By Charles Krome ,
3 hours ago
A front 3/4 shot of a white1969 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with ocean/lake behind it Matt Morgan/Wikimedia Commons
Pontiac had helped launch the muscle-car era in 1963 — when it debuted the GTO package for its 1964 Pontiac Tempest LeMans coupe — and the brand followed that up with the Firebird pony car in 1967. In 1969, both saw iconic variants take the stage. The former began courting customers with a new GTO trim called The Judge , while the latter hatched the Firebird Trans Am.
Only, it wasn't called the Trans Am at first. The brand had originally tried out a variety of different ideas on the public, with "Sebring" coming out on top –- inspired, no doubt, by the country's oldest road-racing circuit, Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida. Yet, when Pontiac went to register the name, it discovered Chrysler had gotten there first.
The public's next-most-popular names were "Formula" and "Trans Am," so Pontiac snapped up both. Trans Am was reserved for the most powerful member of the Firebird family, which was actually a little odd. General Motors was already running Camaros in the Sports Car Club of America's Trans Am series. Moreover, Ponti...