1986 Pontiac Firebird and Trans Am: The S/E's Last Year

1986 was the last year of the S/E model in this record's own compiled table, a statement this record's overview makes directly rather than as an inference from the production rows alone. Compiled production for the year totals 110,463 Firebirds, 48,870 of them Trans Ams, the key fact this record leads with. Those three models split 59,334 base Firebirds, 2,259 S/E cars and the 48,870 Trans Ams, all drawn from a MuscleCarClub table that, per this record's own production notes, does not name its underlying source.¹

This record's own conflicts note documents a small dispute over the year's total: MuscleCarClub prints 110,463 while a separate ATGO Pontiac technical-data compilation prints 110,465, a two-car gap the conflicts entry is explicit does not close on the club's own model rows, since 59,334 plus 2,259 plus 48,870 sums exactly to 110,463, MuscleCarClub's own printed total, leaving the ATGO figure as the one standing apart. Both totals are shown rather than one being discarded.^1,2

This record's own unpublished leads section holds one figure explicitly not used: an asterisked note on the Austin Thirdgen tech-data page reading "only 74 produced," attached to an L69 five-speed row that also lists Z28, held out because the configuration it actually counts, whether L69-and-five-speed specifically, a Z28 variant, or some other combination, is not clear from the source itself. This record's own production notes state that no engine, transmission, paint or package counts were found in any other readable source for the year, leaving the production section built entirely from the two totals already described.²

This record carries no price section for 1986; its own price notes explain that a prior J.D. Power valuation figure was pulled because those live pages can change without notice and cannot be independently checked. Five engines are documented: the 2.5-liter four-cylinder at 88 hp and 132 lb-ft, the 2.8-liter V-6 with multi-port injection at 135 hp, the 5.0-liter (305) four-barrel at 160 hp standard on Trans Am, the L69 5.0 HO V-8 at 190 hp and 240 lb-ft as a Trans Am option, and the LB9 5.0 Tuned Port Injection V-8, rated 190 hp and 270 lb-ft as a Trans Am option, all five rated to the same net standard as compiled by MuscleCarClub.¹

No transmission, option, paint or interior detail survives in this record's own tables for 1986; all four of those sections are left empty, consistent with the production notes' own statement that no such source was found for the year. No shipping weights, dimensions, factory-test performance figures or identification details survive in this record's own specifications, performance and identification sections either, all three also left empty.¹

What the record documents in full is the S/E's closing year: three hatchback models resolving to two closely matched totals differing by two cars, five engines topped by the Tuned Port Injection V-8 and the L69 HO alike, and an ambiguous 74-unit L69 five-speed figure that this record keeps as an unresolved lead, plainly flagged by its own source as unclear in scope, rather than folding it into a production row.¹