

It is almost a car of bigger than contemporary life dimensions. That is a rare quality these days, especially in a car which has the one-dimensional appearance of a Super Car, but which less ostentatiously has incorporated the subtle improvements that have traditionally sold high performance sport cars.
FIREBIRD TRANS AM CODE
Simply check that option code on the order blank, and your Firebird will bristle with under-hood muscle. It proves that once again, blindingly fast acceleration can be yours right off the assembly line. The event was easily on a par with Don Garlits' recent five-second runs in a fuel-burning dragster. There was no cheering throng in the shut-off area, not a single pat on the hoodscoop for the over-achiever 1973 Trans Am. curb weight), street tires and, wait for it.
FIREBIRD TRANS AM FULL
And it was done in a street legal car-a 1973 street legal car-with a full tank of gas (3854 lb. That, in fact, is outrageously fast even within a five-year-old frame of reference. On the seventh of February, 1973, our test Firebird Trans Am SD-455 swept through the quarter-mile at Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, California in an elapsed time of 13.751 seconds and at a terminal speed of 103.56 mph. We've checked with our lawyers, and they say it's okay to tell you. And no fair looking ahead to the specifications page. When that era of unconcerned euphoria is locked in, sit back and get yourself comfortable to savor this progression of "performance" as determined in 1320 feet. Think of the Street Hemis, the L88s, the Boss 429s. You must reach a plateau of concentration where the machinery is even swifter. Let your concentration wander over the truly fast cars of today, the 454 Corvettes, 911 Porsches, Panteras and Jaguar V-12s-but only briefly, because they are merely mid-14-second quarter-mile cars. First of all, you must temporarily purge your thought waves of the small displacement engines that have occupied center stage since the neurosurgeons came down on Super Cars. It is only that kinship to a volume engine that makes it a reality.Īnd just how fast is this 1973 "Last of the Fast Cars" from Pontiac? One does not jump into that consideration without a bit of meditation to insulate the mind against time-inspired overload. However, since the Federal government recognizes the SD-455 as part of the 455 engine family, the SD version doesn't have to run the durability tests, but can use a deterioration factor defined by a standard 455 four-barrel engine. If this were an all-new engine, it would then have to complete a full 50,000-mile certification program. The SD-455 passes the same emission tests after a 4000-mile break-in as does every other production engine.
FIREBIRD TRANS AM FREE
And it's certified by Uncle Sam to be free from any bad manners. Nineteen hundred and seventy-three, unobtrusively perhaps, is the year of the fastest Firebird ever. The conclusion was inescapable: truly fast street cars would be gone with no chance for an amnesty. Poncho Profile: The Rise and Fall of Pontiac.20 Best Cheap Performance Cars, Trucks, and SUVs.Performance on a Budget and Pontiac History
