Timing, it is said, is everything. It's true whether you bought Microsoft stock in the early '80s or Enron stock last week. In other words, being in the right place at the right time is much more important than having a great idea at the wrong time. Unfortunately, a killer idea executed too late describes the story behind the star-crossed, Collector Edition Yellow-styled Firebird seen here.
Packing the appearance of the '02 Collector Edition (with some subtle differences) and the motivation of GM's LS6 Gen-III engine, this pilot vehicle was a proposed Firebird special package commissioned by members of GM's F-car teams and built by GMMG, Inc.
Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, GMMG has been busy the last few years creating specialized performance versions of the F-cars for a few dealers across the country. They built the BlackBird Trans Ams for Atlanta's Carl Black Pontiac, as well as a series of special Birds for resto giant Year One.
Most of GMMG's work, however, has been with Camaros; they've created numerous Berger Chevrolet (Grand Rapids, Michigan) editions and the Dale Earnhardt Intimidator SS edition for the Earnhardt dealership (Newton, North Carolina). This preeminent focus on the Camaro was recognized by Camaro marketing team member Scott Settlemire (a real advocate for the F-car and an enthusiastic participant in the hobby that is rarely seen anymore in Detroit), who worked shoulder to shoulder to make F-car decisions with the Firebird team.
"It would be good to do something special for the Firebird guys," Settlemire told GMMG president, Matt Murphy. Murphy agreed, and the pair, along with John Heinracy, of GM Engineering (and father of the original 1LE F-cars of the late '80s), set out to develop a performance-oriented Firebird, based on the ZL-1 Supercar package GMMG was working on for the '02 Camaro.
Along with the factory 1LE suspension parts, 18-inch rolling stock and interior upgrades, the heart of the ZL-1 package was the Corvette Z06's LS6 engine.
"John [Heinracy] suggested we build the vehicle first, then show it to the Firebird team," says Murphy. "The idea was to develop a pilot vehicle with brand team support, then propose a plan for a limited production run."
With Settlemire's and Firebird brand team member Kurt Collins' nods for approval, GMMG started scrounging donor parts for the prototype. A used '98 Firebird V-6 car was purchased from a Texas Honda dealership to serve as the vehicle's base. GM shipped the LS6 engine and related components, while the brand team was able to procure a V-8 donor car for the ancillary swap items, including the transmission, fuel tank, fuel lines, etc. The car, a Camaro SS, had been used at Justin Bell's Florida driving school and stuffed into a wall by an overanxious, under-experienced student. Though bent from end to end, most of the good parts underneath were usable.
Although swapping the new LS6 and used F-car donor parts to the V-6 body went smoothly, Murphy says rewiring the car was the biggest headache.
"The V-6 car was a '98 and the rest of the stuff was '01 or later," he says. "The wiring harnesses simply don't mesh." It was a pain to wire up everything, and he credits GMMG technicians Bill Lawler and Kevin McDearis for the wiring chores.
Those chores included the rewired instrument panel, which is now filled with GMMG's custom silver-face gauges. The gauges boast "Ram Air 6" insignias, as do badges on the car's front fenders. The "6" designation ties in both with the LS6 engine and the idea of continuing the famed "Ram Air" engine designation of past Poncho performance mills.
GMMG installed the LS6 engine straight up--no mods. The hood numbers indicate 400 horses, whereas in the Vette, the same engine is rated at 405. "We were reminded of, and cognizant of, the Corvette's place on GM's performance ladder," says Murphy.
The numbers are academic, really, as the Firebird has put down 370 horses to the rear wheels on a chassis dyno. According to our calculator, that means it's making closer to 440 horses at the flywheel. We put in some time behind the wheel of this rare Bird, and it certainly feels like more than 400 horses, that's for sure.
The engine is hooked to the T56 6-speed salvaged from the driving school donor (with a GM-installed Hurst shifter and black Hurst shift knob), and power is sent through it to a stock 10-bolt filled with 4.10 gears. For the sake of comparison, we can say that the pilot ZL1 Supercar, with a similar drivetrain combo, has been tested by GM and returned 0-60 times of 4.06 seconds and quarter-miles in 12.56 seconds (at 115 mph).
When it came to setting up the suspension, GMMG utilized a combination of stock parts, Corvette Z06 front and rear brake rotors and calipers, 1LE upper and lower control arms (basically, they've got stiffer bushings), a 1LE Panhard bar and Penske 7500-Series double-adjustable shocks, which were specially developed by Penske for use on GMMG's ZL1 Supercar package. Also, there is a custom front stabilizer bar and the rear bar is the 1LE piece for Third-Gen F-cars.
Murphy wanted also to maintain the 1LE theme in the interior, including manual window cranks. But the power accessory-filled door panels of the Collector Edition leather interior, GMMG installed, precluded the use of manual windows.
Subtle Differences
In the close-yet-different category are the car's wheels and tires. Powder coated black, they look, at first glance, like the black wheels of the '02 Collector Edition. They're actually a quartet of Corvette magnesium 18x9.5-inch rear wheels, mounted on a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-Fiorano 265/40ZR-18 tires.
"The wheels fit perfectly," says Murphy. "The offset was just right. Those wheels look great on an F-car."
Of course, the Formula-style bodywork emulates the Collector Edition, too, but isn't quite the same. The Formula-based Firebird nose is the biggest difference, but note also the black hardtop. As the '02 production versions of the Collector Edition were Trans Ams, they came either as T-tops or convertibles.
The car was sprayed with the correct Collector Edition Yellow paint, but it was in the paint shop where momentum on the project all but ceased. "When the car was in the paint booth, we got word that, with the F-car's demise, the Firebird marketing team had been dissolved," says Murphy. "Scott [Settlemire] absorbed many of the duties for both F-cars at that time."
With no one on the Firebird team left to approve the project, the GMMG crew pushed the painted bodyshell into a corner of the shop. The car sat uncompleted for months. But the impetus to bolt it together came when the 2001 Web-based F-body gathering was scheduled for the Atlanta area, and GMMG knew Settlemire would be in town. "Scott really liked the idea of the car, so we decided to complete it for him to take a look at," says Murphy. "We assembled the car and have taken it to a few events since the gathering. It really draws some interesting glances."
Murphy says the Bird cooks as good as it looks. "We drove it to the Bristol Drag Strip in Tennessee and easily ripped off low 13s," he says. "The best e.t. was a 12.89 at 112 mph."
Original plans called for 35 LS6-powered Formulas like this prototype--one for each year of Firebird production--to be built by GMMG and sold through a select group of Pontiac dealers. Alas, the timing was not right.
Ironically, this yellow prototype is resigned to F-car history, perhaps going down as one of the most collectible Collector Editions out there--car number zero of a production run that never left the gates.