What is the name of the flaming bird on a Trans Am?
Others go with “Rising Phoenix” or simply “Firebird.” The ignorant usually refer to the massive flaming fowl as an Eagle or a Hawk. Pontiac officially called it the Trans Am Hood Decal and introduced it as option code WW7 on the 1973 Trans Am.
Are there any aftermarket Hood birds for the Trans Am?
There are many aftermarket hood birds that upon close inspection are not the same design as the OEM hood birds and were NEVER offered by Pontiacon the Trans Am. Ex: 1973-78 hood bird head facing the wrong direction, etc.
What color is the nose bird on a 1973 Trans Am?
In 1973, the Trans Am added two new colors to the line-up, Buccaneer Red and Brewster Green. Other exterior upgrades included the updated more modern nose bird. The new, soon to be iconic, hood bird was option “RPO WW7 Hood Decal”, a $55 option exclusive to Trans Am.
What kind of car is a Trans Am Trans Am?
Pontiac Firebird Trans Am; Overview; Manufacturer: General Motors: Production: 1969–2002: Body and chassis; Class: Pony car, Muscle car: Body style: 2-door convertible 1969, 1987–1989 Pontiac sanctioned special edition, 1991–1992, 1994–2002 2-door coupe 1969–2002: Layout: FR layout: Platform: F-body
Is a Trans Am A Firebird?
While all Trans Ams are Firebirds, not all Firebirds are Trans Ams. This is because Trans Am was an upgraded and improved Firebird that was introduced as a specialty packaged Firebird starting in 1969.
Did a Pontiac Firebird have a bird on the hood?
With just around 700 cars sold, the name only became widely recognized when the second-generation cars were launched in 1970. Not only had the car come with an updated 7.5-litre V8 (while the old 6.6 and 4.9-liter motors were offered), but it was also the first car to have the iconic bird hood ornament.
What is the Trans Am Blackbird?
Martin called them “Blackbirds,” a clever nickname that combined the dealership's name with the legendary Firebird moniker. A total of 52 Firebird WS6 Trans Ams were ordered from General Motors and brought to GMMG's shop for further modification. After completion, they were sold from Carl Black's showroom.
Are Firebirds and Thunderbirds the same?
The Firebird has the same speed and turn rating as the Thunderbird, but their main difference is in their stability. The Firebird is an overstable driver that offers power and accuracy. These features come in handy when throwing into headwinds. The Firebird is geared more towards intermediate and advanced players.
What type of bird is a Firebird?
falconIn later iconography, the form of the Firebird is usually that of a smallish fire-colored falcon, complete with a crest on its head and tail feathers with glowing "eyes".
What kind of car has a bird emblem?
Mazda. The symbol for the Mazda company might not look much like a set of wings at first, until you take a closer look. The Japanese automobile manufacturer uses a V shape in the center of an oval to represent a flying bird.
How many Pontiac blackbirds were made?
“Only 50 original Blackbirds were produced,” says McCausland. “They sold so quickly that Carl Black Pontiac wanted to do another series of 50 high-performance Trans Ams, which they would refer to as the '35th Anniversary Firebird' package.
What is a Pontiac Firebird?
The Pontiac Firebird is an American automobile that was built and produced by Pontiac from the 1967 to 2002 model years. Designed as a pony car to compete with the Ford Mustang, it was introduced on February 23, 1967, five months after GM's Chevrolet division's platform-sharing Camaro.
Is the Phoenix a Thunderbird?
The Thunderbird name was chosen because the emblem of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce was, and still is, a Thunderbird derived from American Indian symbols. One of the early inductees was Bob Goldwater, an avid golfer.
What car was in Smokey and the Bandit?
1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans AmBurt Reynold's 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the car made popular by the actor's iconic film Smokey and the Bandits, recently went up for auction at Barrett-Jackson — and if you had an extra few hundred thousand bucks lying around, you could've been the lucky owner of a slice of movie history.
Does Gibson still make the Thunderbird?
