For a long time, any General Motors performance car after 1970 was looked down upon due to its lowered compression. Pontiac especially suffered from this because, if you look at the 1971-72 GTO Endura nose, it simply lacks the grace of the ‘70’s—that’s two scarlet letters.
But people started coming around to what great vehicles the high-performance 1971-72 Pontiacs were. It started with Dan Jensen’s T-37 powered by a 455 HO in the 1980s. Then others with similar cars were compelled to race—and beat—more substantial high-compression machinery. By the 2000s, GTO godfather Jim Wangers was singing the praises of the 455 HO, even claiming it was Pontiac’s best. Huh?
Talk with Pontiac folks today and they may have a slight difference of opinion, but all will agree that the 1971-72 455 HO is a fantastic street engine. To those who are not familiar, the 455 HO was an upgrade from 1970’s engine due to the round-port heads from the Ram Air IV, which made it a better, faster engine despite the ’70 having high compression. It comes off as counter-intuitive, but it’s true, plus the 455 HO was a stepping stone that lead to the Super Duty 455 for 1973-74.
Join Muscle Car Campy as he shows us the charms of Rob Timken’s unrestored 1972 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. Equipped with the standard 455 HO and a four-speed, this racing-inspired pony car was arguably the fastest American car that year, plus the model would reach even greater heights later in the decade thanks to a certain movie. If you dig this video, be sure to look for your favorite car in other Muscle Car Campy videos.
