The Pontiac Firebird was far from all-new for 1979, but as one of the fastest and most flamboyant cars available in a Malaise-ridden U.S. market, it didn’t take much to convince car magazine editors it was worth another look. In this short take from the October 1978 Motor Trend, editor Peter Frey weighs in on the latest developments to the popular Pontiac F-body coupe, a Formula with the hottest available powertrain, one which would not be available again.
Frey begins with a point that’s useful to remember about vintage magazine reviews:
The first time we saw the Firebird in its ’79 plumage was at the General Motors proving grounds. The occasion was what they call the “Press Long Leads,” where the companies display their new offerings. They show them to members of the magazine press about three months in advance of their introduction to the general public, because it takes this long to get the story written and get the magazine printed and out on the stands.
The 1979 Firebird was introduced on September 28, 1978, so if the long-lead press intro was three months before that, it was probably in mid-June or early July 1978. This is something that’s worth keeping in mind if you’re reading a vintage road test or new model preview that contains what seems to be a mistake, like describing an option that wasn’t actually available on a particular model. It’s not uncommon for there to be last-minute changes to equipment availability, engine tuning, or other details between the long-lead press event and the public model introduction.
In 1979, as in previous years, there were four versions of the Firebird: the base model, the Esprit, the Formula, and the Trans Am (for which Frey noted GM was still paying a per-car trademark licensing fee to the Sports Car Club of America). Motor Trend tested the Formula:
The Formula, which is the subject of our story, has been “recontented,” which means that standard features now include engine-turned instrument panel trim, rally gauges, Formula steering wheel, black reveal moldings on the windshield and backlight, and new black-appearance taillight panels. This panel looks dark when viewed from a few feet back but glows brightly when one of the lamps is activated. The effect is quite striking and produced favorable comment from everyone who saw it.
“Rally gages” were standard on the Formula, but if you wanted a tachometer, it would still cost you an extra $63. As for the new “beak”:
The major change in the car’s appearance is the new nose panel. It’s a soft nose, as it has been for the last couple of years, made of polyurethane that pops back into shape after it’s compressed. Lurking beneath is all the 5-mph bumper hardware. The nose has a kind of “snouty” look to it, projecting aggressively forward. In the leading edge are two rectangular “nostrils,” located horizontally, that serve as air intakes for the cooling system. Pontiac engineers say the new shape greatly increases downforce, and therefore stability, above 60 mph. The “angle of attack” of the nose has been laid back a bit, from about 16 degrees to about 22 degrees, producing a cleaner aerodynamic shape and lowering the drag coefficient. The improved aerodynamics have a beneficial effect on real-world gas mileage, but the new EPA testing routines have negated those gains as far as their official figures are concerned.
I’m a bit puzzled that Pontiac suggest that the new Firebird nose was added primarily for aerodynamic reasons — I guess they must have thought that would sound better to the buff books.
The new front end, which was developed in collaboration with the Davidson Rubber Company, was really a response to the latest (and ultimately final) iteration of the federal 5-mph bumper standard, 49 CFR 581.
This new standard, which took effect in two stages for 1979 and 1980, not only required that the bumpers protect against 5-mph impacts and 2.5-mph corner impacts, but also limited allowable damage to the bumpers themselves. With a “hard” bumper, this meant the gauge of the bumper face bar metal had to be increased to meet the dent resistance requirement, meaning more weight. A “soft” urethane bumper backed with contoured energy-absorbing foam would not dent, so it could meet the standard while remaining significantly lighter than a “hard” bumper. The 1979 Firebird front bumper was 15 lb lighter than in 1978, even with a steel (rather than aluminum) reinforcement beam, and it could meet both the 1979 and 1980 standards.
According to Davidson engineer Jerry Scrivo, the jutting chin, which in black immediately calls to mind Darth Vader’s mask from Star Wars, was designed so that the placement of energy absorbing material wouldn’t interfere with the air intake openings and so that the grilles themselves would not be damaged in impact testing.
