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Looking into 30th anniversary ta

Ryan40601

Ryan40601

Well-Known Member
Hello all , Im gathering info on 30 th trans ams for a potential purchase .
I'm pretty sure some members on here have them,if anybody can give me some good tips on things to look for and any useful bits of info it would be great!
So far I don't know much other than early cars have lighter colored blue wheels.
I am in the process of checking stuff out on the 30th forum also ,
I'm looking for a 6spd hardtop 15,000 miles or less all docs
Convert good also but still 6 spd!
Thanks everyone!
 
I have a 30th vert A4. I've owned it for about 7 or 8 years. Bought with 17k miles on it, its now going on 33k.
It went through several rear o2 sensors until i bought a programmer and programmed them out.
It also seems to go through fan belts quit often, they start squeeling after about 10k miles. I just put a soft goodyear gator belt on it, only time will tell.
Other than that it has been a great car and more recently my wife began driving it daily after the 95 vert we have started giving me alot of problems...not sure what Im doing with it at this point.
Oh the driver side seat bloster in the 30th seems to be very soft and shows wear easily. At 20k miles the bloster looked more worn than my 95 with white leather and 100k miles.. But then i accidently ripped a hole in it on the 95 :( So thats something to check out, the leather is much softer than what is in the 95.
 
Here's an example of the seats after 100k, even the passenger seat has the white worn off.
Pontiac : Trans Am 30th Anniversary in Pontiac | eBay Motors

Another thing to add I forgot is the headlight motors are just as prone to wear out as all the previous years, I have had to replace one of mine already at about 30k miles. You can get lifetime warranty motors from Autozone for them for a pricey $150.
They do sell almost perfect match recovering material either in the original soft leather or more durable synthetic stuff, both look to be a very near match, stitching and all if you are looking for one to drive.
I'd say the one Mike posted the link to with 17k miles is about $8-9k over priced, probably why its been listed for a while.
These currently aren't worth much more than a non-anniversary edition and are about even with over 10-15k miles.
 
I was actively looking for a 30th a few months ago and talked to a couple of local owners and many sellers across the country. The issues I was finding were color wearing off of the special blue wheels and extensive wear on the unique white interior on low mile cars. I could not find anyone reproducing the white interior. I decided to pass and buy a 2002 Collectors Edition which I am very happy with. I flew to Iowa to pick it up and it turned 10k miles during our test drive. I am already up to 12k miles in the last month and a half. I still love my TTA, but the later 4th gen WS-6 cars are really a joy to drive.

A large number of 4th gen cars also have big cracks in the top of the door panels toward the back of the door due to the way the top seal is attached. If you can find a car that doesn't have the cracks, there is a fix on-line that you can perform that will keep them from cracking in the future - The first thing I did to mine was perform the fix.

Best of luck on your purchase.
 
Thats another good point about the door panels cracking, mine cracked virtually over night just sitting parked on both sides. It has a poor designed rib support on the underside that doesnt expand i suppose when it goes from hot to cold out. The LT1 cars do not have this issue why they changed the design who knows. I repaired mine with some mesh on the back side and JB Weld, it dries to the exact color of the plastic, rough it up slightly before it cures complety to match the texture of the door panel.
You can find the remake interior for about $900 for the synthetic and $1200 for the soft leather, but it definitely has very poor wear characteristics. Much like the TTA leather.
 
Never seen a set for sale, if they were actually brand new in the box like the ad said then it probably would be. As an alternative, you could pick up a set of the regular TA 5-spoke wheels and a good powder coater can match the blue shade and mask off the lip so it looks original. There was a guy locally here that made a few several years back for some of the local 30th owners..for some reason he was concerned about someone making a clone 30th so he wanted to make sure you owned a 30th before he would make them...Now that my wife is driving ours everyday I may want to consider finding a spare set.
There is also a local rim refurbishing place that will fix all of those things wrong in the CL ad wheels for $100 a wheel..except maybe the coating issue, they will not do a 2-tone or partial powder coat.
 
