What years was the Pontiac 455 available?
Although some sources say the 455 was available in 1970, it officially made its debut in 1971. Pontiac was keeping up with the Joneses as everybody else was running 450+ cubes, so they had to. The only problem was the early 455 was a relatively tame engine. Although it had 500 ft-lbs of torque at 2700 RPM and 360 HP at 4300 RPM (gross ratings), these revs were much too low for real performance. All the real performance remained in the form of the Ram Air III and IV 400 ci engines. They had power and they revved. The 455’s 1/4 mile times were in the low to mid 15s at 95 MPH, while the Ram Air 400’s were pulling low to mid 14 second times at 100 MPH. But for the non- racer-types, it was a deal. An H.O. version was also available on the Trans Am with some performance gains over the standard 455. It wasn’t until 1973 when the 455 SD (Super Duty) came around (see details below) where the 455 really shined. The 455 remained through 1976, however like the early ones, after 1974, they were low
