Drifting Bird: This 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Hits the Track with LS Power

Firebird and drift car usually don’t appear in the same sentence. Yet, J.J. Alfano’s LS-powered 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was one of the stars of the Drift Challenge during this year’s Holley LS Fest East.

“I wanted to do something a little more cool for events like this,” the Atlanta-area native said during the show at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Not that commonly seen Japanese drift cars like the Nissan 240SX and 350Z aren’t cool in their own right. Alfano has owned close to a dozen of them. Many of those cars across the country are powered by the versatile GM LS engine, and Alfano himself competed with an LS2 he built himself for his 240.

“I fell in love with the V-8 power band,” he said. “There's nothing easier than an LS engine.”

But while many of his competitors use the engine in imports, Alfano has leaned into the American muscle concept with his Pontiac. He got the idea after attending an event in Alabama where his friend campaigned a muscle car and received a significant amount of attention.

Alfano hails from the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee, Georgia, and has always been a fan of General Motors cars. Plus, with “Smokey and the Bandit” having had a significant Atlanta connection, he decided on the Trans Am.

“I love these cars, and one of my best friends’ dads owns a ’78,” he said. “So, this is it.”

The next step was finding one. Ultimately, he purchased a 1981 chassis in Mississippi that was advertised as rust-free. That was not the case. Despite the challenges, he and his team of friends worked on numerous upgrades, making modifications and fabricating parts, along with changing the nose and tail panels to convert the car into a 1978 model.

“We just kept at it and then the car sat from 2019 to the summer of 2020 when I debuted it,” Alfano said. “It was all rusty and it looked like a junkyard car, because it was. It’s kind of just unfolded ever since. I've upgraded the suspension, the rear and the drivetrain, so it's actually pretty formidable now.”

The car is powered by a 5.3L LM7, an LS power plant originally found in a variety of Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac trucks and SUVs from 1999 to 2007. Alfano’s version makes 360 horsepower and 315 lb.-ft. of torque.

“They're super easy to work on,” Alfano said. “If I could build an engine and not blow it up it's basically a Lego set.”

Victory Fabrication in Cumming, Georgia, was responsible for the Trans Am’s custom three-link rear setup, and many of the steering and suspension parts are custom-built as well. The car features 2006 Corvette Z06 brakes.

While the Trans Am was by no means a slouch when it was introduced decades ago, it wasn’t built to handle like a high-performance drift machine, hence the various modifications. It rolled off the assembly line heavier than many of the cars on the drift circuit too, leading to Alfano finding ways to reduce weight.

“[The car] weighs about 3,060 pounds without me,” he said. “We took out the whole interior, the differential is an all-aluminum, quick-change unit from Winters. It's actually a 10-inch ring gear, so it's bigger and stronger, but it's lighter than from the factory. The aluminum transmission is lighter than factory. It's an iron motor so I could lose another 100 pounds if I went aluminum, but I shaved about 200 pounds even with adding additional components.”

While the car itself might be at a slight disadvantage in the utility sense, its character makes up for any performance deficiencies.

“I love [the Japanese cars], but I love this more,” Alfano said. “It's difficult to drive compared to everything else, but it's so rewarding. A good lap might as well be a 100-point qualifier in a Pro car. It’s so awesome, and the attention it gets is just confirmation. I love it.”

Regardless of the car, Alfano is adept behind the wheel, having competed in the sport in the drifting hotbed of Atlanta since shortly after he graduated from high school in 2007. He was a skateboarder as a kid and found that drifting shared many of the same philosophies.

“I'm a skateboarder that just got a corporate job,” he said, referencing his full-time work in sales. “One thing I love about skateboarding is the sense of personal style, both in skating and clothes and stuff like that. So, I love being able to just be different. Drifting was extreme and I was getting into cars at that age. I had to drive to the skate park, and I wanted to be in a cool car. Drifting just kind of scratched all those itches.”

Now, he’s combined his love for the personal expression inherent in drifting culture with his fandom of muscle cars. The result is a brand and persona not often seen in the discipline.

“I always gravitated to General Motors, especially after I drove an LS car and I built an LS car, I was like, ‘Bowtie for life,’” Alfano said. “Then it was just a perfect storm because I got a General Motors car. It just pushed me further into it.”

Be sure to keep watching The BLOCK for much more on LS Fest and Chevrolet Performance-powered builds from events nationwide.