My Account
by Mark E. Neumann
Editor’s Note: this is the fifth in a series of columns about interesting stories connected with Firebirds and Trans Ams.See previous issues of the printed Eagle for the other columns.
When he was a teen, Tod Warmack and his brother Scott watched their dad pull up to the house one day in Tallahassee, Florida with a just-bought 1978 Gold Edition Pontiac Trans Am.
Tod had seen a 1978 Martinque Blue edition pull into his high school parking lot one day and knew that was the one he wanted. He found one with T-tops and a four speed, and the W72/WS-6 handling package. Scott also found a Trans Am for himself. It was Trans Am fever, family style.
“My dad had Corvettes, Chevelles, Impalas, and then we got into GTOs,” Warmack said. “We were always around muscle cars.”
The last Trans Am was built in 2002, and Pontiac disappeared eight years later. But that love for the pony car never left the family.
Today, the brothers are owners of Trans Am Worldwide, which builds Trans Am conversions using the Chevy Camaro as the base model, and Trans Am Depot, which does restorations work on vintage Firebirds and other muscle cars.
“We started Trans Am Depot first as just a place to restore our own cars. But them we started getting customers and the business grew,” Warmack said. Later, after seeing renderings from designer Kevin Morgan in Hot Rod magazine showing how a Trans Am would look as a conversion at the debut of the fifth generation Camaro, Womack developed the idea of building a new Trans Am using the Camaro as a donor car. The look of the ’77-’78 Trans Am models were considered a base for the redesign.
“We get the CAD data of the Camaro from GM, and then we design the new body panels for the Trans Am from there,” Warmack said. Most of the body panels are carbon fiber now, and the company builds them in-house, along with most of the motor work.
The company’s 20 employees have churned out close to 200 of the Trans Am conversions, including the Super Duty, which offers up to 1,100 horsepower and a 9.3 second ET on the drag strip. The 50th Anniversary model and the Outlaw edition are also available.
One of the company’s signature cars was the Bandit edition – a tribute to the “Smokey and the Bandit” movie with a limited run of 77 cars to honor the year the movie came out. Burt Reynolds, who starred in the movie, was involved in promoting the car.
Where it started
Trans Am Worldwide debuted in 2010 with a car at the Trans Am Nationals. “It was a crude prototype,” Warmack recalls.
Pricing for the cars vary by customer-requested options. “When we first started the company, our entry level was $70,000” which included the donor car, Warmack said. “But we didn’t sell any of those. Most people ask for fully optioned cars, and that brings prices up to around $140,000.” That include added performance, paint, and custom interiors. “Prices of materials have gone up, as well as the cost for the donor cars, “Warmack said.
The customer base is generally older, but also is made up of folks who are big Pontiac fans. And the cars are appreciating in value. “We have seen Bandit edition models that sold for $130,000 to $165,000 now selling for $230,000 on some occasions in the secondary markets; Super Duty’s are selling in the mid-$200,000,” Warmack said.
One of the special cars that Tod and Scott worked on together was a gold Trans Am conversion in memory of their dad. Ted, who passed away in 2018. Tod’s son also helped with the development of the car. Then Tod had an Indian motorcycle customized with Trans Am paint and logos to match the car. “It’s a special car,” Warmack said. A YouTube video called “Gold Rush” details the building of the special gold Trans Am and the motorcycle. It includes Warmack talking about the founding of Trans Am Worldwide and the cars they have built. See it on the company’s website at https://transamworldwide.com/gold-rush-a-trans-am-documentary/ About the author: Mark is the second owner of a Buccaneer Red 1974 Trans Am and serves on the copyediting team for the Eagle.
