It was the mid 1980s and I was in High School and working at a gas station. We sold only gasoline; there were absolutely no food or drinks of any kind for sale. Our inventory consisted of metal oil cans, and various other automotive fluids. If a customer pulled up at the full-serve island, I would go out and gas up their car, clean their windshield, and check fluids and tire pressure if they asked. We had four bays and two mechanics. The owner of the establishment was always pushing us to sell tires, specifically Uniroyal tires.
My friend Eddie was jealous of my job until he got a job as a porter at the Ford Dealer in town. Ed was a car nut and was hoping the auto body repair and refurbishing class we were taking in high school would eventually lead to a decent job in the field.
One morning at school he tracked me down. “You’ve got to come take a look at what we took in on trade yesterday!” He was not usually animated and full of energy like this. “Someone traded in a Firebird on a five point oh”. Most of us liked the 5.0 Mustangs, but who could afford an $8,000 or $9,000 car? The Pontiac was going to be wholesaled and the used car manager just wanted it gone. The price was rock-bottom.
For 1972 Pontiac had a lot going on in the Firebird lineup. Besides the base model Firebird and the high end Trans Am, they offered an in-between model. The easiest way of spotting the Formula was seeing the two fake scoops at the leading edge of the hood. 
Later, Pontiac would offer another variant, the Firebird Esprit.
The auto trivia buffs know Pontiac also offered a Sunbird Formula later in the 70s.
Under all the dirt, there was white paint. The car had a 400 and a four speed. By this time the car was nearly 15 years old and was no longer stock. It reeked of cigarette smoke. It had a Holley four barrel on an aluminum intake and rusty long tube headers.
Someone had also added Cragar SS wheels, wide in the back, and narrow in the front.
We cooked the clutch soon after trying to do burnouts. I didn’t know enough about RPO codes back then to check what gear ratio the differential came with from the factory, but the car would do something like 60 in first gear; or so it seemed, anyway. It shook so badly at the top of second gear it felt like we were going 200 miles per hour. We were probably going about half that.
The F bodies were redesigned for the 1970 model year, but production was screwed up because of a UAW strike. Interestingly, there were two 1970 Camaros, the carry-over body from 69 and the newer, revised one. I’m not sure if Pontiac had the same chaos. The Firebird’s styling was basically unchanged from 1970 ½ through 1973. Remember this was the era of the new 5 mph bumper so there were lots of styling changes to incorporate the new federal mandates.
Another change was that the 1975 F bodies had a revised and larger rear window. This backlight stayed with the car through the end of the model run in 1981.
I didn’t keep the car long. I reluctantly sold it to an older kid at school who was confident he could replace the clutch and pressure plate. If I remember, I broke even financially. I’ve bought and sold many cars, but this Formula was my first flip.
A friend had the same model with T-tops in the mid 80s. Threw a rod holed the original 400. We took it to the Ft. Harrison auto craft shop. Thanks to the wide interchangeability of Poncho engines, we found a good 72 model 455 from a wrecked wagon. Low enough compression to run regular unleaded, but still 1 year before the 73 changes totally snuffed what was left of the power output. We used the 455 as a short block & most of the other stuff from the 400. I don’t recall this as a tough swap, but can’t remember all the details. What I do remember is that when we got it done, the torque from the 455 let us do some awesome burn outs when testing out the swap. I had never driven the car with the original 400, but my friend assured me the 455 was a lot better. Knowing how he beat cars, I suspect the 400 was pretty tired when it coughed up the rod so it probably wasn’t a fair comparison. But who cares about fair when you’re young & on a wrecking yard budget.
I love the Early 70’s Firebirds, they, like their Mid 60’s counterparts had a Euro-style and panache that Camaro only aspired to. Interestingly, they experimented on Firebird in Canada, putting a Turbo Diesel engine into the ’77 Model to compete with Mercedes and Nissan. (it didn’t work!) and an all-weather version with the transitional models… Me I’d like the 1971 Coupe, and the 1977 Blue ‘Bird. They used a version of that with the ’84 Canadian Firebirds, and for one year (Sigh!). I think that they should’ve kept Firebird going, it was the Pride of Pontiac, and we’re all the more poorer for it.
What was the “all weather” version? What made it all weather?
It was a special model pushed by the Pontiac dealers in the Maritimes and Quebec to counter the Chrysler Laser and VW Scirocco/Quantum Synchro Wagon. It had an Cold-weather heater, rustproofing in the Wheel wells and Koni shocks. Mostly Firebird and Sunbird/J-2000/Astre had this special option. For $4100 CDN, you could adorn your ‘Bird with a Ski rack, and Yokohama F-7 snow tyres. They were common in Suburban Montreal and Ottawa.
