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| 1975 Pontiac Firebird Esprit | Back: rv3
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Performance:
0-60: approx 9.5 sec
1/4 mile: approx 16.5 sec
Top Speed: ~123 mph, ~198 km/h
When and how much:
$300, Spring of 1991 - Spring
of 1992.
Stories:
There was something wrong with this
car. In 7000 miles, I went through about 10 back tires. :)
The pictures don't show it, but this
thing was a real bondo wagon - it wasn't even a "50" car, more like a "100"
car. (100 feet away at 100 mph it looked good.)
The Pontiac 350 has always played
"second fiddle" to the 400, and they aren't usually hopped up. They
have a very small bore, and this one would rev to 5 grand, I suspect the
torque curve fell like a rock around 4200 rpm. As can be seen in
the pictures, it had tons of that good-ole Pontiac tire melting torque
and a great midrange.
It was quick off the line, and even
with 2:56 gears it could get rubber into second - not bad for a 16 year
old "beater" Firebird with a teeny little 2 barrel carb.
For top speed, I'm declining to say
how I know, but it did pull to 4000+ rpm in high gear more than once.
'twas a fun car, but finances, school,
parking and rust forced me to get rid of it. The good news comes
in the later Rolling Violations - the Firebird is back, this time to stay.
More pictures: (click 'em for bigger versions)
In
this one, you'll notice the ugly whitewalls and the lack of a complete
nose.
You
can see some of the bondo cracks in the door... and quarter panels with
rubber goo on them.
Pictures of other 70's Firebirds:
(unless otherwise noted, these are from the alt.binaries.pictures.autos
newsgroup, and likely come from a fellow named Max. I believe his email
is MagisterMax at telus.net, but he'd most likely be found uploading cool
pics to the newsgroup.)
A nice 1970 TA.
A gorgeous red 73 TA. Might be a Super Duty. Love the chicken.
A green 74 Firebird Formula Super Duty.
Another 75 TA (this one is small)
(credit: canada.trader.com)
A
nice series of a 75 TA. This is a BIG page, so it may take some time
to load all the images.
Once again - if these are your pics, or your car, please
email
me and I'll make sure you get credit or link to your original picture.
Links:
www.f-body.org, they
have a bunch of links and FAQs for F-bodies. (Camaros and Firebirds)
.
mailing
lists: f-body classic
newsgroup: alt.autos.camaro.firebird
Credits:
My good buddy Jason took the burnout photos, then helped
me change the tire after.
Notes:
For those who don't know, there
was a 350 Cubic Inch Pontiac V8, not just Chevy small blocks in Firebirds.
It's also been referred to as a "big block 350" or "blue block" (which
refers to the color of the paint.) The confusion was even more prevalent
in Canada, as GM had long since used Chevy engines in Pontiacs since the
60's. Something like a 396
Super Duty Beaumont is unique to Canada. If you're still confused,
a 350 Pontiac has a Bore and stroke of 3.8762" and 3.75". A 400 Pontiac
has a bore of 4.120" and a stroke of 3.750". The "classic" 350 Chevy
was 4.00" x 3.48". In other words, the 350 Pontiac has about as much
in common with a Chevy 350 as it does with a Ford 351.
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