We already explored Australian car insurance company Budget Direct’s digital interpretation of a modern-day Pontiac Fiero, but someone over in the company’s media department must have an affinity for the now-defunct GM brand, because they also rendered up a modern-day Pontiac Firebird to go along with their low-slung Fiero model.
This rendering takes the traditional two-door muscle car shape in a slightly different direction, incorporating a shorter wheelbase and what looks to be a liftback rear end. Budget Direct says it’s “not easy to redesign an iconic GM muscle car shape,” so instead of replicating the second-generation Pontiac Firebird’s silhouette, they gave it completely new, more compact shape that’s more suited to the modern day. Call us crazy, but the shape of the vehicle from the a-pillar rearward almost reminds us of a Nissan 370Z.
“We exaggerated the pointy bits and gave it a progressive coupe profile,” the company says. “The sharp body lines remain, but it’s clear this isn’t your grandpa’s Firebird.”
While the vehicle’s silhouette is quite a bit different, it retains recognizable Firebird cues including a hood scoop, an exaggerated split grille and a Trans-Am style “screaming chicken” hood decal. Pointed LED headlamps replace the round headlamps featured on the second-generation Pontiac Firebird, as well. A traditional General Motors pushrod V8 sits under the hood, driving power to the rear wheels.
With Chevy Camaro sales on a downward trend, it seems doubtful GM would revive the Pontiac brand just to introduce yet another V8-powered muscle coupe to step on the Chevy’s toes. Aftermarket companies like Trans Am Depot also offer their own Camaro-based Pontiac Firebird conversions for any diehard Pontiac fans that want a Firebird image with modern-day creature comforts.
A new Firebird may be out of the question, but let us know what you think of this rendering anyway by voting or commenting below.
Comments
The grille divider takes it out of the running due to pedestrian safety design issues.
It looks more GTO than Firebird not bad looking, I’d like the black/ gold model for the Firebird better
Yep, just plain ole ugly front end, designers can do way better than that.
It could be Camaro based with 6.6/hybrid power or / and EV Firebird for a Pontiac return.
For this rendering?…..no..
As long as you don’t feel like you’re looking out gun ports of a German pill box like in the camaro. The roof line and window openings of the camaro kills the sales of it. I sat in one in the dealership and started feeling claustrophobic.
Those who own the Camaro seem to like them very much. It is one very very capable car for the purpose it was made for. It has a couple downsides but that never made Mary do a thing about it. She’s got her sights set on the Chinese market and battery powered cars because they are going to be mandated by her pals on the left.
I looks like the 2019 mustang is wearing a disquise
As soon as they get the left gap or the left T-top down to quarter-inch and the right-side gap down to three eights it’s ready for production. Wind whistle and leak complimentary, fix on the next model.
Ugly
Hideous!!!
I must add. I have had 3 trans ams, so I am not a hater of GM or firebirds. But that thing is just butt UGLY.
It reminds me of what an70s or 80s sci fi movie protagonist would drive.. not impressed at the least..
Actually, the butt was the better part.
This article made me pine for my ’02 Firehawk. 😔
I agree that the rendering of the modern day Trans Am is indeed UGLY! Looks to be a moon cruiser. I did like the rendering of the Fiero though.
I’m thinking……no.
A real shame that GM KILLED OLDSMOBILE & PONTIAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday, Saturday, August 14, 2021, I saw a red GXP Solstice and a blue Solstice convertible. These vehicles have been out out production for a dozen years yet both cars were well taken care of by their owners and presented as new. The styling has stood up well to the passage of the years.
Your lament would be justified if the divisions were still competing both with the cross-down competition and with each other. When the brands became homogenized, the reason for their existence ceased to be. I’m old enough to recall when a Chevy had a 6 and a two speed automatic, Buicks had a straight 8 and the hydraulic equivalent of a CVT, and Pontiac was a chrome-laden thing with a V8 and Hydramatic. Olds was the performance division, especially when the Rocket V8 hit the scene. They all pretty much shared the same bodies and frames, but the rest of the cars were quite different.
All that died off, and a Cutlass Ciera was a Celebrity was a Century was a 2000.
6000 not 2000…and a very true comment!
When the Firebird was initially taken out from the Pontiac portfolio in 2002, I knew that the brand would survive; but on borrowed time. The GTO, G7 and G6 alone could not pull enough weight to prevent Pontiac from meeting its demise.
Since the Pontiac name is defunct, doubtful any V8 is in the future. If it’s not electric based either all EV or hybrid, good old American ICE muscle is dead. By 2030, V8’s in light duty trucks will probably be legislated out of existence, and the future Corvette C9, will be all electric. By then I might be too old to drive?😩
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I’m in that grey area too where I may not even wear out the tires on what I’m driving now and I’m okay with it. Remains to be seen if I ever get an electric vehicle.
