Several years back, I learned about a special ’74 Trans Am owned by Steve Passwater. Equipped with the optional Super Duty 455, it was originally assigned to the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors. While there it was fitted with an illumination system that Guide had been working on. I recently had the chance to visit with Steve and he shared with me his Firebird’s interesting history. It’s a story you might also appreciate.
The Guide Lamp Division of General Motors was in Anderson, Indiana. It was an expansive complex during the mid-1970s (shown) that produced exterior illumination components such as headlights and turn signal and taillight lenses.
In General Motors’ heyday, the corporation prided itself in vertical integration. It was comprised of several divisions. The motor divisions (such as Pontiac) engineered and assembled vehicles while its specialty divisions developed and manufactured the myriad components required to produce them. Some of the specialty divisions you’ll likely recognize are AC (spark plugs, fuel pumps, various filters, and PCV valves), Delco (electronics such as distributors and radios), Rochester (carburetors), and Harrison (cooling system component). There were many others.
This product display of provides clear insight into the components that Guide Lamp produced for Pontiac’s 1974 model year vehicles.
GM’s Guide Lamp Division in Anderson, Indiana was largely responsible for the development and production of exterior lighting systems. During the 1970s that included sealed-beam headlamps and translucent turn signal and taillight lenses. Steve Passwater was an employee at Guide Lamp in 1974. “I was a newly-hired Junior Designer working in an engineering department that designed the special machines that manufactured Sealed Beam Glass Unit headlamps at the time,” he says. The Guide Lamp Division was subsequently renamed Guide Division in 1975.
I learned of Steve Passwater’s beautiful ’74 Super Duty Trans Am a number of years ago but didn’t know of its complete significance until I began conversing with Steve several months back.
Steve explained that during the ‘70s there was a provision in the GM employee purchase program that permitted an GM employee to designate their newly ordered vehicle for use in their Division's Product Evaluation Program (or PEP) to receive a larger discount. Such vehicles were used for engineering exercises and/or evaluation and remained in the divisional fleet until 3,000 miles had been reached. At that point, the vehicle was sold to the ordering employee.
Steve became an employee at GM’s Guide Lamp Division in June 1973. In early 1974 he saw a Buccaneer Red ’74 Super Duty Trans Am in the executive parking area and was immediately enamored with it.
While walking through the executive parking area of Guide Lamp's Administration building on his way into work one morning in early 1974, Steve noticed something uncharacteristic. “I spotted a gorgeous Buccaneer Red ’74 Trans Am equipped with the SD-455. It was very conspicuous parked among the Cadillacs, Buick Electras and Olds 98s that the execs usually selected for their PEP cars. It was absolutely stunning. Within a couple of years, I met my colleague, Larry Campen and came to know the story behind the SD-455 Trans Am I had seen in the executive parking lot at that time,” he recollects
Larry Campen originally purchased Steve’s Super Duty Trans Am through Guide Lamp under GM’s Product Evaluation Program. Larry is seen in this Guide press photo with a ’79 Firebird.
As it turns out, Larry was the Guide Lamp employee that initiated the Super Duty Trans Am order. “He had seen the early articles about Pontiac’s Super Duty program and decided to try and acquire one,” Steve says. “It wasn’t a certainty that all SD-455 orders would be filled during the ‘74 model year, so Larry opted to use the Division PEP fleet designation option because he knew that a Divisional order would receive higher priority status than if he’d ordered the car individually.”
Steve’s Super Duty Trans Am was built in mid-January 1974. It was delivered to GM’s Guide Lamp Division in Anderson, Indiana through Russ Regenold Pontiac, also in Anderson.
According to its original build sheet, the Super Duty Trans Am was built at the Norwood, Ohio assembly plant on January 14, 1974. It was then placed in service at Guide Lamp on January 24, 1974. Marion Miller was Guide Lamp’s Director of Plant Engineering in 1974 and he had executive responsibility over the plant’s maintenance activity. He was the executive assigned the put the required 3,000 miles on the Super Duty Trans Am and it was during this period that Steve saw it the executive parking area.
The Super Duty Trans Am was equipped with a host of convenience options. It stickered for nearly $6,100! With his employee discount and by making it a PEP discount, Larry’s selling price was nearly 25% less.
