I MAY be getting my own 1/1 scale KITT!

[Dave Knight]

1988 Pontiac Trans am TTop
305 cube TBI (throttle body injection) 190 horse (210 hp with the manual) V8
4 speed auto
2500 or best offer

the pic i posted is a 86, but its the same color (blue over silver with grey interior) as the 88. It is punched in the drives side door but the seller has a donor door from a 84-85 firebird, so i just have to swap the lock cyl in the damage door to the new one, hang it, and get the door repainted. I will probably hold off on repainting the door and just have the whole car repainted black .

[frank_knight]

Awesome Dave...where are you from? I want to form a club with Replica owners in the NY/NJ area..are you in the USA?

[FuzzieDice]

Good luck Dave! That'll be sweet! If you get the car, please do post pictures!

[nice plate]

Well Done. I always thought Trans Ams had 300+ horsepower but I am obviously wrong (was this only on 2nd gen and early 3rd gen motors?)

[Skyknight]

Congrats Dave on your new acquisition! I hope you have a lot of enjoyment from your new muscle car!

Well Done. I always thought Trans Ams had 300+ horsepower but I am obviously wrong (was this only on 2nd gen and early 3rd gen motors?)

Actually, the early 3rd gen cars had the weakest engines out of all the f-bodies ever produced. The most powerful engine you could get stock on an 82-86 f-body was a 305 and around 200 horse was about all you could expect from these (much less on an 82). The 350 didn't come back until 1987. That is why many people who have bought earlier 3rd gen models have done some engine upgrades.
Overall the third gen cars were pretty gutless compared to all the other generations.

The 2nd gens came with motors like the 6.6 liters. From what I've heard, those were pretty beefy. I wouldn't know from first hand experience though..

[LuvKITT]

Wow, very nice looking car. I finally got mine a month 1/2 ago. It is a 86 black/gold TA. There is nothing like owning one.

[James_kr]

Has anyone got a 4 cylinder Trans Am I heard that they existed but wouldn't have had much power at all.

[LuvKITT]

A guy I know just pulled a 4 cyl out of his FB I believe. He is making his a convertable conversion.

As for mine I don't care about power, I have a 305 TPI and I hear they get good gas mileage. That's the only thing I care about right now...lol.

[Dave Knight]

Yeah it sounds cool, I MAY not convert it but simply fix the damage to the door and clean it up. This is my 2nd 3rd gen F car, I owned another 1988 but it was a camaro with the same engine. As for power my camaro moved quite well for only having 190 horses. The owner of the car installed a aftermarket either Flowmaster or similar exhaust system. The most powerfull 3rd gen Fbody was the 1989 20th Anniversary Trans am with its 280-300hp Turbocharged V6 engine, the ONLY non V8 powered trans am. As for my powertrain, I am thinking installing either:

93-97 LT1 (275-285hp depending on year of car taken from)
98-02 LS1 with 305 hp


EDIT frank_knight I live in in southwestern NY near Lake Erie close to Buffalo.

[Dave Knight]

Well guys I wont be getting the car after all the damage was more than the guy said it was the door was hit where it meets up with the quarter and bent part of the floor pan below the door (under the plastic rockerpanel extenders *silver parts*). But it would have made a bad ass conversion as it had the TUNED PORT TPI motor not the Throttlebody TBI and it had the front fender extractors RARE for a 88, and it had DIGITAL gauges . So all it would need it for a KITTification was the cowled hood, rear wing, tailights and bumper cover *and removal of the plastic body extensions*. So I will keep looking and let you know when I find the perfect 'donor car' .

[FuzzieDice]

Sorry to hear, Dave. Oh well, keep your eyes open. There has to be one out there with your name on it somewhere.

James_kr - Yeah, there were 4Cyl firebirds but they are rare to nearly non-existant. I almost tried to get one on eBay earlier this year. It was manual transmission though and no t-tops. I was thinking it would make a good KARR except I don't drive Manual and I wanted T-Tops. It had the spoiler, which is rare for a 4-Cyl. firebird (aka "Base model") because the base model birds didn't come with a spoiler. someone might have put it on afterwards, I'd guess.

The 4-Cyl engnie is a Pontiac 4-Tech with TBI fuel injection that was used in the base model firebirds at times, and the base model Pontiac 6000s (my car has one of these). It is nicknamed the "Iron Duke" engine because the engine and head are all cast iron. Heavy darn engine! Only around 98HP at around 4800 rpm I think. My car is automatic transmission with cruise control (cruise not working at the moment). These engines are also known as the "L4" too. They are good, long-lasting, reliable low-power engines. Good enough for city driving and getting around places. Not a muscle-car motor or good for racing (stock that is). There WERE L4 SuperDuty motors that were in some race cars, including some NASCAR cars at one time. They had almost 200 hp I think and could top well over 100 mph.

