HPP: How did you use backdoor help from the Pontiac Van Nuys plant to build the Trans Am GTA prototype?
LW: I had some of my buddies at the Van Nuys assembly plant build me a Trans Am company car without any ornamentation, just black-no tape stripe, no emblems, nothing. That was the car we took over to Design Staff one afternoon, and Schinella said, "We're going to have a tire-kicking session to come up with the details of this Blackbird. And, oh, by the way, we're not going to call it the Blackbird. We're going to call it the GTA."
"Oh, we are?" I said. "What does GTA stand for?"
"Gran Turismo Americano," Schinella said.
So for all the years that everybody blamed the sales and marketing guys [for naming the Trans Am GTA], this was, to my knowledge, Schinella's creation. He said, "For this car, jewelry only," which meant we weren't going to have any decals or anything like that; we were going to have cloisonn emblems.
This is Lou Wassel today....
This is Lou Wassel today.
HPP: Was the meeting with John Schinella what you considered the turning point in the development of the Trans Am GTA?
LW: This particular session was probably a couple months after the trip to Wright-Patterson. We tried several different themes, all maintaining the common monochromatic upper and lower color because by that time the Trans Am had its two-tone Aero package. We tried gold stripes; we tried a red stripe to make it look just like the SR-71 Blackbird. There were probably five or six variations, and Schinella had his studio guys out on the Design Staff Ponderosa literally putting tape on the car, evaluating its look, and ripping it off. After various attempts at graphics packages, finally we just stood back and said, "You know what-this car is beautiful enough as it is without any kind of accents. Put your cloisonn emblems on there and let's go.
We also tried several wheel alternatives. At that time, we had the 16x8 aluminum N96 Turbo Tech wheels, which were off the Trans Am and part of the WS6 suspension, but we found out that the GTA couldn't be certified without exceeding the weight for the gas-guzzler tax. We had to go with a lighter-weight wheel, and that's how we got the PW7 gold cross-laced wheels, which turned out to be the right thing to do for the car because it differentiated it.
HPP: Were there any other major changes to the Trans Am to prepare the GTA for production?
LW: Eventually, it got the Pontiac-designed and exclusive "Ultima" seat. That was another big differentiator. Prior to then, we had used a Recaro seat on the Trans Am, which we purchased on the outside. This Ultima seat had either just as many, or almost as many, functions as the Recaro seat, for a lot less money. I liked it a lot better; it gave me the support in the upper lateral section that the Recaro didn't. The Recaro was really hard in those days. It's supposed to be a performance seat, and, yes, it was better than the base seat, but it just didn't do for me and the other guys what this Ultima seat did.
To summarize, we got the appearance package and the upgraded seating. We were ready to release GTA with the Tuned-Port LB9 5.0L engine, which was right around 200 hp, and right about the same time, the IROC lost to the Mustang GT in the Road & Track December 1984 test comparison because it was heavier than the Mustang GT and both engines had similar horsepower.
This '92 GTA represents the...
This '92 GTA represents the last year or production for the famed model.
HPP: What was GM's reaction to losing in the time trials against the Mustang GT?
LW: The edict came down from Lloyd Reuss himself, the chief of GM North American Passenger Car Operations: "Put the 5.7L Corvette engine in the IROC so it's competitive with the Mustang." Once it was released for the Camaro and the IROC, it was released for Pontiac. Now we had an engine for our GTA [The LB9 5.0 was available as a delete option in the GTA as well.-Ed.]. So we married the Corvette engine to the exterior package to the interior seating, and voil, we have our upscale car-the Pontiac Trans Am GTA."