2QUIK6 said:
Thats another good point about the door panels cracking, mine cracked virtually over night just sitting parked on both sides. It has a poor designed rib support on the underside that doesnt expand i suppose when it goes from hot to cold out. The LT1 cars do not have this issue why they changed the design who knows. I repaired mine with some mesh on the back side and JB Weld, it dries to the exact color of the plastic, rough it up slightly before it cures complety to match the texture of the door panel.
You can find the remake interior for about $900 for the synthetic and $1200 for the soft leather, but it definitely has very poor wear characteristics. Much like the TTA leather.
Click to expand...

my 21k mile 4th gen ss's leather seats look almost perfect as do both of my tta's just shows if someone takes care of them or not
 
tta299 said:
my 21k mile 4th gen ss's leather seats look almost perfect as do both of my tta's just shows if someone takes care of them or not
Click to expand...
My friends dark grey '98 seats with 60k miles on them look almost perfect as well. My point is that from what I have seen, the white seats on the 30th cars do not hold up anywhere near as well as the other colors.
 
at t 2d said:
My friends dark grey '98 seats with 60k miles on them look almost perfect as well. My point is that from what I have seen, the white seats on the 30th cars do not hold up anywhere near as well as the other colors.
Click to expand...

I test drove a 99 ss t-top car new in 99 it had 35 miles on it an the seat were cracking an had big black spot in the pass seat ... I was all about having a tripple white car till i drove an seen that one.
 
I highly recommend a 30th. Took one on the Bandit Run last year awesome car with no problems. 100+ mph at Barber Motorsports and 1/2 mile oval North of Year One in Atlanta. 2500 miles of fun in a week. Poor photos while moving a bunch of stuff around in the shop. Uploaded four but only this one is displayed.
 
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How does a 30th TA perform against a 20th TTA? Like just bolt On's VS bolt On's In like a 1/4?


They are great looking rides. I wish I had a 69 Ram Air and a 79 and one of these 30th TAs
 
RatFink said:
How does a 30th TA perform against a 20th TTA? Like just bolt On's VS bolt On's In like a 1/4?


They are great looking rides. I wish I had a 69 Ram Air and a 79 and one of these 30th TAs
Click to expand...

The 30th is a 6 speed, so its a little apples to oranges as far as the feel. The TTA is quicker, running 23 pounds of boost. The LS1 just pulls and pulls. With traction control on it hooks up very well, with it off its a lot of fun, kicking the rear end out. If you behave the thing just sips fuel.

Here are couple of the other pictures.
 
RatFink said:
How does a 30th TA perform against a 20th TTA? Like just bolt On's VS bolt On's In like a 1/4?


They are great looking rides. I wish I had a 69 Ram Air and a 79 and one of these 30th TAs
Click to expand...

I bought a 87 GN with 43k miles ... for about 3k more than a procharger would have cost me abt 10 yrs ago. you have to go into the motor .....heads / cam to make the run with a mild bolt on tta.
 
RatFink said:
How does a 30th TA perform against a 20th TTA? Like just bolt On's VS bolt On's In like a 1/4?


They are great looking rides. I wish I had a 69 Ram Air and a 79 and one of these 30th TAs
Click to expand...
They are a different feel from each other. The 30th A4 I have accellerates much quicker with less throttle than the stock TTA. Full throttle, the TTA is faster.
HP wise, the '99 A4 dyno'd at 302rwtq/284rwhp, so a little more than a stock TTA.
The 30th rides much better and smoother than the TTA.
Both my TTA and 30th are completely stock, aside from the rear O2s being programmed off. The TTA can be made to go much faster with less $$ with just a few bolt on's than the LS1 cars.
Old pic when I still had the ttop car...
 
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Does anyone know at what point or what car number gm changed the blue color on the wheels from light blue to dark blue? I know why they did it just curious when?
 
2QUIK6 said:
They are a different feel from each other. The 30th A4 I have accellerates much quicker with less throttle than the stock TTA. Full throttle, the TTA is faster.
HP wise, the '99 A4 dyno'd at 302rwtq/284rwhp, so a little more than a stock TTA.
The 30th rides much better and smoother than the TTA.
Both my TTA and 30th are completely stock, aside from the rear O2s being programmed off. The TTA can be made to go much faster with less $$ with just a few bolt on's than the LS1 cars.
Old pic when I still had the ttop car...
Click to expand...

Wow! awesome group of rides! Yeah, the auto TTA is less tactile and visual than riding in a 5 spd big c.i. motored car. TTA kinda goes 0 to whoosh gradually.
 
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