Gregg Hamilton had always dreamed of having his own Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with a V8 and manual gearbox, and after moving to America he decided to turn that childhood dream into a reality.
As Hamilton explains during his interview with the hit YouTube channel Petrolicious, he wanted this project to be different from work he’d done on rally cars like the Subaru WRX. He wanted to do something “local” after moving from New Zealand to the states, and what better option than his dream car, the Trans Am.
Hamilton says that Smokey and the Bandit had an influence on his desire for the car, but believe us when we say Smokey’s got nothing on this transformed Trans Am. He admits that your average Honda Civic probably has better handling than the ol’ Trans Am, but that’s ok with us, it’s a muscle car after all. It’s got a mean racecar-esque look to it, but more importantly to us is what’s under the hood.
When Hamilton first received this Trans Am from an eBay seller, it had a standard Oldsmobile V8 matted to an automatic transmission. Now, it’s got an LS V8 engine out of a truck that’s fitted with two big ol’ turbochargers, just the way we like ’em.
Click play to see more about this Trans Am transformation, and keep an eye out for the small details. We may be drawn to the performance side of things, but there’s an appreciation to be had for a build of this nature.
Comment
It is a 77 or 78, not a 79!