1979 Pontiac Firebird and Trans Am: The Peak Year

Firebird production peaked in 1979 at 211,453 cars in the compiled tables this record draws on, 117,108 of them Trans Ams. This record's own overview states that the Tenth Anniversary Trans Am (Y89), silver over charcoal, accounted for 7,500 of that total, of which 1,817 had the W72 400 and four-speed and 5,683 the Oldsmobile 403 and automatic, and that every manual-transmission 400 in the tables is a W72 while every 403 is an automatic. The remaining 94,345 cars split into 38,642 base Firebirds, 30,853 Esprits and 24,850 Formulas.^1,2

The Trans Am's 117,108 cars break into four packages: 59,578 plain coupes, 38,476 T-tops, 11,554 black Special Editions (Y84) and the 7,500 Tenth Anniversary cars, and this record's own production notes state that these four rows partition the Trans Am total while fourteen further engine-and-transmission rows close to each package subtotal and to an overall split of 11,659 manual against 105,449 automatic. The Esprit divided into 26,605 non-Redbird cars and 4,248 with the Redbird (W68) package, and the Formula carried 3,461 W72 400 manuals against 7,732 L80 403 automatics, though this record's own notes flag that the Formula's rows do not close to its 24,850 total and only the two engine-specific rows are shown.¹

This record carries a single price for 1979: the Tenth Anniversary Trans Am at $10,620 as quoted by the compiling site, with no stated pricing basis. Six engines are documented: the Buick 231 V-6 at 105 hp, the Pontiac 301 two-barrel at 140 hp, the Pontiac 301 four-barrel (L37) at 150 hp, the Chevrolet 305 for California at 133 hp, the Chevrolet 350 for high altitude at 160 hp, the W72 400 at 220 hp and 320 lb-ft, and the Oldsmobile 403 at 185 hp. This record's own engine table gives the L37 an estimated 14,009-unit production, the W72 an estimated 8,326, and the L80 403 an estimated 94,773, each summed from that engine's own Trans Am rows.¹

Across the Trans Am's engine-and-transmission breakdown, the naturally aspirated L37 301 ran 1,590 manual and 7,015 automatic in coupe form and 1,530 manual and 3,301 automatic with T-tops; the W72 400 counted 2,485 coupe and 2,917 T-top, both manual only; and the L80 403 counted 48,488 coupe and 30,728 T-top, both automatic only. The Special Edition split its own three engines 213 and 360 for the L37, 1,107 for the W72, and 9,874 for the L80, every figure drawn from this record's own by-engine-option table.^1,2

Pontiac's paint and interior offerings for the year are documented in this record's own tables alongside the fourteen production rows already described. This record's own unpublished leads section flags one figure explicitly not used: a Wikipedia claim of 116,535 Trans Ams sold in 1979, held out because it is an uncited sales figure rather than the production count this record's own tables carry.¹

No shipping weights, dimensions, factory-test performance figures, identification details or documented conflicts survive in this record's own specifications, performance, identification and conflicts sections, all four of which are left empty. What the record documents in full is the peak year itself: four model lines, six engines spanning four different displacements, and a Trans Am total of 117,108 cars that this record states plainly as the highest of any year in its own tables.¹