1979 Pontiac Trans Am - Jay Leno's Garage

This is something you could drive to Las Vegas or San Francisco all day, extremely comfortable. I love the fact that this is exactly how it came from the factory, no modifications, nothing added, so you really get an idea of ​​what it was like back in the day.

1979

this was a fast car and it's still a fast car welcome to jay

leno

's

garage

episode the car featuring today

1979

pontiac

trans

am firebird ws6 400 four speed probably one of the most popular cars of all time certainly american cars of all time became popular thanks to the Smoky and Bandit movies.

You know I'm a big Firebird fan. They never got the recognition they deserve. They were always overshadowed by the Camaro. You know Firebird was started by John Delorean. John Delorean was, you know, named president of Pontiac's engine division. uh, and he pushed the performance angle and had a car called the banshee that toured many car show circuits. It was a two-seat sports car, but General Motors felt no, that will compete with the corvette we don't want. "In that case, we don't want to build two separate corvettes, you know the whole thing, so they compromised and decided to make a four-seater version very similar to the mustang in the camaro, which is actually a smart thing because you really can." I didn't sell that many two-seater cars, the Firebird went out of production, I think in 2002 because I had to drive the pace car, the Daytona 500 one year, uh, with Tony Stewart, actually, you know Daytona has that stiff camber, so when they bring in, uh, like an idiot comedian. or someone on TV who isn't a first year racing driver, you have to go down and practice a little bit and Tony Stewart took me out and going up the bank was a lot of fun, we laughed at 135 which was pretty impressive and since it was The last year of the Firebird, they brought in all the Firebirds from all the years, all the high-performance models, and we took every one of them to the bench.

The last one, 2002, was the fastest, although it has a 400 cubic inch V8. 1979. It's still all about carburetion and lean gas mixtures for emissions, so this had only 220 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. Firebird never got the engines that Chevrolet got. Firebird used bureaucrats, they didn't construct their own past. To some extent, I don't think they ever had more than 350 horsepower, whereas you could get camaros, you know, especially the copper cars, uh, you know, five hundred and six hundred horsepower, but the Firebirds handled better. I think the Firebirds were a better handling car than the uh the Camaro I'm sure there will be pictures you know idiot but I'm just telling you what I think is right anyway this thing is loaded to the gills , it belongs to the autumn audrain museum in newport rhode island, you know?

There are so many car museums closing now due to the crisis and covid. It's nice to see new ones coming out and the drain is one of the newer ones and they have classics like Packards and Duesenbergs and things from the turn of the century, but you're not a snob, they have all kinds of cool stuff, like these classic muscle cars from different eras, and you know, if you go to those Radwood type deals, these cars from the '70s or '80s are becoming very trendy right now, this belongs in the museum and has all the options here's a sticker in the window.

This car sold for eight thousand two hundred dollars, which was a lot of money in 1979, but it had everything, the top and I love it, what do we have here? Wow, the speedometer. It goes 100 miles an hour, you know, remember they had that 85 mile an hour speed limit and I don't know what happened to 79, but this is a high performance model, it goes a hundred, which just makes me laugh, I want to. say. I'm on the freeway here in Los Angeles passing women in Honda Civics putting on lipstick at 100. You know it's okay. Then they act like it's a big deal.

They always do that in the news here. The police chase a suspect. at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, you know it's not really a big camry, it was going 100 miles per hour, but it was 1979, 100 miles per hour was a big deal if you could fix the speedometer, that was a big deal now, This mom could go 200 two and a quarter, whatever that is, but that's a completely different thing anyway, it's got a cool steering wheel with no airbag and it's a manual, it's got four speeds, what else can we show you? It has this type of fabric interior.

I know the build quality in the late 70's wasn't great among all the automakers in America, but this one seems to be pretty well put together, it seems to be a car in good condition, you may have seen it when bringing a trailer a while ago. It was there for sale and I think it sold for a record price because it's so nice it let me see what the mileage is. The mileage is oh wow, nothing. What is 2,000 miles? 2,400 miles. Something like that. I think you have all the options. I don't accept air conditioning and I can't wait to drive it.

