WTF Friday: Pontiac Trans Am Italia

Jul 1, 2011

About a month and a half ago I was spending a lot of time lurking the Kit Central forums digging up a little more info on an article my auto teacher took to Carlisle for his replica Diablo build. While I was there I came across this Trans Am Italia.

This kit made the Pontiac Trans Am look less like a Pontiac and more like a Testerossa. I’ve seen a few kits with this effect (widebody e30, Truxarossa) but never this one. It looks pretty dated now but was probably a head turner in it’s day.

Someone on the Anand Tech forums was nice enough to scan the original brochure which is below:

trans_am_italia_ad — Style of Ferrari all the handling of a GM... hey wait...

trans_am_italia_ad2 — Long front end is long

trans_am_italia_ad3 — Curious how much a set of rollers for this would have cost at the time, also this needs a drop desperately

This black one is the one that is (or was) being restored back to driving status. No complete pictures were ever shared unfortunately. Though I don’t blame the owner for not sharing them the forum didn’t really seem all that appreciative of the project.

trans_am_italia3 — Interior gutted for somewhat of an update

trans_am_italia5 — Interior a little farther along in the update

trans_am_italia4 — Is that... mold in the fins?

trans_am_italia7 — Engines got a few mods done to it

trans_am_italia6 — Close up of the rolling stock

trans_am_italia8 — I prefer this car in black over the yellow

trans_am_italia2 — Pea shooter exhaust is a little out of place

trans_am_italia — Last shot, do you think it would be possible to update one of these?

Full build and a couple more pics can be found here.

Site Updates

Not sure what happened but June seemed to leap frog by. Must be the combination of work, car shows, and BMX that have the summer escaping so quickly.

This weekend I will be at the Too Fast Custom Car Show on Sunday which takes place at the Powerade Center in Brampton. Spectators are free and competitors will get $5 off registration if you say you heard about it here. I will also be picking up my shirts at this event so it will be the first chance anyone has to get one.

Other things I am hoping to get a chance to get to next week are:

Readers Rides Part 5
The Midnight Marauder Series by Mike Branco
Guest Event coverage from Slamology in Indianapolis
Guest Event Coverage from XTS
Another Featured Ride

We will see just how many I managed to get posted next week. I might try and get a jump on posting one of them this weekend.

Flashback Friday

Going to take it back to the vintageLow Rider Theme Tuesday only because I will have a very similar Theme Tuesday this week based on a thread I found today looking for pictures of the Truxarossa.

Happy Canada Day!

6 COMMENTS

neon_mdr Jul 1, 2011 At 2:50 pm

I think it’s ugly. Looks like some kind of a wrong ferrari with disproportion.

Aaron "shitburd" Agar Jul 1, 2011 At 3:12 pm

If I was rocking an F-body like those at the top. I assume they are ’80s firebirds. I would definately sport a hatch lid from that kit.

Denis Jul 1, 2011 At 4:43 pm

Iitalia!? First I hear of it. Interesting twist on a Trans am/Firebird body. Other then the molded fins looks pretty good, even at that it could be fixed by getting some original panels/quarters.

For the paint style I think it died in the 70’s. Seems to be plenty of graffiti style these days, I’m digging the camo R32 that Benji Day painted http://carphotos.cardomain.com/story_images/1/2181/3221/5451610001_large.jpg .

scott s Jul 1, 2011 At 5:37 pm

I laughed at the dependabilty of north american engineering

Blackout313 Jul 1, 2011 At 7:10 pm

No on the kit car above. Thumbs up on the lowrider under it.

Fastphil (Philip Law) Jul 1, 2011 At 8:43 pm

Meh, if I had a F-body to spare, that kit wouldn’t make my list of options of what to do with it.

That paint job isn’t bad, the green is a little tacky, but the panels look good.