1993 Pontiac Firebird and Trans Am: A New LT1-Powered Fourth Generation

The fourth-generation Firebird launched for 1993 as a coupe in Firebird, Formula and Trans Am form, the V-8 cars carrying the 5.7-liter LT1, this record's own overview states. MuscleCarClub's table gives 14,112 cars, 5,121 of them Trans Ams, of which 1,103 had manual transmissions, the key fact this record leads with. That total split 5,005 base Firebirds, 3,986 Formulas and the 5,121 Trans Ams, and this record's own production notes state these three rows partition MuscleCarClub's 14,112 directly.^1,2

A second, larger lineage runs alongside it: a CompNine VIN-database count puts the same model year at 15,342 cars, split 5,936 Firebirds, 4,037 Formulas and 5,369 Trans Ams. This record's own conflicts note is explicit that this is a separate scope from the MuscleCarClub rows and is not added to them, and that every one of the three model splits differs between the two tables. The CompNine transmission rows close exactly to its own 15,342 total: 12,703 automatic, 665 five-speed manual and 1,974 six-speed manual.³

A third, single-source table from the Pontiac Trans Am Page gives its own Trans Am breakdown of 4,282 hardtops and 839 T-tops, and 4,018 automatic against 1,103 six-speed manual, both pairs closing to the same 5,121 MuscleCarClub also reports for Trans Am, a coincidence this record's own production note calls out as making the uncited table look, on this point, like a second independent match. The same page's Firebird hardtop and T-top rows sum to 5,006, a single car more than MuscleCarClub's 5,005.²

1993 also introduced the SLP-converted Firehawk on the Formula, and this record's own conflicts note documents a real, unreconciled gap: the Firehawk Association reports 250 ordered and 201 built, attributing the shortfall to scheduling problems at a new Quebec plant, while the CompNine database counts 200 VINs coded R6V for the GM-side Firehawk base car, a different population entirely from the SLP conversion count. Of the 201 SLP-built cars, 105 carried the six-speed manual against 96 automatic. A separate conflict covers the Formula 1LE: the Trans Am Page's uncited 790 against just 3 VINs coded 1LE in CompNine, with this record's own treatment noting the 790 figure may simply be counting a different code or population.^4,3

This record carries no price section for 1993; 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. Two engines are documented: the L32 3.4-liter V-6 at 160 hp and 200 lb-ft for the base Firebird, and the LT1 5.7-liter V-8 at 275 hp and 325 lb-ft for Formula and Trans Am, both rated to the same net standard as compiled by MuscleCarClub.¹

What the record documents in full is a first year built from three separately scoped tables at once: MuscleCarClub's 14,112, CompNine's 15,342 VINs, and the Pontiac Trans Am Page's uncited breakdown that happens to match MuscleCarClub's Trans Am figure exactly, alongside a brand-new Firehawk whose 201-car SLP-conversion count this record keeps distinct from the 200-car GM-coded base-car count it is often confused with.¹