By this time, power steering and front disc brakes had been standard on the Firebird for some time, and cars with V-8 engines and/or air conditioning also had power brakes. For 1979:
The major mechanical news for the new models of Formula and Trans Am is the availability of power-assisted 4-wheel disc brakes with semi-metallic pads in the front and high-grade organic pads in the rear. Instrumented tests produced stops from 60 mph in the 140-foot range. This figure isn’t quite as good as we were told to expect, but we did several stops in a row and the brakes showed no trace of fade. The rear wheels, however, did show a tendency to lock up under maximum braking, but we attribute this problem to the fact that our car was one of the first off the assembly line.
Four-wheel discs were part of the $434 WS6 package in 1979, but they were also available as a $150 standalone option. They were apparently more popular than Pontiac had anticipated, so there were supply shortages during the year.
In 1979, the Firebird offered a bewildering array of engines, including a Buick V-6, two Chevrolet V-8s, and an Oldsmobile V-8 as well as the Pontiac 301 and 400 V-8s. (The Pontiac Buyer’s Guide did carefully identify which engines were made by Pontiac and which were not.) The Motor Trend car had the hottest combination on offer:
Our Firebird Formula came equipped with the 400cid engine mated to a wide-ratio manual transmission, a combination that will be available in limited numbers on the Formula and Trans Am. Our car also had the optional 3.23:1 Positraction rear end, which caused a curious “ratchety” feeling when going around sharp, low-speed corners. At higher speeds, and when accelerating away from a standstill, it gave the car a very sure-footed feeling.
More than 92 percent of 1979 Firebird buyers chose Turbo Hydra-Matic, but a total of 14,577 cars had a four-speed manual.
Although well down on power compared to some of its hotter predecessors, the L78 400 was still a very muscular engine for 1979:
The engine produces 220 horsepower at 4000 rpm with a maximum torque of 320 pounds-feet at 2800 rpm. This combination produces a strong performer with quarter-mile times of 16.1 seconds at 83.1 mph. It’s easy to get flamboyant wheelspin coming off the line, but a little care reduces it to a single chirp and a rapid gathering of speed. The engine pulls strongly to redline, though it detonates a bit above 4500 rpm. The odometer showed only about 200 miles, so gradual increases in performance may be expected as the internals of the engine get to know each other better. Hopefully, time will also be the cure for the shift linkage. It’s a Hurst unit and is a hand-bruising brute to operate. It, too, was painfully new and will probably smooth out with use. An easy way to improve the shifting process would be to get rid of that shift knob with the hard, raised ribs that are supposed to look like stitching in leather but tend to wear a hole in the palm of your hand.
The 400 engine, a $370 option on the Formula, was by far the most powerful engine available on the Firebird in 1979 — the Oldsmobile 403 had only 185 net horsepower. The 9.1-second 0 to 60 mph time Motor Trend recorded was unimpressive, but they did say theirs was an early-production car, and perhaps not fully broken in. Car and Driver, testing a 1979 Trans Am with the same powertrain and a shaker hood, managed 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.3 seconds at 96.6 mph, going on to a redline-limited top speed of 124 mph, all very good for peak Malaise Era.
Motor Trend didn’t dwell on the subject of gas mileage, and F-body buyers likely didn’t care, but the 400 made for a very thirsty ‘Bird. The 1979 EPA ratings with this powertrain were 12/17/14; the 403 with automatic did a little better, with ratings of 14/19/16 (13/17/15 in California, where the 400 wasn’t available). Since the 400 would be dropped before the end of the model year, it ultimately didn’t make much difference.
The second-generation F-body handled well, at least on smooth pavement, with power steering that was both quick (2.4 turns lock-to-lock) and accurate. Formula and Trans Am models normally came with the “Rally” version of the Radial Tuned Suspension, but the top of the line in terms of handling was the WS6 option:
Our test car was equipped with the WS6 performance package which includes some different suspension pieces like larger anti-sway bars, harder bushings, recalibrated springs and shocks, and 8-inch-wide wheels. The tires, now standard on the Formula and Trans Am, are P225/70-15 radials, huge hunks of rubber that hug the road like they were in love. They do marvelous things for the round-the-bend handling but transmit considerable road feel back up through the seat of your pants. The WS6 package also includes an exhaust system that branches out into dual pipes after the catalytic converter. This has the effect of lowering the system back pressure, thereby increasing horsepower. It also helps produce a healthy-sounding exhaust note.
