1980 Pontiac Trans Am

T TOP Turbo Anniversary Pace Car Coupe

301 Turbo V8

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2X87TAN140979

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1980 Anniversary Turbo Trans Am So this is a really once in a lifetime chance to buy a really rare Pontiac Trans Am with 17,969 documented miles on it. What makes it more rare is the story that comes with the car and the documents that also come backing up the most we can with our claims. As being a piece of History for long gone Pontiac, owning one of the 3 original Pace Cars is impossible, but this is the next best thing. Everytime you take it to a Cruise Nite, there wont be another one there you know that ! This car should go into a museum or collection . Im sure as time goes by, more information will come out about this car further proving it is what it is, its a sound investment. Even if you are buying it because it has 17k original miles if you just restored the interior and left the paint alone it would be worth more as a SURVIVOR. Survivor cars are bringing in more money at the auctions then trailer queens. This is how the story goes: In Oct of 1980, Mr William Johns of Tucson Az was in the market for a new Pontiac, not finding much at the 1 Pontiac dealership in town, he and his family take a trip to the Phoenix area and check out the Pontiac dealers there. He was browsing around what was then SUN PONTIAC at the time checking out the Trans Ams, when he had wandered into a backroom area and found the car you are looking at in this auction. At that time the car had larger slick type soft compound racing tires on it and some HD front coil springs up front. Mr Johns expressed his interest in buying the car where upon the owner of Sun Pontiac told him it was one of the original Indy Pace cars and wasnt for sale. How the story was told to Sun Pontiac is the car never was used during the actual race during the 500 race, but it was there at the track for obvious reasons.It did got to the Daytona Firecracker 400 race that year just after Indy and possibly did see some track time, not sure. From there the car was then sent to California to do some track time at Riverside and possibly Watkins Glen pacing some races at those road courses after Daytona. Nearing the end of the year the car ended up at a Pontiac dealer in CAbut for some reason the car couldnt be sold legally in CA. It somehow ended up at SUN PONTIAC in aprox Sept 1980 where it sat until Mr Johns came across it in Oct. and an afternoon of haggling and persuading Mr Johns talked the owner of SUN into selling it to him. He couldnt take the car on the spot so they told him to come back after a few mods on the car had been taken off. 1 being the soft compound racing tires had to be removed as well as the HD higher rate front coil springs had to be changed out and an street alignment done before he could take the car home. I seem to think that them saying something about the rearend gears also possibly being switched out at one time, but maybe that was just for the original Pace Car mod GM did. A $50 deposit was put on the car on Oct 22 1980 and on Oct 24th William went back to the dealership and paid the balance on the car and took it home. New set of tires installed, 689 miles on the odometer and all rest of the Pace Car mods (orange roof lights, added interior switches left on the car when he picked it up) The documents shown in the pics below where found in the glovebox after he picked up the car show the car to have had 37 miles on it. Mr Johns drove the car off and on till 88 when it was last tagged where after realizing it was worth more with low miles he took it off the road and it sat in a carport most of its life here in the Tucson area where the sun did take its toll on parts of the car. When he took possession of the car, Sun did give him more docs with the car, but many where in a box in a shed outside and did get some water damage over the yrs and no longer available. What he did save as far as docs go, are all shown here in the auction below. He got PHS records a few yrs back which did help show more about the authenticity of the car. Federal Signal paperwork shows car 45004 to be the development car for the overhead lights. After the light brackets etc where made, Pontiac got the car back and more then likely, the car was used for OTHER Developmental work for the next 5 Indy cars being built. More tell tale signs of this car seeing track time other then whats been mentioned already are things like: rolled inner fender lips on the rear / cut and rolled exactly like the real pace cars in the museums, this was done for added tire clearance of course. Also the wiring for the Overhead lights under the hood is exactly like what Ive seen on the other documented cars. The LED light under the steering column and switches are just like the original Pace Cars used at the track. Sure, anyone could add this stuff over the yrs but they cant change serial #s and Vins. Also the wife and son of Mr Johns swore up and down this car is exactly the way he got it back in 1980 except the tires had been changed because even though it wasnt being driven, the heat just toasted them. And Az took its toll on the paint, decals etc inside and out. I even went as far as contacting the editor of Hi Performance Pontiac magazine trying to get more history on the car. He in turn contacted Mr Pontiac himself, Tom Goad. After telling Tom about the car and showing him some pics of it, part of Toms reply in an email was: To the best of his recollection, it sounds as if your particular Trans Am may be the very early (possibly preproduction) Pace Car model that he personally drove from Pontiac to Daytona to be used as the actual pace car. He said he personally drove it on the banks at high speed, but was not the driver during the actual race. The car still has the unique front and rear decals inside on the glass ie: P210 which matches with the documents we got with the car and these decals where only used on the Pace cars. Some may argue this is just