Lets be honest, when you think of cars that handle well, the 1971 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am probably isn’t the first to come to mind. Classic muscle cars are big, heavy things, they belong at the drag strip, not on a road course, right?
Well clearly no one told that to Roger Bolliger, the owner of this fully race prepped, widebody, 700hp Pontiac Trans-Am. Here Bolliger is piloting the second gen Pontiac up a hillside at Bergrennen Reitnau Hillclimb in Switzerland. Yes, a Trans-Am, performing a hill climb, in Europe.
The sound of the 8.0 L V8 thundering up the hill is impressive but perhaps not as impressive as the way this Trans-Am corners and plants its power. According to the video description, all 700 horses come in at 6,100 RPM with 590 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 RPM. Power is sent to the wheels through a 4 speed manual transmission.
The only thing better than seeing a muscle car tackle the drag strip, is seeing one devour some corners.
Comments
Well this ain’t no muscle car and when you have a SCCA Trans Am set up under a Trans Am it ain’t no drag car either.
This cars is very similar to the BFG Tirebird raced back in SCCA back in the 70’s.
The 70’s F body cars under Herb Adams and others did pretty well road racing as they were not just drag cars.
“Yes, a Trans-Am, performing a hill climb, in Europe.” …with an engine from Tennessee.
http://www.jbp-pontiac.com/FeaturedCars/Rbolliger.htm
They build some great Pontiac engines and they really know how to port their cylinder heads. Mine has been going flawlessly for over 7 years with zero issues.. even after shelling a 700R4 which shoved the converter into the flywheel.
The first statement in this story is soo wrong it’s laughable. It’s only true if you are a completely ignorant of the past. Just about every car review of the day lauded the fact that the Firebird and more specifically the Trans Am was a handler. In fact all through the 70s America’s sports car was the Trans Am NOT the Corvette. It was so bad that even in the late 70s with a paltry 225 hp a WS6 T/A was still considered Americas best handling car.
Enough ranting; I love this vid, one of my all time favorite cars is the 1970-1973 Trans Am. Bull Nose Firebirds rule!
The firebird design was well designed for cornering and sticking to the curves via weight distribution and with its low stance.. It was not your typical muscle car with these characteristics. It is NO surprise Bollinger SWEEPS his competition given the car and the top rate Butler engine which drives it.