Not often you see a rare car like this being driven the way it was designed to. This is one of those special cars that GM occasionally makes in spite of itself, and arguably is one of the, if not the best Firebird made, the 1989 20th Anniversary Trans Am.
Due to the Stigma of heavy iron Muscle Cars, people often forget how good of a handler the Firebird really was, and this one was the best of the lot. The recipe was straight forward take an already competent handling V8 Trans Am that could pull 0.90Gs on the Skid pad and put an even lighter more powerful Turbocharged 3.8 Liter V6 motor out of the Grand National into it. The results were impressive, and when Autoweek tested this car in 1989, it pulled over 1.0 G in lateral acceleration, establishing the best result for the test they had ever recorded until it was finally bested by the Ferrari F40.
In 1993 the third generation Firebird was replaced with the 4th generation, and much of the raw handling talent of the third gen was lost to the heavier car with more options, more compliant communicative SLA front suspension, and nod to more civility. The better LT1 and eventually revolutionary LS1 overshadowed the accomplishment's of the third generation F-Cars, but anyone who has owned both will tell you, the 4th gens did lack a lot for the raw visceral handling grunt of a light 3rd gen car with the WS6 option.
[Video:
A Rare 1989 20th Anniverasy turbo TA tearing up an Autocross Course]
Labels: Racing