Pontiac Firebird

The Firebird was immortalised in the Smokey and the Bandit films. But is it equally hot stuff as an American classic?

This highly successful and popular two-door sporting coupe was the top model in the Firebird range, which comprised of the base Firebird, luxur y Esprit and Formula 400. It was Pontiac’s entry into the Pony car wars, started by Ford with their Mustang and arrived three years later with the fi rst generation cars that appeared in 1967. Available with six-cylinder or V8 engines the Firebird range relied heavily on the Chevrolet Camaro chassis and underpinnings. The musclecar era was just beginning to take a serious foot hold on the performance car market and the Trans-Am went on to make an important contribution to the scene.

History

The fi rst generation Firebird was available as both a two-door coupe and convertible. Body styling retained Pontiac’s distinctive vertically split radiator grille, a feature carryover since thelate 1950’s. There were minor styling changes for the 1969 model, notably the frontal aspect, but an all new car arrived in 1970 a fastback coupe though the convertible was discontinued. The basic fastback coupe bodyshell would effectively last right the way through to 1982. The second generation Trans-Am is also colloquially referred to as the ‘Bull Nose’ with its distinctive twin snout radiator grille. Pontiac’s body aerodynamics department had been extremely busy and the car sported front wing air vents, a lower front air dam, a rear facing shaker hood scoop, air defl ectors in front of the rear wheels and a rear spoiler. The Trans-Am came painted either in Lucerne Blue with a large white stripe across the bonnet roof and boot, or Polar White with contrasting blue stripe. The most powerful Ram Air IV V8 engine option was rated at 370bhp with featured larger ports, reworked heads and aluminium inlet manifold, and only 88 were produced that year. Transmission options were the four-speed manual with Hurst shifter or the three-speed Turbo Hydramatic automatic. In 1971 there were a few minor changes with the introduction of high back bucket seats and the now famous ‘Honeycomb’ wheels. The 455ci HO engine was only available for 1971-1972. A frontal aspect restyle in 1973 incorporated an ‘eggcrate’ grille and revised front bumper. The new Super Duty SD455ci V8 engine was essentially a race prepared street legal engine rated at 370bhp! There was also the huge Firebird decal that emblazoned most of the bonnet area. This was soon nicknamed ‘The Screaming Chicken’! The Trans-Am was now pure brawn, and more of a boulevard bruiser than cruiser and produced a most respectable 0-60mph time of 5.4 seconds. For 1974 there was another front end restyling exercise with a more slanted grille also referred to as the ‘soft nose’. Engine options were a 400ci V8, the 455ci and it was to be the last year for the 455ci Super Duty. For 1976 there was a T-Top option with removable roof panels was available. Another facelift followed for 1977 with quad square headlamps also known as the ‘Hawk Front’. Trans-Ams were now using the 403ci 6.6 litre Oldsmobile engines in addition to the 400ci 6.6- litre Pontiac V8s. Burt Reynolds drove a black and gold painted Trans-Am in the hugely successful feature fi lm ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ which worked wonders for sales that went up by 22,000 from the previous year to 68,744. Another frontal restyle arrived in 1979 featuring rectangular headlamps with individual bezels. There was a special Silver Anniversary model with silver paintwork and silver leather interior, and it was the last year for the Pontiac 400 engine, though some 2000 403ci Oldsmobile engines were made available for special edition cars. The tail light clusters were almost full width of the panel. In 1980 a 301ci 4.9-litre turbo model was introduced which also paced the Indy 500 race that year. The 4.9-litre engine was also available without the turbo. Sales dropped to a lowly 33,493 in 1981 and an all new third generation Trans-Am was launched in 1982.

Driving

The Trans-Am is a reasonably large and heavy coupe weighing in at 3800lbs, but nevertheless with a 6.6 V8, there’s still plenty of performance available. With comfortable bucket seats in a slightly reclined position, a thick rimmed steering wheel and a metal ‘engine turned’ dashboard, the interior is hugely inviting with an excellent driving position. The Trans-Am brakes cope well enough, though compared with a modern Eurobox with servo assisted disc brakes they may feel a tad dated. The power steering is light and precise, there’s inherent understeer, but these cars can be made to handle even better than when they left the factory with some fi ne tuning on the castor, camber toe-in set-up, as well as upgrading the suspension and dampers all of which is popular with many enthusiasts. A well sorted car will be amongst the best handling Yanks of the era.