Songfacts®:

• Cars often serve as metaphors in rock songs (especially if they're by Led Zeppelin), but this one is literal: it's about Sammy Hagar's beloved 1979 red Pontiac Trans Am. Hagar had a love affair with Trans Ams, which he found superior to other muscle cars. "Catch me if you can" he taunts other drivers.
• Hagar's Trans Am had a license plate that read "IEATZ28," a dig on the Camaro Z28. He mentions the plate in the lyric:
  
  Set's 10 inches off the ground with a custom plate
  That says IEATZ28
• In later years, Hagar moved on to more exotic cars, buying a Lotus, and Astin Martin, and multiple Ferraris. But his Trans Am is the only one that made it into the title of one of his songs.
• To promote this song, the San Francisco radio station KMEL ("The Camel") staged a contest where the winner got a Trans Am like Sammy's.
• Songs about cars and driving fast are a big part of Sammy Hagar's discography. His most famous song is "I Can't Drive 55" from 1984. By that time, he had a Ferrari that he drove in the video.
• "Trans Am (Highway Wonderland)" is part of Sammy Hagar's fourth album, Street Machine, released in 1979. It wasn't released as a single, but he played the song at many of his live shows until 1985 when he joined Van Halen.