Pontiac was the performance division of General Motors and they continued to carry the torch throughout the 1970’s when Mustangs were sporting 4 cylinders, Chevrolet was selling Corvettes with 165 horsepower and Dodge was importing Challengers from Japan. Here is an example of a pristine survivor. A 1973 Pontiac Formula 400 with only 54,000 miles. The car is listed for sale here on eBay and has already garnered 48 bids. The current bid is $29,201 and the reserve has not been met. The car is located in Petersburg, Texas was is near Lubbock in West Texas.
The interior is optioned with the deluxe interior which came with horse collar seats and upgraded door panels. The simulated wood dash bezel and original base steering wheel are still in place. The “formula” wheel that came standard on the Trans Am was optional on the Formula. The car appears to have the gauge package but no tachometer. A clock is filling the tachometer dial location. Other than the automatic transmission and air conditioning, the car does not have a lot of convenience options like tilt steering, power windows or power locks.
The Firebird Formula was manufactured by Pontiac and available in three models which were named using the engine cubic inch: the Formula 350, Formula 400 and Formula 455. The L30 350 cubic inch V8 engine was the base engine and generated 175 horsepower. A Formula built with a 400 cubic inch engine (L78) was called a Formula 400. This engine was factory rated at 250 horsepower and had more torque. If the buyer paid for the optional 455 cubic inch engine, they had two options. The regular Y Code 455 cubic inch V8 engine produced 250 horsepower and the ultra rare Super Duty 455 engine was underrated at 290 horsepower. I believe only 43 Formula 455’s were produced in 1973 with the Super Duty engine.
Overall, the car looks spectacular and looks gorgeous standing still. The aftermarket tires are mounted on factory Pontiac Rally II wheels which measured 15 inches by 7 inches. A buyer could also opt for the honeycomb wheels which looked aluminum but were poly coated steel wheels. With the low mileage and superb condition, this car should bring big money for the seller.
This is a really nice looking Formula ‘Bird! I’d source a formula steering wheel and cruise! GLWTA!! :-)
Yes definitely needs a Formula steering wheel
But not if it had manual steering! You need leverage especially with that heavy motor, power brake booster & a/c compressor over the front end! lol
InSANE that you could get a clock the size of a tach! along with aux gages & NO tach. Ridiculous.
Definitely needs a Formula wheel and maybe a factory tach swapped in for the clock. Otherwise, it’s about prefect.
Beautiful car, deserving of its high interest and price.
Steve R
Nice looking car, and this year they weren’t snogged to death yet. That happened beginning in ’75 with ” unleaded fuel only” cars and the catalytic converter.
Nice. Ready to Rockford! (Even though it’s not gold.)
Rockfords was slightly different body…77 I think model with square headlights and different tail lights…..last year for round headlights on the Firebird was 76.
Yep. ’74-’80 seasons so close to this starting out, ending with a square light version. (Of course my teen self wanted it to be a TA, but that would have been as ridiculous for undercover surveillance as the Starsky & Hutch Torino.)
Sweet ride!
Looks like it does have power steering, note pump.
Take that reserve off at $30k
Very cool car, needs power windows and tilt, I have a 73 Grand Prix SJ w a 455, she moves, but not like a 71, this is a nice car, faster than a 75 thru 81 without a doubt, by 79 you couldn’t even get a 400 Pontiac motor w automatic in a Trans Am, you got an Oldsmobile 403 Anchor, if your not nuts about power options this is a nice car
I’d run my ’78 W72-4spd against that ’73 400 Formula any day of the week. The 455 SD’s are a different story. 73/74 Formula 400 cars were 17 second 1/4 mile cars and not beating any 78/79 with a Pontiac 400 under the hood.
The ’78-79 w72 220 hp 400 motor ITSELF has nothing special over the ’73-74 400 4bbl. Both have cast rods & very low compression – less than a chevy strait 6! lol – the ’73-4 has slightly higher hp & torque – the ’78-9 has .1 higher compression. Big deal.
It depends on what weighty options either car has & rear axle ratio. I know the best gears you could get in a ’74 t/a automatic were 3:08 & that may be what the above formula has. The 4 speed ’78 w72 got 3:42.
If the above formula was a 4 speed, that’s another story.
Also i know the ’74 front bumper is VERY heavy along with ridiculous leaf spring fender-rad support connectors, compared to a ’78 , but a fiberglass bumper can be fitted VERY EASILY to a ’74 to replace the black center section, retaining the lightwt upper & lower valence. Not so on a ’73.
I remember reading a road test of a ’76 455 t/a & the manual trans gave them problems – balky & could not get consistent shifts & times – may have been fixed for ’78.
Today tho most remaining birds(other than the rare one above) have been modified accordingly, so it’s unlikely u will encounter ANY completely stock big motor birds
on the street.
Gorgeous car, always loved these, wish I had the garage space for this one…
RIP Pontiac
Very cool ride indeed. As a side note, a 5.7L engine producing 175hp… crazy to think that when my Ducati 1098 SFS makes in excess of 150 hp with just addition of a chip and exhaust…Technology has come a long way…
My brother had a 4 speed 455 73 Fomula. Painted in Champagne Silver with a gorgeous red interior like this one. I took several girls to high school football games in his car. He crashed it into a cedar tree one night while avoiding hitting a ‘possum because he didn’t want to have his new Thrush mufflers torn out from under it. My brother was able to nurse it back home but the insurance adjuster totaled the car. Oh, man! To be young again!
