1980 Pontiac Firebird Promo Film
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- 1980 Pontiac Firebird promo film for Pontiac dealers intended for potential new customers eager to buy a brand new 1980 Pontiac Firebird. Even though sales were not as high as the 1979 record-breaking year, the 1980 Pontiac Firebirds still proved to be successful especially with the success of Trans Am appearing in popular films at the time from "Smokey and the Bandit", "Hooper", and "Smokey and the Bandit 2".
Interesting thing about this promo film are the Firebirds used in it. Note the Y84 SE Turbo Trans Am has a gold spoke steering wheel and the big "Trans Am" lettering on the rear spoiler. Since its a turbo, it should read "Turbo Trans Am" on the rear spoiler. In late 79, the gold spoke steering wheel was discontinued for both the Y84 SE and the Yellowbird Esprit and was black for the rest of 79, 80 and 81. Also the Formula has a manual transmission in this film. For 1980, no manual transmission was offered for Firebirds that year indicating its a 79 Formula 4-speed with a 1980 license plate.
The most beautiful coupe!!!!
Oh yeah!
Man. The amount of sadness the US felt in 79' when the last Pontiac 400 was made before the Trans Am became a shadow of its former self.
I agree. This was the beginning of Pontiac’s downfall.
There were two 6.6 Liter V-8s for the Trans Am in 1979. One was a 400 cubic inch by Pontiac, which was available in all 49 states, and the other was a 403 cubic inch V-8 by Oldsmobile, which was available only in California
That's a mighty fine tune. Love it.
DISCO!!
Everyone in this video is in their mid / late sixties. Time goes by fast.
seventies,42 years ago
Miss 80s. Cars.
Neat Nikolas. Since it’s Father’s Day, hope you do something special with your dad. I mean, dads are the reason we’re alive at all so I respect my dad very much. Do you?
Was class of 1980 1980 had best cars best music best 80s class class of 1980 rocked ruled.
I was born 17 years after this promo. I got to say I really dig 70's and early 80's cars. I got a 79 Y84 SE Trans Am W72 project I'm working on. Definitely wanting to blast 80's rock in the T/A once its done, Billy Madison style. This promo is a good example of how awesome cars and car commercials were.
"Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side". (That song was almost 10 years B4 these cars.)
Great video! Thanks for posting
You are very welcome!
1980 Pontiac Firebird Porno Soundtrack lol🤩
I used to have a 1980 Turbo Trans Am and I wish I still had it today. Or another one fully restored. But the greedy cost to buy another one would cost more than a brand new one did in 1980. Too many ripoff artists these days.
Pontiac we built excitement.
That was epic
It was! Especially when owning one. My 79 Bandit and my Dad has a grey 80 T/A. Love these cars since I was kid after seeing Smokey and the Bandit.
If you look really quickly, I think there's a mistake on the Trans Am. it appears to have a turbo 301 hood (and likely engine), but the rear spoiler decal says "Trans Am". It should say "Turbo Trans Am". I believe that's the same "mistake" car that was used by Tanya Tucker in a Trans Am promotion. That car has the same error.
I thought so too. On the car for the Tanya Tucker promo, the gold grilles were removed. I think they did that so that they didn't appear to break when it drove through the foam wall.
@@wordenentertainment1997 It was probably a pre-production model or a very early one made in mid-1979. I'd bet it was a Van Nuys, CA assembled one, as those made there were the worst of the worst. Anything made in Van Nuys, Fremont or Southgate (the 2nd gen F bodies were only made in Norwood or Van Nuys) were guaranteed to be screwed up. Those three plants were the worst in the GM system, what I've termed "The Terrible Three".
@@googleusergp I bet. I know they had bad paint issues because it was water-based and tended to come off easily. Thankfully I own 2 Norwood, Ohio built Trans Ams. One is a 79 Y84 SE W72 and the other is an 80 Ontario grey non-turbo T/A.
@@wordenentertainment1997 Yes, both of mine are Norwood cars. The '81 I was going to buy was also a Norwood car.
