I've been an Z-28/Iroc fan since 1983 and learned as much about them as I could. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know much about GTA's. What colors besides White,Black,Red and one year only silver/Grey did the factory paint them? Did they do a Blue like the Iroc"s?

 

I know that for 1992 only, they had the Dark Jade Green Metallic.

 

1987-90
White
Black
Bright Red
Flame Red Metallic
Gunmetal Metallic
Russet Brown Metallic (1987)

1991
White
Black
Bright Red
Brilliant Red Metallic
Medium Green Metallic
Gunmetal Metallic (part year)

1992
White
Black
Bright Red
Brilliant Red Metallic
Medium Green Metallic
Dark Teal Metallic
Medium Blue Metallic
Jamaica Yellow

 

JT was referring to the Dark Jade green when he stated "Teal"

Pontiac had several Blues & Greens that year,

Dark Aqua Metallic (37U)
Dark Jade Green (18U)
Dark Green Metallic (45U)
Bright Blue Metallic (80U)

The GTA was NA with the Aqua Metallic... This was also the only year you could get a Blue or Yellow GTA... Hmm, the colors are actually almost exactly University of Michigan Colors, AND you could get a Dark Green and White like Michigan State... Makes me wonder if there was something going on there...



John

 

I love silver and flame red GTA's. You don't see alot of them

 

Interestingly the with the exception of White, the GTA was not really available in lighter colors until 1992 with the Jamacia Yellow. Silver, was never used. It was like they wanted the darker colors to be more sinister or something.

 

Didn't someone in Pontiac just want it be available in Black only and call it a Black Bird rather then GTA?

 

I think it was called the "Black bird" Project... It was in response to (I think) John Schinella {sp?} going to the Dayton/Wright Brothers AFB Museum and seeing an SR71. They liked the monochromatic scheme.

Back in the 70's they had a Red Bird, Yellow Bird and Blue Bird, I believe they were offered different years, but I am not sure about that, as I am no 2nd gen guy.

I think it was also in response to Buick's Grand National that were all Sinister Black from 1984-1987 (interestingly 1982 had a 2 tone Silver/Black Grand National).

 

Was Lou Wassel who made the trip to Wright/Patterson and discovered and was inspired by the SR-71 Blackbird. As I recall, Schinella came into the picture later on.

As for lighter colored GTAs, it seems to me that darker colors highlight the accents more. Whether than had anything to do with the color choices I have no idea. The GTA I originally paid a deposit on was a white car.

For the 2nd Gens, '77 and '78 had the SkyBird, '78 and '79 had the RedBird, and '80 had the YellowBird Esprit model...

 

Frankie,
Thank you for clearing that up... I could not remember who went to Wright/Peterson (see I couldn't even remember the name of the museum and I was there last year)

John

 

There's no such thing as a silver and Flame Red GTA. All GTAs are painted one solid color and Flame Red was a very popular color for the GTA.