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MY
1996 T-TOP TRANS AM WITH
UPDATE AND LETTER
TO AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE
My experience with John Hine’s sales staff was very positive in light of complications of a California dealership selling a car to someone over 2,000 miles away. A real pleasure. I discovered prior to purchasing this car that a cost/benefit comparison of some performance cars showed that the Trans Am Ram Air gave one of the best dollars per horsepower. This purchase makes both me and my wallet smile each time I see a Viper, Porsche and new Corvette driving alongside me on the Chicago highways, as my car gets more horsepower per dollar than any of those. Although not the fantasy of driving a quarter million dollar car, my insurance and car payments are a tad easier to swallow. I used to drive a red 1994 Corvette Targa top, but the 1996 red Ram Air T-top is faster, much more unique (many more stares) and costs 30% less. A win-win situation! As my photos show, I have "performance updated"
the look of my 1996 Ram Air TransAm, with some of the following
changes: Major Modifications and Cost Minor Modifications and Cost Recent Modifications and Cost This is a letter that I have written to Automobile
Magazine in response to a story entitled "American Driver"
by David E. Davis Jr.: Dear Mr. Davis of Automobile Magazine: As a car enthusiast who researched my auto purchase
strategically back in 1996, I was able to determine that the most
horsepower per purchase dollar was the 1996 Ram Air TransAm. 305
h.p. for a sales price of $28,800. Compared to the 1996: Corvette at 345 h p. - $44,000 = $127 per horsepower Also realizing that I was saving huge dollars compared
to the above cars for my performance dollar, I was able to spend
a total of less than another $4,000 to super-enhance my car to
350 ñ horsepower, with highly complementary mechanical and
physical upgrades that did not take away from the original look
of the vehicle itself (e.g. Ferrari/Lamborgini type O.Z.
Competition racing wheels, Hypertech Power Programmer, etc.). And
such upgrades were done without extensive modifications that are
beyond the average sports car enthusiast. I recently read with interest your February 2000
American Driver (page 41) article about the SEMA show and the
move away from V-8 powered cars to Honda 4 bangers. Well, if
these Honda admiring Gen-Xer's had any brain power, they would
spend their tight car budgets on something that us Baby Boomer's
figured out long ago. To spend our dollars on cost/benefit
upgrades / performance modification that transcends the
ridiculous nature of the sound of those "garbage can top
size mufflers/resonators" (in your version of description;
"an exhaust extension as big around as your forearm")
on these rice burning machines. Buy what real American men drive,
V-8, rear wheel drive power that delivers testosterone inducing
results on the pavement, not high whining / high revving / fake
exhaust tuning / front wheel crap. Will a story ever be written on ordinary folks like me
who know how to upgrade their $28,000 cars by only about a 1500
extra investment, versus some goof taking a $18,000 Honda, adding
$12,000 of aftermarket (SEMA-like) upgrades, and still have a car
that only a few diehard Honda owners would give two cents for?
Let alone any normal human being ever wanting to buy this hybrid
jalopy sometime in the future - oh; I forgot; thinking a couple
years from now for these people would be thinking way to far
ahead of the matter??? Sincerely wondering why journalists seem to think the
outer fringes of society are the new trends, when all they have
to do is look at main street America for a majority of real life
stories that really apply to our "real society" that
may not be as exciting as what the new craze is, but will
probably remain a lot longer and more long lasting than the next
Pokeman concept. But that sure makes a more exciting story than
main street America? How about some representation? Just contact the
National Firebird and TransAm Club members in Chicago, IL (website
www.firebirdtaclub.com), or the numerous Corvette Clubs of
America that are based throughout main street America if you need
some evidence of my conclusions. Let me know - if possible - if there is a auto
magazine (other than yours if their is no feasibility of a story
on this subject) that may be interested in such subject matter.
Or I would be happy to display my "knock out looking
American muscle car" at the next SEMA show as an alternative.
At least then you could call your article "American"
Driver, and really mean it. Eugene P. Liss, CPA, CFP Return to NFTAC Articles
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Although
I live in Illinois it took me over two months for me to locate a
1996 red t-top Trans Am Ram Air edition with automatic
transmission. I located the “magical” dream machine by
calling Southern California dealerships, and was lucky enough to
track down one at John Hine Pontiac in San Diego. 
