Pontiac has always been known as the performance division of General Motors. Back in the old days of GM founder Billy Durant, the newly acquired Oakland Motor Car Company produced a hill-climbing model that became so popular the division was renamed for it, and Pontiac was born. Defining its position much later, the muscle-car era began officially when John DeLorean helped create the Pontiac GTO in 1964, and Pontiac became synonymous with performance.
Times have continued to change, but Pontiac is still known as the General's performance division. The days of platform sharing have long been upon us, so the distinction that Pontiac cars currently enjoy is due to cosmetic or suspension-tuned differences between brands. Let's face it: cars are not as individualistic as they once were, despite manufacturers' best attempts to differentiate their products from all of the DNA-sharing platform twins.
For example, 30 years ago, GM re-sculpted the Chevrolet Camaro into the first Firebird. Based on the F-Body platform, the Firebird has always been an alternative to the Camaro, though it used to offer better weight distribution than its Chevy sibling. These days, all the Firebird has on the Camaro is more aggressive styling, thanks to nostrils that flare out like a horse in heat. As for performance, the Firebird's new V8 engine is the same as the one found in the all-new Chevrolet Corvette (minus a few horsepower), and the Firebird costs thousands less than the 'Vette. But the Camaro's recipe results in the same entrée, and that gives Chevrolet twice as many sports cars as Pontiac. Hmm... Mr. Durant, which did you say is supposed to be the performance division?
Paying homage to the original Pontiac, we did some hill climbing of our own during a week-long test of a 1999 Firebird coupe. Our test car proved a point: General Motors is capable of creating a flamboyantly stylish car that first-time buyers can afford. The Bright Red Firebird with Dark Pewter cloth interior came to us with no options added. Yes, that means we tested the base model. We had to unlock the doors manually, crank the windows open by hand, and when we stepped on the accelerator, a V6 engine responded with what can only be described as peppy enthusiasm. Oh, the horror.
The 3.8-liter V6 engine makes use of old pushrod technology, and is designed to generate a good amount of low-end torque. Output is 200 horsepower at 5,200 rpm and 225 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 rpm, and the engine is probably perfectly adequate for a vehicle of this weight. Except the Firebird is supposed to be a muscle car. Muscle cars are meant to act like weightlifters at Venice Beach: they never really use their abundance of power, it's just for show and to make everyone else's testosterone levels seem meager by comparison. Sporty cars like these are supposed to have torquey V8 engines, and since our test car displayed power in palatable doses, something felt wrong with the universe - as if we were missing some vital nutrient from our diet. A Firebird with a V6 engine is like a sheep in wolf's clothing, and the real wolves (drivers of V8-endowed Mustangs, Camaros and Corvettes) can smell a sheep a mile away.
Steering is accurate and precise for such an unwieldy hulk, but bumps in the road tend to throw off the car's line of progress. Brakes displayed an inefficient antilock system that allows lockup, then pulsates. The problem is that we were able to lay patches of rubber consistently - when slowing down. For a car that advertises its ABS system on all four wheels, this lack of sophistication surprised us.
Inside, the driver sits low in a sport-bucket seat complete with plenty of side support. Though everything is functional, secondary controls are decidedly chintzy and out of date. A single control stalk operates the cruise control, turn signals and windshield wipers. The hazard lights are operated via a tiny pull-out knob that's hidden on the steering column behind the steering wheel. A sticker glued to the console rather than stamped onto the shift knob itself indicates the shift pattern. Secondary gauges, like the gas gauge and battery indicator, are located so low in the instrument nacelle that a separate "check gauges" warning light comes on to remind drivers when the gas is low - out of sight, out of mind.
The Firebird is a head-turner. Blessed with a long, sloping hood, angled windshield and hatch, smooth, integrated spoiler, and a red paint job, our test car had passersby whistling and giving us the thumbs up. Our smile faded only when a stranger shouted, "Light 'em up!" We had to pretend not to notice, knowing full well that mashing the throttle would only make the tires chirp, if we were lucky.
The throaty exhaust and looks of an exotic sports car lose their appeal on buyers in search of a more upright and practical ride, attributes that can be found in the competition from Ford. Youngsters today would rather slam a Honda Civic or Mitsubishi Eclipse than deal with the wide doors, hard-to-reach pedals and a long beak of a nose that makes it hard to see the road. Meanwhile, the Mustang offers a higher seating position, more user-friendly interior, the doors are shorter, and the appearance is just not so intimidating.
Because we can't regale you with tales of aggressive tail-out driving, and because our ears were not berated with intrusive, warlike screams from the engine bay, we had a lot of time to ponder the fate of the once-proud fire-breathing 'Bird. While our tire-shredding souls hate to admit it, the Pontiac Firebird is doomed. Even the V6 insurance-beater model can't save this once-proud car from the chopping block, and General Motors has no plans to continue the Camaro/Firebird past its current iteration. Instead, we hear rumors of an impending roadster, based on the Opel concept car that's based on the European-market Lotus Elise. The car will be lightweight, fast, and it will handle with grace. And no, it won't be available with a V8.