Great video. Funny how they show a manual trans while talking about the Turbo V8, which sadly was never avail with a manual trans. Had it been, it would have been a LOT better. The combination of auto trans, high gears and lousy computer control retardation strangled the wimpy 301 which would have been respectable for 1980 if you had a manual and could get the revs and boost up
Yeah. The Formula shown in these promos is actually a 79 with the 4-speed as no manual transmission was offered for 1980. However this was not really Pontiac's fault. After the 1978 model year, Pontiac was forced to discontinue building their high displacement 400 V8's, but stashed around 10,000 of them for 1979 model year use, which were only available with the Borg Warner Super T10 manual transmission. I own one of those 79 W72 400/4-speed cars, a Y84 SE Bandit T/A that I am slowly restoring. That build will be part of a series here on my channel. After the end of the high performance 400, Pontiac was forced to use its last two engines, the 265 and 301 V8's. To help keep the Firebird Formula and Trans Ams maintain their performance, Pontiac opted to put a Garret turbo charger on the engine to give it better horsepower and torque, yet meet the CAFE standards and emissions regulations at the time. While it wasn't a big powerhouse, the turbo 301 was still impressive for the time, not to mention this was the first turbocharged V8 offered to the public. My Dad's 80 T/A is the credit option L37 non turbo 301, which actually runs pretty good, but eventually will be getting a 400 swap when the time comes to restore it. Overall I have a lot of respect for the turbo 301 and was the top dog on the market, as the late 70's and especially the early 80's were a terrible time for performance cars.
@@wordenentertainment1997 Thanks for sharing. I agree with everything you said. I'm also thankful they stockpiled some 400s for '79. So Pontiac basically started the muscle car era with the '64 GTO and was the last to produce a big cube "muscle" car with the '1979 Trans Am (even though the F-bodies were technically Pony cars - close enough). By the late 70s everything else was already gone or hardly a shadow of it's former self.
Pontiac engineers did a great job working with what they had with the regulations and tech at the time. As you know, the 400s were low compression, low RPM torque machines running on low octane gas. The mighty 455 SDs the same, but better (73/74)
The 6.6 W72 WS6 cars were indeed some of the best performing cars you could get at the time. And the Turbo 4.9 was "good" for 1980 and 1981, just could have been much better had they given it a manual trans to squeeze out the power it was capable of. I had an '81 Daytona Recaro Pace Car with non-leaking T-tops - ha!
That's exciting that you and your dad have some in your collection. The Trans Ams, Formulas and Firehawks will always be my favorite cars. I prefer them over any car at any price, even over something like the spectacular Mclaren F1. I have a #s matching '78 Black and Gold T/A with 400 but it's not a WS6 (however the suspension was updated). And an original 3900 mile 1 of 3 '02 Firehawk that still has the factory air in the tires :)
Cars are fun but don't have souls, and eventually go back to dirt.
@@wordenentertainment1997 Your '79 W72 resto will be a great video(s)! Looking forward to it
@@digitalmagicAR Thank you very much! Your comment gives me further motivation.
@@wordenentertainment1997 I had a 78 Grand Prix with the 301. Had it rebuilt and bored out and a few very cheap mods and it was a pretty good running car for its time. People dissed that engine a lot but I thought it was better than the Chevy 305.
❤ classic styling very good interior, but after 1979 it was obvious a 4100 lb trans am needed more than a enemic small block that generated chevette like horsepower.
Firebird Formula had a stick shift so it probably had the Chevy 5.0 engine. The Pontiac 301 V8 wasn't EPA certified with a manual transmission that year.
Actually in 1980 there was no option to have a manual transmission for the Formula and Trans Am. Likely it's a pre-production Formula from 79.
@@wordenentertainment1997 I agree. No manual transmissions for Formula and Trans Am for 1980, the sales literature and parts books confirm it.
Would have been nice if the 301 turbo would’ve survived to make it into the 3rd generation Trans Am. Would’ve been a lot quicker than the crappy Chevy 305 it ended up with. As a bonus it would’ve made 400 or 455 Pontiac V8 swaps a bolt in affair.
100 percent agree. Unfortunately GM management wanted to kill the Pontiac V8 and it has been downhill from that point on.
Do you love cars as much as trains Nikolas?
Yes, but I do love trains a little more.
That cream colour doesn't suit the car at all.
Yeah the Yellowbird Esprit is a bit out of my taste. It was the last of a series of bright-colored Firebird Esprit packages targeted towards female buyers.
No more big pontiac 400s..just v6 301 and 305
The Pontiac 301 and Chevy 305 are not v6s. They are V8s.
@@wordenentertainment1997 I know I mentioned v6 as the base engine.231 Buick.
@@wordenentertainment1997 The schools today don't teach proper punctuations, or writing anymore. The youth haven't a clue. Everything is run together, and abbreviated. Can be confusing.
There was a 4.3 Liter V-8 by Pontiac as an option for Formula and Espirit as well
@@jayelbee1111 yes..265...even doggier than its larger 301 brother.