As Detroit moved to downsize, the F-bodies had begun to seem rather dinosaur-ish in size and weight. At 198.1 inches overall, the Firebird was only 5.9 inches shorter than the latest Cadillac Eldorado, and the Eldorado was only about 160 lb heavier:
Curb weight of this year’s Firebird is 3837 pounds, but it’s nicely distributed with 2002 pounds in front and 1653 in the rear. This translates to a 57/43% distribution and is a contributory factor in the car’s nearly neutral handling. At the limit, it goes into a nicely controllable, tail-out, 4-wheel drift. There is a minimum of body lean, and the cornering g’s are impressive, especially in so big a vehicle. Some caution must be exercised, however; the car feels so nimble and the power steering is so light and precise, the temptation is to pitch it into a corner, forgetting for the moment the amounts of kinetic energy involved. The car is best driven as smoothly as possible.
Even for Motor Trend, calling a RWD car with 57/43 weight distribution “nicely distributed” seems a stretch. However, in terms of cornering power, the WS6 performance package definitely put the Firebird into the first rank, despite its size.
Although there were no factory convertible versions of the second-generation Camaro/Firebird, almost one-third (32.64 percent) of 1979 Firebird buyers ordered the T-top roof, a hefty $655 option. (Pontiac actually called it a “removable hatch roof,” but I think even people who bought one would have scratched their heads at that.)
Motor Trend had mixed feelings about the roof:
One of the major options on our test car was the removable T-top. The glass panels are black-glass and can be stowed in the trunk when not in use. The open-air effect with the panels removed simulate the feeling you’d get from a true convertible. The panels look nice when in place, but on a hot, sunny day they bathe you in a rectangular column of heat. A neat solution to this might be to use mirror glass, which is available in either silver or gold, each of which is quite striking in appearance.
I’m not sure how well that solution would have gone over with bystanders being dazzled and blinded by the reflections, but poor solar control is a persistent problem with many types of transparent or translucent roof panels. Wind in the hair may be nice, sometimes, but the midday sun glaring down on you with no respite gets old in a hurry, in my view.
Motor Trend liked the interior, although they didn’t think the upholstery of their test car was very attractive. (They had Hobnail cloth upholstery rather than the black vinyl of the cars in the color photos.) Their test car had air conditioning, which was installed on about 85 percent of Firebirds, listing for $529.
The fairly small-diameter steering wheel has a nice racey feel to it and yet allows an unobstructed view of the instruments in front of the driver. All operating controls are nearby, and this year they’ve moved control of the high/low beams up to the steering column. All it requires is a fore-aft flick of the turn signal stalk. One minor irritation is that the transmission has to be in reverse, with the clutch depressed, to start the car, a cumbersome process.
I’ve always had manual-shift cars and they’ve all needed to have the clutch disengaged to start the engine (a sensible precaution even where there’s no interlock requiring it), but having to remember to shift to reverse first would be obnoxious, and I’m sure it would lead to some embarrassing moments in parking lots.
That is pretty much the extent of the changes in the ’79 Firebird. The car looks different (judgments as to whether the difference is good or bad must rest with the individual, and some controversy is certain), but they have retained the essential flavor of what has made the car, in its various forms, one of the hottest sellers on the performance market. Firebird sales took off in 1975 and have been accelerating ever since. This year’s production is expected to be in excess of 186,000 units, and two new assembly lines have been started up to cope with the demand.
Firebird production for the 1979 model year was 211,454, up from 187,285. However, calendar year retail sales actually fell from 188,212 in 1978 to 149,211, due in part to the second oil crisis that followed the Iranian revolution in early 1979.
In trying to find color photos for this post, I noticed that the 1979 Trans Am seemed much more common today than the Formula. Looking at the production figures, I found that was no coincidence: The Trans Am accounted for well over half of all 1979 Firebird sales, and it outsold the Formula by almost 5 to 1, despite costing about $300 more. (Contrary to legend, not EVERY Trans Am had the infamous screaming chicken hood decal — it was a $95 option except on the Special Edition — but it seems to have been very common, and some cars that didn’t have it originally may have acquired the decals later.)