I always had a thing for the Formula models with the original 70-73 design, those scoops were fairly obnoxious by themselves, yet with the original nose actually look very clean and flow well with the grill and teardrop shaped body profile, far better frankly than the faring clad Trans Ams. Those scoops looked incredibly out of place with the blocker 74-76 noses however.
In terms of model positioning, the Formula was essentially a new name for the former Firebird 400 package before the Trans Am debuted. More or less the equivelant of the regular GTO in between the Lemans and The Judge.
For those who yearn for a new/near new Firebird, there is/or was a company in Florida that was “converting” Camaros into Firebirds. I was walking through a car museum in Tallahassee when I spotted 2 or 3 of these “usedtobe” Camaros. The cars are quite good looking. (Just not sure when, or if production ended.)
In the mid 70s I was looking for a new to me car. One car I looked at was a Formula 350 Firebird. It was about 5 years old, but looked at least 10 years old…it was pretty tired. It was the same medium metallic blue as one of the cars pictured here. I didn’t buy one of these Firebirds when they were new, as they were just out of reach on my budget, but if I could find a nice one now it would be an early 70s Espirit, with a vinyl roof.
BTW, I thought Formula Firebirds, at least the 400 inch ones, had a Ram Air option at some point that made the scoops vaguely functional?
Howard Kerr “Cambirds”
Here is the website for one of the companies that does this:
http://www.transamflorida.com/hurst%20TA.htm
The whole concept of these falls apart from the doors back IMO, nothing about the 5th gen body remotely resembles a 2nd gen, and what starts as a fairly ok front end execution, every foot further back it just looks more and more contrived.
On reading I thought “Right ..ok” but they do a nice job just like GM would have done if they kept the Pontiac badge. Park up and watch all the car nuts heads
turn,stop and double take..What?.
Why anyone do this? There are Camaro lovers and there are Firebird lovers. From my understanding, a Camaro is worth more than a comparable Firebird. So after the conversion, you have an expensive Frankenstein that few would want.
Personally, I prefer the Firebird…and the Formula 400 is almost perfect! I, too, find the hood scoops somewhat garish on an otherwise beautiful automobile.
I miss Pontiac too… There was talk of making Pontiac a “Canada-only” brand like Holden is/was in Australia. But seeing that they utilised Opel/Vauxhall componentry, and the fact that GM NO LONGER has Opel and Peugeot/Citroen does, puts that In doubt. Canadians and Australians are a shrewd lot, and they’d balk at seeing a dressed-up Chevy. Even though Barinas and Commodores were G8’s/GTO’s/Fireflies-Acadians, Pontiac and Holden would have to be a special case to convince the GM Higher ups that it could be done.
check your history my friend. we Canadians had Pontiac bodies with Chevrolet drivelines until the 70’s. so we got Pontiac style for much less cost than our good neighbours to the south.
I think yes, that was pretty shrewd ! 😉
These were pretty hot rides back in their day. I really thought Pontiac had a cool machine here. All models suffered greatly due to the pounding of the chassis on maritime roads. Potholes, patches, misaligned roadways, and frost heaves made ALL 5 year old cars aged to 10 years… or more. Even at 5 years, the doors would be sagging off their hinges, windows rattled constantly (like an empty can of rattle can spray)…any one remember having to smack the door pin holder down lower with a hammer, just so the door would close with out having to throw out your shoulder just closing it? Well, at least the chicks loved riding in them! LOL
Who made the plain style Firebirds famous?
Jim rockford
Ponch from Chips had a brown Firebird as well.
For those of you who are into Camaro/Firebird/Trans Am, there is a specialist dealer in Edmonton that seems to have an endless supply of all years of these cars. Here is a link to them: http://www.davidt.com/
Warning to all those open shirted,hairy chested buyers, dripping in aftershave..You are not welcome due to Daves medical needs!. Best get Mom to look at the cars..
See warning notice on his web site.
The vents on the leading edge of the hood are not fake.. they are, in fact, “Ram Air”. There is a foam seal on top of the air cleaner that seals it to the hood.
Source: The 72 Formula 400 in the backyard
Best friend in high school had a 72 Formula in 91. Maaco black paint job. Decent enough. Fast as stink. He sold it without giving me a chance to buy it, putting the money towards a Geo Tracker. Sad.