What Is a 1988 Pontiac Firebird Like to Drive in 2023?
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- Опубліковано 9 лис 2023
- Having experienced hardly any older American cars, I had some prejudice towards the way they drive and especially how well they go around corners. I prepared myself to have to baby the '88 Pontiac Firebird around the bends, but to my surprise, it filled me with confidence thanks to its precise steering and good body control. It is a softly sprung car, but it somehow doesn't lean that much into the corners.
But as good as the driving experience was, it was secondary to the breathtaking style of this 1980s design icon. What a thing to behold and experience.
Presented, shot, and edited by Andrei Nedelea.
Instagram - / one_tire_fire_yt
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Cool to see an American classic being reviewed in Europe.
Reviewed and appreciated, even :)
I still have and ❤ my 1989 Pontiac Firebird Trans-am GTA. Nice looking 88 Firebird!
Pontiac They built excitement!
Even when the car is standing still, I might add :) Just so good to look at and find all the cool design details on this one.
I had a 1988 Firebird Formula, black over silver. It was one of my favorite cars I have ever owned. It cornered like it was on rails and would burn the tires off of it. Those Goodyear 50 series Gatorbacks weren't cheap either!
The cornering manners and surprisingly connected feeling steering were what surprised me most about the car. It offers a great driving experience.
Cool! Me too. Mine was light blue with the gray bottom. I had a 305 tpi, 5 speed manual, and ws6 performance package. 245/50 tires. Yeah, those gatorbacks were like 200 a pop in 1995. Lots of money for rubber.
Even the brand's name sounds interesting.
They also had the Fiero, which was designed by a turkish engineer who had the idea of transposing the entire front subframe with engine gearbox and suspension to the back of the car and mounting rear suspension in the front
What a cool piece of trivia. Thanks for sharing, Vlad! This Firebird shared its platform with the period Camaro, right?
I had a red '85 Firebird Trans Am. It was a great car. After seeing this video, I want it back!
It looks great and drives really well. I was impressed. Maybe it's time to find one again :)
As an American who grew up in the 80s watching Knight Rider (based on a talking Trans Am) I enjoyed your video! I cracked up at 0:58 when you said the designers were not concerned with what happened if you ran over someone. Hilarious! It was 80's Detroit - they were more concerned with how to snort coke off the dash, my friend.
Thanks for watching! The car does indeed feel like it was a coke-off-the-dash type design. They really got the exterior design right IMO. The coke must have really worked for them 🤣
Now I have a possible explanation why todays car designer are not able to design a good looking car. They all drove 80s detroit cars.....SNIIIFFF!!! 🤣
I can approve of every single point you made in the video. I'm a 20 year old classic muscle car fanboy from Germany and I own a white '88 Firebird hardtop with red interior and the two tone deluxe paintjob and it also has the 2.8 V6 but a 5 speed manual. I am working on it a lot with my dad and I absolutely love that thing. It may only be 140 hp and its slow but it feels fast af and its incredibly fun to drive. I hope that I can keep this car for the rest of my life
Wow, that's a really cool project car to work on with your dad! I understand why you want to keep it forever. It's just awesome.
It was very enjoyable hearing your opinions on driving the Firebird. 👍
Cheers, thank you for watching my video!
I really enjoyed this enthusiastic review. It reminds me so much of myself in 1982 when I first drove a 3rd gen Firebird, my brother-in-law's Trans Am. i loved everything about that car and when I got out of college and could afford one, I bought a new Formula in 1990. Put 167K miles on that one. Bought another 1990 Formula in 2003 and put 144K on it. I figured I was probably done with 3rd gen Firebirds after I sold the second one in 2009, but in 2018 I bought a 1988 Trans Am GTA which I still own. It really is one of my very favorite designs ever and, to me, always looked like a far more expensive car than it actually was. People will attack the quality of GM cars from that era, but I never had a single mechanical issue with any of these three cars. They had some issues at launch in 1982, but after the introduction of the TPI V-8, they were pretty reliable cars.
