Gregg Hamilton has been into muscle cars since he was a kid, and the Smokey and the Bandit movies only added to that desire. He wanted a rear-wheel-drive, manual V-8, and when he moved to America, he realized he finally could get one.
Gregg wanted something different; he had a Subaru, but didn’t want just another rally-type car to work on. Being from another country, the Trans Am was that something different and a little out of the box to him. Outside of being his boyhood dream car, he notes that you can basically do whatever kind of project you can think of when it comes to these cars.
This New Zealand native wasted no time finding his own Trans Am when he came to America. He decided on a 1979 Trans Am, listed on eBay. Upon purchase, he flew to Alabama to pick it up and the transformation began. It had the Oldsmobile engine and automatic transmission, and Gregg pretty much bought it sight unseen. He didn’t have a clear plan, but the build has been an evolution over the years.
He started by making the Trans Am computer controlled, and decided soon after on turbos. The engine was changed out after to a Gen III 5.3L with a custom cam, and he made it a manual because that’s what he always wanted. As far as power goes, exact output is anyone’s guess. To give it some perspective, the owner says it feels like a very heavy Z06 — going as far as to call the Trans Am a “fast tractor”. Once the mechanical stuff was up to par, he moved on to upgrading the brakes, putting some wheel arches on it, and giving it a custom tail.
Gregg Hamilton is no stranger to working on cars, you might already recognize his name. He’s had an extensive career, mainly based in rally racing, that started in New Zealand, and eventually landed him here. He’s worked on teams like the Toyota Team Europe and Prodrive, and now works for Ken Block.
Although he has his hands full professionally with cars, he loves working on his Trans Am because he likes “the mechanical-ness of it” over the Subarus. This is something that tends to draw a lot of people to classic GMs, so Gregg is certainly not alone in feeling that way!
Elizabeth is hardcore horsepower enthusiast with unmatched intensity for making things faster and louder. She wakes up for power and performance and only sleeps to charge up for the next project that’s heading to the track. From autocross to drag racing, Elizabeth is there with you, so stay tuned for her unique perspective on horsepower news, builds, tech info, and installs — with her, it’ll never be boring!
