Pontiac Trans Am

Back in the ’80s, you could find many budding car guys and gals sitting in front of their TVs watching Knight Rider. David Hasselhoff was the star of the show, but it was his talking Pontiac Trans Am sidekick K.I.T.T.

The Pontiac Aztek is arguably one of the ugliest vehicles ever created. While the early take on a crossover certainly wasn’t Pontiac’s proudest design moment, the brand did make lots of great sports cars over the years, with the 1970s Firebird Trans Am being one of the most iconic of its cars.

Gregg Hamilton’s day job involves building and tuning cars for Ken Block. What does he do when he has time off from work? He builds and tunes his 1979 Pontiac Trans Am, of course. The transplanted New Zealander always wanted the quintessentially American V8 rear-wheel drive ride, and the Smokey and the Bandit style Trans Am perfectly fit the bill.

1981. Prince Charles married Lady Diana. IBM released its first PC. The word “internet” was mentioned for the first time. And Pontiac released the 1981 Firebird Turbo Trans Am. Saddled by smog laws developed in reaction to the oil crisis of 1979, this car had its horsepower dialed down from the 400-plus that Trans Ams made in the Seventies to barely making 200 horsepower in the ’81 Turbo.