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| FirebirdPontiac.Com |
To be
honest, when somebody says “sports car,” the word “Firebird” what leap to mind.
However, the American car maker wants to rectify that and after dropping a trail
of hints, Pontiac’s 2017 Firebird concept got its world première on Monday at
the 2016 North American International Auto Show. Pontiac sees this stripped
down track car as “hearkening back to the glory days of the pure-bred Firebird,
affordable sports cars.”
The idea
behind the rear-drive 2+2 Pontiac Firebird 2017 concept was to build around the
experience that Pontiac gained in races such as the Pirelli World Challenge.
This produced a minimalist design strategy that put an emphasis on light
weight, functionality and performance at the expense of creature comforts.
The first
thing you notice about the 2017 Firebird concept is how its “Ignition Yellow”
body is molded onto the bespoke chassis. “We gave the car a shrink-wrapped
appearance,”. “It’s as if the body panels were formed around the chassis
instead of merely welded to it.”
With a
wheelbase of 103.1 in (261.8 cm) and a width of 74.4 in (188.9 cm), the 2017 Firebird concept weighs in at merely 2,874 lb (1303 kg), which helps with the
power to weight ratio. It also enjoys a weight distribution of 52 percent in
the front and 48 percent in the back.
The 2017 Firebird concept has a surprisingly simple, almost boxy profile broken by the
arching wings to accommodate the track tires, while the rear of the passenger
cabin with its full, raking fall away has echoes of ‘70s sports cars.
The low-set
grille to enhance engine cooling is definitely a Pontiac and the air inlets set
into the front bumper seem designed to prove you can keep the brakes cool
without fitting something off a jet engine. Pontiac hasn't even made a big deal
of the carbon composite splitter to increase downforce, so the dominating
features bookending the grille are the vertical LED headlamps.