1975 Pontiac Firebird - True Survivor - All Original - No Rust

The Esprit was marketed as a girls car and therefore came in these nice pastel shades. My wife's was white and a friend's mom's was a light beige. Her's was a 400 and my wife's was a 350. My FIL bought my wife the car the day she passed her driving test, she was 18 as was I. Those blue Pontiac engines were full of torque, wasted on my wife, then girlfriend but when I got a hold of it the burnouts without use of brakes were pretty insane. I seem to recall the 400 being rated at 170 HP and the 350 at 155HP. I never really believed those NET HP numbers as the car could easily bury the speedo and show what looked like 140 MPH on the dial.

73SC wrote:

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65Camino wrote:

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Friends wife had a 78 BlueBird edition. Pastel blue inside, out.
Remember these and and the Red Birds.

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 Yup, the Esprits were real girly, thats why I find it so odd that the saleman recommended the Esprit to your Wanted a Trans Am owner Todd. 

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 You keep saying that, yet from Pontiac literature it appears that the Esprit model was the 'luxury' model of Firebird.  By the mid 1970s, the muscle car era was all but dead due to insurance, the US fuel crises, and just a change in fads and tastes, and "personal luxury" cars were in.  This brought us opera windows, padded vinyl tops, pillowtop seat upholstery, etc.  You probably remember the disco era?

As far as the colour of the car in the ad goes, I seem to recall GMs of all body ranges being offered with that light blue.  I don't think it was just an Esprit colour.  Non-metallic blues, beiges, etc. were popular in the 1970s, even though they aren't my personal favourites.  Arctic Blue, from the look of things... https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?manuf=GM&model=Pontiac&year=1975

Here's a full size wagon in that hue:  https://www.mecum.com/lots/SC0512-125577/1975-pontiac-catalina-safari-wagon/

Is this a 'manly' Firebird Formula in that 'girly' baby blue.  Hmmm...

But yeah, I agree with pontorquer - Todd's car was way cooler.  Yet at the same time, the originality of the seller's car, combined with the 400, makes it an interesting artifact of the era and significant in that it wasn't hot rodded or turned into a T/A or Formula "tribute".  Of course, that's just my opinion...

It was the 1970s after all.  The US carmakers were struggling with fuel economy and emissions standards, and they had become comfortable selling cars that were too large and too heavy while the market was changing.  The gas crises put them even further behind which opened the door for the foreign brands to march in and sell cars that people were wanting to buy.  It lead to the situation where most of the American brands wouldn't even exist today had it not been for government bail out money, and now the foreign brands have a strong foothold on the market - they are even building cars here now.

The US brands were playing catch-up to the new requirement of having to have catalytic converters installed, and were trying to help fuel economy by lowering the final drive ratios to make engines run at lower rpms.  So... yeah... even GM's sporty "muscle" cars were slow, compared to the muscle cars of just half a decade before, by the mid 1970s... no surprise there.  Yet you, yourself just said you could burn the tires off of the 400 Esprit... so they couldn't have been that doggy, but compared to the sixties they were.

I wonder how many Esprits had 400s in them - any data?

the Esprit model was moreover marketed as the 'secretaries car';

This was essentially how most mustangs were marketed (the bulk of thier buyers were supposedly women).

The Esprit was a luxurious version of the base model - not intended to be a performance car per-say, but a sport 'grand touring' car.

I am pretty sure the 400(2bb) was dropped from the Esprit option list for 1975;

So yes, other than the early Esprit 400(2bbl) option, the 400 was a Formula/TA only thing.

A true "survivor" car would be unmodified - so I don't know if that one really qualifies.

As to the pastel colours assertion, that is bunk.  

The Esprit model could have been ordered in any colour that a base or Formula could have (the TA was very limited in colours early on).

The only exception to the norm for the Esprit model were the three different packages which were based on a 1976 show car which was was well received;

(this is all going off of memory)

1) 1977-1978 "Skybird"; a light blue car with colour matched wheels and interior compkete with a blue tinted "Trans Am" style aluminum dash insert (this was the first car that could have a 'Formula' wheel in colour (blue) - they were previously only black.

2) 1978-1979 "Redbird; red pain with gold pinstriping, gold dash insert, red wheels, and red interior.

3) 1980 "Yellowbird"; essentially the sane as the Redbird, except red paint being replaced with yellow, and the interior was tan to play off of the gold.

unruhjonny wrote:

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the Esprit model was moreover marketed as the 'secretaries car';

This was essentially how most mustangs were marketed (the bulk of thier buyers were supposedly women).

The Esprit was a luxurious version of the base model - not intended to be a performance car per-say, but a sport 'grand touring' car.

I am pretty sure the 400(2bb) was dropped from the Esprit option list for 1975;

So yes, other than the early Esprit 400(2bbl) option, the 400 was a Formula/TA only thing.

A true "survivor" car would be unmodified - so I don't know if that one really qualifies.

 

As to the pastel colours assertion, that is bunk.  

The Esprit model could have been ordered in any colour that a base or Formula could have (the TA was very limited in colours early on).

The only exception to the norm for the Esprit model were the three different packages which were based on a 1976 show car which was was well received;

(this is all going off of memory)

1) 1977-1978 "Skybird"; a light blue car with colour matched wheels and interior compkete with a blue tinted "Trans Am" style aluminum dash insert (this was the first car that could have a 'Formula' wheel in colour (blue) - they were previously only black.

2) 1978-1979 "Redbird; red pain with gold pinstriping, gold dash insert, red wheels, and red interior.

3) 1980 "Yellowbird"; essentially the sane as the Redbird, except red paint being replaced with yellow, and the interior was tan to play off of the gold.

-- Edited by unruhjonny on Friday 30th of July 2021 11:34:10 PM

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 Great info.  As far as the 400 goes, I only copy/pasted from the ad, because I thought Poncho members would find it interesting (who knew it would drum up controversy??).  Either the engine is not original, or it's actually a 350 and the seller doesn't know the difference, or the seller does know the difference but is being disingenuous.  Another possibility is that it was an early production car with a carryover drivetrain that slipped through?  A COPO car?  Dunno.

I did find it interesting browsing through some online brochures that the 400 4bbl was available on the 1976 Esprit.  http://oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Pontiac-Firebird/1976-Pontiac-Firebird/1976-Pontiac-Firebird-Brochure/slides/1976_Pontiac_Firebird-05.html  I've never really looked into these cars in detail, though I remember when my father sold them new.