What he wrote about the driving experience is true. These cars are just a pleasure to drive. They have good steering and will hold the road amazingly well, even by modern standards. And he was only driving a V-6 with the softer base suspension. I drove a V-6 convertible as a rental in California in 1992 and even with that engine, it was still a totally enjoyable ride.
It really held the road well, even in spite of the suspension’s floaty feel. The steering was also surprisingly sharp, and that early-model steering wheel made everything feel even more special.
Thanks for sharing and watching my video!
You're right about that steering wheel. They had some truly ugly steering wheels in the later 3rd gen Firebirds. My '88 has the bank of radio control buttons, and I don't think it looks too bad and at least it was a functional area. But the cars that didn't have these radio buttons (the majority of them) had just a blank flat patch in the middle of the wheel; it didn't look good. Then in 1990, the car got a driver's side airbag and that made for another really ugly wheel.
I just picked up basically the same exact red 88 Firebird over the summer and I love it. The only difference is mine does not have T-tops, but has the same red interior, however mine has the color matching safety belts. Mine also has the newer style steering wheel, even though it does not have an airbag. If I wasn't so obsessed with keeping it stock I'd swap it out with the older style steering wheel like that one has. Everything else looks just like mine.
That sounds like a pretty nice spec! I have to confess that the older-style steering wheel in the car that I drove looked and felt great. If I were you, I'd still look for one and just keep your car's original in storage.
I have the exact same car! :P
Lucky guy :D
I've loved the Firebird Trans Am line since I was a little kid. The model Firebird you were driving was sort of a dream of mine, as it was around the time I started driving. In 2000, I finally got a Firebird and still have it today. It's a 1998 3.8 V6, and I've managed to not drive it much, keeping it in the garage in the winters. I absolutely love it. And I loved your video as well!
Thanks for watching! I loved this car. It completely changed my perspective on this type of vehicle 😇
Nice video, congratulations!
Thanks for watching!
I own a 84 and a 2012 Chrysler 300 I can say the Firebird is more fun to drive gives more feel but the Chrysler isn’t going anywhere I’ve def felt some slippage driving the Firebird
Thanks for watching and sharing! I've never driven a 300.
I have a 87 gta and I must say it’s a nice driver.
GTA? I bet that's a lot quicker in a straight line than the V6 I tested 😅
I had a red 1990 5.0 Trans AM and i still think it's one of the best looking body designs ever made (until you pop the headlights that is). Trans AM had nice gronud effects that made it even 'flatter' and lower in appearance. To this day it has really great aerodynamics too even when compared with modern vehicles. It's just a fun cruiser but definitely not a sport car :)
It was the most aerodynamic production car in the world back in the day. Its drag coefficient of 0.33 was exceptional back in the day.
Great review! God I love these cars, and they're really cheap where I live. Gonna pick one up soon to use as a daily driver so I can keep my mint G6 off the roads.
Thank you for watching! Glad you enjoyed the video! Before getting to drive one of these, I always thought the driving experience was a bit crap. But boy was I wrong. It's such a fun and pleasant car to drive, and its road manners are way better than I could have ever imagined. I'll admit that I also had a browse around to see how much these cost after my drive.
@OneTireFire You already got to test drive one, so might as well pick one up if you liked it, right? 🤣 This video made me want one even more. I'm a little biased because I'm a bit of a Pontiac guy, but I think the 3rd and 4th gen Firebirds are some of the sexiest cars ever made, and I can't wait to get one.
This generation of Firebird design actually was considered more European like! It wasn't a fast muscle car but it was charming and slick! All Firebirds were having this kind of design which was their identity even on early 2000's! It's sad that 2002 was the last year for Firebird! It was a better version of Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and it always caught the attention with it's slick design with those pop-up headlights!❤
I can definitely see why they said this was more European. I loved the 2000s Firebird too. Just saw one a couple of days ago and I circled around it a couple of times to take in all of the design details. GM should revive Pontiac...
