Like-New: 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am
Do you ever wish you could go back in time and buy a car off the showroom that you didn’t. Well, sometimes people buy cars and store them so that you can do that very thing. The only problem with this plan is that you have to part with a lot of money! This 1989 Pontiac 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am is listed for sale here on eBay with 9 days remaining in the listing. The seller has listed the car with a Buy It Now Price of $85,000 with a Make An Offer option. This car has only 150 miles on the odometer and is located in Mount Vernon, Washington.
The tan leather interior looks to be in showroom condition. The controls are filled with push buttons that look like the dash of the Millennium Falcon out of Star Wars. The car was delivered to Bob King Pontiac on the east coast in Wilmington, North Carolina. The 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am was selected as the Pace Car for the 1989 Indianapolis 500. This car is #335 of 1,555 produced.
What makes this car special is the powerplant which is the Buick 3.8 liter V6 engine that uses the same size turbo from the Buick Grand National and the intercooler from the GNX. The cylinder heads are from the transverse 3800 V6 due to the tight engine bay clearance. It was conservatively rated at 250 horsepower and 340 lb ft of torque. Car magazines of the day declared it one of the fastest Trans Am ever built. It’s quarter mile times were comparable to the quarter mile times recorded in the 1973 and 1974 Super Duty Trans Am. The 1989 Turbo Trans Am covered the quarter mile time in 13.4 seconds at a top speed of 153 mph. It had a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds. The car was declared as the fastest US production car in 1989 because the Corvette ZR1 was not considered a production car.
There were actually a few hard top (no T-Top) and convertible 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Ams built and two other 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Ams were said to be built that were not painted white. About 40 hard tops were produced and 3 convertibles by ASC. This is the lowest mile 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am I have ever seen and will likely end up in a collection somewhere. I have to say, it would be fun to fly in and drive it home!
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Comments
I get that some cars appear so rarely that people don’t really know what they think they know. The engine in this car IS NOT the same engine as used in the GNX. Others will have more detail but the sloped hood on this mighty Pontiac forced the engineers to make some changes. Other parts were upgraded purely for performance and this is a faster can than the GNX.
This was the fastest car in the world in 1989 and NOT because some Corvette sub model wasn’t classified a certain way. That’s another urban legend bandied by embarrassed chevy boys.
You are correct. The 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am is not the identical engine as a GNX. It used the intercooler from the GNX, the same size turbo as the GN and heads from the 38000 V6. Here is a good comparison:
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/f-em-all-1989-pontiac-trans-am
Bruce Johnson: That engine and the GNX were actually rated at 300hp . That was the big talk back then.
The heads and set-up had to be changed to fit under the hood of the TransAm. I’m not sure where they came up with the top speed unless it had to do with the limiter. My 87 GTA would top out over 150 and the advertised top speed was 138 if I remember correctly.
Awesome ! Neighbor had one for sale about 6-7 years ago. Yup, wish I would have got it. Just trying to struggle thru divorce back then. I’m pretty sure price was $17k
I drove a mint version of this car in 2006. What a thrill. And if you can keep your foot out of it, decent gas mileage. A one year only car and certainly a keeper that can blow off those punk kids in their Hondas and VWs.
Great cars. Very fast. 3.27 gear for awesome hwy performance and cruising. Sat in a showroom model in 89. Couldn’t afford one, so we got a stripper 5.0 Lx sedan.
Did they only come in the white color?
Stan, the only color was white according to gm . Sweet car. I had the first year they came out with the 350 .
The 3.27 rear end was nice for highway and reasonable for the drag strip. I averaged 24 mpg highway and 17-19 around town. With the auto
I had one and can attest to the speed these cars could produce. Mine ran high 12 seconds on the stock tires with a K&N air filter and a Flowmaster muffler.As far as top speed I went a inch past the 165 that the stock speedometer. Car was the fastest car I had owned until my Hellcat Redeye I have now.
I had a 1996 Firebird Formula and while driving past my local Pontiac dealership I spied an 89 Turbo Trans Am for sale. A holy grail Pontiac for sure. I pulled in for a test drive. The car didn’t have the traditional hatchback. It had some sort of notch back deal. I don’t know if it was a factory option or aftermarket. I loved the style of the 89 TTA. It drove fine, but the chassis seemed to cry out for stiffening. Rounding a corner with some typical crappy pavement, I saw the dash shake violently. The car was a T Top model of course. I hopped back into my 96 LT1 Formula and was glad for it. It would never be as collectible as an 89 TTA, but in my opinion was a far superior car.
Does your ’96 have t-tops?
& what about the handling of an ’89 WITHOUT t-tops?
I never seen the dash of even an ancient 2nd gen t/a shake w/o t-tops.
Hi, My 96 was as solid as a vault. It was a hardtop. I meant the 89 TTA shook violently. That car did have ttops. Sorry if I wasn’t clear on that.
It would be interesting to see what would happen to the performance of this car if you swapped in the SD’s mechanical cooling fan & heavy 3 speed non lockup turbo 400 auto trans. & if you swapped in an electric fan & 200R4 trans into the SD.
Joenywf64, my GTA with 350 had dual electric fans , I’m pretty sure this does too. Because the low profile of the hood they came with short wide radiators.
As for a 400 trans, I needed 4th OD to run the 1/4 mile. Axle ratio and low pro tires I ran out of 3rd at 6000rpm
There was one of these sitting in a driveway for years just rotting. Wish I had asked about it back then, always loved the look of them.
Wow 150 miles!! Also has a Mustang listed with a salvage title, that had Potential Fentanyl Contamination!!
This is another one where pretty much everybody who bought one of these just stored it. A real shame this car was never enjoyed. And from an investment perspective, it was not very good, even if they get the full 85 grand.
Yes I got mine and storied it the first year but the car was not going to bring the kind of money the GNX would. I started to drive it and enjoy the amazing power these cars had.Still have all the time slips from the fun at Quaker city drag strip in Salem,Ohio.Wish I would have put slicks on it but was afraid the drivetrain would suffer the abuse of that extra traction. High 12 second times at 114mph was still a blast for a basically stock car.