Here is a pic of an 88 with the upgraded seats...

Sunbird

They look nice.I may have seen some similar in design but only in the coupes I have run across.

Paul I thought those were Recaro seats.

I have a tan set out of an 87 Pontiac GTA Firebird. The GTA was the top of the line Firebird / Trans Am which came with the 350 engine. The buttons on the side control inflatable air bladders in the seat padding for lumbar and I think the side supports too. They were not combined with the 6 way power seat track option. They came with special manual adjustment mechanical seat tracks. I forget what all the mechanical seat track did besides move back and forth. If memory serves me right, those tracks also tilted up and down in the front, but the back pivot point was fixed . I put my Recaro seats on a 6 way power seat track and had that in my 87 Trans Am for a long time, but the seat supports stopped working. At the time I thought it was the air bags that were leaking and you have to take off the seat cover to get at diagnosing and resolving a leaking air bag. I was not at the skill or confidence level I am at today, so I just replaced them. They also were tan in my grey interior car, so they had furry tiger stripped seat covers on them to hide the OEM tan hides. The covers were cool for a kid at that time. I still have them sitting out in the garage for a "just in case" some day option. There is a set at the local junk yard in an 80s f body, though I think it was a Camaro. The car had T-tops and they were off exposing the torn up seats to the elements. I almost thought of offering $20 for the pair, but passed since they were really sad and I figured he air pumps were probably locked up from the exposure to the weather. The seat foam was beyond repair and the covers were wasted. I thought, " what a shame" since I knew what they were and remembered when I had to have a set.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Bill -

Yep - I should have said "Upgraded Seats" . You don't see these in Sunbirds often. Cool that you are into F-Cars too.

I never understood why Pontiac put the GTA option above the Trans Am, then still called it a Trans Am; I guess nobody else did either as it only lasted from 87-89.

Grand Trans Am - I thought the only ones worth their salt were the 89s with the Turbo 6 from the Grand National.

It was called a GTA Trans Am.

Those Turbo ones were the 20th Anniversary ones, all white with a camel interior; it was the 1989 Indy 500 Pace Car.

The GTA was an easy to visually identify option package in which you got the 350 engine, instead of the 305 which came in the Trans Ams. I don't know if you could get the 350 as an option in the standard T/A, but offering a specific body package, it became instantly identifiable that the car had a 350 in it, instead of a 305 so that is why I suspect they came up with the GTA package. Personally I prefer the two tone T/A's over the monochromatic GTA paint schemes. That also hold true to the 2nd gen Cavaliers Z24's for me too. I don't like the single color, 2nd half, 2nd gen Z24's as much. Even a 3.1 is more appealing, it does not overpower the visual aesthetics of the package I am driving. I will take my lowly red and silver T/A over most GTA's with the exception of black. Its hard to beat an all blacked out ride.

While I am sure the turbo Birds would be awesome, I have no interest in enduring the learning curve and repairs woes I have come to associate with a turbo car. That's purely based on here say and not experience though.

I also think the GTA might have been Pontiacs response to Chevy's Camaro 1LE option package which was the 350 engine in a 3rd gen Camaro that was made in limited numbers as a low budget road racing kind of car to appeal to that niche market.

the 350 was available on the Trans Am prior to the GTA package, maybe in the 87-89 years it was only available in the GTA?

Did any GTA's come with T-tops? I would think top-of-the-line would have that option, but then that would cause the loss of the 350 to the 305 as I don't believe (don't remember) the 350 being available with T-tops.

Hmmm, good question Wayne about t-top GTA's I bought some t-top glass panels from the kid who I got the seats from. I stripped the entire interior out of his wrecked GTA, but I can't picture if it had T-tops or not. I don't think his did, which is why I am baffled why he had the glass roof sections. I also bought his mesh style GTA rims that are gold. Those same ones came on my T/A, but in dark gray.