The engine in the '98 Pontiac produces 305 horsepower.
Gas mileage is still respectable.
It is a brilliant, brittle winter weekend, much too cold to permit the removal of the twin roof panels from this T-top version of the 1998 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. My next-lane neighbor glances in my direction, then stares straight ahead. He's only packing 225 horses, and doesn't seem interested in a humiliating role in my road movie. There aren't any gendarmes in view, so I figure I'll launch the Trans Am anyway. I preface this childishness by turning off the traction control to harvest a maximum amount of tire noise and smoke.