a Festival car which they made aprox 200 of, but this car has way more actual Pace Car stuff on it then just decals etc. This car was built to be used and it was. Sadly Mr Johns passed away last yr and we acquired the car from his family here in Tucson. DRIVETRAIN: 301 Turbo Motor / auto trans / 4 wheel disc rearend with factory posi. Nice unmolested original set up.I believe it to be the motor that came in the car the day it was born. The numbers and markings I found on the front of the motor read: PYL 4Pump the gas a few times when its cold and it fires up and idles pretty well. Although it probably needs a set of plugwires, maybe a carb rebuild too from sitting so long and a set of plugs. But Ive driven this car several times up the street to get lunch and its still amazing how much attention it gets.Tires are old too and mismatched rollers. I figure whoever buys it will want to put on a correct set of Goodyears, as well as NOS wires etc trying to keep the car as close to factory original as possible. INTERIOR: is showing its age mostly from the Az heat and sun. Again with such low miles, dont think the backseats ever been sat but its showing some age in areas. Headliner etc mostly.All the gauges, clock etc work fine as do all the lites etc. Even the factory radio works still as does the cassette. The unique Pace Car factory mods are just the way GM did it in 1980. I did try to find a build sheet behind the back seat but no luck. Its probably somewhere else in the car, but Im not going to start taking it apart because I know what the car is already. EXTERIOR: original paint showing its age as are the decals Az is so hot and dry, it just doesnt happen to cars this old.Also no rust of any kind in the T top channels etc. As mentioned earlier, all the mods to the body ie the rolled fender lips to the best of my knowledge, are all factory. SUSPENSION: pretty much all stock with some mismatched tires on the factory white Turbo Pontiac 15x8 alum rims The whole suspension only has aprox 18k miles on it, and Im sure some of those miles where used driving around a road course pacing some races either at Daytona and almost for sure some tracks in California in the mid 1980s. Feels good for its age and very rust freeother then some surface rust. Alot of the factory markings are stillvisible when the cars on a lift. EMAIL WITH ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE THE PICS BELOW SPEAK VOLUMES but Im sure I may of overlooked some stuff. Check out over 100+ pics below, be patient it may take a minute or 2 for them to all load. Fair Reserve, but if it doesnt meet reserve theres always a chance a deal can be struck after the auction ends. Something funny, whenever this car comes up in conversation on the net, every "expert" out there does nothing more then to try to tear the car apart, more power to them all. And with all due respect, I can appreciate their skeptisism but just knowing vin #s doesnt tell the whole story. If they worked for Pontiac when the car was being built in 1980 on the assembly line and had some first hand experience as to how Pontiac pulled cars off the line and cars where built and tested, Id tend to give their "opinions" some creedents. But they didnt do all of that and to me just like to hate on other owners. Ive learned there are a bunch of know it alls online. There you have it, probably The BEST represented Trans Ams on Ebay. Shows you all the good as well as any bad, hope you liked the pics. If you decide to buy someone elses car, we wish you the best but ours is prob the best represented and most rust free too. Email us with ANY questions before you bid please If you treat yourself to buying one of our cars, youll never buy a bucket again from anyone !! Our Impeccable FEEDBACK speaks for itself. Doing restoration on this type of project is less labor intensive which means overall cost is less too ! With less horrid surprises later on. Dont let auctions with little to no pics try to fool you. With other auctions, you really dont know what to expect until you take the car apart. While we go over our cars ALL OVER with great pics to help making your decision easier. Along with ANY other questions you may have. We can easily help loading and if you use our shipper it wont be an issue. CAR COMES WITH AZ TITLE CAR MUST BE moved out within 12 days of auctions END ! we can no longer store cars for anyone !! Unless other arrangements have been made before auction ends. Can help with shipping outside the USA too if you need help. This car, you can see clearly what to expect with no surprises and our Feedback speaks for itself ! EMAIL US WITH ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE !! Can help with minor loading, but our shipper has no problems with INOP cars, so their prices are very fair. IF you need a shipping quote, just email us with your city/state and Ill find out our best quote for you !! No problem helping it to the docks if you are shipping overseas . If there is a winner, please email me when the auction ends and say Hi and we can take it from there. I bank with B of A which makes things easy for many out of state for payment. direct deposit or Cashier checks must clear before car can move. Its a sign of the times, sorry. PAYPAL only as a gift can be had. Must be paid within 4 days of auctions end. I got an email from someone who knew about this car in 99 and was in touch with Mr Johns too back then. The emailer called this a Proving Ground Turbo T/A, which is pretty cool. One thing for sure, this cars life in its first year probably saw more action then some cars their whole life. ALSO I noticed just today, something interesting. The car has a radio but noantenna. I dont even see a place it could of mounted on either frontfender. This could be a good clue as to what else this car was used forand or what events it was at if more pics can be found. Im sure someone at Pontiac knows why and for what reason theresno antenna on the fender. Im going to find pics of the original otherPace cars known to exist and see what they have.