1976 Pontiac Trans Am

1976 PONTIAC TRANS AM TURNS THE CORNER
1976 marked Pontiac’s 50th birthday, and the commemorated it with a special edition of the Trans Am. Painted black with gold accents, this was the first Trans Am Anniversary package ever released, and the first use in production of the Black and Gold Special Edition (2,590 were built). It took until nearly this time for the Trans Am to prove its business case to the bean counters at GM. They were making boatloads of money selling T/As at premium prices and at volumes that nearly matched those of all other Firebird models combined. They started investing more to further differentiate the Trans Am from lesser Firebirds with special front end treatments, among other things. And it was finally paying off. The 1976 Pontiac Trans Am was the first T/A every to double the sales volume of the base Firebird. In actuality, it more than doubled it, with 46,701 Trans Ams sold vs. 21,209 base Firebirds.

1976 PONTIAC TRANS AM STYLING CHANGES
For ’76, the T/A got a revised body-colored, deformable urethane front facia with a more integrated look, with a trimmed front spoiler the parking lights back in the lower integrated bumper, in the cooling vents. This was the last year for round headlights, one on each side. Out back, there was a new urethane body-colored bumper, while the wide horizontally-slatted tail lights remained unchanged form the prior years. This is also the first year for the T-Top. Trans Ams came with GR70X15 steel belted radial tires on Rally II wheels (body-colored or argent) or honeycomb alloy wheels as a no cost option. This was the last year for the honeycombs.

1976 PONTIAC TRANS AM ENGINE OPTIONS
The base motor, unchanged from ’75, was the 400 rated at a paltry 185hp. The top engine was the 455 H.O., itself unchanged from ’75, that only came with a 4-speed manual transmission, which made it unavailable to California buyers due to their smog laws. The 1976 Pontiac Trans Am would be the last to have a 455 option. All had a 2-into-1-into-2 exhaust system with dual tail pipes. The shaker hood was no longer functional.


1976 Pontiac Trans Am SPECIFICATIONS

Production

Wheelbase

Length

Width

Height

Track, front

Track, rear

Weight

ENGINE              

W-code

Displacement

Bore & Stroke

Compression ratio

PERFORMANCE

455 V8

46,701

108.0 in / 2743 mm

191.6 in / 4867 mm

73.1 in / 1870 mm

50.2 in / 1276 mm

61.3 in / 1556 mm

60.5 in / 1537 mm

3,540 lbs / 1605 kg

455ci V8 1X4bbl

455.359 ci

4.15″ X 4.21″

7.6:1

Zero-to-60 = 8.4 sec

200 hp @ 3500 rpm / 330 lb/ft @ 3000 rpm

7462 cc / 7.5 L

105.4 mm X 106.5 mm

1/4-mile = 15.9 sec @ 87 mph