Pontiac Firebird?? Nope. Not exactly. This is the 1971 Pontiac Pegasus. It was displayed at the Hilton Head Concours, and came from the General Motors Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
When Pontiac made the 2nd generation Firebird…
They wanted to do something special… with a global appeal. Something that showcased the exotic/artistic lines that lied beneath the gen-2 Firebird.
The Pegasus project was under the direction of GM vice president William (Bill) Mitchell. And the design was executed by GM designer, Bill Davis. It is very obviously a Ferrari-inspired look (with a Corvette-esque rear end), and borrows a nose & grille form the 1958 Testarossa.
Unlike Ford lol…
Bill Mitchell had a good relationship with Enzo Ferrari. Therefore, Enzo got involved & donated a 4.4-liter 365 GTB/4 V12 for the special Pontiac Pegasus project. It was mated to a Ferrari 5-speed transmission & GM posi-traction.
Apparently, Bill Mitchell really fell in love with the car… and kind of took it… driving it regularly. He even crashed it a little bit at Road America. Ahhh… the era where corporate bigwigs took one-off sports cars out & crashed ’em on their lunch break. Cheers to that.
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That’s a car to aspire to, should be builder who’d recreate that.
on purpose?