Ice muscle is dead…..as everything with a hellcat engine sells, and even though the hellcat engine is being targeted by epa fines, stellantis still shoves the 6.4 into anything that moves…including 2 door wranglers! There is a bigger love affair with consumers and V8’s that there is with the media and EV’s.
If you can show me a factory 2-door Wrangler with a 392 (make it a stripped down, hose-it-out Sport with 6MT), I will be first in line… That 4-door Wrangler is another present day oversized, overstuffed, overweight, overpriced antonym to what a Jeep was meant to be.
Electric power is as good or better than American ICE muscle. Or do you power your appliances and computers with gasoline?
Wise up and accept the new technology, or become a Luddite and live in the dark ages with no technology at all.
Not just ugly but painfully ugly.
I hope you did not pay for this.
Pontiac was at its best in the 60’s till early 80’s. The division was run by engineers and they broke rules to build cars with better handling and bigger engines of their own design.
GM management never understood this and they bowed to Chevy time and time again to stop Pontiac from being all it could be.
In the mid 80’s GM reduced Pontiac to being just a corporate platform with better styling. Just what Chevy wanted. If GM had taken control of this the two divisions could have complimented on another but they failed.
Now in today’s market it is anything but what Pontiac was. It was not truck, not SUV or CUV.
The Future really is not Pontiac either as the heart of Pontiac was their own engines. With everything going to the same platforms only styling will set things apart.
As a past and present Pontiac owner and collector I really see no future for Pontiac.
If Ferrari built a car but put it on a Fiat platform with a Fiat designed engine is it still a Ferrari. No, they tried that and those cars did not fair well.
Too many never knew what a great Pontiac was. They think a rebodied FWD Monte Carlo was a Pontiac when it was only a better Monte Carlo.
Go back to when these cars were the whole package like 1969.
C8.R. Your right on this. It was during the 1970’s when EPA mandates were kicking in that is was too complicated (at the time), for GM divisions to come up to EPA standards for their own engines. I think it was Oldsmobile that was sued that they did not have Oldsmobile engines but were maybe Chevy or Pontiac. Around 1977 models GM started to advertise in the specs, etc. that the engines are manufactured by GM plants. My 1979 Impala wagon, USA or CA made with metric bolts had an engine manufactured in Brazil with SAE bolts and fasteners. It’s went I started to buy metric tools.
What it was is the cost to meet emissions with so many engines, transmissions and models led to the cooperate engines.
Things went from specific engines for divisions to corporate engines for all divisions. This led to Olds and then Chevys for Pontiac’s.
GM then went full bore on corporate platforms that had little engineering differences.
The truth is GM had too many divisions and the ever increasing cost rendered it unprofitable to keep them all.
Pontiac at one time could have been a good tuner division but GM was unwilling to take the risk. They never let Pontiac be what it could have been.
So by the 2000’s they became a performance division with no RWD cars. Lutz had the right idea but no money to make it happen.
The reason why there is no Pontiac is by the time someone arrived that understood them there was no money and then the market had gone away from what made Pontiac special.
Many mistake the Chrysler performance cars as profit centers. They are not the Trucks and Jeep’s pay the bills.
As much as I would love to see Pontiac come back it would never work. At least not for the right reasons.
Now is the time GM needs a lifestyle vehicle like the Wrangler and Bronco. This is where the money is at today. These are the new pony cars of this era.
As for Pontiac what is done is done and you sometimes can’t go home again.
Let’s face it a Firebird based Camaro would not fair as well as the struggling Camaro today. There was nothing else at Pontiac at the end other than the G8 that was worth saving. Now it is gone and not coming back.
Looks great. Yeah I’d drive it. Would buy it over the Camaro!
I understand that this is just a rendering but one pic is not enough to go on. I’ve never been a fan of red, but that’s just me. Looks like this one slopes a bit too much in the rear. And that thing in the middle is not just a beak! More like the Cyrano de Bergerac of front ends. My eyes immediately focus on it! I love FB’s, I’ve owned 2.
But alas the Pontiac brand is gone, so why do we have these stupid articles about what will never be??????
It looks like someone was inspired by a Halloween pumpkin and possessed no more rendering talent than it takes to carve one. No thanks.
it just looks toi busy and the aerodynamics are probably also ! transam depot got it right they also make a cool olds 442
DESPITE THE FACT THAT I AM NOT A PONTIAC FAN, I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHY GM DUMPED PONTIAC. PONTIAC WAS OUTSELLING BUICK IN THE US BY A BIG AMOUNT WHEN PONTIAC WAS DROPPED, YET BUICK STAYED ON.
BTW, THE FRONT END ON THE FIREBIRD CONCEPT NEEDS TO BE SMOOTHED OUT.
Ugly. Just plain ugly. That thing in the middle IS NOT a Pontiac “bird beak.” I owned a ’78 Firebird, the last good-looking year, in my opinion.
Two thumbs down.
