2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Convertible on Bring a Trailer Is the Ultimate Final-Year F-Body

• Travel back to 2002 with this rare and powerful Firebird convertible.
• This Trans Am is a yellow-on-black Collector’s Edition and was factory optioned with the WS6 package. But that was just the starting point.
• Tuned by now-defunct fourth-gen F-body specialist GMMG, this car comes with a 7.4-liter V-8 said to be good for 680 horsepower.

The hit sitcom That ’70s Show was set in 1976, and it first aired in August 1998. If you were to remake it today, you’d have to set it in 2002. That seems wrong somehow—wasn’t 2002 just a couple of years ago?—but the early 2000s were weirder than you remember. No Facebook. No iPhone. How did we entertain ourselves way back then? Same as they did in the 1970s: with thundering, big-displacement V-8s.

2002 Pontiac Firebird trans am ws6 collector edition rear with the top on

Today’s pick at Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) is a bright-yellow blast from the recent past, and it arrives with enough power to still give a Dodge Challenger Hellcat trouble. This Pontiac Firebird started life as a Trans Am convertible with the WS6 package, one of the roughly 2400 yellow-on-black Collector’s Editions released for the 2002 model year. And then GMMG got its hands on the car.

2002 Pontiac Firebird trans am ws6 collector edition engine

GMMG was a small performance outfit out of Marietta, Georgia, and its tuned machines can be thought of as similar to the Yenko Camaros, or contemporaries of the Saleen Mustangs. The firm specialized in fourth-generation Camaros and Firebirds, and this Trans Am was fitted with the firm’s Phase 5X package, which was everything GMMG could throw at it. Under the nostrilly Ram-Air hood is an aluminum 454-cubic-inch V-8 good for 680 horsepower—still potent now, unthinkable in 2002. It’s bolted to a six-speed manual transmission with an upgraded clutch and a 12-bolt rear end to handle all the power. There’s also a driveshaft safety loop if you want to take it drag-racing, and Corvette brakes to haul it down from speed. Torq Thrust II wheels wearing 275-series Goodyear Eagle F1 tires provide the grip.

2002 Pontiac Firebird trans am ws6 collector edition interior

The swoopy Collector’s Edition graphics are just the early-aughts icing on this big yellow V-8 droptop. They’re the kind of thing you don’t see anymore, relics from a time of No Fear t-shirts and barbed-wired tattoos.

This rare convertible is peak Firebird from the model’s final year. The mileage is certainly collector-grade at just 1000 miles on the odometer, but you have to hope the next owner at least takes it for a spirited spin around the block now and then. Preferably while wearing a backwards baseball cap and oversized shield sunglasses. Crank up some early Nickleback on the stereo—and leave your iPhone at home.

The auction for this rip-snorting time capsule ends February 15.