tops, and the number of examples left around in 2024 is believed to be less than half the original batch.             Since all the 455s were four-speed manuals (T-tops and regular coupes), further segregation has to take into account other details instead of the traditional transmission factor.

Finding one today, regardless of its condition, is quite the event, even though the rare Poncho isn’t anywhere near as desirable as other muscle classics from the era, like certain Mopars and Fords. Still, the Trans Am fared far better than the aforementioned rivals. While Chrysler abruptly axed its pony car program at the end of 1974, when both the Plymouth Barracuda and the Dodge Challenger were discontinued (either forever or temporarily), Pontiac chose to invest in it.

The Trans Am became a mainstay of the Firebird throughout the decade and remained a solid seller in the first part of the eighties, too. The Special Edition of 1976 is the lowest for the 455-cube engine production for the Trans Am. Hence, a matching-numbers unit is not something to simply walk away from. Dave Hall, from the Restore a Muscle Car YouTube channel, found one in Iowa, bought it, and brought it back to his shop in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Frankly, if it were any closer to base, the 455-powered black-and-gold Trans Am could have driven the distance, seeing how it starts, runs, drives, turns, and stops without issues. I’m not sure if the A/C unit is functional or not, but I know the car had the option installed on the assembly line because that’s what the customer ordered – together with everything else on the list.

Check the gallery and see a photo of the window sticker – it has it all, from the ultra-rare combination of the 985-dollar Special Edition Package and $125 Performance Package consisting of the four-barrel 7.5-liter V8 with its close-ratio four-speed manual transmission and a 3.23 rear axle to a four-bucks right-hand visor vanity mirror. $7,750 in 1976 was a lot of money – a Corvette started at $7,600, for example (but the sportscar did not offer a big-block anymore that year).

In total, the options added to a base Trans Am climbed to 2,562 dollars, more than half the Manufacturer’s Suggested retail price for an entry-level Firebird Trans Am. The Air Conditioning was a heart-melting 452 dollars, the single most expensive equipment a customer could order on a Pontiac Firebird in 1976. Well, one buyer ordered everything, just to be on the safe side.

The car shows around 31,000 miles, but that number is probably not original, given the 160-mph speedometer that wasn’t available in 1976. The clock was replaced sometime in the past (the man selling it to the restoring YouTuber doesn’t have exact info on this), but the buyer does suggest 37k miles as the true total (some 60,000 kilometers).

The engine is original, and most of the body kept the factory-applied paint, but the interior has been refreshed (the seats, steering wheel, and instruments are a dead giveaway). The previous owner rebuilt the motor, so the 200 hp / 203 PS and 330 lb-ft / 447 Nm the V8 was originally rated at could be obsolete now.