It has snowflake wheels. It has four-wheel disc brakes, which I think is cool because in 1979 people are still messing with that a little bit with just brakes on the front wheels and drum brakes on the rear wheels and Pontiac. It was pretty good at working out the suspension like I said, it has the shaker hood. Well, let's open the hood and see what it looks like underneath. You might lose the chicken in the hood. I like Colonel Sanders as much as the next guy, but. I don't know, but some people like it, as you can see, it has the cold air pack right there.

This is not a show car. This is a car that, well, hasn't been driven much, but you know, in the Eastern climate. I can see a little rust and rain stuff, nothing terrible, but it doesn't look like it's been in an accident, it looks like it's been owned by an enthusiast all its life and you know these things are addictive, they're a lot of fun to drive. I mean, 220 horsepower isn't much by today's standards, but the torque isn't bad, so I'm excited to see what the hood shaker is like. Full notice of 6.6 liters, almost no chrome.

There is no chrome on this car. You know it's good. -It looks like a car, I like it, I think they're fun, it looks like an American sports car and it has four proper speeds and, if you missed it, it says Trans Am on the back, the impact that smokes in the bandit movie. I had these, everyone had to have one of these, every car and cafe, every burger place where you hung out on a Friday or Saturday night, there was always a couple of these and I saw guys build them and get four or 500 horsepower out of them. strength of these things and they actually move, I mean they all seem to be functional which is cool, what else?

Oh, you have the fuzzy dice, I don't think that was standard on the seat, you have the bags to hold these things. -tops and they fit in the trunk, let's see what the trunk of this thing looks like. You know, I don't know much about this. This was delivered here yesterday. I haven't driven it yet so I'm looking forward to it. Are you curious to see what it's like, I mean, I'm doing a Firebird right now, a 1968 six-cylinder Firebird sprint that has the same horsepower as this one, so it's kind of interesting, let's see what the trunk looks like, there is your space. saving spare with this stupid can of air that just says "not really".

I've never had one of those jobs, but this is what makes a collector car valuable, it's what makes this car valuable, it's every piece of documentation from the The day this car left Norwood, contract 1979 Trans Am purchase, there's your original bill of sale or your window sticker. I guess you would call it. I showed it to you before, but there it is, eighty, two hundred and two dollars and fifty. five cents for each option here, yeah, this is great. I mean, you know you got all your oil changes when the tires were put on the fitment tag.

Pontiac News. There you have the original owner's manual. Car and Driver magazine road test when selling a car. this is the kind of thing that gets a record price when people see it's been serviced there and apparently it's in nebraska for a while the problem is explained a little rust on the surface of the block a buyer's guide all the numbers Matched auto straight from factory pretty well, what did I say? The mileage was just doesn't seem possible, it looks like 20,242 miles, we should uh and oh, do you know what Scott got with your CB radio?

Yes, I have a bear in the air, yes, I know that kind of thing. These were so popular in the past this tie is not stock but has a built in CB radio. I'm not who you talk to on CB radio these days. I don't even know if truckers still use them. but I love the fact that it's manual, let's turn it on, let's see how it sounds, it sounds good, oh look at the hood, look at that 4500 rpm redline, but you know, I love the dash, I love the way it's set up. Take it next door, put it on the lift and show what it looks like underneath.

Remember it's not a show car, it's a real car. You know, it sounds good. Actually just my steering wheel because of the covered restrictions, I can't have the team. in the workshop part of the

garage

, so I'm filming this on my iPhone, it looks a little different just like we did during the pandemic edit, so okay, here we are under the traffic, I think it looks like a gas tank replacement, but it's okay. it's good to know there's a limited slip sticker on the differential there are leaf springs it's so funny we look at leaf springs on old cars like the Duesenbergs are like seven or eight here you have like three or four okay these look like it looks like that the later replacement mufflers tried to keep as many of the original elements as they could, don't forget this car is 40 years old, but as you can see there is no rusty catalytic converter in place, you know we go bad in California, the carriage is kept very nice and clean, you know, everyone else gets rain, snow and salt, but look, this is where they're usually the first areas to come up here.