Motor Trend didn’t have prices for their test car, but Standard Catalog of American Cars 1976–1999 lists the base price of a six-cylinder Firebird at the start of the model year as $4,825, with the Firebird Formula starting at $6,018; by March 1979, Automotive News indicates that those prices had risen to $4,936 and $6,204 respectively. With its 400 engine, WS6 package, air conditioning, T-top roof, and assortment of miscellaneous options, I think the Motor Trend car would probably have stickered for around $9,000. The black Formula in the color photos, which has the 400 engine, 4-speed, WS6 package, and air conditioning, but not the pricey T-top, had an original list price of $8,564.55, a relative worth of about $43,000 in 2025 dollars.
That wasn’t what you’d call a bargain price in 1979, but its inflation-adjusted modern value is roughly what a nice 1979 Firebird goes for today — the black Formula in the color photos sold for $36,800 in 2021, while the black Trans Am sold for $31,000 a year later. So, for buyers who held onto them, the Firebird ended up being a decent value in the long run, about the last thing most contemporary observers would have assumed. Even with the less-fuelish engines, these were impractical, image-conscious cars, but they still looked good and they still offered a fair degree of ’60s-style muscle car swagger, with above-average handling and braking power, at least as long as the road was dry and reasonably smooth.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1979 to 1981 Pontiac Trans Am – Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em (by Jason Shafer)
In-Motion Classic: 1979 Pontiac Firebird – Moves Like Rockford (by Joseph Dennis)
In Motion Classic: 1977 Pontiac Firebird Formula – Summer Has Come And Gone (by Joseph Dennis)
1979 Chevrolet Camaro: The Best-Selling Camaro In Its Second-Worst Color (by me)
The 400 Pontiac engines were actually leftover from 1978 and when they ran out in the fall of ’78 than you had to get the 403 Oldsmobile for the rest of the model year.
These were single exhaust with single catalytic converter cars. The undercarriage shot above has an aftermarket dual exhaust. The converter was located under the passengers footwell so the floorpan was shallower.
Thanks, I added a clarification to the photo caption.
March 1979 I walked into a Pontiac dealership with my girlfriend looking for a Firebird. Lowest priced ones on their lot were $8000 for nicely equipped Esprit’s with V8’s. Trans-Am’s were over $10K. I discussed with the salesman that $8000 was about $2000 more than I could afford, he said ‘lets order you one”. Base price was less that $5000 so I would have to be frugal. Base engine V6, base transmission 3 speed manual. I selected Nocturne Blue and oyster interior. Now for the options. Rear spoiler, Rally II body colored wheels, white letter tires, AM-FM 8-track tape player and a few small items like light group and a vanity mirror for the girlfriend. Price comes up UNDER $6000 and I’m feeling proud of myself. It would be a SLOW Firebird, but it would look great! My girlfriend looked the list over and said, “What about A/C?” All of my previous cars had no a/c, but since my girlfriend was a keeper, I inquired about the cost to add a/c to the car. Salesman said $550 and requires power brakes for an additional $70. Wait, that over 10% of the base price! My girlfriend didn’t flinch and said, “if you want to continue dating me, you will get A/C.” Final price with “mandatory options” was just over $6200. So, I ordered the Firebird and we continued dating and eventually got married and still are to this day. Best $620 I have ever spent!
Great story! And a highly unusually equipped Firebird.
Swell auto for the times (considering what else was available).
I’ll take the 78 for looks EVERY day of the week. Front and Rear just look better (bumpers/aerodynamics be damned).
Around 1987 I did own a Black 78 Firebird, 350/ auto. Same time, I dated a girl with a Gold 78 Trans am w 6.6 auto. Not sure if it was the Olds 403, but it was not what I’d call fast. But I sure looked good drivin it. 😉
Relationship lasted about 2 months. My next Girlfriend crashed my Firebird into a telephone pole. Maybe I shoulda stuck with the Trans am Girl..
The first car I ever rented (personally) was a base-model 1979 Firebird. I was on a post-high school graduation cross country expedition. I rented this (improbably as an 18 year old…it took some maneuvering and pre-planning) in Denver and spent a full week driving around the four corners states and on up into Montana and Wyoming. I had a blast and the car itself was fine. No doubt some of my positive feelings about the car came from the fact that 99% of my driving time prior to that had been spent in a Fiat 128. So, a V6 with air conditioning was quite something.
