GTP Cool Wall: 1977-1981 Pontiac Firebird

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1977-1981 Pontiac Firebird

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Wiegert

Wiegert

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1977-1981 Pontiac Firebird nominated by @Sp3edst3r

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Body Style: 2-door coupe
Engines:
- 3.8L V6
- 4.9L V8
- 5.0L V8 (California)*
- 5.7L V8 (California)
- 5.7L V8
- 6.6L V8
- 6.6L W72 V8
- 6.6L L80 V8
- 4.9L Turbo V8

* Firebirds sold in California had to make due with Chevy 305 and 350 V8s to meet the state's strict emission laws.

Power: 105-220 hp
Torque: 235-320 ft-lbs
Weight: 1640 kg
Transmission: 3-speed automatic, H.D. 4-speed manual, 3-speed manual
Drivetrain: Front-engine, rear wheel drive
Additional Information:
1977 saw a new "Batmobile" front end with quad square headlamps and ever more complex engine choices. The Chevy inline six was dumped for a Buick 231 cubic inch (3.8 liter) V6 as the base engine. A new 301 (4.9 liter) V8 rated at just 135 bhp was available in Esprits and Formulas, with the familiar 350 as an optional. Trans Am's featured either a Oldsmobile 403 (6.6 liter) V8 or the Pontiac 400 (T/A 6.6) engine under their shaker hood. But 1977 would the year that firmly established the Firebird as the performance car of the 1970s. Burt Reynolds drove a Black-and-Gold Special Edition Trans Am in the unexpected movie hit "Smokey and the Bandit", that drove the Firebird's popularity (and sales) to new heights.
In 1978, while attempting to capitalize on its new found popularity, Pontiac offered a slew of Special Edition Firebirds including a Gold Trans Am with brown accents and Blue "Sky Bird" and Red "Red Bird" Firebirds. Sales soared to a record 187,294 units, including 93,341 Trans Am's. As the 1970s drew to a close, the 1979 Pontiac Firebird received a new nose, with the four rectangular headlights all in their own bezels, and the split grille was moved below them. The rear end featured blackout panels disguising the taillights on Formula and Trans Am models. All models also received some revised graphics. A special silver 10th Anniversary edition Trans Am was sold in what would be the last year for the Pontiac 400 engine which were stockpiled from 1978. In 1980, Pontiac installed a new Turbo-charged 301 (4.9 liter) V8 as its top engine choice. The Turbo 4.9 was rated at 210 bhp, which was considered "pathetic", but the real insult came from its actual performance. There was no Turbo boost indicator as Turbo lag was a huge problem and the engine often made loud pinging sounds under heavy loads just before it self-destructed. Nevertheless, a Pontiac Trans Am paced the Indianapolis 500 race that year. Sales dropped considerably. This decline continued into 1981, before Pontiac introduced the 3rd Generation Firebird.

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Once America entered the fuel crisis, the Firebird quickly became quirky looking, slow, and it basically lost its charm and soul. The hood bird only makes it look more tacky.
 
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WeThePeople
Once America entered the fuel crisis, the Firebird quickly became quirky looking, and slow. The hood bird only makes it look more tacky.
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It was always quirky looking, what are you talking about? It always had that stupid awesome bird on the hood to represent Murica land of the amazing.

As for slow they weren't all that slow, I mean people have this notion that due to the fuel crisis everything went to hell, these engines were in production long before it came to that. And the 400 like the 455 especially, was never built to conform to high horsepower, it was more of higher rev, larger torque to grab and put the power down faster. It was a good engine and the Torque never really diminished due to EPA restrictions just the Horse power. And the detune the factory did wasn't hard to undo. Also the V8 turbo you could get was pretty cool for the time, even if it was trash compared to other performance turbo cars of the era.
 
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Like CB radios, these Firebirds are very uncool nowadays but I've got a soft spot for the burning chicken.
 
Everything about it screams uncool to me. But, as a kid of the 70's and 80's, I can't see it as anything but cool. I think on balance its just about getting old enough to become a classic. Low cool.
 
