1981 Pontiac Firebird and Trans Am: The Second Generation's Last Year

The last second-generation Trans Am totalled 33,493 in the compiled tables this record draws on. This record's own overview states that a Turbo Trans Am paced the Daytona 500 with 2,000 Pace Car editions built, that the black Special Edition returned in coupe and T-top form for 5,263 cars combined, and that manual transmissions returned only with the Chevrolet LG4 305, with 3,500 Trans Ams carrying four-speeds, every one an LG4. This record's own key facts add that Firebird production fell to 70,899 that year, down from the 211,453 this same record's family states for two years earlier.^1,2

The 70,899-car total split into 20,541 base Firebirds, 10,938 Esprits, 5,927 Formulas and the 33,493 Trans Ams. The Formula carried 909 cars with the LU8 301 Turbo against 5,018 with other, unspecified engines, a split this record's own production rows keep as reported rather than broken out further. Within the Trans Am, the plain packages split 11,804 coupes to 14,426 T-tops, the Special Edition ran 121 coupes to 5,142 T-tops, and the 2,000 Daytona Pace Cars sat alongside those, every one a turbocharged automatic, the key fact this record leads with.¹

The Trans Am's by-engine-option table breaks down further: the 301 E/C ran 5,087 coupe and 4,589 T-top, the LU8 Turbo 3,851 coupe and 6,612 T-top, and the LG4 305 2,866 coupe and 3,225 T-top. The Special Edition's own three engines split 41 and 1,160 for the 301 E/C, 65 and 3,050 for the Turbo, and 15 and 932 for the LG4, coupe and T-top respectively. Two further footnoted rows split the LG4's manual-transmission cars specifically: 3,023 manual and 3,068 automatic among non-Special-Edition Trans Ams, and 477 manual and 470 automatic among Special Editions, together accounting for the 3,500 four-speed cars this record's overview cites.¹

This record carries no price section for 1981; its own engine table instead documents five powerplants: the Buick 231 V-6 at 110 hp, the Pontiac 265 two-barrel at 120 hp, the 301 E/C at 150 hp and 245 lb-ft, the turbocharged 301 (LU8) at 200 hp and 340 lb-ft, and the Chevrolet 305 (LG4) at 150 hp. The 301 E/C's own production row totals 10,877 Trans Ams, the LU8 an estimated 15,578 summed across five Trans Am rows including the Pace Car, and the LG4 305 a reported 7,038 within the Trans Am line alone.^1,2

Pontiac offered fourteen exterior colors for 1981, and this record's own interior gallery documents the year's color-coded standard trims, opening with 15V1 Silver and 19R1 Black among its listed pairings. No shipping weights, dimensions, factory-test performance figures, identification details, documented conflicts or unpublished leads survive in this record's own specifications, performance, identification, conflicts and unpublished-leads sections, all five of which are left empty.¹

What the record documents in full is the second generation's closing year: four model lines, five engines, a four-speed manual's brief return tied exclusively to the Chevrolet 305, and the 2,000-car Daytona 500 Pace Car edition standing inside a Firebird total that this record's own key facts state plainly had fallen to 70,899, down from the 211,453 total two years earlier.¹