Test Drive Pontiac Firebird 2000 - 2002 -

Firebird

Sports cars, although the word sports in the title and implies primarily outstanding dynamic indicators, are very different, especially when it comes to models of different nationalities. And if European and Japanese are more or less similar, then the Italians or the British build their models on other canons. The Americans, too, as usual, went their way and by bleeding brought a new boost of high-speed models - Muscle Car, in the literal translation it sounds like a muscular car. The recipe for the creation of such supercars is relatively simple - to the spatial frame and the aggregates from the mass model, it is preferably more powerful, but so as not very expensive, they wear futuristic forms of clothing, and all this is presented under the appropriate sauce as an inexpensive sports car. It must be said, the word inexpensive becomes key, for the only thing that such cars can be considered to be really sporty, it is a design, be it body or interior. Characteristics are obtained at the level of the usual sedan (the maximum speed of the basic version of the Firebird is 201 km / h), but the price will smooth out the connoisseur of sports models. The cost of the same basic version, and at different times it was equipped with a 3.4-liter six, the power of which ranged from 145 to 203 hp, in the United States, it is approximately seventeen thousand dollars. European analogues will look for?
 
America is generally generous to liters, in the sense of working volume, capacity and horsepower. The local buyers with laughter are probably dying when they look at the catalogs of European models - it is difficult for them to make a choice between two modifications, the volume of engines of which differs by 200-300 cubes. Firebird, for example, at the moment there are two main versions - 3.8-liter V6 and eight with a 5.7-liter working volume, and the most impaired and powerful version will cost about twenty-five thousand dollars. We would live like that!
 
In fact, a non-new car was provided to the test, and the reader verses in American models immediately will notice this if only because the Firebird released is a little different. The salon and feed remained virtually unchanged, but the front part was updated thoroughly - a modified front bumper and recently become a signature sign of the nostrils, which operate here and the role of air intakes, added the updated model to the good product of aggressiveness. Extreme versions like TRANS AIR, Formula or WS6 RAM AIR, where nostrils are simply enlarged, look essentially fiercely. Although our Firebird looks very effectively, not least due to the bright red tool, for seen once a green copy in terms of external attractiveness very losing. But made on the same platform, that is, if you are accurate, on one frame, Chevrolet Camaro, in my opinion, looks even steeper. True, Camaro has no rise to the aforementioned headlights, and this, given the shaky, sports appearance of twins, can be counted for disadvantages. The fact is that the landing, as is like a sports car, even in Muscle Car, it turns out almost horizontal, so no matter how you spinning, even despite the adjustment of the seat in height, it is almost impossible to make an apparent front of the body, especially since Front Sve is very large. The only salvation is the lifting headlights, by barely visible corners of which can be more or less to be bodied when maneuvering in the stream and especially in a limited space. The visibility of backwards, too, let's say, it is unimportant - in the outer mirrors, predominantly polished poultry sides are visible, and the inner, it seems, is not responsible for anything. It is good that at least sitting in the half-turn can be normally normized in space.
 
You open the door, and the first thing that rushes into the eye is an unnaturally wide threshold painted in the body color. It creates small difficulties when landing, but in sports cars it is like in the order of things. A wide doorway nevertheless does not solve the landing problem to the back seat, if, of course, there will be wishes to go there. Even behind a low driver, the rear seats remains very little, but it is possible to sit on the extreme case. But the front, that the pilot, that the passenger, the sin complain - and in width, and in the length of the place, as they say, with a margin, except that the roof is low, but special notches in the ceiling decide this problem. An unusual shape of the instrument panel and the central console seems to surround the front seds. The designers seem to have broken off, giving each, even the most petty detail the original appearance, which is why the interior only won. At first, I thought that I would be confused in the testimony of the speedometer, because there are two scales - in miles and kilometers, but the kilometer digits allocated by different color immediately rush into the eyes.
 
Despite the fact that almost all his life car spent in our republic and during this time I managed to wind on an odometer counter more than eighty thousand kilometers, this did not affect his health: at least in appearance you can not say. Signs of corrosion is not observed, but otherwise they could not - the body panels are plastic. More precisely, they are made of composite materials, but in terms of anti-corrosion resistance, it is almost the same. Exotic material fell very by the way in our climatic conditions, because be sovereed from the metal, it would have long become corrosion, because all the stones from under the wheels in front of the walking cars fall into it.
 
Geometric permeability, oddly enough, did not suffer, and despite the landiness of the appearance, Firebird easily climbs on the borders. Road clearance of the car is sufficient for movement not only on asphalt roads, but it is unlikely that this trip will give you pleasure. Elastic sports suspension in combination with a low gravity center creates quite specific sensations during the trip, especially in active modes. Rigid transverse stability stabilizers work very efficiently, so the car always seeks to stand as flat as possible, causing on irregularities, even on road patches, a small transverse splint. But in turn, such a tight only for good: even if you specifically swing the car on the snake, the rolls are minimal. Due to the fact that the gearbox is shifted to the area of \u200b\u200bthe rear axle, the routing on the axes turned out to be almost optimal, which had a positive effect on manageability. And the firebird habits were typical of a powerful rear-wheel drive car - if they sell gas well, then in the turn, the car begins to go into the skid, rather sharply stabilizing when the pedal is released. But it is best to pass in such modes only the fisted turns, because the vague reactive effect on the steering wheel and the unpredictable automatic can be strongly affected by the situation.
 
The engine, and on this instance stood a 3.4-liter 148-strong V6, quite a trap, but in motion, even with a gas pedal in the floor, all the sporting sensations for the root are killed by a phlegmatic machine. Long transmissions, and the first in manual switching mode made up to 80 km / h, may and contribute to saving fuel, but not impressive overloads on acceleration. It is immediately felt that the motor was borrowed from a conventional model, and clearly American, and his adaptation for this car, if it was generally, did not bring the sharpness-tuned sports machine into it. Maybe it was stupid to expect something special from the car that accelerates from the spot to hundreds of about eight-nine seconds, but such a design somehow sets up for aggressive driving, and it is clearly felt that be on the car mechanic, he Could ride much better. Especially since the sound, and it is due to approximately in the area of \u200b\u200bthe front passenger's feet, the silencer resonator, as evidenced by a special excavation in the bottom, is constantly present in the cabin and will not be quite pleasant to even lovers of such music. Although if you constantly drive in a kick-down mode, when the tachometer shooter dances near the red zone of the tachometer, the engine, as if recalling his solid working volume, begins to sound more solid like a real American.
 
The logic of the buyer sometimes understand incredibly difficult, especially when he wants something like that. I myself know a few people who were looking for a bright sports model, but then refused to buy because of ... excessive sharpness, car mallances. Apparently, precisely for such thin natures and sports cars like Pontias Firebird - powerful, rather dynamic and at the same time comfortable, but do not require some special skills from the driver.
 
Pavel Kozlovsky
 

A source: Autogase / N 39 (298) of 15.11.00