Sometimes I think I have so many automotive fetishes that maybe, legally, I should have to make my presence known, in person, to any automotive dealer, repair shop, or junkyard within a 10 mile radius of my home. I feel like every day I remember another one, and that’s what happened today, as my automotive fetish for front-engined liquid-cooled cars that, somehow, perhaps even defiantly, shun any sort of traditional radiator grille re-emerged into my mind. There’s something strange and wonderful about these strange, smooth-faced beasts, and I was thinking about one in particular: the Pontiac Firebird.
Well, more specifically, many of the variations of the third-generation Firebirds. Earlier Firebirds did have big, hungry grilles that greedily slurped in cooling air, and while those grilles were getting smaller and smaller by the later second-generation cars, when the third generation arrived in 1982, while it started with a pair of air intake grilles on its lower fascia, it didn’t take long for GM stylists to be bold and try some experiments in grille-free front end designs.
Really, it was pretty bold of them! For a muscle/performance car like the Firebird, a large grille traditionally hinted at the power of the engine enclosed within. By eliminating that visual tell, the car was making a pretty significant departure from the expected, stylistically. And that’s not even getting into the technical challenges of getting enough cooling air into the radiator all from below the car. Here, lets’s look at how the third-gen Firebirds started, grille-wise:
So, we have a mostly smooth nose, with a pair of roughly-rhomboid-shaped radiator grilles at either side of the bumper. The black slots under the covered headlamps are not intakes, just black plastic panels that house the turn indicators. So, we still have radiator grilles at this point. Let’s jump to 1984, with the 15th Anniversary Edition Firebird Trans Am (shown here in a Goodyear tire advertisement):
Look what’s happened here: Pontiac’s designers have confidently and brashly covered up the existing grilles with solid insert panels, a real vote of confidence for their cooling system engineers who now had to deal with substantially less airflow. Well, maybe not substantially less; looking up replacement grille panels shows that only a small portion of the grille area was actually open, so it seems likely the majority of airflow was coming in from underneath from the start.
By 1989, a whole new lower bumper skin was designed, completely eliminating any vestige of radiator grilles at all. Sure, there were two small sets of air vents on the hood, but I’m not sure how much that even counts as a grille; and while there was some air intake there, I think that was feeding the intake manifold and not the radiator or cooling system, at least not in any significant way.
And look how far they went in 1992:
Look at that! Not a hint of grille on there! This could be a rear-engined car! It’s astounding, this brazen lack of air intakes! Just smooth, painted metal and plastic. No hood vents, no little intake slits, nothing! Not even an under-bumper grille area! And when you compare that to other grille-less designs of that era – because there were some others – you can see how committed to the bit Pontiac was. For example, the Volkswagen Passat hedged their bets with a logo that functioned as an air intake:
…and it had a pretty substantial under-bumper grille, as did the 1989 Infiniti Q45:
The Firebird didn’t need any of that. It was no grilles, none of the time for Pontiac and, dammit, I respect that. And they kept at it! Look at the 1993 Firebird:
They inset some nice round driving lights in there, and have a couple of air-extraction vents on the hood, the opposite of intakes, and still no visible grille at all. It’s downright daring!
By the late 1990s front air intakes did start to make a comeback, signaling the end to Pontiac’s brave experiment in grillelessness. Even so, I think these mid-to-late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s Firebirds retain a certain special charm, and it comes from the smoothness, sleekness, and confident simplicity of their grille-free front ends. It’s a testament to GM’s engineering that these cars are not known for having significant overheating issues as well.
Huge grilles can often become an overplayed styling crutch; Pontiac deserves credit for trying something completely different.
There is a massive air dam underneath the car that directs all the air upwards and through the radiator. Third gen Camaros do technically have a “lower grille”, but half the time, the openings are mostly blocked by fog lights, and thus they have the same air dam underneath.
Fourth gen F-Bodies were similar.
Same as the C4 and C5 as well.
Woo Firebird article (I missed this last night). I need to get my self a 4th gen (preferably a formula with cloth seats and LSx/t56) and as I have said here before my favorite turd gens are 91-92 style (bias as I was born in 92 haha)
God I love the looks of Firebirds from the 80s. If I ever came across a clean one for not much cash I’d seriously consider it for shits and giggles even though they are pretty gutless
Gutless is one of their better features.
These things were not built well.
IMHO, the malaise era ended when GM’s headliners stopped falling. These are squarely in the “I carry a stapler to keep headliner out of my face” production years.
Of all the things that can (and does) fail in cars of that era, the headliner is the most ignominious. Did GM just not care?
They did until 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever came first. After that they didn’t.
I think a lot of the headliner failures were due to smoking.
No. Smoking in cars with the windows up was common. You could have a toddler riding shotgun with no seatbelt holding your ashtray back then.
The failures were not 100% (which was the smoking-in-the-car rate at the time). I will say that the headliner was separated and hanging in near 100% of the Malibus of the time (and approaching 50% for other GM models).
