Trans-Am System

The Trans-Am System is an inherent feature of both the GN Drive and GN Drive Tau that temporarily increases their GN Particle output beyond normal parameters for greatly enhanced combat performance in Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

System Description & Characteristics
The system was originally drafted by Aeolia Schenberg to grant Celestial Being's Gundam Meisters full utilization of their GN Drives and was a secret feature hidden inside the black boxes of the five original GN Drives. Because of this, the first and second generation Gundams never had the chance to utilize Trans-Am as the pilots didn't even know such a powerful function existed; however, it was later possible for Fereshte since they were still in possession of a GN Drive when Trans-Am was enabled. The system itself was rigged to unlock by a system trap inside Veda that automatically executed itself once Aeolia was killed.

Under normal operation, the GN Drives generated particles at a preset rate while the drives themselves store excess GN Particles inside the GN Condensers. With Trans-Am, the GN Drive operates at full power by releasing all of the stored particles and increasing the GN Drive operation rate to its maximum output. These released GN Particles saturate the frame of the MS, which renders a glowing pink-reddish hue on the entire mobile suit. These particles that cover the whole mobile suit improve the MS's defense and at the same time increase the amount of thrust produced. Overall, this system further pushes the GN Drive to it's rate of maximum particle conversion, production and emission of particles from multiple GN Condensers, thereby greatly increasing the suit's speed, strength and defense by 3 times of its normal specifications. In addition to increased speed, suits executing the Trans-Am system will leave pinkish red hue afterimages while moving. These afterimages normally confused by people seeing them as the MS-shaped GN particles, but in fact they're oscillating GN particles at a speed much higher than the speed of electricity. From this, it is speculated that suits equipped with trans-am system have extreme high speed and maneuverability, also unlimited bursts of accelerations. Because Trans-Am was originally a blackbox ability integrated into the GN Drive, a mobile weapon needed to be equipped with one in order to use it. However starting with their 3.5 Generation machines, Celestial Being integrated the system into their mobile suits and mobile weapons, thus an actual GN Drive is no longer needed. Presumably, one big disadvantage of not having a GN Drive while using Trans-Am would be the lack of an increased particle output flow from the drive when Trans-Am is activated.

Trans-Am is considered a "double-edged sword." Once activated and when all the released energy and particles dissipates, the GN Drives must recharge the spent energy and the unit will perform at a dramatically reduced capacity until the energy is replaced. This leaves a MS extremely vulnerable to any remaining opposition once Trans-Am ends.

While the system remained exclusive to Celestial Being for awhile, it was later reverse-engineered and adapted by the Earth Sphere Federation and the Innovators. Performance-wise, the GN Drive Tau Trans-Am was shown to be able to hold its own against an Original Drive Trans-Am, however a large weakness of the GN Drive Tau Trans-Am is that the drive destroys itself during/after the usage, essentially leaving the mobile suit without a GN Particle generator and reliant on reserve particles in order to escape. While this is known to be the case for the 2312 Tau Drive models, it is unknown whether the problem was rectified or not by the year 2314.

It should be noted that the Earth Sphere Federation and the Innovators developed Trans-Am seperately. While the Innovators developed their Trans-Am from stolen Celestial Being data, A-LAWS technical engineer Billy Katagiri created an inperfect version through notes left behind by Ralph Eifman. Billy finally managed to figure out the Innovators' more potent Trans-Am System (which was copied from Celestial Being) after he finished completing their GNZ-004 Gaga series for them.

According to Ian Vashti, Innovation is caused by the GN Particles' special state in Trans-Am. He theorized that it may be possible that this special state of GN Particles can even be felt regardless of range, and that more possible genuine Innovators has awakened as a result of Trans-Am Burst that Setsuna used during the battle with the Innovators. In addition, he is also worried that the Earth Sphere Federation will notice its relation to Innovation now that it possesses the Trans-Am System technology.

System Variants

 * Quantum System
 * Trans-Am Burst System
 * Trans-Am Raiser System

Activation
Trans-Am system first appeared after Alejandro Corner killed Aeolia Schenberg and activated a system trap. Aeolia's death activated the black boxes of the 5 original GN Drives to allow full utilization of their abilities. Trans-Am activated within GN-001 Gundam Exia while it was battling Ali Al-Saachez and his GNW-002 Gundam Throne Zwei. The Exia's new abilities allowed it to clearly outclass the Zwei, forcing Al-Saachez to flee.

Ralph Eifman's Legacy
In the four-year interim between the first season and the second, and during the events of 2312 AD, Billy Katagiri recovered and researched what Eifman was working on before his death concerning the GN Drives and their ability to produce topological defects, which gave them a near-limitless energy supply. After much toiling, he was able to successfully replicate one feature: the Trans-Am system, first applied to Graham Aker's Masurao unit, allowing him and it to fight on even footing with the 00. However, it had some serious drawbacks that is not present in the Original Drives in which case each usage seriously damage the Tau Drive requiring replacement soon after they were used and forcing the pilot on remaining Condenser supply for retreat after usage.

Innovators Development
Unlike A-LAWS, the Innovators obtained their Trans-Am System by copying the data from the Ptolemaios 2's databanks via Anew Returner. This system came to light separately from Billy Katagiri's imperfect version on the GNX-U02X Masurao though rectify this with an upgrade after obtaining Celestial Being's copied system from the Innovators. This technology was applied Revive Revival's GNZ-003 Gadessa, Hiling Care's GNZ-005 Garazzo and their GNZ-004 Gagas. The former two could also use Trans-Am more than once, indicating that either their Drives were somehow larger in terms of particle storage capacity, a way to use the system had been found that lessened the amount of particles exhausted or the suits/Drives were changed at the mothership after each usage.

Federation Widespread Adoption
By 2314, Trans-Am technology has been introduced to regular Federation forces to the point that it is considered standard equipment on its newest generation of GN Tau Drive machines. While it is still used for enhancing mobile suit performance when needed, Trans-Am is also used on Tau Drive equipped ships for extreme long distance journeys and as a last resort self-destruct as well. Whether any of the major flaws in using Tau Drives have been rectified remains unclear. In the movie, it is shown that the Trans Am system can be used to overload the GN Drive Tau as a last resort and self destruct the MS to cause as much damage to enemies close by.