Classic Firebirds

There is a date range that most consider to be the muscle car era. The actual dates on the upper and lower end of that date range could be a matter of debate, but the decades of the fifties and sixties generally are accepted as the era when muscle cars ruled car culture. Within the culture of muscle cars, there are certain exciting names that naturally bring up images of very fast and powerful vehicles that every man wanted and every woman wanted her man to have. Names such as the Trans Am, the GTO and the Camaro stand out.

One of those names that defines the classic muscle car is the Pontiac Firebird. It is interesting to note that Pontiac almost missed the muscle car party before getting the Firebird onto the market. The actual 1970 Pontiac Firebird fits well into the pony car division of Pontiac’s foray into the muscle car world. While 1970 was just about too late to join the muscle car party, the Firebird still made a serious splash that was worth the wait.

Part of the reason for delaying the entry of the Pontiac Firebird was that the designers basically started from scratch rather than adapting existing design ideas for the body parts or the suspension. The outcome is that the Pontiac Firebird hit the market like a storm because it was so dramatically forward thinking in design and for how superior it was in handling and acceleration to anything comparable in the muscle car universe at the time.

Pontiac made the Firebird with enough options that any muscle car enthusiast could find a model to suit his or her dream. The initial production of the Pontiac Firebird came as a two-door coupe or as a convertible. The bucket seats added even more style to an already stylish muscle car which Pontiac offered to the car-buying public in the base model or as the Formula, the Espirit or the famous Trans Am. The cultural excitement over the Trans Am as evidenced in the movie Smokey and the Bandit only added to the mystique of the Pontiac Firebird as the ultimate muscle car vehicle.

The amount of power you could have at your disposal when you bought a Pontiac Firebird was also up to the buyer. Many buyers went with the standard model that came with an inline 6-cylinder engine and a 3-speed manual transmission. However, in some of the more powerful variations on the Pontiac Firebird, like the Espirit, you could pump up the power with a 255-horsepower V8 engine and go with the automatic or the manual 3-speed transmission.

That meant that muscle car lovers could invest in a Pontiac Firebird for the style, for the power or for both. Whatever way muscle car fans went when they got their own Pontiac Firebird, it was sure not to disappoint.