We called it the “Romantic Hanging Ceiling” since it would be a deep red color and would end up hanging between staples like the Corinthian leather of a fine tufted bench seat.
In 98 I dated a woman with a Camero from the mid 80s. It was a complete pile of shit even then. The transmission slipped in first gear from off the line if you did anything but baby the throttle. The interior was completely failing. The headliner was trying it’s best to be a blanket while the sun shades hung down at an impotent 45 degree angle. The passenger seat would suddenly slide all the way back because the adjustment mechanism was broken. Also the dash rattled more than an out of balance paint shaker.
Still, it sounded good and it looked badass when she pulled up. As an 80s kid I will never not find them cool despite all the glaring flaws.
I owned three of these things (83 Firebird, 84 Camaro, 87 Firebird).
Oddly, I never had headliner problems even in the one that was an aftermarket t-top car.
Rattles were ridiculous. I owned them in early CD days and those mofos would skip constantly. I had done a some suspension upgrades on one of them (poly bushings, springs and shocks, 245/16 tires) and loved the way it handled. But then I crashed it and bought an 84 200sx to drive while I looked for another F-body. The Nissan (Datsun) out-handled the F-body on stock suspension and cheap narrow tires.
I haven’t owned non-Japanese since.
I would be lying if I said I don’t sometimes look for a notchback GTA in that deep red metallic color with gold wheels. I get nowhere near purchasing, but I may look.
Good thing is it is easy to build up a 350 or swap in a LSx to get more power. My current bird I swapped in a 406 and didn’t have to change anything if it ever goes I’ll be looking it an LSx swap.
They’re gutless in the fact that they have slow 1/4 mile times, but they don’t really feel gutless since all the V8’s make most of thier power down low. I had an 88 GTA with the L98 350, and that car was a burnout machine and felt very quick off the line. It ran out of breath around 4K rpm though.
That GTA with a 14.8 1/4 mile time actually felt quicker around town than my ’00 LS1 Formula that would run 13.7’s all day. I drove a LS1 car while I still owned the GTA, I was disappointed in it at first. It’s when you really get on it that the LS1 came alive.
The lower ‘grilles’ on the early 3rd Gens were not functional.
I think there was a small section on the outer edges that looked like they could be cut away to show an 80’s rectangular fog light. but those weren’t there to let air through to the radiator.
Early 1990s were peak for grille-less designs. You showed the Infiniti Q45 which was briefly without a grille, and the Crown Vic had a grille-less nose for 1992 only.
The grille-less Vic nose was the best Vic nose. Fight me.
I am obligated to point out that the 1949 Crosley Hotshot, the first postwar American sports car, was notably grille-less.
It also had an overhead cam engine and disc brakes, and won the inaugural Sebring race in stock trim as a last-minute entry.
https://crosleyautoclub.com/Sebring/Sebring.html
The number 19 Sebring Hotshot still exists too. Neat bit of racing history. All accomplished without a grille.
Saw a Firebird with no grille today
Well it thrilled me, ‘cause it was built that way
I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way
No grille, no grille, no grille
Talkin’ ‘bout no grille
No grille
Then in 1998 they went totally bonkers. WTF?!?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2001_Pontiac_Firebird_Trans_Am_WS6,_Front_Left,_07-14-2017.jpg
I think there was some checkbox at BMW styling “Will anyone think maybe it’s a Pontiac?” Then GM killed Pontiac, and left BMW to set free any gastly design they want.
“Prove me wrong” as the trolls say.
> Prove me wrong
Those designs weren’t gastly.
They were ghastly.
:p
Hmm
https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/gastly
Oh
Yup
You are correct.
Of course
They could be both
Surprised there was no discussion on how GM engineered the F-car’s cooling system to make this possible. The F-body’s radiator and AC condenser were mounted on a slant-slope with a wide air dam to scoop the air up into the radiator. That’s one reason why the hoods are so long; they need to accommodate the radiator and fans. Also, the hood louvers on fourth gen Firebirds without the WS6 package were non-functional. Same goes for the ones on the non-SS Camaros.
The 1993 pictured is a Trans Am, and all 93-97 Trans Ams had a solid style front bumper featuring the round lights. Models below the Trans Am (V6 Firebirds and V8 Formulas) had bumpers featuring the twin nostrils instead. The nose ports on the Formula and V6 front bumpers were also non-functional. They were so non-functional that fog lights were often installed in the nostrils. Non-WS6/SS cars got engine intake routed from the driver’s side fender.
The refresh fourth gens (98-02) have a redesigned front fascia/bumper which see a return of some front intake, but I’d hesitate to call them “grilles” on the Firebird. The Pontiac cars had a nostril setup, while the Camaros had grille vents in the “mouth” area. The V6/Formula and Trans Am fascias are largely identical, but the TA did keep the round fog lights
98-02 F-bodies have a different intake setup for both the V6 and V8 cars that use the front nostrils on the Firebird or the lower bumper grilles on the Camaro to allow intake air into the central air box area. The WS6/SS cars with the “ram” intakes weren’t much different; the airbox was bigger and had accommodations for the hood scoops.