Gibson ends its fight for Firebird and Thunderbird body shape trademarks in the EU. The brand drops its appeal against the EUIPO's 2019 ruling that the guitar body shapes were generic.
What is the bird on the hood of a Trans Am?
Many people do not know that the bird on the hood is actually a Phoenix. This should be obvious because a Phoenix is a bird that dies of Fire and is reborn from the ashes... A Firebird.
What color taillights did the 1993 Firebird have?
The taillights on the 1993-97 Firebirds were completely dependent on the engine size. 3.4/3.8 had solid red taillights from the factory, while the 5.7 models had the grid pattern taillights, however the 1998-02 models had the same honeycomb style taillights regardless of engine size.
What color is the Trans Am hood bird?
Stylistically speaking, however, the most significant addition to the Trans Am remains the black and blue hood bird, which carried the same general design as the production graphics of 1973, but much more modest dimensions--roughly two-thirds of the production bird's size, with wings that came far from wrapping around the hood scoop.
What color was the 1973 Trans Am?
Rather than try an end-run around Mitchell as his predecessor did, Schinella appealed to aesthetics that he knew Mitchell already approved of: He took another pre-production 1973 Trans Am, had his studio repaint it black, then applied a gold foil hood bird graphic and gold stripes.
What was the first car to have the name "Screaming Chicken"?
The Screaming Chicken, in turn, essentially owes its genesis to one of the first cars to carry the name Firebird, the turbine-powered 1959 GM Firebird III concept car. As former Pontiac styling chief Bill Porter told David Newhardt for Newhardt's 2005 book, Firebird Trans Am, the designer of the Firebird III, Norm James, ...
What car did Bill Mitchell drive?
He then took the Trans Am, along with one of Bill Mitchell's motorcycles, which Mitchell had already painted in a similar black-and-gold scheme to emulate the John Player Special Lotus race cars, and parked them both underneath Mitchell's office window.
When did the Firebird come out?
Pontiac, of course, debuted the Firebird in 1967 emblazoned with a version of the design, albeit one that appeared on subtle badges no more than a few inches wide. The bird evolved a bit on the 1970 Trans Am, but remained subtle, a decal about 12 inches wide on the Endura nosepiece. In 1970, however, Porter recalled James's graphic, "and it gave me an idea of a device to get the (Trans Am's reverse-facing) hood scoop to look like it belonged on the car, by wrapping these wings around it - it kind of sucked it back into the surface on the vehicle, integrated it."
Who sold the Trans Am?
Public Pontiac in Skokie, Illinois, thus sold the Trans Am in late October 1972 for $4,197.34 to Dave Doren, an acquaintance of Mitchell's who admired the car. It then passed through another couple owners before Wichard, of La Jolla, California, discovered it in unrestored condition in Michigan.
What color paint did Pontiac use?
For the exterior, he asked for pearl white paint, trimmed in blue (with matching blue fenderwells, no less), and accompanied by a set of white honeycomb 15-inch wheels, even though Pontiac never offered honeycombs in any colors other than argent silver and gold.
When did the hood bird come out on a Trans Am?
The hood bird would go on to become an icon, one that would identify the Trans Am for the rest of the second generation's production run. When the 1982 Trans Ams arrived at the dealerships in late 1981, the legendary hood bird and shaker scoop went into the history books -- gone but certainly not forgotten.
What color was Bill Mitchell's Trans Am?
John knew that Bill Mitchell liked the black-and-gold John Player Special paint scheme, so he had a black prototype 1973 Trans Am made up with a gold foil hood bird graphic and gold pinstripes. No one can remember if this particular Trans Am had a Super Duty 455 or not, but if Bill Mitchell used it as his regular car, it probably did. Bill already had some of his motorcycles painted in a similar fashion. By pitching the hood bird to Mitchell in a color combination he already liked, Schinella sold him on the idea and the hood bird was finally born.
Who designed the 1970 Firebird?
