

What had once been a bright automotive sky full of muscle car stars in the 1960s had dimmed in the early 1970s. Many of the brightest stars had been blotted out, one by one, by the dark clouds of federal emissions regulation and skyrocketing gas prices. Even the greatest giants of automotive performance had eventually succumbed, sliding into the mediocrity of paint-and-sticker performance packages.



This all made the 1973 debut of the Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am SD-455 all the more surprising. Far from another cosmetic performance model saddled with a limp, lifeless V-8, the SD-455 was the last hero of the muscle car age, fortified with 455 cubic inches of high-compression goodness. Weary, depressed performance car fans of the time searched the SD-455 for inevitable compromises, only to wax ecstatic when they found none.

The SD-455 wasn’t just an echo of past glory; it was the real thing, complete with low 5-second 0-60 times and sternum-splitting throttle response. In an age of sad, faded heroes, left to wither away and die, the SD-455 was one last immortal.


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