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Save the F-Body!
1480334
Appearance: As far as the styling and shape, I like every single angle and dimension of this car. It could be an artifact in any museum, as far as I'm concerned.
Some unrelated background information: The black/gold color scheme was previously a special edition in earlier models of the Trans Am, from about 1976 - 1981, including the sought after original "Smokey and the Bandit" Trans Am from about 1977 - 1978. Those were not Recaro Edition cars. To complicate things, there was a 1981 Recaro Edition (the NASCAR Turbo Pace Car) car which was not black/gold. All these cars are part of the "2nd generation" (1970-1981). Black/gold was also used sparingly in 1985 and 1986 with a more pale shade of gold, and didn't really make a broad appearance again until the 10th Anniversary Firehawk built in 2001.
The black/gold color scheme was brought back for the first few years of the 3rd generation (1982 - 1992) and used on "regular" Trans Am's. But in 1982 - 1984 it was also used for Recaro Edition cars (and this website is specifically about the 1982 model). The 1983 25th anniversary Daytona 500 Pace Car was Recaro-equipped and featured a white & charcoal two-tone paint job. Also in 1984, the 15th Anniversary Trans Am was Recaro-equipped and it featured a white & blue color scheme. The signature feature found on all these cars is the Recaro interior with a set of Recaro driver's and passenger's high performance bucket seats with specific Recaro identification. These are worthy of mention because they are now long since out of production and extremely hard to find in any condition. The same thing is true for the gold 15" Turbo Cast Aluminum wheels and Recaro-specific wheel covers which were only used on the 1982 model.
Of the 52,962 Trans Am's made for 1982, only about 2,000 were Recaros. The package cost $2,486 additional on LG4/manual cars and $2,968 additional on LU5/automatic cars. They are now extremely rare since they are almost 30 years old, and so, most have long since been wrecked, or driven into the ground, or junked, or modified beyond recognition (a custom black & pink one comes to mind.. ugh) On top of that, we have the extreme popularity of the aforementioned Kn!ght R!der TV show. I have seen sites of many fans of that show who bastardize these cars, part them out, or highly alter them to complete their Kn!ght R!der conversion projects, based on misinformation they get online from yet more misinformed people, and it's all a vicious cycle of destruction. The fact is that Kn!ght R!der did not use any Recaro-specific parts, but try telling that to people who want to make K!TT out of their car! This is quite unfortunate for fans of the Recaro Edition Trans Am in its original, unmodified, stock condition. Nothing personal, but people like me want the original cars, not some TV show fantasy. We're in the minority, unfortunately.
A cross-section of special edition T/A's around the '82 Recaro T/A heyday: 1976 50th Anniversary Edition black/gold ------ Code Y82 1977 "Smokey and the Bandit" movie, Pt. 1 black/gold ------ Code Y82 1977 Special Edition black/gold ------ Code Y81 1978 "Smokey and the Bandit" movie, Pt. 1 black/gold ------ Code Y88 1979 "Smokey and the Bandit" movie, Pt. 2 black/gold ------ Code Y84 1980 "Smokey and the Bandit" movie, Pt. 2 black/gold ------ Code Y84 1981 NASCAR Turbo Pace Car ---------- recaro Code Y85 1981 "Smokey and the Bandit" movie, Pt. 2 black/gold ------ Code Y84 1982 Recaro Edition black/gold recaro Code Y84 1983 Recaro Edition black/gold recaro Code Y84 1983 25th Anniversary Daytona 500 Pace Car ---------- recaro Code Y82 1984 15th Anniversary Edition ---------- recaro Code Y82 1984 Recaro Edition black/gold recaro Code Y84 1985 Trans Am with Recaro interior (optional) black/gold recaro Code AS5 ? 1986 Trans Am with Recaro interior (optional) black/gold recaro Code AS5 ?