How Rare Is The Pontiac Sky Bird Realy?

[Ghostwolf]

I have Traded My Old 1973 Chevy P/U (i have several more) Anyway I've Been Told That This Car Is Very Rare And Pretty Scarce. Ive Tryed To Find Info On This And Not Getting Any Where. Any And All Info WILL BE GREATLY APRIECIATED ( i think i spelled that right)he he

['97ventureowner]

http://www.firebirdtransamparts.com/.../ladybirds.htm
http://www.firebirdtransamparts.com/...rd/skybird.htm
http://www.cartype.com/pages/2016/po...sky_bird__1978
http://www.pontiacpower.net/spotlight0802.html

[MrPbody]

GW,

"Sky Bird", "Red Bird" and "Sun Bird" (yellow ones) were simply paint schemes on Firebird "Esprit" models. They weren't really "special models", so as collector cars, there's little interest. All of them I ever saw (worked in Pontiac dealers when they were "new") were 350 2-bbl. engines (PONTIAC 350, NOT the "same" as 350 Chevy), TH350 transmissions, and a few "luxury" options.

The GOOD news is, you have a 2nd gen Firebird! Lots of potential there!

Jim

[wlkjr]

How good are the Pontiac 350's compared to the Chevy 350?

[MrPbody]

Depends on how one defines "good". For a durable, good running engine, 350 Pontiac is every bit as good or better than any Chevy small block. For a performance engine, the Chevy "wins" hands down. It's lighter and the heads breath MUCH better. The bore size of the Pontiac prevents the heads from flowing as well as they're capable of with a larger bore.

One "bright side" to the Pontiac, though. ANY Pontiac V8 will literally "bolt right in" where 350 is. That means a 400 or 455 is an easy swap. It takes a WHOLE LOT of small block to make anywhere near the power 400 Pontiac makes. 455? Fergit it... It takes a well done BIG BLOCK Chevy to run with that one.

There are those that will disagree, but my reputation is for building Pontiacs that beat up on Chevys. I build plenty of Chevy engines, too. ALWAYS remember, GTO did not get it's reputation from LOSING...

Jim

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by MrPbody

Depends on how one defines "good". For a durable, good running engine, 350 Pontiac is every bit as good or better than any Chevy small block. For a performance engine, the Chevy "wins" hands down. It's lighter and the heads breath MUCH better. The bore size of the Pontiac prevents the heads from flowing as well as they're capable of with a larger bore.

Yeah , well my Ford will put them all on the trailer anyways...



Good info, Jim.

Also, the Chevy is smaller, more compact, lighter, and, I strongly suspect, cheaper to manufacture. These, and the power issue were all good reasons why the SBC was chosen by GM to be the corporate V8 design (over the designs from the other 4 divisions) back in the 1980's.



For the enthusiast, the Chevy has greater performance parts availability than the Pontiac.

And before anyone accuses me of being biased, at present I have 2 Pontiac 400's and NO Chevy 350.

[Ghostwolf]

Thank you '97VENTUREPOWER for the links. I found that the formula steering wheels were all black except in the skybird (red and yellow birds as well)were color matched with the interior as well as other accents and that they have some cosmetics as the formulas and t/a's

Thanks MrPbody for the performance info. I know were to go when i start working on the engine.

[MrPbody]

MR,

While it's true, SBC has a much larger selection of pieces, many of them simply "muddy the water". There is now a plethora of good parts available for the Pontiac that weren't "out there" 5 years ago. Making 600 HP on pump gas, in a "daily driver" format, is easy enough. Takes a TON of small block to do that without "adders".

We've recently had Chevy guys with 502 "craters" running their mouths about how they could "handle any Pontiac". Wrong thing to say... Their low 11s and high 10s are no match for our 461s in heavy cars. And that 572 CID "pump gas" engine? A joke! For $1,000 less, we make MORE power with a 505 CID Pontiac engine on 93 octane.

How short memories can be... It took Hemi to "unseat" Pontiac as the premiere race engine on the planet. Chevy NEVER did it! Now that developement is at "full steam" again, it's only a matter of time before the Pontiac retakes its rightful place as the top GM performance engine. The LSx engines are awesome, but limited to under 450 CID. We're hoping for the Ram Air V head "derivative" ("tunnel port") that's in "test" now, to be available soon. For the "unititiated", Ram Air V was the most powerful 400 CID engine GM ever produced. It rivals LS-7 (the old big block 460-horse 454) for power at a 54 CID disadvantage. The last NHRA nitro winner that wasn't running Hemi, was a Ram Air V engine (1971, Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick). NITRO!!!! (:-

FWIW

Jim

[wlkjr]

Arnie Bestwick. That's a name I haven't heard much since the days of my long ago youth. I wonder what ever happened to him?

[MrPbody]

wlk,

Today, Arnie is travelling around to various personal appearances, mostly at Pontiac "functions". He has "Tamelss Tiger", a remake of the '64 GTO A/FX car he campaigned.

About 6 yeas ago, he was badly burned in a fire in the car. It took him 2 years to recover engugh to get back behind the wheel, but he's still kickin' out 8 second passes! Not bad for an old guy in his mid 70s!

Arnie is one of the true "old gentlemen" of drag racing. He's always available for consultation on big-power Pontiacs, too. We talked to him for a while about Dirty Bird, and what he thought. He's a bit "jealous", as there weren't the blocks and cranks available to him we have today. If we could get him to "get off" a pair of tunnel port heads, we too, could run NITRO!!!

Jim

[ponchonutty]

Lots of good input about the skybirds and the others. Me personally I think they should start to climb in price because there's very few of them left anymore. Use to be you'd see them all the place but not these days.