We’re going a little self-indulgent with this eBay find. Hovering near the top of our dream car list is a 1973 SD455 Trans Am. Why? It was the second to last cannon shot (there was a SD455 option in 1974) of big horsepower from Detroit after the insurance companies and oil prices ankled the muscle car era. The styling is hotness and the performance is on the level of anything that came before it and far superior to the junk that came after it.
For us, the 1974 model is just a little too angular and choppy in the nose. This ’73 retains the classic early second-gen nose that made it’s debut in 1970. The particular car is an automatic which would be good for the drags but not as fun as a four speed on the street.
The big 455 was rated at a truly hilarious 290hp by GM was by all accounts was a 400hp engine. These cars are not the lightest packages around and box stock 13-second elapsed times were not out of the question in the right conditions.
Every one of these cars was the mechanical equivalent of two upturned middle fingers coming out of the Pontiac plant. There’s nothing more BangShift approved than that.
They’re rare as hen’s teeth and this super clean example is currently listed for $79,000. There’s a reason people call them dream cars.
Source — eBay Motors — 1973 Trans Am Super Duty
