Spotted this while flipping through the channels...a 1982 Trans Am in "Quincy M.E." A little research uncovered that it's the 3/24/82 episode "The Face of Fear":





Joe

 

Gotta love that LG4! I like that Barracuda convert, too!

 

This has to be one of the first 82 Trans Ams to roll off the line, since the episode aired in March of 1982 - weren't the 82's released in January? That may explain the lack of the cowl induction hood - wasn't there a shortage of them at the beginning of the 82's run?

Joe

 

Thanks for posting! -I'm not sure shortage is the right word, at the beginning of production only the LU5 was supposed to get the turbo hood, then it was decided to put it on all T/A halfway through the year.

 

I suspect that the car may actually be a pre-production model.

With the lights UP look at the top of the headlight cover. it looks like it may be the prototype that that was seen on the Auto Week Magazine Cover. I would be interested in more pics of the front of the car with the lights down during the day. The covers look like they bend downward at the very front is all...

Also notice that the fender in the second pic it appears to say "Firebird" not Trans Am above the vent. The first pic may actually say Trans Am, its too blurry to see anything difinitive, I am not sure there is a spoiler on the car either... Of course it may be my laptop, the screen is not that great being 5 years old..

John

 

Amazing how nice they were back when they were new!

wildjeff, do you know about what month they started putting the turbo bulge hood on all T/As? I looked at a 3rd week of May 1982 built '82 LG4 Y99 T/A and it still had the flat hood. I can't think of any '82 T/A I've seen with LG4 engine and base Y99 suspension that didn't have the flat hood.

 

I keep forgetting about the base suspension on the T/A. Looking through some build sheets I have I found a Norwood built 82 T/A, built 8/10/82, with base suspension and a flat hood. RPO T46 Steel hood. Looks like the T/A was available through 82 with the flat hood and base suspension. The Turbo hood was standard with the LU5 ( which came with WS6/WS7), I also have a build sheet of T/A with WS6 & LG4 and turbo hood and a TA with WS7 & LG4 and a turbo hood, both cars built in May 82. I remember reading it became standard on all T/As, am I thinking of 83?

 

As far as I know, the turbo bulge hood was standard on '83 and '84 T/As. In '82 the base T/A got the flat hood and when the LU5 engine or WS6/7 suspension was ordered the turbo bulge hood was installed.

 

I'm no Firebird guy, but my son just got the "Standard Catalog of Firebird" for Xmas, and it shows the bulged hood as part of the WS6 package in both '82 and '83. It also says the wheels on that car only came with WS6 (and WS7 I would assume), so it is something of an enigma- it should have the "Turbocast" wheels as a base TA. I also remember going to the Pontiac dealer in late '82-They had like 30 TAs that were all LG4 automatics with aluminum rear drums and G80- I thought that was really strange-and I think they all had functional bulged hoods! Oh well, it's been a long time!

 

I just re-reviewed that episode and unfortunately, there aren't any better shots of the car...

Joe

 

Well the decals on the fenders say Trans Am. In Newhart's book Firebird Trans Am I think there is something about the Trans Am needing to have the Crossfire in order to have the bulge hood.

 

The fenders do say Trans Am... It was my crappy 5 year old Laptop screen...

The Second pic you posted, is there one where the car is further back on the screen so I can see the headlights better. There still looks like something different about them...

John

 

FYI That book has several errors as far as the facts, editing, and captions go.

John, the headlights look normal to me. I have seen the pics of the prototype lights you are referring to, but this car looks like it has regular production lights as far as I can tell.

 

Whenever I see '82s in junkyards that have black lower bodies, their spoilers are black. And I'd guess that's the case here, too. It's just hard to see it "in the dark," in that pic, but it does look like there is something "dark" across the top of the rear decklid.

 

Yup, the 82 T/A's and most (all?) of the 83 T/A's had a black spoiler and mirrors. (Except for the 83 DT500's of course )

 

I've seen photos of the prototype headlights and design studies but these do indeed look production. Maybe its your laptop screen again John....

 

[quote=TAdan;3990982]FYI That book has several errors as far as the facts, editing, and captions go.


Yeah, I was afraid of that when I posted. I've seen other "standard catalogs" have errors on cars I'm more knowledgeable about. A lot of the text seemed to be lifted straight from GM publications, tho.

 

I have yet to come across a Book that included third gens that did not have a ton of errors. I think a lot of times the Third Gen was included because... well... it was a F-body, I guess we can add that too... Even though in its day it got Car of the year several times... My favorite is the "This is one of Two cars specially made by PAS...", when referring to a TTA Convertible, when there was actually Three, and the car was not turned into a convertible by PAS, it was ASC...

John

 

Recently High Performance Pontiac magazine has been talking about bringing back the "Number Crunching" series to do 3rd and 4th-gen F-bodies. If that happens, then we'll finally have some good information on our cars.

 

Standard Catalog of Camaro has so many errors in the 3rd gen section that it's almost unbearable. I provided the publisher with infomation on 3rd gens, however, I didn't get to proof the writings before print. None of the errored info was provided by me, but I had heard it came from GM. That was discouraging to hear.

Most information in print is incorrect.

 

I am very curious to see what HPP comes up with. I would love to see the numbers broken down... BUT... I have been hearing for years (here on TGO and from others) that Pontiac "didnt keep records of those things".

It seems that the 4th gens have better info out there. My fingers are crossed...

 

Just a note, that silver T/A appears to have the 14-inch wheels (if I still have the eagle-eye for that), so just that fact alone would automatically mean no WS6/7.

Also I could've sworn the LU5 did not have mandatory WS6/7, but I could be wrong, as I'm just doing it off memory. http://www.geezerlab.com/transam/blackt/specs.html

 

The LU5 did require WS6/7. I'm not sure about the wheel size, they do look on the smaller size

 

In 1982 the LU5 required everything of WS6/7 except for the 3.23 rear differential ratio. This is why if a car had a crossfire, getting the WS6 or WS7 option was no cost because it was a gearing change, not something that required any additional or more expensive equipment. The default rear end for any 82 Trans Am would be a 2.93 rear. I would imagine the reason they kept this as an across the board thing for both engines would be for the highway fuel economy rating.

I wonder where that car is today?