Photos from the Cohort by Slant Six.
Here’s a faded memory of my childhood turned into real metal. A late ’60s pony car, via Pontiac, set up more or less with the “hot stance” popular in the ’60s-’70s. The kind of Street Machine I would have loved to have stamped on a shirt back then, in colorful illustration, with a Hot Wheels (a Firebird one, of course!) in my hands. So here’s a big cool toy, for the kid in all of us.
This particular one was found by CC contributor Slant Six –I would presume in Pennsylvania, as most of his finds tend to be. No plates on this one though… a recent restoration ready to terrorize pound the streets again?
Paul and a few others have had their take on the Firebirds of this era (links below), so I’ll abstain from adding much. I was, at the time these were around, more of a Camaro fanboy (or tried to be, as I explained some time ago).
Not that I minded Firebirds, as the model offered enough of its own spin on the F-body.
Here’s the very mod-60s interior, with some added instruments. But all in keeping with the period look; menacing, yet not too overdone.
That tranny looks to be original, but as most can safely assume, the car has been tweaked beyond the looks.
Large engines are never bashful. And large engine swaps much less… And the 428 seems to be a popular swap for this generation if I go by Paul’s previous post. No ’67-’70 Firebird left the factory with a 428cid, as the 400 was the largest available at the time. So a Catalina or Bonneville mill? As it seems to be the custom for customizing these?
The discs upfront seem to benefit from some enhancements… If so, the kind of updates to make the car more liveable today.
If for some reason all this Firebird and Street Machine talk is way too petrolhead for you, the same house has some nice vintage bikes on the lawn. Those from the age when bike riding was a leisurely thing, not a sport. As I remember it to be from my childhood. However, the bikes seem to be in need of restoration too.
As sports-oriented as bike riding has gotten, I don’t mind the idea of the leisurely type I used to do around residential streets when I was a kid. And I also enjoy these old hot cars from the ’60s, as impractical as they may be for daily life. So every once in a while is nice to see such childhood toys appear again, and better yet, all bunched up in the same driveway.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1967 Pontiac Firebird Convertible – Dig That Aqua Paint!
Curbside Classic Capsule: 1967 Firebird “428” Convertible – Truth In Badge Engineering
This is my favorite look on old muscle cars, and such a refreshing sight compared to the (over)restored cars on dog dishes and reproduction redlines and the modern pro touring look with zero ground clearance and rubber band tires that ride terrible, and not to mention the donk look with excessive ground clearance and rubber band tires that ride terrible. This is juuust right. Add some much needed radial tread to what originally had skinny bias plies to handle the cars weight and that big 428s torque, throw in some air shocks so they don’t rub the fenders and drive it like you stole it. Works for me. I basically reconfigured my Cougar for this 70s street machine look had it remained fashionable in the 90s
I also love this generation Firebird. It looks like a Camaro if the designers actually styled the front end
My tribute to this style
Very nice! Glad to see your car again, and looking so good. Just right.
I usually prefer the TBird roofline but the white with black trim, wheels and stance look good with the Cougar. Nice. I like the Cougar better than I would have liked the Firebird 40 years ago.
I applaud this owner for choosing appropriate wheels and tires. Theses cars look right with big bulging tires and wrong with huge wheels and rubber band tires. I’d give this driveways space, although my F body tastes run more toward the third gen turbo Trans Am with a blown 3800
Beautiful bird, it’s quite restrained but the stance, wheels and paint job are doing a good job of making the most out of a stock Firebird body. This is the most common style here in Holland, I often see similar cars at shows and on the streets.
I’d like to do the same with my all original Zephyr Z7 but I don’t think I could restrain myself from going too far.
A friend of mine had an Avocado green Firebird with pretty similar wheels and even the wheel spacing, with a 326. I greatly preferred the same era Camaro, but the ‘Bird was an acceptable substitute. Other than rusting pretty damn quickly, even for a car of that era, it was pretty much trouble free. He had it until about 1980, when the rust got to the point the place he took it to for a U-joint replacement showed him how bad the rust was and it was time to say goodbye. He replaced it with an ’81 Camaro, which he had until the late ’90’s, and then he bought a 99(I think) Trans Am, which he wrecked one night going way too fast in a drizzle. His wife decided that was it for “crazy cars” and he ended up with a Chevy Blazer. When his wife passed away a couple of years ago, it was Challenger Scat Pack time, in the (IMHO) awful F8 Green. He loves it.
This 68 Firebirds front end, rear end, and particularly the brake lights are very refined. One could take and put them on almost any European exotic car of the time and they would look equally as good if not better. Here is a Firebird vs Camaro side by side comparison. While both designs are great the Firebird communicates more with with less in my eyes.
Great find!
I see you’re comparing the ’67-’68 Firebird with a ’69 Camaro. Unfortunately, the ’69 Firebird front end was not as good, at least in my opinion. But yes, the original was quite nice.
That’s what I was thinking. 69 gave the Camaro more character, 69 took the firebird’s away. I don’t hate the restyle but it looks like a half baked preview of the 70 GTO nose. 67-68 is very pretty to me
Curious to me was the way those single headlamps were placed on the non-hideaway headlight versions of 1969 Camaros…so basic. They way they were seemingly wedged into the decreasing height of the grille as it tapered outboard. I remember joking with my fellow gearheads back then how they probably didn’t even need to use any hardware to mount the headlights: just had to tap them outboard with a mallet to wedge them in to position. The hideaway door equipped versions looked so much better to my eyes then, and still do today.
I think the RS hideaway headlights on the 67-68s were the way to go for sure, 69 I find them with those 3 transparent segments a little busy/goofy looking. I’m not entirely a fan of the standard 69 grille/headlight treatment but it’s a lot cleaner in my opinion. I guess that’s the beauty of options.