For all the crap this gets (deserved, somewhat) for being the Smokey and the Bandit car, one thing is a bit frequently overlooked: Why was this the Smokey and the Bandit car? Why did Burt choose a Trans Am for all of this silly beer running police chasing antics? And when he made Hooper the next year, which was essentially Smokey and the Bandit with what little plot there was removed, why did he choose basically the same car:

hoop4.jpg







The Trans Am in the end of the decade was just off the fastest accelerating, just off the highest top speed and just off the best handling cars you could buy from an American manufacturer. The Corvette was usually marginally faster depending on how you optioned it, but it cost twice as much and didn't always handle as well (sometimes better raw numbers but not as good to drive). Freed from really having to worry about stealing Corvette sales, Pontiac was able to go right after it.
The SD-455 from a few years prior was faster of course, but the 1977 and up models could go hit for hit with some of the best cars from the decade prior and run circles around them on a track. And unlike that one, this model wasn't a car borne out of intense secrecy; a limited edition collectible even when it debuted. People bought them droves, and quite a lot of them were optioned up to be the best performers they could be.

Even if money exchanged hands, the Trans Am was the only car when that movie was made that would actually plausibly work for the role. Burt spent the entire movie getting police to chase him, and this:

CHP-1977MonacoMalloy.jpg


That was the third fastest car in the American market. It would have been a pretty short movie if Burt decided that the car he would choose would be a Z-28.







And perhaps that isn't enough to eke out a cool. But for all of the silly graphics and tacky 70s paraphernalia, you know what people would know people who saw it today would say? The Trans Am was the trend setter. The trend was silly and gaudy, but it was the one who made it popular because the car underneath was sound.


Crap like this:

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That's the real uncool of the time period.
 
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LMSCorvetteGT2
It was always quirky looking, what are you talking about? It always had that stupid awesome bird on the hood
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I used the term "quirky" with a negative connotation.

I'm well aware of the fact that the Firebird always had the hood bird. I meant that in the first generation Firebird, the hood bird looked much better than on the second.
 
I typically find muscle cars to be uncool, and this is no exception. Bandit doesn't really help it.
 
WeThePeople
I used the term "quirky" with a negative connotation.

I'm well aware of the fact that the Firebird always had the hood bird. I meant that in the first generation Firebird, the hood bird looked much better than on the second.
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I'm being sarcastic, note the slashed out word. The only part of my quote that wasn't was the talk about engine(s)
 
Down on power but still quick for the time period. Love the screaming chicken on the hood.

SZ.
 
There are specific movie cars that get a free pass in my book out of their inherent uncoolness. The Mustang and Charger from Bullitt are two of those, as is the DeLorean however much that has been done to death.

This isn't one of them.
 
It's kinda hard to call the Charger from Bullitt a movie car so much as a car that happened to have a big role in a movie. The Mustang was definitely hotted up specifically for the film to give it more presence and Ford has dipped into its well more than once since then, but the Chargers used in it were just some that they bought off a dealer lot. Dodge sold 17,000 R/Ts that year, and a good portion of them were probably black.
 
The Firebird that (almost) everyone knows and loves. Yes, the power output is relatively low but you can't discount it because of that really. It's one of the most iconic muscle cars and TBH, the design still holds up quite well. Cool.
 
The Dukes of Hazzard TV show of the early 80's did more for the Charger than Bullitt ever did. Outside of car enthusiast circles, Bullitt is pretty unknown. Car chases aside, it's a pretty average film.
 
Struggled with this one. I really like the way they look and I appreciate them as a significant, historic part of the US muscle scene.

But the combination of "screaming chicken" and the fact that a lot of 70s muscle seems just a bit... sleazy... means it just doesn't feel cool to me. Cooler than later Firebirds, but not as much as the first-gen cars. Not least because the first-gen models don't have any cheesy movie connotations.
 
Very sadly, because I love it to bits,super hyper seriously uncool because smokey and the bandit.
 
While the hood does show a lot of unwanted attention, come on. It's a flipping firebird, one of the few proper old muscle american cars.

But at same time, msot people most know of it from that movie...Hngh..

Damn it. Meh it is.
 
Always loved the styling, even the cornball phoenix on the hood and as others have mentioned, it was a car that seemed to shrug off the fuel crisis better than most, and carry the muscle car torch, to some extent at least. There were also a fair few of these in the UK back in the day, unusually, though that may be more due to their exposure in the aforementioned movies. I'm a little troubled that some only made 105hp though, but still a solid Cool.
 

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