"What was that guy thinking when he ordered his car this way?" We've all said it one time or another as we've come upon a Pontiac with a very strange color or option combo. Of course, 99 times out of 100 we never found out because the original owner couldn't be located to answer our query. Not so with the '77 W72 400 Trans Am you see before you.
The combination of Goldenrod Yellow paint paired with Firethorn Red Lombardy velour interior is enough to stop you dead in your tracks, as it did me this past May during the YearOne Experience at Road Atlanta. At first, you raise a John Belushi-esque eyebrow as the thought crosses your mind that something here is amiss. Next, you realize that for how wrong it's supposed to be, it looks strangely alluring. Then comes the inevitable conclusion, "OK, it was a cool idea for someone to either repaint the car or redo the interior in this color combo."
Many would walk away at that point with the misplaced satisfaction that they had seen through the clever ruse of the owner who put together an interesting one-of-none combo and made it appear factory fresh. Your humble editor, however, was much more curious than that.
Though the T/A retains about 70 percent of its factory applied paint, original owner Steven Cayce recalls the nose being resprayed by the dealer due to surface cracks. Current owner Chris Sullens was told by previous title holders that a section of the roof and the upper portion of the doors were repainted as well.
When I saw red overspray on the cowl gently fading to yellow overspray, I decided that no one would bother to replicate that with a non-original paint scheme, so a look at the cowl tag was in order. There it was plain as day: 51 51 for the Goldenrod Yellow body and 71B for Firethorn Red velour interior. This T/A was really a factory freak! I needed to know more.
After meeting up with owners Chris and Jessica Sullens, of Alto, Georgia, a few more details came to light. Chris related that the 76,000-mile T/A was special-ordered just as I saw it and that the original owner retained possession until about 2000. It then went through five more owners-one of whom was Chris' cousin-before the Sullens bought it.
The story got even more intriguing when I learned that the T/A was not only loaded with options such as the 200hp W72 400 and Hurst T-tops, but it was also meticulously maintained for all those years. The drivetrain has never been removed or rebuilt, the paint is about 70 percent original and the interior surfaces are 100 percent original.
Then came the question I was afraid to ask because I always seem to know the answer before I get it. "Do you know who the original owner is and can you locate him?" Chris, much to my surprise, replied that he did and he could. We were in business
Finally, we have a factory-freak Pontiac that we can get the inside scoop as to why and how it was ordered to quite possibly create a one-of-one combination. The icing on the editorial cake came when, just a few days after the shoot, Chris and Jessica e-mailed me the original owner's name and contact info. Within five minutes, another e-mail arrived from Steven Cayce-the original owner-who I first met when I photographed his '61 Ventura for the Nov. '02 cover of HPP. Small world!
The 15x8 WS6 wheels and some of the package's suspension components were installed by the original owner in 1979. Extra rear decals were owner-added as well.
So sit back, put your feet up, and relive the past through Steven as he relates the story of special-ordering his unique Trans Am, way back in 1977.
Our first order of business was to ask why this color combo was chosen. "For 1977, there weren't any blue Trans Ams, which is the color I really wanted, since I fell hard for the Lucerne Blue T/A when it came out in 1970," Steven relates. "Believe it or not, I didn't like the Bandit cars or silver, white, brown or red, so yellow was my color. Then I test drove a T/A that happened to have red velour interior, which I thought was striking and would be a great color combo-the yellow and red together.
The Order
The problem was ordering that color scheme. "At that time, nobody was cutting any kind of deal on T/As. We had seven dealerships in the area and the best I could do was a $550 discount at Jay Wolfe Pontiac in Kansas City, Kansas," Steven recalls. "So I sat down with salesman Hunter Puckett and ordered the car.