The v6 Firebirds were very well balanced, lighter up front than the 8's
One of the things that impressed me the most about the Firebird that I drove was how good it was through the corners and how eager it was to turn in.
Got to drive the Firebird with the 5.7 L in it.
What was it like? I'd so love to try one with the 5.7 and a stick shift someday. It blew my mind how well this drove, how precise everything felt.
GM never installed a stick shift with the 5.7L. I’ve had an 89 Formula 350 since 1991. It’s still a fun car to drive.
I'm not a firebird fan but these is real nice
@@joshup1275 This car made me a Firebird fan!
@@OneTireFireGlad he still has a surving 3rd generation Pontiac Firebird
The T5 manual was faster than 11s 0 to 60. I got both a v6 and v8. The v6 its on a camaro and the v8 is on a Firebird (funny the guy who owns the car in the view is from the same country ,Romania) .The v6 for Europeans sounds good ,its torquey ,it does its job while not using a ton of fuel. The v8 turns heads before they see the car .These cars look exotic asf around these places and most people can't figure out how old they are because they kinda look timeless.
It shouldn't be floaty , mine has new suspension parts and its stiff asf as it was when I got it back in the 90s
Damn, you make that V8 sound sweet! I think that in Europe (and Romania in particular) this is a really special thing even with the V6.
Oh, and the 11 seconds to 60 mph is the number I found online for the automatic. Regarding the floatiness, the owner said it was due for a new set of shocks, so that might be the cause for what I felt.
Thank you for watching!
Great review. Knight Rider really put this car on everyone's radar. It was always supposed to have IRS but GM wouldn't allow it. It didn't ever get a turbo v8 but it did get the 3.8 turbo v6 that was derived from the Buick Regal GN
Yeah, I meant to say V6 not V8 when I mentioned the turbocharged power plant that this had. Thanks for the correction and for watching the video 🙏
@OneTireFire Another good follow-up would be the front wheel drive cars that were going to replace the F bodies. There's a lot of good info and even concept cars online.
@@fgeiger41 Tell me the name of one of these concepts so that I can check it out. Thanks!
@OneTireFire my bad. They weren't concertos they were actual prototypes. I'll find a couple links and share. They actually show the rwd and fwd Camaro side by side to compare.
@OneTireFire I can't post link but look for Hagerty article on GM80 prototypes. Great pictures. The crazy thing is the cars were basically production ready and GM canceled the program after billions invested. They used different aspects on a couple other platforms instead of selling them as docent models like Ford did with the Probe
Love 3rd gens but try and get your hands on a GTA with the digital dash. They're pretty cool.
Oh, I’ve seen videos of those. They are ridiculously cool and I hope I get to experience one someday ✌️
2nd Gen Firebirds/Camaros are a monocoque with an attached sub frame for the engine, based on the Chevy Nova.
Thanks for sharing! I'm happy to learn more about these cars and their history.
@@OneTireFire We had all these things back in the day, being over here in Canada, I had two second gen F cars, a 70 Camaro SS and a 74 Trans Am.
First gen also!
It isn't KITT, so not good enough 😅
Well, if you slap a Tesla yoke on it, smatter some lights and screens on the dash, integrate some sort of digital assistant, and paint the car black, then it becomes KITT 🤣
The four cylinder was awful. I hated mine.
Yeah, I can imagine. This V6 felt and sounded pretty good, though.
@@OneTireFire Yeah I was young at the time. That was all I could afford. I loved the car in itself. It just couldn't get out it's own way. Of course I cought slack for it being a four banger. My fiero was faster than it was.
I find it hilarious that Europeans have an obsession with the poorest examples of '80's automotive engineering. But hey, I'm a third-gen fanboy myself. I just can't live with the 2.8/3.1L variants though. My old '82 Camaro Berlinetta had the 5.0L LG4 with only 165 HP.
😆 I haven’t experienced a V8 in it. If I did, I’d probably choose that. But in isolation and for a first contact, the V6 is fine.