The mid-seventies were some strange times for not just the auto industry, but our country in general. The buying public had swayed away from muscle cars and more towards personal luxury coupes, as a result of an oil crisis, stricter CAFE regulations, and a spike in insurance premiums. Plus the fact that the majority of the muscle car’s original customer base had aged and matured into marriage age and family responsibilities had changed their priorities, as well as their taste in general.

But one of the few holdouts from the bygone era was the Pontiac Trans Am – primarily the SD 455 variant of ’73 and ’74.

Now relegated to the new SAE net horsepower levels (300hp in ‘73, and 290hp for ’74), the limited production Pontiac engine was also available in the Firebird Formula of the same model years, and it was also intended for the restyled ’73 GTO but that idea had its plug pulled at the last minute, unfortunately.

On the face of it, the horsepower level didn’t seem so extravagant in those days to the enthusiasts that were used to the original gross horsepower levels of a few years earlier.

But the Super Duty 455-equipped Firebirds were capable of low-13 second times in the ¼-mile –in a time when everything else would be lucky to break into the 14-second bracket, making them the best kept secrets on the street and on the race track.

The other day, we ran across this 1-of-731 ’74 version on eBay at the tail end of its auction, but we felt obliged to share it with you. It comes available to the purchaser with a full frame-off restoration that was just completed over the winter, the (presumably) Turbo 400 transmission (as it only says “automatic”), 39,000 original miles on its odometer, and PHS documentation. Other than a few amateur-style pictures, the seller offers little else in the way of much detail. Especially considering the seller wanted $98k for it.

In your author’s opinion (who just happens to be a devout 2^nd Gen T/A fan), that’s a pretty steep price. So much in fact, that I think asking anything over $50k for this car is a little optimistic on the seller’s part, as we don’t think he got the memo that the market crashed a few years ago, despite the car’s extreme rarity.