Times have continued to change, but Pontiac is still known as the General's performance division. The days of platform sharing have long been upon us, so the distinction that Pontiac cars currently enjoy is due to cosmetic or suspension-tuned differences between brands. Let's face it: cars are not as individualistic as they once were, despite manufacturers' best attempts to differentiate their products from all of the DNA-sharing platform twins.
For example, 30 years ago, GM re-sculpted the Chevrolet Camaro into the first Firebird. Based on the F-Body platform, the Firebird has always been an alternative to the Camaro, though it used to offer better weight distribution than its Chevy sibling. These days, all the Firebird has on the Camaro is more aggressive styling, thanks to nostrils that flare out like a horse in heat. As for performance, the Firebird's new V8 engine is the same as the one found in the all-new Chevrolet Corvette (minus a few horsepower), and the Firebird costs thousands less than the 'Vette. But the Camaro's recipe results in the same entrée, and that gives Chevrolet twice as many sports cars as Pontiac. Hmm... Mr. Durant, which did you say is supposed to be the performance division?
Paying homage to the original Pontiac, we did some hill climbing of our own during a week-long test of a 1999 Firebird coupe. Our test car proved a point: General Motors is capable of creating a flamboyantly stylish car that first-time buyers can afford. The Bright Red Firebird with Dark Pewter cloth interior came to us with no options added. Yes, that means we tested the base model. We had to unlock the doors manually, crank the windows open by hand, and when we stepped on the accelerator, a V6 engine responded with what can only be described as peppy enthusiasm. Oh, the horror.
The 3.8-liter V6 engine makes use of old pushrod technology, and is designed to generate a good amount of low-end torque. Output is 200 horsepower at 5,200 rpm and 225 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 rpm, and the engine is probably perfectly adequate for a vehicle of this weight. Except the Firebird is supposed to be a muscle car. Muscle cars are meant to act like weightlifters at Venice Beach: they never really use their abundance of power, it's just for show and to make everyone else's testosterone levels seem meager by comparison. Sporty cars like these are supposed to have torquey V8 engines, and since our test car displayed power in palatable doses, something felt wrong with the universe - as if we were missing some vital nutrient from our diet. A Firebird with a V6 engine is like a sheep in wolf's clothing, and the real wolves (drivers of V8-endowed Mustangs, Camaros and Corvettes) can smell a sheep a mile away.
Steering is accurate and precise for such an unwieldy hulk, but bumps in the road tend to throw off the car's line of progress. Brakes displayed an inefficient antilock system that allows lockup, then pulsates. The problem is that we were able to lay patches of rubber consistently - when slowing down. For a car that advertises its ABS system on all four wheels, this lack of sophistication surprised us.
Inside, the driver sits low in a sport-bucket seat complete with plenty of side support. Though everything is functional, secondary controls are decidedly chintzy and out of date. A single control stalk operates the cruise control, turn signals and windshield wipers. The hazard lights are operated via a tiny pull-out knob that's hidden on the steering column behind the steering wheel. A sticker glued to the console rather than stamped onto the shift knob itself indicates the shift pattern. Secondary gauges, like the gas gauge and battery indicator, are located so low in the instrument nacelle that a separate "check gauges" warning light comes on to remind drivers when the gas is low - out of sight, out of mind.
The Firebird is a head-turner. Blessed with a long, sloping hood, angled windshield and hatch, smooth, integrated spoiler, and a red paint job, our test car had passersby whistling and giving us the thumbs up. Our smile faded only when a stranger shouted, "Light 'em up!" We had to pretend not to notice, knowing full well that mashing the throttle would only make the tires chirp, if we were lucky.
The throaty exhaust and looks of an exotic sports car lose their appeal on buyers in search of a more upright and practical ride, attributes that can be found in the competition from Ford. Youngsters today would rather slam a Honda Civic or Mitsubishi Eclipse than deal with the wide doors, hard-to-reach pedals and a long beak of a nose that makes it hard to see the road. Meanwhile, the Mustang offers a higher seating position, more user-friendly interior, the doors are shorter, and the appearance is just not so intimidating.
Because we can't regale you with tales of aggressive tail-out driving, and because our ears were not berated with intrusive, warlike screams from the engine bay, we had a lot of time to ponder the fate of the once-proud fire-breathing 'Bird. While our tire-shredding souls hate to admit it, the Pontiac Firebird is doomed. Even the V6 insurance-beater model can't save this once-proud car from the chopping block, and General Motors has no plans to continue the Camaro/Firebird past its current iteration. Instead, we hear rumors of an impending roadster, based on the Opel concept car that's based on the European-market Lotus Elise. The car will be lightweight, fast, and it will handle with grace. And no, it won't be available with a V8.
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