What are some details that I can look at to tell if the car I purchased is really a gta or just another plain jane trans am? Besides emblems and obvious things. Thank you

 

Well, that never made a GTA in 86, so I am willing to bet you have a Trans Am.

 

As Bullydawg said, GTA's didn't start until 1987. Interesting in that for some years the T/A was produced in lower numbers than a GTA. However, to confirm if it is a GTA:

Three things:

1) look for Y84 on the SPID sheet (GTA option).

2) visit gtasourcepage.com and look for the authentication tips listing.

3) Y84 confirms a GTA (if missing the SPID, perhaps a check of the vin through the service or parts department at your local GM dealership can work - although more successful for Canadian cars than US it seems).

 

To clarify that statenent....The VIN itself tells you nothing, except allows for lookup of the RPO codes.

No Y84 = not a GTA.

But regardless.....There are no 86 GTAs. Didn't exist. Closest thing to that would be the prototype that Lou Wassel built at GM, to get approval for the GTAs to be built. It even had fender vents (production GTAs never had them), since it started life as a production TA.

 

From 1982 - 1984 Y84 was also used on the Recaro Trans Am's. Y84 was dropped in 1985 & 1986

In early 1986 a friend of mine ordered a "GTA", it has written on the order slip "GTA" the problem was the GTA model was not released until 1987, so he got a Trans Am, an extremely well optioned Trans Am mind you, IIRC his car has every option except the rear hatch release, overhead console and digital dash...

Is the car in question a GTA? No, it is not a GTA. I suspect that in 1986 there was some fan fare of the release of the GTA, so people went to dealerships, ordered loaded Trans Am's as "GTA's" and never thought twice about it until 1987. They try to peddle them off as GTA's but they are not.

Keep in mind that all Trans Am's were Trans Am's in 1986, If the car has TPI then it is not a "plain jane" model. Personally it is a matter of taste, although the GTA came with more standard options, a Trans Am could in theory be optioned like a GTA.

John

 

well thank you all for posting I love to read everyhing you all say and I'm glad it helped me out

 

I agree on the "plain jane T/A" statement being a bit off. In '88 there were more GTA's produced than Trans-Ams...not to say the Trans-Am's didn't have just as many options equipped if not more.