1975 Trans Am (L75) 455 H.O. - The King Returns?
By Pete D.
1975 will never be known as a banner year for muscle cars. The GTO,
Chevelle SS, Challenger, and Cuda were among some of the most famous
muscle cars to bite the dust by 1975. By 1975 the only Mopar muscle
car names that remained were the Plymouth Road Runner and Dodge
Charger which were underpowered luxury barges with pillow seats and
new body styles that looked similar to it's cousin the Chrysler
Cordoba. Ford had completely given up, the Mustang by 1975 was know
as the Mustang II which was based on the Pinto platform, though it was
a sales success it was as far from a muscle car as a car could
venture. The availability of only 4 and 6 cylinder motors for the
Mustang II, was also a big reminder of that fact. The Torino had also
grown to almost Thunderbird proportions however it still packed a V8
under the hood. Sadly the Torino's largest displacement V8 was the
351 Cleveland V8 which was a little light on the horses. AMC was also
out of the muscle car making business by 1975. At GM things also
looked grim. Olds still had a 442 and a Hurst Olds and Buick still
had a Gran Sport but these cars were so detuned, that the decals were
the only similarity to their predecessors only of only a few years
back. Chevrolet also threw the white towel in the ring, by 1975 the
largest displacement V8 in the Corvette was now a 350 CID V8. The
Camaro had dropped so far in performance, Chevy dropped the Z28 from
the Camaro lineup staring in 1975.
Pontiac too was feeling the pinch like everyone else with the new EPA
mandated emissions standards for 1975, lower compression motors that
started in 1971 for GM (EPA mandated that all 1972 cars run on
unleaded fuel, hence no more high compression motors), skyrocketing
insurance rates, and the after effects of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo.
Pontiac not one to give in to adversity, had seemed to have beaten the
odds the mandated lower compression engines had killed just about
every high performance motor by 1972. Pontiac continued as if nothing
happened and just converted to high performance low compression V8s.
The Pontiac high performance low compression V8 motors were so good
that they could propel a almost 4,000 lbs Trans Am in the low 14
second to 13 second 1/4 mile time range. These motors were the
1971-1972 455 H.O. (rated at 330 gross horsepower, 300 net horsepower)
and the 1973 and 1974 SuperDuty 455 (rated at 310 and 290 net
horsepower respectively). As an example in 1973 Hot Rod Magazine test
drove a factory stock '73 Trans Am and obtained a 1/4 mile of 13.54 at
104.29 mph. This was faster than most of the high compression muscle
car motors. Pontiac seemed to be leading no matter what the odds were
up until 1975. It seemed the new EPA emissions mandates which choked
the engines with a single catalytic converter, EGR valve, and a maze
of new vacuum hoses under the hood were putting Pontiac's back against
the wall. Pontiac still wanting to be number one announced in late
1974 that the 1975 Trans Am would only be powered by a L78 400 CID
V8. This seemed like good news since the competition's V8s were much
smaller in displacement, but the 185 net horsepower rating of the L78
brought any muscle car fan back to the cold hard reality that things
had changed drastically from the previous years. The good news was
that the Trans Am by 1975 was skyrocketing in sales, even though the
Trans Am was detuned it still was faster than it's competition. And
the buying public was taking note of this fact and voting with their
dollars.......CONTINUED
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