I made a little rust on the surface of the block, but that's nothing, that's standard car stuff, oh yeah, that's nice. straight car, I think the weird drain did a smart thing by buying this, we won't find them as nice as this one, most of these things get trashed to only have 20 something thousand miles on them, that's pretty amazing, great, I think we're ready to uh take it for a ride, boy, this feels like a lot more than 220 horsepower, I guess it's 325 pound-feet of torque, you know? I like this. I've always made fun of the big chicken in the hood.

I would lose the chicken. but I love the initial impression of the car, you know, a manual

trans

mission makes all the difference, it just makes it a lot of fun to drive, you have that silly hood that makes this hilarious, I love the steering wheel, nice little round wheel, I like them wheels without airbag. look better, I know the airbag is safer, but I'm just saying and just a hundred miles an hour shows up where it makes me laugh a hundred times. I can do a magic, it says radial suspension and I think there's something to that, you know?

I, uh, these handle better than some of the other GM stuff, as I mentioned before, this was the most successful year for Firebird, I mean, smoking the bandit, well, there are a lot more movies, two or three blockbusters I mean, it's going well. okay, it had 20 horsepower sneakily, but that's cool to me, i can't get jerry reid out of my head because those people don't know it, jay read it, sang the song, found it and oh, he made a ton. of songs smoking abandoned you know if you were 10 12 13 years old and that's smoking eventually you came out this was the coolest car in the world and I got your cb ready yeah we got a smoke in my tail if you saw this on bring a trailer you know it sold for about forty grand, which I think was pretty close to a record price for one of these, but I can see why it's worth it.

It feels like a new car. It's tight. It only has 20,000 miles. all his life, with the exception of a few things that seem to be all original. I don't think it was ever an accident and you have all the possible documentation in the trunk, there you just pull the ties, however, I was going to say

pontiac

. He should bring back the Firebird name, but not even Pop Pontiac exists anymore, so there you go, shame you know he was a big John Deloren fan before he got busted for cocaine. It was a shame, but it really made Pontiac Division what you are.

I know it was kind of a scruffy salesman's car that didn't really fit anywhere, it was kind of a low-priced camp, as he used to say back in the day, and then he turned it into the performance division with the wide track and doing the gto and all that, you actually know this is a very good engine, if you told me it had 325 horsepower, i think your pontiac never built any high horsepower, uh, firebridge, not even close to 400 horsepower strength I don't think so but it was all about the handling and the four wheel disc brakes I like the red lines at 4500 rpm I just know why that makes me smile you know there's a lot of footage on YouTube of Tony Stewart and me driving the Firebird at Daytona.

If you Google it, you'll know that I tried to include it in this video, but it costs like ten thousand dollars to show it andall kinds of restrictions and it gets a little crazy, but this, wow, I take back all those chickens screaming in the hood jokes. I used to do it I liked it I like this car that's the fun thing about the Australian museum all the cars are driven they all get used to it they are rotated out of the museum if you're ever in Newport you should check it out in Newport Rhode Island Right there on Bellevue Avenue it's a small museum and sometimes they only have 10 or 12 cars on display at a time, but they rotate it and it always has a theme, it's very interesting. 20,000 miles in 40 something years, that's pretty good, this thing has been cared for all your life, it's something you can drive to Las Vegas or drive with sandwiches all day, extremely comfortable and the manual gearbox is what makes so many people audit it. the automatic transmission, but this is really good.

I remember Jimmy Carter got that legal permission that speedometers can only go up to 85 for some stupid reason, it was during 55 miles per hour, so I wonder if they got a special dispensation for 100 miles per hour because it's an act, no? I know, I don't know why, but it makes me laugh. The gearbox is very nice, collector's item, very nice, I must admit that when I first saw this I had a slightly sarcastic comment, oh well. You know something that seduced me it's great I love this I think I like it more than a 79 camaro it's different there aren't that many it's just unusual it's a lot of fun look you can't judge a book by its cover like this once you start driving here you have it and it handles well it feels good i like this thing this was a fast car and it's still a fast car you know it has more power than i thought i really thought it would be just anemic you know but no it's cool it's really Well, I'm going to put my foot in it, pass the camera truck and see you next week, uh.