If you happen to own a second-gen Pontiac Trans Am "Bandit" (the Y84 Special Edition), you might want to take good care of it, as pristine examples can fetch well over $50,000 at auctions nowadays - who doesn't love a V8 machine connected to Smokey and The Bandit? Then again, we also have examples such as the one that brought us here, which have been taken on a different path.
I came across this 1979 Pontiac Trans Am (the nose comes from a 1978 car) on Facebook, with Todd Rayner, sharing the tale of the GM toy on a group called... I Love Terrible Ugly Cars.
And while I don't find that label fitting for this Trans Am, the story of the car is definitely something worth writing about, as this has been anything but a garage queen.
So, in the words of the owner, here's how we welcomed the Pontiac into his life: "Bought it off some drifter kid and it was sitting under a tarp in a storage yard with a bunch of parts missing. It had been painted dark purple and had low pro tires on it with the snowflakes painted black. I got it back to shop and knew I had to do something about the bad purple with extra sparkles in the runs. It’s a 79 with a 78 nose but numbers matching and otherwise mostly origional. I ran the numbers and it’s a Y84 bandit car,"
The man seems to know a thing or two about working on cars, which is why he decided to give the thing a new finish using black industrial frame paint.
As for the wheels, these received a special treament, as they got a gold finish, whole Todd "washed the paint off machined parts of wheel with a rag and gun wash while paint was still wet,"
The list of bits and pieces he added to the car also includes a Corbeau seat and a race mirror. Oh, and let's not forget the 67-69 Camaro stainless exaust kit with transverse muffler, which helped increase the ground clearance. So perhaps the contraption does qualify for our jportscar (jacked-up sportscars) tag, which you can find below.
Oh, and I'll remind you the factory output of the 403ci (6.6-liter) V8 sits at 185 hp and 320 lb⋅ft (430 N⋅m). Apparently, that peak twist is still enough to light up those beaten truck tires.
"Needed tires because I was bottoming out the headers everywhere and tripped across some 30x9.5 BFG all terrains and they cleared. They also hook up in the rain and can be had for 10 bucks each off trucks headed for scrapper. “Bald” truck tires still have more tread than new performance tires. I do a lot of burnouts so it works," Todd explains, while pleading guilty to "beating the car hard".
If this Bandit-on-a-budget story floats your boat, make sure to check out the various stages of the build in the generous image gallery above.
And while I don't find that label fitting for this Trans Am, the story of the car is definitely something worth writing about, as this has been anything but a garage queen.
So, in the words of the owner, here's how we welcomed the Pontiac into his life: "Bought it off some drifter kid and it was sitting under a tarp in a storage yard with a bunch of parts missing. It had been painted dark purple and had low pro tires on it with the snowflakes painted black. I got it back to shop and knew I had to do something about the bad purple with extra sparkles in the runs. It’s a 79 with a 78 nose but numbers matching and otherwise mostly origional. I ran the numbers and it’s a Y84 bandit car,"
The man seems to know a thing or two about working on cars, which is why he decided to give the thing a new finish using black industrial frame paint.
As for the wheels, these received a special treament, as they got a gold finish, whole Todd "washed the paint off machined parts of wheel with a rag and gun wash while paint was still wet,"
The list of bits and pieces he added to the car also includes a Corbeau seat and a race mirror. Oh, and let's not forget the 67-69 Camaro stainless exaust kit with transverse muffler, which helped increase the ground clearance. So perhaps the contraption does qualify for our jportscar (jacked-up sportscars) tag, which you can find below.
Oh, and I'll remind you the factory output of the 403ci (6.6-liter) V8 sits at 185 hp and 320 lb⋅ft (430 N⋅m). Apparently, that peak twist is still enough to light up those beaten truck tires.
"Needed tires because I was bottoming out the headers everywhere and tripped across some 30x9.5 BFG all terrains and they cleared. They also hook up in the rain and can be had for 10 bucks each off trucks headed for scrapper. “Bald” truck tires still have more tread than new performance tires. I do a lot of burnouts so it works," Todd explains, while pleading guilty to "beating the car hard".
If this Bandit-on-a-budget story floats your boat, make sure to check out the various stages of the build in the generous image gallery above.
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