CarBrandLogos archive · Pontiac · 1967

PontiacFirebird

Pontiac's half of the F-body, and the television star of two decades.

Photo: americancar · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Pontiac history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Pontiac Firebird, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Pontiac wanted a two-seat sports car. General Motors, unwilling to let a junior division threaten the Corvette, said no and offered instead a share of the F-body platform being developed for the Chevrolet Camaro. The Firebird went on sale in February 1967, five months behind its Chevrolet sibling, distinguished by a split beak nose, Pontiac engines and a slightly more upmarket pitch.

1973 pontiac trans am · François Martinez · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The car that mattered arrived in 1969: the Trans Am, named after the racing series, with a functional shaker bonnet scoop, rear spoiler and the largest engines Pontiac would sell. The second-generation cars from 1970 carried it further, and by the mid-1970s the Trans Am had acquired the enormous flaming bird decal across the bonnet that everybody either loved or refused to be seen with.

Pontiac Firebird · Matt Morgan from Alameda · CC BY-SA 2.0

1968 Pontiac Firebird 400 HO Convertible Black R t Rr Qtr

In production

Then it became famous by accident. A black and gold 1977 Trans Am carried Burt Reynolds through Smokey and the Bandit, and Pontiac could not build them fast enough; a few years later a 1982 Trans Am became KITT in Knight Rider, which secured the shape in the memory of a second generation. The car sold in numbers its actual dynamics did not entirely justify.

1968 Pontiac Firebird 400 HO Convertible Black R t Rr Qtr · Matt Morgan from Alameda · CC BY-SA 2.0

Legacy

The fourth generation from 1993 was the best of them to drive, with a small-block V8 and genuine capability, but the market for large rear-drive coupes was collapsing. Production ran to August 2002, and Pontiac itself lasted only seven more years.

Technical specification