My car can probably go 100. But that'd be really pushing it, maybe redlining. I wouldn't do that to my classic! (well, almost classic - he turns 20 in March 2007!) The speedometer goes only up to 85 mph though. I rarely go more than 45 if that due to the fact I live in the suburbs in a busy area. LOL!

If I had the money I'd love to get a firebird with a duker in it. Reason is, they are good on gas. So if I made one into a KARR, I could drive it more than if it had a V8. It wouldn't cost as much to keep gas in it. My 6000 I only fill maybe one every 3 or 4 months! IF I had a V8, it'd probably be more frequent and more expensive.

Unfortunately, firebirds with Iron Dukes under the hood are a very very rare breed.

So's the money to buy one.

[James_kr]

i don't think anyone with a KITT replica drives it as their main car so it shouldn't be a big issue having it run on a V8. You wouldn't want a manual anyway because it wouldn't be authentic to KITT anyway. The T-Tops shouldn't be a big issue since you can get them put in

[nice plate]

The 2nd gen Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am had 365hp!!!! That is what I call Yankee muscle!!

[LuvKITT]

Actually there are a couple of people that do drive their replica as the daily driver. Not many people do that but some people can't afford 2 cars I would guess. I'm not going to do that with mine. I have a daily driver. My TA will be my show and weekend car.

[FuzzieDice]

I think KARR would be my daily driver, at least while I would be putting some more work into Dryden (my 6000) or if one is being worked on, the other gets driven. Dryden is my daily driver and only car I have.

If I had KARR, I'd put a computer and AI chatbot of sorts in it, and try to find a matching/menacing voice. That would rule! I still hope to do that with my current car.

[LuvKITT]

hehe...yeah I have a name for my daily driver, Bluebell...ha.

[James_kr]

2 reasons why I think it would be bad to use it as a daily driver.

1) You don't want it to get a scratch or stolen

2) No Airbags (probably a very important thing in trans ams) its a shame you can't get them installed.

Would you put a dash in it Fuzziedice?

[Dave Knight]

actually I think if you live in a state that doesnt have inpections you can remove the airbag wheels. If not then thats probably why most of the replica builders choose the 82-89 years (airbag came out in 90 ).

[Joe Huth]

The 350 I dropped into my 84 Trans Am last summer makes almost 300hp

Joe

[FuzzieDice]

James_kr - Dryden doesn't have air bags. In fact, I don't like the idea of something hitting me in the face and smothering me, keeping me from breathing in a crash. Dryden has those self-adjusting seat belts that tighten up if you happen to step on the brakes too hard.

Yeah, I'd put a dash in and a computer and security system. Believe me, no theif would get very far with a car that tells it that they just reported them to the police!

I really would use KARR as a second daily driver though. Although I don't think I'd have his scanner on very much, due to local laws.

[Skyknight]

James_kr - Dryden doesn't have air bags. In fact, I don't like the idea of something hitting me in the face and smothering me, keeping me from breathing in a crash.

When an airbag deploys, it is only inflated for a split second to absorb the impact, then it quickly deflates. It does not stay inflated. The whole process happens so quickly that by the time you realize that your airbag has just gone off, it will already be deflated.

Dryden has those self-adjusting seat belts that tighten up if you happen to step on the brakes too hard.

That's usually how all vehicle seatbelts work.

[James_kr]

if the seatbelts are strong enough you should be alright but if you go too far the gullwing steering wheel could be painful.

In my family's BMW 330i its got not just airbags on the driver and passenger side but all over the place like over the windscreen and windows and doors that could be useful because because of the glass and all.

Trans Am's have a tough shell so I think you would be ok. Plus I don't think you are going to be flooring it around the place putting yourself in a dangerous situation.
Somebody needs to develop the MBS.

Fuzziedice maybe a car alarm would work I have seen some pretty cool ones that have special remotes that show you where on the car the person is trying to break into and it sets off the alarm. I know my friend aussie.kitt has a car alarm in his KITT.

[FuzzieDice]

Skyknight - By the time the air bag deflates, I'll probably have stopped breathing from shock. I just don't like surprises on top of a surprise.

As for the seat belts, well, I remember when I was a kid they didn't used to work that way. The first time I encountered anything like that was in my Chevy S-10 I used to have. That would lock up hard just by barely touching the brakes sometimes.

Now Dryden, he's more forgiving but he did hug me for dear life when I stopped way WAY too hard one time. I couldn't MOVE even. So that's how I know the seatbelt works.

James_kr - I didn't know they had car alarms that could do that. That would be great! And have it hooked to a car PC that will say something based on where it was touched, like "Hands off my.... "

[James_kr]

Here is the website for the car alarm system http://www.steel-mate.com This company also makes the automatic window opening and closing remotes. They have a lot of gadgets for cars.

[J-Knight]

Also theres clifford alarms. It's some seriousely good stuff, the computer basicly becomes the brain in the car, you have to get a special enginear to fit them as its all in the electrics. There's remote start so you can warm up the car on that cold and frosty morning also if you request it it can be wired into the Scanner of a replica to remote activate the scanner!