![]() ![]() One of these served as the 1989 Indianapolis 500 pace car. In all, a total of 1,555 Turbo Trans Ams were manufactured. The initial number of cars to be produced had ranged from 500 to 2,500 until GM finally settled on 1,500. Incidentally, the GTA chassis were selected at random, thus there is no correlation between the VIN and production sequence number. The cars were then shipped back to PAS for final assembly, testing, and quality control. From there, they went to GM’s plant in Van Nuys, CA to be installed into GTAs on the F-Body assembly line. The 3.8 L turbocharged V6 engines were built by PAS at their 40,000 square foot City of Industry, CA plant. Beitzel and his team did most of the TTA development work. The GTA trim level was available from 1987 through the 1992 model year.įor 1989, the 20th-anniversary turbo Trans Am project (originally conceived by Bill Owen of Pontiac) was outsourced to PAS, Inc., an engineering firm led by Jeff Beitzel. A five-speed manual was available but was mated to the 5.0 L only. ![]() Engine choices consisted of an L98 5.7 litres (350 cu in) TPI V8 mated to GM’s corporate 700R4 automatic transmission or the 5.0 litres (310 cu in) TPI V8. The high-performance WS6 suspension package was also re-tuned to offer a more compliant ride while still maintaining tight handling characteristics. The GTA equipment package officially went on sale in 1987 and avoided a gas-guzzler tax thanks to its lightweight PW 16-inch gold cross-lace wheels. It was intended to be the “ultimate” Trans Am and was the most expensive Firebird available. The GTA (along with the Formula model that was intended to fill the gap between the base model Firebird and mid-level Trans Am) was the brainchild of former Pontiac marketing manager Lou Wassel. The Trans Am GTA (Gran Turismo Americano) was an options package available on the Firebird Trans Am which added gold 16-inch diamond-spoke alloy wheels, a monochromatic paint scheme, and special cloisonné GTA badges.
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