The 1988 Trans Am GTA Review

"The Pontiac Trans Am GTA is a car that needs no introduction and even less explanation. Any service station attendant who’s been around long enough to figure out where the nozzle goes has a clear concept of this car’s reason for being. People who have their names sewn onto their shirts just go crazy over the GTA; the car is such a clear-cut piece of Americana that no Average Joe can possibly resist it . But, surprisingly, the GTA also seems to strike a pleasant chord with a lot of people who have collars in hues other than basic blue . For your average thirtysomething professional type, the GTA fills the bill as the ‘60s /’70s musciecar that was too expensive to be feasible back when we wore bellbottoms — and worked as gas station attendants. The GTA gives you most of the classic V-8 musclecar fun without beating you up like the original would’ve. A couple decades of refinement on the basic musciecar concept have paid off with a car that is, overall, more satisfying than the original item. The GTA sits at the top of Pontiac’s Trans Am / Firebird line and comes - standard with almost everything that can be shoehorned into or bolted onto the base car. This platform is so loaded that the GTA buyer has few important decisions left to make. He can go with the standard 5.7-liter V-8 and its 4-speed automatic transmission, or opt for the 5-liter engine that can be had with a 5-speed manual transmission.




Highlights on the options list are leather upholstery or the notchback decklid. Our test car had the notchback lid, a little trinket that would set the buyer back about $700 and cost about 2.5 cu ft of luggage capacity, certainly not the most practical option, but one that’s hard to resist if you like the look. The GTA’s standard 5.7-liter engine is available only with the automatic transmission. If you just have to shift manually, then you’ll just have to go for the smaller engine. The power difference between the two is significant: the big motor has 225 hp, up 10 ponies from that of the smaller engine. The big engine has an impressive 45 lb-ft torque advantage when it reaches its 330 lb-ft peak at just 3200 rpm. The street performance difference between the two engines isn’t as large as those numbers would lead you to expect. We’ve put the two engines head-to-head in the past - one in a Firebird Formula and one in a Camaro IROC-Z, which are basically identical platforms. The 0-60 acceleration is about a half second faster with the big engine, and the quarter-mile time is about a half second and three (3) mph better. In a comparison of passing times from 40-70 mph, the small engine is actually quicker. While the automatic transmission is busy downshifting, the manual transmission is putting its engine’s power to the ground. The small engine accelerates through the test in 6.3 sec, while the big-engined car takes 7.1 sec. Our GTA turned in pretty respectable performance numbers. It covered the quarter mile in 15.88 sec with a terminal speed of 90 mph flat, and bolted from 0-60 in 7.38 sec. When you consider how much money you have to spend to go much faster than this, the GTA comes out looking awfully good. The V-8 is a load of fun to use; there’s a huge ground swell of torque in the lower half of the engine’s operating range that shoves you back in the seat and will light the rear wheels if traction is less than perfect.





The automatic transmission isn’t the world’s most sophisticated device; it can be fooled pretty easily. The engine’s generous power delivery encourages sudden bursts of throttle to dispense with unpleasant traffic situations, but your typical industry-standard 3-sec blast is often wholly unsatisfying. Imagine yourself rolling down the street at, say, 30 mph. You decide to jam the throttle through the firewall — strictly in the name of science, mind you. For about the first second, the transmission frantically downshifts; by the end of second No. 2, the transmission has selected a ratio (probably 1st, God forbid), the engine has built up the necessary rpm, and at last begun to put some power to the rear wheels. By that point, the driver (that’s you, pal) has already lost interest in the whole deal and pedestrians are wondering what all the commotion is about. Talk about much ado about nothing..... Greater driver finesse is required to avoid such undignified behavior. By squeezing on about half throttle gradually, the GTA surges forward immediately, as the transmission steps down smoothly into 2nd. The car pulls hard, just like a big V-8 should, and the car’s reason for being is validated. The GTA’s chassis and suspension is, shall we say, basic. The front end is supported by MacPherson struts, and out back there’s a good old straight axle. Pontiac has milked quite a high level of performance out of such mundane stuff, however. The GTA comes with the WS6 performance suspension package, which includes big anti-roll bars front and rear, special springs, gas-charged shocks, and quick-ratio power-steering.

The P245/50VR16 Goodyear Eagle GT tires don’t hurt, either. Together, all these pieces make the GTA a real threat on the skidpad. Our test car generated 0.87 lateral g, with mild understeer and a relatively small amount of body roll. On a swervy road, the GTA works wonderfully, provided the pavement is fairly smooth. The unsophisticated rear suspension has a lot of unsprung weight, and, as a result, is reluctant to follow sudden bumps and pavement lips effectively. So in smooth turns, the GTA feels balanced and accurate with mild understeer; in the bumps, the car’s tail end gets looser and looser in direct proportion to the severity of the bumps, while the front end stays planted. Not to worry, the Trans Am’s steering is quick and accurate, with just the right amount of assist. The car is great fun to work through a series of fast turns; it feels solid and forgiving. The Pontiac GTA really handles better than it has any right to, given its low-tech underpinnings. In some situations, the automatic transmission surprises you in mid-turn with an unexpected downshift; rowing the selector manually allevates that problem. The GTA is also a little short on braking power for protracted sessions of tight back road abuse. The quartet of ventilated discs can make a big stink and fade significantly if repeatedly called upon to haul the 3604-lb GTA down from speed. Given just a bit more time to shed heat, they hold up well. We’ve driven around roadrace courses with the same brake setup (on a Firebird Formula) without noticeable fade, and, for anything close to normal street use, the brakes are adequate. Life with the GTA is just what you’d expect, only a little better. First, the stuff you’d expect. Like any proper musclecar, the GTA is the model of classic American inefficiency.