Unsold. Did not hit the reserve.
High bid was $29,801
Steve R
Sorry but , Chevrolet was the performance leader in GM , Pontiac was just an offspring line of GM . Chevrolet has been and always will be the Leader in GM . Don’t know where you get your facts from but in the 1970’s no Corvette ever had 165 Hp , maybe in the 50’s with a inline 6 cyl . A V8 came soon in 1955 . You need to get your facts straight about GM cars . Pontiac , Oldsmobile ,Buick were all close competition , but sold as more luxury, scaled down optioned cars .
Wrong Sir.
Chevy was GMs “economy division” known as the working man’s car.
It was GMs least expensive division.
And yeah, the 76 Vette and other Vettes from the mid 70s to early 80s, were REALLY down on hp….the 76 only had like 165hp, very weak.
Pontiac was looked at as GMs “performance division”.
Most auto historians cite the 64 GTO as the car that started the muscle car craze.
The Firebird was a upscale Camaro with better quality interiors and better suspensions than the Camaros. The Grand Prix was a luxury sport model.
The Pontiac 400 and SD 455s were some of the most high performance motors GM ever made.The 73 and 74 SD 455 Pontiac motor was literally a race track motor and were not interchangeable with the regular GM 455s.
I was born and raised in Detroit and had a lot of family and friends in the auto industry, most would concur with my statements.
You may want to check out a ’75 base engined C3….165HP.
Yep, easy to find on the web….75 and 76 Vette were VERY low hp.
Obvisouly you must have worked in a Pontiac factory and don’t know nothing about motors and cars . Look around people aren’t looking for Pontiac motors , they are looking for Chevrolet Motors . Get your head out of the sand .
Ridiculous statement.
People look for all kinds of motors, but Chevy motors are cheaper and parts are more available THATS why they buy them, not because they are better motors.
Motorcityman , simply put you don’t anything about GM racing cars , motors or really anything with the correct facts , and the facts don’t lie . You are so misinformed . You fit into the Dodge fan club .
EVERYTHING u just said is YOUR opinion. U gave no “facts”.
Chevy was playing catch up with FORD all through the 80s and early 90s as the Fox body Mustang spanked the Camaro EVERY YEAR!
GM made headway when they started using the LS motors.
Heres the pecking order at GM since u seem clueless..
CADILLAC and OLDS were the luxury divisions, most expensive.
PONTIAC after 62 or 63 was the Performance division and was more expensive than Chevy with more styling to their vehicles and better quality interiors and suspensions (WS6 for example)
CHEVROLET was the car u bought if u wanted new but didn’t have a lot of money. More spartan interiors and the least expensive division.
Not terrible cars or horrible motors but again known as the working mans car.
Motorcityman Hopefully they will let this post stand . Pontiac NEVER had more motor or HP than the Corvette or Camaro period .! Do you even know about the 5 – 427 motors Chevrolet built in 67-69 ? No comparision to the measley firebird You must understand that 73- 90 GM or any cars had HP worth getting excited about and that’s why nobody gives a damn about those year cars or motors . But you are sadly mistaken about your BS knowledge of Pontiac -vs- Chevrolet , Whether it’s Camaro or Corvette , You are so misinformed about GM . You only believe what you want to believe , Chevrolet is the backbone of GM and always had the highest HP and the best motors period .! Everyone else tries to beat GM and they can’t because they are the best , so suck it up . Chevrolet is the top gun . !! . You just have a case of wishful thinking .
Nope, you’re wrong again.
The 1976 Pontiac Trans Am with the Pontiac 400 was FASTER than the anemic Chevy 350 in the Vette.
Do some research.
Another member here said the TA was faster than the Vette through much of the 70s but im not sure about that.
Then Buick came by with a little turbocharged V-6 and spanked them all…..
Chevy was always the bottom of the food chain, did they build legendary engines? Yes, the 427 and the 454 were awesome, it Pontiacs 428 and 455 especially the Ram air a d Super Duty’s were legends also, now once you get past 71, the competition was over. Chevelles were 402s not 396s anymore, and the 454 was there, but nothing special, Camaros were 350s, Vettes turned into a joke by 74, but Trans Ams were strong, up until GM put a fork in Pontiac and started using so called corporate motors, then I was finished, I was not driving a Chevy or god for bid Olds powered Pontiac, I went elsewhere, a d the foreign cars arrived, I had Lincoln MK VIIs a d Mark VIIIs till that went too, now I drive a Mercedes E43, a Ford Taurus, and a Ford Fusion, and my best toy, though smogged is my 455 Pontiac powered 73 Grand Prix SJ, Death before a Chevy,
Listen, with all these experts, some with really stupid rebuttals, the 69 428 motor could have been ordered with 390 hp, that’s nothing to sniff at, your a Chevy man, I’m a Pontiac man, 455 SD Trans Am could blow any Chevy of the same year away, including your Corvette, a d all the tuff talk in the world won’t change that, this is a place to share opinions, not insult people, seriously get a grip
Hey im not gonna lie, I like almost anything with a motor including Chevys and I owned a 94 Camaro that was built by a Chevy tech, ran well I just disagreed that Chevy was the superior division over Pontiac as far as performance.
I owned plenty of GM vehicles including Trans Ams, Formulas, Camaros, Monte Carlos and more…..im 60 and owned almost 100 vehicles all together.
Then Buick came by with a little turbocharged V-6 and spanked them all…..