???? – 2002retired
Chevrolet Camaro (fifth generation)
“Back from the dead for five glorious years, then off to make room for the next one.”
“Born to chase a Mustang, gone too soon — still smoking the tires in our hearts.”
The Pontiac Firebird was an American pony car built by Pontiac from 1967, launched on February 23, 1967 to go toe-to-toe with the Ford Mustang. It shared its platform with GM's Chevrolet Camaro, arriving five months behind its divisional sibling and alongside Mercury's upscale Cougar. People loved it for the same reason it existed: Pontiac took the pony car formula and made it unmistakably theirs.
The name itself had pedigree — GM had borrowed it from its Firebird concept cars of the 1950s before pinning it on the production hero. The run ended in 1980 when the Firebird was discontinued, its obituary complicated by the fact that, on paper elsewhere, the lineage reportedly stretched on. Either way, the bird left the nest and never really landed.
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“Back from the dead for five glorious years, then off to make room for the next one.”
“Two liters of screaming joy, nine gears of nothing but smiles.”
“Retro on purpose, beloved by accident, gone on its own schedule.”