1999 Pontiac Trans Am 30th Anniversary

This car, Lot 59, sold for $36,960, including buyer’s premium, at Gooding & Company’s auction on Amelia Island, FL, on March 8, 2019. It was offered without reserve.

American muscle has traditionally only been defined by a few manufacturers. Since you are reading this, asking you to name them could be considered an insult.

But I’ll bet an American dollar that the top three makes you picked didn’t include Pontiac.

There is no trick question here, but Pontiac is not a name most enthusiasts think of when asked about legendary muscle. I submit this as a top reason Pontiac is now a defunct brand.

A faster Camaro?

The Pontiac Firebird always seemed to be the tag-along little brother of the Camaro. Production numbers were never as strong, but the reality is, the first years’ performance and option stats say that the Firebird would out-perform and out-class the Camaro.

The Pontiac 400, sourced from the GTO, was nothing to sneeze at. On paper, it put down more than the Camaro did — unless your Camaro had the big block. Ultimately, the higher price tag for the Pontiac is why the Camaro outsold it. Well-heeled buyers just moved up to the GTO.

During the F-body’s second generation, auto manufacturers realized that since technology and better R&D weren’t the answer for them in the short run, huge decals and super-snazzy body stripes were. Thankfully, technology eventually caught up with looks, but as soon as you could find race stripes on everything this side of a stripped-down Volaré, the trend had jumped the shark.

Turning into performance

The 1970s were funky, and so were American performance cars of that time — and not in a good way. GM decided that if they couldn’t increase power, maybe they could at least make their hot Pontiac turn — thus the 1978 WS6 option package was born. It put the portly Trans Am on the same playing field as the Corvette.

By 1992, GM needed something brand new to beat Ford’s still popular but rapidly aging Fox-body Mustang. So in 1993, the fourth-gen F-body was born. The fourth-generation F-body — Camaro and Firebird — incorporated all of the technology from the third-gen F-body. It was just presented in a better package.

The WS6 performance package was reintroduced in 1996, but its resurrection took on a marketing angle of its own. It was also pretty easy to spot one from a country mile, as the double-decker, Puff-the-Magic-Dragon hood stuck out like a dead fly on a wedding cake — or a gold Screaming Chicken decal on a black hood.

The LS revolution

The 346-cubic-inch LS1 was first introduced in the Corvette, per pecking order protocol. In 1998, the Trans Am and Camaro were deemed worthy. To this day, the LS-series architecture continues to power all of GM’s V8 vehicles, from smaller-displacement work trucks to supporting over 700 hp in the Corvette ZR1. Ultimately, though, it did nothing for sales.

1999 saw the 30th Anniversary of the Trans Am nameplate. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to create a custom appearance package with an increased price? Once again, GM went back to adding aesthetic sizzle.

But to GM’s credit, there was more steak too, now in the form of an additional 15 horses by way of the WS6 option, which also gave you firmer suspension and larger sway bars. All 30th Anniversary cars had the WS6 option as standard equipment.

A clean machine

The 30th Anniversary is as clean a Trans Am as you will find. It has all the hallmarks of the cars that came before, but now presented in a better overall package.

This easily could have been a “Smokey and the Bandit” rehash or something lower rent. Surprisingly, though, Pontiac kept the design void of garish racing stripes down the sides and limited the design to the twin blue stripes across the top, with a small nod to the Screaming Chicken, and the Ram-Air callouts near the hood nostrils.

Bravely, it also included blue anodized rims. I suppose how brave that was is a matter of perspective — don’t forget that this is the same company that put a three-foot-diameter Rising Phoenix sticker on the hood of its disco-era TAs. Regardless, the rims are known to lose their anodized finish with use, and refinishing them would be mandatory for anyone driving a respectable example.

These cars were mechanically bulletproof, but they did not hold up well to uncaring owners using them in the daily grind. Interior pieces held up poorly in sun and heat, and leather was known to wear out quickly if not used gingerly. The interior ergonomics were visibly dated by this time as well — some of it was carried over from the third-gen cars, which debuted in 1982.

If none of that fazes you, then this is the car to have. But while this particular example had not been hermetically sealed at birth, putting many miles on it will certainly diminish the value.

How much should it cost?

Does $36k seem expensive to you? Not so fast. A quick search turned up a couple other offerings that support this car’s price.

Over the past two years, we have seen a roughly 40% increase in prices of the best of the best of cars from this era. As vehicles from the ’80s and ’90s continue to gain momentum, cars like this example will lead the charge, and they’ll keep showing up in high-profile auctions as well — much like this one at Gooding & Company’s boutique Amelia Island sale in March.

This might feel expensive, but it’s not. This was a well-presented car, and while there might be a few more like this out there, the money was right. Call this a fair deal for everyone involved — and watch this model in the future as younger buyers continue to hunt the cars they wanted as kids — and more buyers give Pontiac the muscle car respect it deserves.

(Introductory description courtesy of Gooding & Company.)