The Muscle Car Lives
On February 23, 1967 the Pontiac Firebird was introduced, five months after Chevy rolled out the Camaro. John Delorean, President of PMD, had like the idea of a small sporty Pontiac. But what he didn't want was leftovers from Chevrolet. GM Executive VP, Ed Cole, told John to 'make a car of of the Camaro.
Work was stared on modifying the Camaro to reflect Pontiac's own brand of styling and the Firebird debuted with five models, from an in-line 6 rated at 215 HP to a monster 325 HP 400cid V-8.
In 1969 the big news was the introduction of Pontiac's Trans Am. The Trans Am was an $1100 WS4 option that was largely overlooked. It included 335 HP 400cid(Ram Air III), three speed stick and 3.55 rear gears.
In 1970 the Formula was introduced with a 330 HP 400 big block. Sales of the Formula the first year was 7,708 units. From 1970 to 1981 over 160,000 Formula's were sold. The first big decline in Formula sales was in 1980 when only 9,356 were sold compared to almost 25,000 the previous year.
Formula's are almost an after thought. During my search in January of 2001 only one Pontiac dealer, located in San Antonio, had any inventory at all. Sales staff at other dealers had never heard of the Formula.
I ordered my Formula on January 22, 2001. The options included are Traction Control, 3.23 gears, Goodyear GSC's. Just your plain vanilla Mustang and rice stomper.