Recently, I sat down with Bill Porter, the Chief Designer of the 1970 Firebird (he's now a Chief Designer at Buick), and Ted Schroeder, the designer who put the Trans Am package together for 1970, (now a Chief Designer for Chevrolet). We discussed how the design for the giant hood bird, often referred to today as the Screaming Chicken, came about. Bill Porter talked about two 1970 Trans Am show cars that were being built: a bright white one at Design Staff, and a racing blue one at Pontiac's prototype facility at Pontiac Engineering. Both of these cars were to receive the hood bird graphic -- a white one on the blue car and a blue one on the white car -- traditional racing colors without the traditional racing stripes. No one is sure who came up with the idea for the huge bird decal, but Ted remembers drawing it up and sending it to Design Staff's graphic department, where a graphic designer named Norm Inouye (pronounced In-o-way) laid out the actual artwork before sending it to 3M Corp. to produce the prototype decals.
Who was the Pontiac General Manager for Hood Bird?
Now came the tough part. Schinella knew the hood bird graphic was a winner but he had to sell it to management. At first, Pontiac General Manager James McDonald wasn't impressed with the hood bird presentation, but he agreed to go along with the Design Staff proposal if Mitchell was behind it.
What colors did the Trans Am come in?
In 1973, the Trans Am added two new colors to the Cameo White, Buccaneer Red and Brewster Green. Other exterior upgrades included the revised nosecone Firebird decal and the new, soon to be iconic, hood bird decal. This option (RPO WW7) was a pay extra $55 option exclusive to Trans Am. The "Trans Am" decals were slightly larger than previous versions, and shared the same color schemes as the hood decal.
What is the second generation Firebird?
The first year of the second generation Firebird began offering a wider array of model subtypes, and marked the appearance of the Firebird Esprit, and the Firebird Formula. The Firebird Esprit was offered as a luxury model that came with appearance options, the deluxe interior package and a Pontiac 350 as standard equipment. The Formula was advertised as a cost-effective alternative to the Trans Am, and could be ordered with all the options available to the Trans Am with the exception being the fender flares, shaker scoop and fender heat extractors.
What engine did the 1967 Firebird have?
The 1967 base model Firebird came equipped with the Pontiac 230 cu in (3.8 L) SOHC inline-six. Based on the architecture of the standard Chevrolet 230 cu in (3.8 L) inline-six, it was fitted with a one-barrel carburetor and rated at 165 hp (123 kW). The "Sprint" model six came with a four-barrel carburetor, developing 215 hp (160 kW).
How many horsepower did the 1970 Firebird have?
There were two Ram Air 400 cu in (6.6 L) engines for 1970: the 335 hp (250 kW) L74 Ram Air 400 (366 hp (273 kW) in GTO) and the 345 hp (257 kW) LS1 Ram Air IV (370 hp (280 kW) in GTO) that were carried over from 1969. The difference between the GTO and Firebird engines was that the secondary carburetor's throttle linkage had a restrictor which prevented the rear barrels from opening completely, adjusting the linkage could allow full carburetor operation resulting in identical engine performance.
What year did the Firebird have a slit taillight?
The Firebird's rear "slit" taillights were inspired by the 1966 –1967 Pontiac GTO. Both a two-door hardtop and a convertible were offered through the 1969 model year. Originally, the car was a "consolation prize" for Pontiac, which had desired to produce a two-seat sports car based on its original Banshee concept car.
Why was the 1970 Firebird delayed?
The second-generation debut for the 1970 model year was delayed until February 26, 1970, because of tooling and engineering problems; thus, its popular designation as a 1970½ model, while leftover 1969s were listed in early Pontiac literature without a model-year identification. This generation of Firebirds were available in coupe form only; after the 1969 model year, convertibles were not available until 1989.
When did the 1970 Pontiac Firebird come out?
Due to engineering problems that delayed the introduction of the new 1970 Firebird beyond the usual fall debut, Pontiac continued production of 1969 model Firebirds into the early months of the 1970 model year (the other 1970 Pontiac models had been introduced on September 18, 1969).
