Saw that article on Facebook. Here was my reply. The only reason the '71 455ho is so low on my list is because I already had the '73 and '70 near the top. Personal opinion it should be number 2 or 3, but relative to the public and the impact on the car itself, I decided to have a few other high impact models before it.
Poorly written article with some bad information. The 1980 Turbo Trans Am on a top 10 list that also has two WS6 fourth gens that are basically the same car? The '69 coming in at number 10? WTF? Also the 2000 WS6 had 320 hp not 305hp. The 2002 had 325hp. How about this list.
1. 1969 Trans Am RA IV - not only was it the first, it was also had the most hp of any produced (on paper anyway), well technically it was only rated at 345hp in the firebird, but was rated at 370hp in other cars and in the '70 TA.
2. 1973 Superduty - no explanation needed
3. 1970 RAIV - We all know why, again RAIV is all it takes
4. 1977 SE - Thank you Burt Reynolds for making this car iconic, plus the W72 was available (for my own tastes I would rate this probably at number 10, but considered impact to the brand, the car and the public. Without S&TB, its possible, the TA would have died off much sooner.)
5. 1989 Turbo Trans Am - The pinnacle of 3rd gen and '80s muscle car performance
6. 2002 Firehawk - 345hp, 6 speed manual, looks that kill, as fast as many exotics of the day and the top level 4th gen of the era.
7. 1976 LE - you could still get a 455 and a 4 speed in an American car despite the crushing emissions and gas prices of the day, plus without it, would Burt have even been driving a Trans Am?
8. 1987 GTA - awesome styling, handling, and standard with a 5.7 TPI V8 under the hood - as with all 3rd gens, later is probably better, but I picked '87 since it was the reintroduction of the 350 V8 under the hood.
9. 1971 TA - Awesome 455 HO was on par with the RAIV and later SD engines despite having to accommodate lower compression
10. 5th/6th gen TAs built off of Camaros - yes they are still camaros, but they keep the spirit of the TA alive and offer performance far exceeding anything that came before them.