“Larry met with Marion and asked him to request the Trans Am for his PEP vehicle,” explained Steve. “Larry knew that Marion was a car enthusiast and might accept the F-body in lieu of the normal four-door luxury vehicles that were usually chosen as executive PEP vehicles. Larry also selected Marion because he had the longest daily commute—about 100 miles—and the required 3,000 miles could be put on quickly. The car was removed from service and sold to Larry on February 28, 1974 for $4,582.75 with 3,190 miles on it.”
While at Guide Lamp, the Super Duty Trans Am was equipped with the Guide-matic system. It included this fender-mounted optic sensor that remains on the vehicle today.
In the month that the Super Duty Trans Am was assigned to Marion as a PEP vehicle at Guide Lamp, it was used for at least two engineering projects. “One was experimental quartz halogen sealed beam headlamps. The other was a system called ‘Lock Light Control’ that turned on the interior lights whenever the key was placed in the door lock. Both were removed before it was purchased by Larry. And there could have been additional engineering projects that I’m unaware of,” says Steve.
The Guide-matic control knob is mounted under the steering column.
Two components that Guide installed onto the Super Duty Trans Am that remained upon its sale to Larry were the Guide-matic and Twilight Sentinel systems. Guide-matic used optics to automatically dim the high-beam headlights whenever oncoming traffic was detected. Twilight Sentinel automatically turned the headlights on or off at dusk or dawn. “Both systems were left in place since they were current production units at the time,” Steve adds.
The Twilight Sentinel sensor and control knob is mounted on the driver’s side roof pillar.
A requirement within GM’s PEP vehicle program was for the PEP driver to provide a detailed vehicle evaluation to the Division's vehicle coordinator. Marion prepared an evaluation on the Super Duty Trans Am. Says Steve, “Apparently, there wasn’t a standard form available at that time as Marion used standard note paper. In later years there were corporate forms provided for PEP vehicle evaluations and then ultimately those were replaced with a telephone prompted keypad response system.”
When Steve’s Super Duty Trans Am was removed from service as PEP vehicle at Guide Lamp in February 1974, Marion Miller prepared this evaluation of its overall performance and build quality.
Larry kept his prized Super Duty Trans Am for several years. “He and I were both car enthusiasts,” says Steve. “I’d purchased a new ‘69 Firebird 400 automatic when I came home from Vietnam. His red Super Duty Trans Am was part of my motivation to order a Buccaneer Red ’77 Formula with T/A 6.6 and a 4-speed in the late summer of 1976. I then replaced the Formula with a Mayan Red ’78 Trans Am with T/A 6.6, a 4-speed and WS6.”
Steve was so inspired by the appearance of the red Trans Am that he ordered this ’77 Formula 400, which Guide used in at least one press photo.
When Larry decided to sell his Super Duty Trans Am, he approached Steve first. “He knew that I loved that car. I purchased it from him in January 1986 and today it has just 32,369 miles on it. I never dreamed then that I would someday own the stunning Super Duty Trans Am I saw in the executive parking lot in early 1974.” Sadly, Larry passed away in 2015.
In August 2018, Steve reunited Marion Miller (age 97) and his wife, Lois (age 98) with the Super Duty Trans Am he’d drove it as a PEP vehicle for GM’s Guide Lamp Division some 44 years prior.
In August 2018, Steve had the chance to reunite Marion (then 97 years old) with the Super Duty Trans Am. “I attend a monthly Guide retiree breakfast and a several of Marion’s former direct-reports organized a lunch with him. I had a couple of conversations with Marion through the years and made him aware that the car still existed. He’d always fondly remembered it, but during our lunch that day he shared something with me for the first time. On one occasion while on his way home from work on a very lightly used interstate, he decided to find out just how fast the Trans Am really was. He got it up to an indicated 138 mph! He said that he lifted off the throttle when it began to feel aerodynamically unstable. It was fun reuniting Marion with his company car of 44 years ago at that lunch. And he appreciated seeing it again.”
Steve’s Super Duty Trans Am has certainly endured the test of time. It was ordered by a Pontiac enthusiast who was coy enough to use GM’s divisional PEP program to solidify his chance at being one of the lucky few that received a ’74 Trans Am equipped with the limited-production SD-455 engine. He then maintained its pristine condition until another Pontiac enthusiast—whose eye it caught back then in the executive parking area—purchased it and continues to carry on its legacy. And as Steve sums up, “As anyone can tell from its condition, time has been much more kind to the Trans Am than it has been to its owner!”
All images and documents are courtesy of Steve Passwater.