1981 Pontiac Firebird

1981 Pontiac Firebird Turbo Trans Am

In what might be most accurately described as “deja vu all over again”, General Motors said on Sep 25th, 2001, the Firebird and Camaro models would stop after thirty- five years of production. The reason, folk weren’t buying the automobiles any more. They’d outlived their usefullness in the company structure within GM. Never mind that GM had left these vehicles mostly untouched since this models 1993 debut – GM refused to remember the mistakes of the past and was repeating them again.

You will wonder how this corelates to the 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am? Think for a minute how old this auto was ; twelve models had been spawned from the shape that was laid down in the mid-to-late sixties. I know we had changed the appearance and powerteams thru its production term, but deep down it was still had a cramped back seat, it was thirsty in times of fuel dearths, and took up a lot of space outside for the space it permitted within.

When the Firebird and Trans Am were selling in huge numbers and reaping massive profits for GM, it was the darling of the industry. But when folks slowed their buying because GM had milked the current design far beyond it’s twilight, GM was always too late with a new auto. Witness the 80 and 81 automobiles, the 91 and 92′s, and lastly the 1999-2002 versions. As great a car as all generations of Firebirds were, thier life cycles at last were stretched too long and poor sales late in their product cycles were a consequence of corporate greediness.

What a mouthful, huh? Well, 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am entered it’s thirtheenth year of production, the past twelve in the F-body that made its appearance as a ’70 0.5 model. There were few changes made to the 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am for it’s final year, most of which were of the continuing quality enhancements and upgrading of standard equipment levels.

As had been witnessed with the 1980 offering, small displacement engines were the order of the day. The decisions were the 4.9L T / A Pontiac V8, the Chevrolet 5.0L V8 and the highly fascinating 4.9L Turbocharged Pontiac V8. The enormous V8′s were gone, never to return, but one performance icon from as far back as performance vehicles came from returned- The 4 gear. The 4-speed was teamed up with only one engine, the Chevrolet 5.0L. This combination was grouped with a 3.08:1 rear spindle ratio to supply somewhat adequete performance for the day.

While the 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am performance was now simply a shell of it’s former glory days, consider this ; the Ford Mustang, once a deserving compettor, made do with a 255 cubic inch V8 of somewhere around 120 horsepower. Motor Trend magazine made their displeasure known when the subtitle to the road test of a 1981 Cobra was “Why trouble with a V8 Mustang when it can’t out run a Honda Civic”.

The T / A 4.9L would stay in production till around Apr, after that, Pontiac would no longer be a source of V8 engines. With the advent of the brand new third-generation T / A, only Chevrolet ( later refered to as GM company ) engines would be found under the hood of Trans Ams. A 4-bbl carburetor still powered the 4.9L engine, but the sole transmission available was still the automated. Engine codes for the T / A 4.9 were BD or BJ.

Hp ratings of the 4.9L Turbo engines dropped to a more realistic 200 hp. Last year’s 210 hp rating appeared a bit optomistic, and the performance numbers appeared to support this. All turbos got the “boost gauge”, the set of 3 lights in the hood bulge. Even at two hundred hp, this would still be the highest hp rating for a Trans Am till the debut the Tuned Port engines in 1985. For the 4.9L turbo, there were two engine codes, BO orCJ.

The previously mentioned Chevrolet 305 was an option, and after 1981, the Chevrolet ( later “GM company V8″ ) would be the sole offering in a Trans Am ( excluding the limited run of Buick V6 turbo automobiles in 1989 ). The 305 V8 was coupled to a four-spped manual transmission and was ultimately available in California. Like the ’79 and ’80 models which preceded it, the chrome splitter tailpipes were replaced bu 2 straight pipes, just like on the sister Camaro. 1981 engine ID’s for the 305′s were DHJ and DHZ.

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