As for the commenter who asked if these cars ran hot, they sure did! Not unamangeably so, but heat was a factor. The aftermarket came up with vertical radiator kits, extractor hoods, and other tricks to try to get more cooling. Only problem is that the front-mid layout made working inside the engine bay a real… treat, to say the least.
Thanks very much for this. I was game to play along with the style-fetish aspect but was chiefly wondering how the hell these things stayed, or at least tried to stay, cool.
My bird I have swapped in a aluminum radiator and it runs much cooler now vs the original radiator (which the plastic edges cracked so it leaked all over the place so that was time for an upgrade.) I am glad the turd gens don’t have the engine pushed back like 4th gens do but I do want to get a clean 4th gen here at some point.
Lots of reasonable opinions here on minimal/no grille. But I’ll take this design approach over the “ALL the grilles” (insert button-smashing meme here) we’ve been dealing with for the past 10-ish years (Looking at you, Lexus/Toyota, among others).
The lighting arrangement on the top shot and the fifth image down looks pretty European. Not a bad thing.
I’m surprised DT hasn’t weighed in on the cooling dynamics of a car like this. Didn’t he work on cooling systems in a previous chapter of life? Compared to this, cooling a Jeep through a conspicuously slotted grill would be a piece of cake, right?
Did these ‘birds tend to overheat?
If not, why TF do all cars these days have so much grille?
My Starion was pretty short on intake, if I recall. The ’83 version (seen in Cannonball Run II) had the painted, properly angled scoop underneath.
Look closely at the large grilles and intakes of today.
At least half the grille is blocked with bumper bar, driving sensors and just plain blanked-out plastic.
So technically they are griddles?
Dad’s third-gen had been modded to somewhere north of 500hp, and on 25-minute track days his never cracked 200 on the gauge, even during summer events and one particularly memorable hot day in July at VIR. It was annoying to me, as my 2nd-gen was much more sensitive, but then again it didn’t have much grille either.
In any case the cooling on the third-gens was definitely adequate.
The limitations with the 3rd gen Firebird wasn’t cooling capacity (though they weren’t happy with track use) so much as air intake capacity. Their low hoodline made GM come up with a more convoluted and restrictive pathway for air to the engine than the comparable V8 Camaros had; nevermind the monstrous intake setup the L98/LT C4s had.
I had a ’94 Firebird Formula similar to the one in your last picture. Those nostril intakes were fake (and a pain in the ass to clean).
To me, the ’92 iteration always evoked the way the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ mouths were frequently drawn in the comics. Doubly so on green ones, of course…
There was a trend in the 90’s to minimize grills. A lot of cars from the lowly Escort on up went with a clean front.
Exactly – The list of cars with no/minimal grilles in the 90’s is a long one.
I had a late Gen3 (1990) and in hindsight I honestly can’t remember how I was ok with the cartoonishly ridiculous front overhang. Aside from looking just plain wrong, those things had an approach angle in the single digits…
Love it.
No mention of the 0.29 drag coefficient in the article though.
Only during the day tho
Who needs the lights up at night when you have that drag coefficient though? Haha
It’s really cool to see how Pontiac did the no grill and it really confirms my dislike for the way Tesla did it.
Up until their recent EVs, I can’t think of a grilleless GM vehicle that I didn’t like.
Corvair, TransAm, EV1, Saturn S-Series, C4 ‘Vette…
It’s easy to forget, but the original Taurus was completely shocking to American eyes for its lack of a grill. Like the Firebird, it gave it a daring, futuristic look.
One of the things I like about my Focus, she of the oft-maligned mk1 refresh in ’08 variety, is that Ford was going through a largely grilless phase, so she’s just got two chrome look bars across the front.
And the sister ship Sable with only a light bar!
Those Sables are why I’m only a little annoyed with the lit-up front end design trend. At least now, they’ll stay uniformly lighted up!
My ’91 Sable was quite the comfy/lux ride. I sold it only to buy a ’94 SHO 5 speed. TBH – the Sable was much nicer in many ways.
who needs cooling anyways
I love grille-less, or grille minimized cars. Unfortunately the 90s Firebird looks like ass despite this.
It’s Pontiac Ptuesday
Thank you Torch for scratching an itch I didn’t know I had. In an era of absurdly overwrought grilles the old Firebirds do seem like a breath of fresh air. While it does have a wee bit of a grille I think the NA Miata deserves consideration as well.
The Firebird is the only bird that can’t host a barbecue because it forgot the grille.
*Thunderbird Turbo Coupe enters the chat*
Cool. I never knew about those. But they do have a tiny grille. Maybe big enough for three BBQ chicken strips. 🙂
Thunderbird TC Grille
I’m surprised that the word “beak” doesn’t appear once here! I always kind of assumed that “grille-free” was sort of a goal to evoke the pointy bird-face from the outset, along with those squinty hooded-eye signal recesses.
Unlike GM’s bizarre, opposite-way attempt with the 90s Buick Skylark.
Like a Super Bird ?