With the demise of the Pontiac brand came the end of a long lineage of muscle cars. No, Pontiac wasn't offering the most exciting lineup at its death, save for the Holden-sourced G8, but history means something.
It means quite a bit to the team at Trans Am Depot, which decided the show must go on for one of Pontiac's most memorable cars: the Firebird Trans Am. And its most recent creation stirs up plenty of passion with a reborn Trans Am Super Duty. The team documented the new Super Duty's journey from idea to production, and to its world debut at the 2017 New York auto show.
The original Trans Am SD-455 was one of the final pony cars from Detroit to adhere to upbringings—a castaway in a world where regulations meant downsized engines and new emission controls.
2017 Trans Am 455 Super Duty
Trans Am Depot worked to channel that car, and it started with the engine. With the sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro as a base, the Trans Am Super Duty had General Motors' 6.2-liter LT1 V-8 to work with. The company tapped Magnuson and Joey Arrington to build a modern-day 455 V-8. And they sure succeeded.
The team stroked the 6.2-liter V-8 to a full 7.5 liters, or 455 cubic inches, with 1,000 horsepower and 1,046 pound-feet of torque as the result. It's more than enough to unleash anyone's inner "Smokey and the Bandit."
And the design does its best to channel what a modern Pontiac Trans Am could look like. It's not just a sticker pack, though—the graphics are hand painted. Trans Am Depot also wires in new gauges with a retro look, stitches the carpets, and puts together new body parts. It's as close as we'll ever get to a new factory Trans Am.
