#Pontiac Firebird Esprit Sky Bird

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Pontiac Firebird Esprit Sky Bird, 1978. During the 1970s Pontiac noticed that 30% of Firebird buyer were women. The "Sky Bird" was a special edition of the Esprit-level Firebird designed to appealed to female customers that was first presented as a show car at the at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1976 before going on sale as a '77 model. There were also Red and Yellow Bird editions

[lxsolocam-blog]

Pontiac Firebird Esprit Sky Bird

[purepontiac]

1977 Pontiac Sky Bird (Firebird Esprit special edition)

Starting in 1977 Pontiac would start offering “Color birds”. These designer Firebird Esprits with a themed color and options had their own versions of delicate looking bird graphics with plenty of curves and flowing scripts. The first was the 1977 Sky Bird, called Sky instead of Blue due to a Georgia company owning the rights to the name. 

words and picture via autopolis 

[oldmotors]

It sure is yellow! And appropriately so, since this is a Pontiac Firebird “Yellowbird,” a one-year-only special model for 1980, RPO W73. By this time the 2nd-gen Firebird was ten years old and had been freshened at least three times, acquiring its latest front and rear treatment a year earlier. Having survived a brush with cancellation in 1974, the latter half of the 1970s were a bonanza for Firebird sales; helped in part by the famous association with “Smokey and the Bandit.” 1979 was the car’s best-ever year, with more than 211K sold. With so many flying off the lots, there was a combination for every buyer even in depressed 1980 - and starting in 1977 Pontiac launched a series of “color” specials, the #Yellowbird being the final iteration. The new specials were aimed specifically at Women - by Pontiac’s estimation 30% of Firebird customers by 1976. There were color editions of the Trans-Am, but it was the quieter Esprit that got the color editions - previewed by a concept “Blue Bird” model in powder blue at the 1976 Chicago Auto show. A hit with showgoers, the idea became the 1977 “Sky Bird,” which telegraphed what was to come. The Sky had elaborate pinstripes and a special (very 1970s) bird decal on the B-pillar. It came in Lombard Blue, a color not shared with the other Firebirds, with darker blue accents on the bottom and a blue interior. The car used Pontiac’s new “snowflake” wheels, color-coded to the car, a design that spring from Bill Porter’s studio just like the earlier “honeycomb” Firebird wheels and the overall design itself. The Skybird was a moderate success, and returned in 1978 - but was replaced at mid-year by the next version, the Red Bird - which executed a similar treatment in a deep red scheme, now with optional T-tops. The Red Bird, which used a regular Firebird color with gold graphic accents, continued into 1979 before giving way to 1980’s Yellow version, which once again used a unique color and got some of the “gold” edition Trans-Am’s interior pieces. The interior was tan instead of yellow. A subset of the Esprit, the Color cars were never common but the Yellow, being that only 17,277 Esprits were made in 1980, was the rarest. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_VEp3jly2k/?igshid=1d9ov1imsmki8