Please don’t insult the Firebird with this abominatio
What is that, a front rudder? Hahaha
Can we once have a firebird not follow the camaro. Can we build for once a true one of a kind pontiac firebird badass
The Lingenfelter LTA is a great example of the Pontiac Trans Am so far.
I would do no more than shake my head in disgust but that front end is on par with the present lower case gm offerings. Pitiful!!!
A modern Trans Am would be sleek and lithe. Unlike the ugly 2 ton blobs that the Camaro/Mustang /Challenger are currently.
The front end is busier than a one-armed paper hanger. The back looks like an Eclipse. Stop. But i think Chevy should issue a tribute platform once.
Not a fan of the bird on the hood. Too retro. Needs updated in a big/bad ass way. Can’t even see the back end to see what it’s all about. Design needs to be much more muscle car-up-to-date. More along the lines of Bugatti.
The arrowhead point-center it mimics: 1. (the head-n-mouth of a snapping turtle) [ugly] & 2. the 70’s Bonneville’s center nose: ugly! The whole shape & lines need a better direction!
All in all the front isn’t that bad, but it’s 2021 and it’s been awhile since Trans Am/Firebird. It needs to be far above and beyond today’s models, not comparable. I don’t like their today’s style of Honeycomb rims on that black firebird. Ugly now, ugly then. Needs to be more futuristic rims, with one of a kind Kick-Ass body style.
Redesign the frontend and I’ll take one. Not like my 79 but nice.
Ja Freunde! Also ich fahre seit Jahren Chevrolet Camaro und im Moment die 6.Generation! Die Optik dieses Fahrzeug ist in der Tat sehr Gewöhnungsbedürftig! Aber hübsch oder hässlich ist doch irrelevant! Fakt ist doch das man in nächster Zeit die Freude so etwas aus Liebe zu fahren bei dieser Umweltpolitik nicht mehr lange haben wird! Traurig Traurig!
If a Camaro and a Pontiac Aztec had a mutant baby…….tada.
OK gentlemen, enough is enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m always amazed how new car designers can make anything look awful. The designer’s renditions of the 50s, 60s, 70s and a bit after were much more appealing.
The over the top designers of today don’t make many people want to buy the vehicles, or even anticipate them. I get the impression it turns many people off.
I’ve owner two 70’s Camaros and an 80 Firebird. I was saddened when Pontiac was shut down, but that’s how it goes.
Is there no one with good taste left in the world? The ’70 was aggressive yet impeccably elegant. A stunningly beautiful car. It is clear any modern homage could never come close, but this abomination is more April Fools than anything else.
Kind of reflective of the pathetic state of the world today. This is the Biden Presidency of Firebirds. Three Stooges all the way. God help us.
Could not say it better.
I really like it. GM really should bring back the Firebird/Trans Am to generate interest and sales. They’d be stupid not too.
For all the concept drawings should just scribble a pic6 of a micro chip
Fading camaro sales 🤣 they can’t get them built fast enuff, all scheduled 2022 are sold before they even start down the line,,grand river assembly plant has been closed more this year than open and the dealer lots had nothing this spring but exons now they only have used vehicles? If they would / could build them they would sell,, ordered a LT1 in January and my order was cancelled in July 😠 maybe next year model we are only hoping, oh and 25 trail boss trucks sitting in Jackson either not finished or something been there since May?…?
Looks to me like a big head on a tiny butt, Firebird as usual front end now in the photo the rear end looks pinched. I wish someone with muscle care blood would help the designers out.
The artist obviously owns an Aztek.
That was funny stuff.
If Pontiac wasn’t already dead, that thing would surely kill it.
Blechhh. Good riddance, Pontiac. Should have just rebranded the division as Holden and left it at that.
It can’t compare to the corvette. It will need to be at least that exotic in order to compete. Re-Sharpen your pencils and give it another shot!
Yeah i get the “370z from the a-pillar back” comment. I park next to one at least 3 days a week. The biggest issue i see here, and others have said similar albeit from a practical standpoint, is the front grill. This needs a serious rethink, both for pedestrian safety, and maintaining the icon status due the brand Firebird. Split grill is important, and colorway, but can we make it less resemblant of a Power Ranger take on a snapping turtle? Soften some of that edge, drive the center grill line down, and commit to black/gold, you just might have something. And don’t copy the rear of the Supra, thanks!
GM is a dismal company.. They got rid of Pontiac? They got rid of Oldsmobile? What they should have done is got rid of Chevrolet!!! Oldsmobile and Pontiac had flare to their cars…Buick started a revolution with the v6 and the turbos.. But in 84 it took off and no one at GM could stop it.. Actually they did.. 1987 Grand National was the fastest production car of the year. Even faster than the mighty Corvette.. GM had stop this… 1988 was the final year of G Body production.. But only 520 GNX produced. But GM always was pretty lame.. The best car GM makes.. Know one can afford? The Corvette is so overpriced it is beyond belief… I had of had my choice.. Chevrolet should have been taken to the grave yard…
Red is nasty fugly. Black is awesome!!!