The car’s external dimensions are comparatively huge, but of course there’s minimal luggage space inside, and the cockpit is as claustrophobic as the one in the lunar module. Fuel mileage can be pulled down into the 10-mpg range with a longer than standard right leg. Pontiac rubs your nose in it by providing just 15.5 gal of fuel capacity. At that rate, it’s hardly worth putting the gas card back in your wallet.
Just leave it out — you’ll need it again in a few minutes. What you might not expect from the GTA is a relatively high level of passenger comfort. The interior is tastefully appointed and offers front seat occupants of normal size plenty of room to get comfortable. The GTA’s front seats have electrically adjustable lumbar and side support. The other adjustments are manual and simple to use. The back seats are liveable for short stints, or for kids, particularly ones you’re angry with, and also flip down to provide more cargo capacity. The interior noise level is pleasantly subdued, although the wide Goodyears telegraph a fair amount of road noise into the cabin when the pavement is choppy. And the engine is always audible, though most GTA buyers would consider this an asset instead of a liability. The ride quality is definitely on the firm side, but it’s by no means abusive. Instrumentation is all analog, with big, legible dials that span half the dashboard. There’s a gauge for everything you might be interested in, as well as some functions you might rather forget about (like the fuel 1evel, for example). The GTA’s upgraded AM/FM/cassette stereo sounds pretty decent, but suffers from a bad case of button overload. There are no fewer than 45 separate controls for the system, split between the unit itself and the remote controls on the steer-ing wheel. The result is often confusion instead of convenience. Unbelievably, of the twelve (12) buttons on the wheel, only the two volume control buttons have any effect on tape deck operation. The rest are devoted exclusively to the radio. On our test car, the volume-down button on the steering wheel had an unpleasant habit of sticking, and occasionally would even activate itself. The detail finish on our test car was not impressive, either.

There was a squeak in the console and a creak in the decklid. One of the plastic trim pieces came adrift on a gas decklid spring. On the other side, a trim piece was missing entirely. Our right side door scuffed the "ground-effects” rocker panel every time it was opened or closed. When empty, the passenger seatback flopped fore and aft a couple inches under braking. Oh, well..... Given the GTA’s target audience, it’s hard to argue with the car's mix of attributes — or to complain much about its liabilities. It’s doubtful that the musciecar experience would be significantly improved with a more modern chassis design. General Motors already builds the Corvette to satisfy high-end, chassis-oriented V-8 buyers. For the the Trans Am GTA, price is probably as important a feature as its 0-60 time, and it scores well in both of these measures of performance. For about 20 grand, you can slide yourself, for better or worse, behind the wheel of a legendary musclecar. That’s cheap for a legend, don’t you think?"

Tech Data
GENERAL
Vehicle Mfr..................Pontiac Motor Division, General Motors Corp., Pontiac. Mich. Body type:.......... 4-passenger, 2-door Drive system:.......... Front engine, rear drive Base Price:.......... $19,299 Price as tested:.......... $19,999
ENGINE
Type:.......... V-8, cast iron block and heads, water-cooled Displacement:.......... 5736 cc (350 cu in.) Compression ratio:.......... 9.3:1 Induction system:.......... Multi-port EFI Valvetrain:.......... OHV, 2 Valves/cylinder Max. power (SAE net):.......... 225 hp @ 4200 rpm Max. torque (SAE net):.......... 330 lb-ft @ 3200 rpm Emissions control:.......... Catalytic converter, EGR, air pump Recommended fuel:.......... Unleaded premium
DRIVETRAIN
Transmission:.......... 4-sp. auto.. O/D Transmission ratios:.......... (1st) 3.06:1 (2nd) 1.63:1 (3rd) 1.00:1 (4th) 0.70:1 Axle ratio:.......... 2.73:1 Final drive ratio:.......... 1.91:1
CAPACITIES
Crankcase:.......... 4.7 L (5 qt) Fuel tank:.......... 58.7 L (15.5 gal) Luggage:.......... 351 L (12.4 ft) Range (at EPA combined):.......... 474 km (294.5 ml)
SUSPENSION
Front:.......... independent MacPherson struts, coil springs, hydraulic shocks, anti-roll bar Rear:.......... Solid axle, torque arm, hydraulic shocks, anti-roll bar
STEERING
Type:.......... Recirculating ball, power assist Ratio:.......... 12.7:1 Turns (lock to lock):.......... 2.26 Turning circle:.......... 10 m (32.6 ft)
BRAKES
Front:.......... 267 mm (10.5 in.), vented discs, power assist Rear:.......... 267 mm (10.5 in.), vented discs, power assist Anti-lock:.......... Not available
WHEELS AND TIRES
Wheel Size:.......... 16 x 8.0 in. Wheel type:.......... Cast alloy Tire size & Construction:.......... P245/50VR16 steel-belted radial Tire mfr. & model:.......... Goodyear Eagle
GT DIMENSIONS
Published curb weight:.......... 1505 kg (3604 Ib) Weight distribution, f/r:.......... 57/43% Wheelbase:.......... 2566 mm (101 in.) Overall length:.......... 4867 mm (191.6 in.) Overall width:.......... 1838 mm (72.4.in. ) Overall height:.......... 1270 mm (50 in.) Track, f/r:.......... 1541/1564mm (60.7/81.6 in.)
SPECIFICATIONS
Power-to-weight ratio:.......... 16 lb/hp Int. noise IvL (60 mph):.......... 71 dBA EPA (combined):.......... 19 mpg