The Pontiac Trans Am needs no introduction. What started out as a low production special edition performance Firebird in 1969 soon grew into a phenomenon in the 1970s. So great was its success it soon usurped the beloved GTO which first was introduced during the 1964 model year (the GTO started the muscle car movement). Soon thereafter Pontiac canceled the GTO (when the 1974 model year came to a close). When most other automakers abandoned the performance muscle car, Pontiac kept performance alive and well with the Trans Am. The Trans Am could be counted on even in the darkest days of the muscle car to provide some of the best performance and handling of that given model year. Sadly GM canceled the F-body (Camaro/Firebird) platform at the end of the 2002 model year which ended the Trans Am's fine run. The Trans Am exited in 2002 the same way it arrived in 1969, providing a lot of performance for the buck, in one great looking sporty package.

GM did realize its mistake and brought back the F-body for 2010, however only the Camaro returned. Sadly not only did a new Trans Am not appear with the new 2010 Camaro but Pontiac was also put out to pasture by GM. After 34 fantastic consecutive model years the Trans Am has proven to be one of the greatest performance cars ever produced and nothing can change that. Here's a list of Trans Am performance times from auto magazine tests back in the day: 
 

special note: all peformance times are listed in seconds.