Today’s Rare Ride started out as a beautiful Chevrolet Camaro convertible and was transformed into a Pontiac Hurst Trans Am by an enthusiastic owner. We’ll let you be the judge on how successful the operation was.
First some history. Hurst Performance was a company headquartered in Pennsylvania that produced various performance-enhancing products of the automotive variety. Founded in 1958, the company sold parts to all the big Detroit automakers which often made their way into performance muscle cars like the AMC Rebel The Machine, but also oddities like Jeepster Commando. Among their offerings were lots of logos, H-gate shifters, and t-top modifications.
Along the line, Hurst t-tops made their way onto Seventies Firebird Formula and created the Pontiac SSJ in the creepy ad above. But by then the initial Hurst company was gone. It was acquired by appliance manufacturer Sunbeam in 1970 and quickly folded into its operations. In 1987 Sunbeam sold Hurst to a gasket manufacturer, and in 2007 it changed hands again and went to B&M Racing and Performance Products.
Here and there there’s been various licensing use of the Hurst name, and enthusiasts of a certain age still desire the recognition and styling of Hurst. In 2012 GM signed up with Trans Am Depot to turn modern Camaros into Trans Am GTOs and Hurst Trans Ams. But these very limited edition custom builds were expensive and spawned cheaper modification alternatives. Those alternatives begat today’s Rare Ride.
The fifth-generation Camaro debuted for the 2010 model year, and muscle car enthusiasts and fans of the Transformers movie franchise had a heyday. Available in coupe or convertible formats, the Camaro shared the Zeta platform with cars like the Pontiac G8. It was available with V6 and V8 engines, from 3.6 to 7.0 liters in displacement. The new modern-retro Camaro saw sales success and remained in its original guise through 2015. At that point, it was replaced by the Alpha platform Camaro which continues to this day.
But what do you do when you want a Trans Am but the Pontiac brand no longer exists? You make one! Originally a 2011 Camaro LT convertible, today’s Rare Ride has had some nose surgery and a lot of trim work.
The standard Camaro visage was enhanced with a pointed split-grille Trans Am design, with square lamp and fog light housings and curvaceous mid-Seventies plastic shapes. This required a reshaping of the hood, which gained a Ram Air look and a Screaming Chicken in black and gold. Part of the white Camaro’s rear was wrapped in a metallic gold to match the Trans Am text on the bumper. Hurst/Trans Am logos sprout here and there, and there are some snowflake-adjacent Trans Am wheels as well. Those logos carry on to the interior door panels, and the center of the steering wheel says Z/TA (Classic TA manufactured this Pontiac kit). Unchanged is the performance of the stock Camaro, which is the standard 3.6-liter V6 you’d find in an Impala paired to an automatic transmission.
With just under 70,000 miles, the Trans Am is for sale in Ohio at the moment and asks $60,000. The real question is, what’s an authentic-looking Hurst Trans Am like this worth to you?
[Images: Hurst]
If ever a car had a face, a very creepy face that’s watching you, this is it.
Also: hideous.
Its downright gorgeous compared to the GTO based 70 chevelle disasters they were building 15 years ago. The car so ugly that Hot Rod magazine didn’t even take a photo of the whole car for the magazine feature, only parts of it.
More dollars than sense.
It’s hideous and laughable all at once. The worst part (and there are many) is the “455” hood scoop tag on a 3.6L engine.
To answer the question – I’d spend $6k and flip it to some sucker for $12k. Edit: On second thought, forget it.
Once again, the seller has conflated ‘rare’ with ‘valuable’. Lee Kinstle GM Sales and Service has a radioactive vehicle nobody will pay $60k for. They’d be better off converting it back to being a stock 2011 Camaro.
Hurts my eyes!
“You just have to take a look at this car.”
I really wish I hadn’t.
Who does something custom like this to the base model with V6/auto?
Boomer with a bad hip?
Better question: who does this and then tries to sell it for sixty large?
I’ve seen weirder stuff than this on Craigslist, but NEVER on a dealer’s website. Two questions unanswered:
(1) Who took this beauty as a trade-in? and
(2) Has the dealership owner written (1) out of his will yet?
Just last week I was within about 30 miles of this dealer. How I wish I’d seen this beforehand, I’d have checked it out carefully, grotesque prow to bloated stern, acted like this was the car I’d been dreaming of all my life, and then offered them three grand.
The first problem is putting a 2nd-gen nose on a first gen styled body.
That’s kind of like saying “the problem with Hiroshima was that it was a ground burst, not an air burst.”
Good God TTAC!! Put a trigger warning on this will you!!!! I can’t unsee that abomination.
It looks like automotive equivalent of zombie.
My main gripe is that Corey described the Camaro it was based on as “beautiful.”
Hahaha
Lol wut?
After pondering on that atrocity for a minute I feel the need to come back and leave this stick-shift 2005 Acura TL for sale in my neck of the woods just to restore a bit of balance to the world.
https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/ctd/d/carrolls-2005-acura-tl-4dr-96k-owner-v6/7316257477.html
This is sharp and the price isn’t far off reasonable.
I didn’t see any mention here of how many youngsters these days can get a CDL passing the drug test? Grass is legal many places but still a problem for a CDL medical.
This is just silly with a V-6.
If we were talking about the Lingenfelter T/A replica, I would be listening. 650 HP makes all the difference in this conversation:
https://www.fusionmotorco.com/vehicles/528/2010-chevrolet-trans-am-455
1) It should be black with gold lettering and screaming chicken.
2) It should be a T-top.
3) It needs some chrome trim.
4) It needs Radial T/A tires.
5) Without a v-8 it is nothing more than an oddity.
I think if I were this Camaro, and knew my fate was to look like this someday, I’d yeet myself off the transport truck.