History of my car
My Pontiac Trans Am was built in early 1979 at General Motors in Norwood, Ohio. The Norwood Plant produced cars from 1923 up until it's closure in 1987.
Shortly after production, the vehicle was exported to Lendrum and Hartman Ltd in Hammersmith, London, U.K, having never been driven on USA roads.
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Lendrum and Hartman were the sole U.K. Distributor authorised by General Motors to import and market new American GM vehicles.
My Pontiac Trans Am turned out to be one of them.
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Pictured here is an original brochure I purchased. The open page shows a 1978 Trans Am, a Chevrolet Corvette and a Cadillac Seville.
I had always been curious to know how my car came to be in the U.K, so I paid a fee to a company who traced it's history Stateside. They provided me with a copy of the original Export Document, which confirmed the delivery to Lendrum and Hartman Ltd in 1979.
Shown below is the original Lendrum and Hartman Dealer Name Plate, which I still have.
American cars were very popular in the UK during the 1960's, 1970's and into the 1980's partly due to the many US Military Bases here.
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Right across Europe there were AAFES ( Army and Air Force Exchange Service ) sales points, offering a big choice of GM cars. I recently purchased one of their original brochures ( shown below ).
One of the pages shows four Pontiac vehicles including a Pontiac Trans Am. It's listed here as a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
This is because a Trans Am is actually a Firebird, but not all Firebirds are Trans Am's.
The Trans Am was basically a special street package Firebird which included upgraded suspension, more horsepower and design modifications such as spoilers. It was first introduced in 1969 and produced up until 2002.