I should note that I had no idea that Avis would give me a Firebird (I probably expected a Chevette or something), but the Firebird it was. Thereby starting a lifetime of rental car surprises.
I wrote about this in my COAL years ago, but in February of 1981 I drove my troublesome VW Scirocco to a local auto parts store to buy a water pump for my otherwise reliable Ford Fiesta. Across the street at the Pontiac dealership I spotted a maroon TransAm. Even from that distance I noticed two things: it had the wide alloy wheels, indicating that it was equipped with the WS6 package, and it did NOT have the screaming chicken hood decal. Walking across the road with my water pump in hand, I then saw that the hood “scoop” had 5.0 on the side, meaning it was the California-only 4 speed with a 305 Chevy engine. And no T-tops! An hour later the Scirocco was traded in and I was the owner of my first new car, first V8, and first (non-family) car loan. Also first A/C, first power steering,
My memories are a little different than this test; I don’t recall having to start in reverse, though after nearly 45 years I might be mistaken. And I don’t recall any chatter from the Positraction, and I thought the shifting was fine … it definitely had an American feel, like my Vega and not VW or Fiesta light (nor as sloppy). The smooth road handling was very balanced; I suspect the SBC was lighter than the 400 in this test car, and the lack of body roll with the WS6 suspension was amazing. The 4 wheel discs seemed very powerful for the time, and the laughably small by today’s standards 225/70 tires gripped quite well wet or dry. But overall, the car didn’t really fit my lifestyle and I traded it in at a huge loss for a new Civic less than a year later. Thanks for publishing this Aaron, and as always stirring up some mostly fond memories of a car from my past.
Along with the C3 Corvette, the 2nd generation F-bodies used the same body for over a decade. This was previously unheard of in terms of GM passenger cars.
I was 16 in 1980, just about to get my license. I imagine that Pontiac wanted me and my friends to be drooling over a Trans Am, but we saw it as old and outdated. Even though the new Fox-body Mustang and Capri couldn’t hold a performance candle to this Trans Am, owing to the wimpy 255ci V-8 that Ford used, the Fox-body was held in much higher esteem by my friend group, because it was fresh and modern, not stale like the F-bodies.
I concur the stock shift knob on those were bad for quick shifting, with many replacing them with a ball type or the “T” handle, with a bit of angle to it.
83 mph sounds low, most were 91-93 mph cars in stock form, but they were exhaling through a single pellet style converter…the next thing to having a potato lodged in the exhaust…dual outlets nothwithstanding.
They really did make a valiant effort in making that engine run as good as it did for the era. The camshaft grind was very close to to that of the old “067” cam ( the one used mostly in the standard/base GTO engines of even the high compression era ) but they used basically 350 heads of the era, which did raise the compression from an abysmal 7.6:1 to 8:1, but they didn’t breathe as well due to the smaller valves.
I have to suspect whoever the specific designer was who penned this front end also penned the similarly sloped and similarly polarizing REAR bumper cover for the 74-79 Corvette. The aerodynamic explanation is mentally plausible until you think about what those wide quad headlight recesses that take up 2/3rds of it must be doing to the air! I do like the full width black out taillights though, that’s the one improvement I think there was over the 78.
The Formula is an interesting submodel, by now the Trans Am completely overshadowed it, and maybe always did(I’d be curious to see the breakdown for the 70-73s), but the Formula was in essence the successor to the first generation Firebird 400 models where the Trans Am was the homologation model for the series it was named from. Same thing happened with the z/28 effectively usurping the SS but the Formula inexplicably stuck around to the end of this generation where the Camaro SS quickly and unceremoniously dropped.
It’s also of note that though the Trans Am was the big seller of all Firebirds by the end of this generation, the Trans Am of the third generation had a lot more second gen Formula cues and details, much cleaned up from the bandit era trans and with just lower body stripes just like these late second gen formulas
I seem to be amongst the few people here who never had a gf that drove a Firebird; indeed I knew only one woman who drove a Firebird and it was a lime-metallic-green Esprit (which I believe was aimed at female buyers, especially the Redbird/Yellowbird/Skybird trims.
I prefer the ’77-78 front clip, but the ’79-80 taillights.