Hi Everyone,

I would imagine that this thread has been overdone almost to death, but being a newbie to this site I have some questions about the 3 - Trans Am 1LE from 1988. Does anyone know what happened to them? What is the actual difference between the WS6 suspension and the 1LE suspension of 1988? I read somewhere that there is very little known about the early 1LE cars because there were not alot of records kept for them. I have read that the 1LE cars have enlarged rotors & piston calipers and aluminum weighted driveshafts and baffles in the fuel tank. But what is the actual difference... if you were to put the two 1988's on a hoist and look at the cars, what would you see that would distinguish between them?
Thanks everyone in advance.

 

I have seen one of the 3 1988 1LE cars; it was sold new through Sidney Moncrief Pontiac/GMC in Sherwood, Arkansas. White exterior, bare-bones interior (grey IIRC), no A/C, crank windows, 5.0L/5-speed, white PW7 rims.... it had a HURST shifter in it, but the OEM piece was in the rear hatch well. At the time it had the full factory paperwork, including the window sticker.

At the time I saw it in storage (early '01) the price was 10K for it with about 20K miles as I recall.... and I didn't have it. It showed up at Dayton later that same year with black PW7 rims swapped onto it. A really sharp car that I wished I could have done something on $$$-wise.

I didn't even get a photo of it as it was in a storage garage....

 

man that would have been one heal of a deal

 

Here is a picture of two 1988 Players Challenge cars with all 1LE parts and more. One Iroc and one T/A.

These cars were built in batches and are as close as I thought I'd get to an actual 88 1LE.

They both have: 2 piston PBR front brakes, aluminum drive shaft, 1LE tranny, rear end and gas tank.

In addition to all the normal 1LE stuff the cars have hand assembled engines that were sealed from the factory and special shocks and struts.

These were built before the US production 1LE's were built. Maybe Mark will chime in.....he's forgot more then I know about the Players series.... From what I understand the 1988 1LE was produced by GM to meet factory production requirements required by GM Motorsports/IMSA to race in events.

Here are a few pics of the two cars I pulled down from Canada.

 

Wow !!

Thanks for all the great info and the pictures... I am getting a clearer picture on the 1LE option. So the 3 - trans am 1LE that were sold were different than the Player's series cars right?
Reason for the questions is that this summer we took our 88 Trans Am GTA to a car show (not as an entry - not to that point yet!! LOL LOL) and when we came back to the car this guy came up to us. Guess he is big time into restoring domestics, especially ones with special options or rarer models. Anyways he said that our car had the 1LE suspension option on it..
I had never heard of this before, he said that this was an option developed by GM to compete in the Player's series, but the cars had to be marketed to the public. So we asked him how he knew. He said the enlarged front rotors with piston calipers, the fact that our car's suspension was "dial"-able (able to be changed to track/road conditions), and that our car was lower than normal for that year. He must have been really snooping while we were away.
Now I live in Canada. But our car is from the States. We got it from a guy who found it in Kentucky. He said that this "mountain man" (no offense intended, his words not mine) had 3 of them and he bought this one and brought it to Canada. He picked this one because it was in the best shape.
He sold it because he needed cash.
I know that it is an incredible longshot that our car is an 88 1LE, but I am trying to figure out how to verify whether it is or it isn't. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

1LE was never an option on GTAs during any model year. The 1989 20th Anniversary Trans Ams had parts of the 1LE option installed on them.

The '88 1LE T/A I saw and had a chance to purchase looked exactly like the one in those pictures.

 

In the center console below the lid there should be an RPO sticker. That sticker will have 1LE in the codes or A4U for the players cars.

As mentioned you could not get a 1LE w the GTA for 1988.

 

What a freakin' collection! Best on this board, I'd say.

 

Whys the T/A look all jacked up in the front?

 

My guess would be someone pulled the engine

 

Well I wouldn't know, I have never pulled the engine from mine. When the time comes I'll pay someone to do it. Geez!

 

Previous owner pulled the heads to install new seats. Never finished the project so the heads and intake are setting in the trunk. It's a complete car sans the original shifter ***.

 

So it shifted the weight from the front to the back. I gotcha.

 

Thanks for the info everyone!

I figured that having 1 of those 3 would be like winning a lottery... definately not happening to me! LOL LOL!
That being the case maybe someone can solve our mystery then.... The pic of the brake rotor/front end assembly of the Player's car, looks just like the front end of our GTA. We put the car in the air last night and compared. It looks like you can even adjust the load on the spring/strut assembly so that the car can be set up for right or left hand cornering. The rear suspension is the same thing. Infact all the suspension components seem to be adjustable. And the brakes are larger, with dual piston calipers.
It's definately an 1988 GTA; so is this the WS6 suspension package then?

 

To actually answer the question the WS6 was a SUSPENSION package the 1LE was more or less a Race package. The WS6 (Or Chevy equivelant) was included on all 1LE cars to my knowledge. The 1LE required the PErformance gear ratio (3.23 for the L98, and 3.42 or 3.45 (depeding on year) for the 305/M5 cars)

There were no 305 LB9/A4 cars with the 1LE package, with the possible exception of a Police package, but I do not think they exist. The 1LE package included primarely things like the Larger brakes, a special gas tank (1988 & 1989 only) and things of that nature. Some 1LE's do have Radios, and AC, Power Windows, Power locks but those are Rare, and typically B4C Police issue cars.

If you would put two cars on a hoist, the only thing that would be really obvious would be the larger brakes... Everything else should look the same...

 

Just stumbled on this thread, never saw these pictures but I have seen the cars in person.

 

Great pics t-towner......history of these cars in pics.

 

love these players cars

 

Ahh the memories!

I cant tell you guys how happy it makes me to know that she is still around after all these years! I knew she was a rare bird but only because of the wheels back then, there was one other T/A in Vancouver B.C. that i knew of that was white with the white mesh wheels.


A little history,

I bought it in 1991 right after graduating high school, My Father was a manager at a local Honda dealer and had all the connections for cars that a young guy could dream of. I purchased her from the original owner who worked at the local ford dealership in North Vancouver B.C. I paid 9000.00 and i believe the original price was around 23k.
I owned her for 4 years before having to sell her to help pay for college in 1995, I reluctantly sold her for 8000.00.
I saw her once in about 2003 ish and was elated that it was still around.

When i got her she had about 30k on the clock and had the most beautiful paint i had ever seen, white with 5ish coats of blue pearl.

I'll never forget the day i went to buy brake pads from the local GM dealer
I went home with the standard 35$ front set only to jack it up and see that they were completely different pads! I went back to the dealership and told the parts guy they were the wrong ones, He checked the vin and told me i had the 1le option or Corvette brakes and those pads were 190.00!

The car was a beast! it sounded way different than my other friends T/A's.

I still have dreams about that car............treat her well friend!

 

I think Greg is selling it, maybe buy it back?

 

Wow, very vintage pictures, always a pleasure to see!