1968 Pontiac Firebird Sprint | Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] but the great thing is the aftermarket you know it makes these cars like new you make them better than new i mean it stops better it handles better i mean everything is just better and it's and it still looks stuck it really does handle like a sports car i know that sounds silly but [Music] don't knock it too shy welcome now the episode of jay leno's garage the car featuring today my 1968 pontiac firebird sprint this is a car i've been looking looking for for a long time trying to find one of these i think it's one of the rarest pontiacs if you've never heard of the pontiac sprint well let me tell you what it is this is a little giveaway see it says 4.1 liter overhead cam overhead cam 1968 what doesn't make any sense you know even pontiac guys have never heard of this let's get right to it i'll show you what i'm talking about there it is right there six cylinder see that pmd pontiac motor division uh this was certainly the first at least post-war overhead cam 6 in america obviously jaguar had it since 1948 dual overhead cam but this is a big deal see john delorean was a huge fan of the jaguar xke and before he took over pontiac it had kind of a frumpy image and he wanted to make an american version of an xke an american sports car he went to general motors and they said look we already got the corvette okay we don't want to compete with that put your idea in something else firebird camaro whatever okay so he took essentially a chevy six they developed an overhead cam engine for it it's the first car overhead cam engine ever to have a rubber belt it's got a rubber belt driving it they made a sprint option now when you bought the base pontiac this is the engine you got what i think a one barrel carburetor i think it made about 145 150 horsepower you had gut headers you got the hood tack you got the four speed transmission and i just thought it was the coolest thing i remember seeing in hot rod magazine about this pontiac six and i just thought wow that's really different because i like european cars and there really weren't any high-performance six-cylinder american engines at the time at least that i at least thought i knew of that so it was always in the back of my mind the trouble was by the time you ordered the four-barrel and all the high performance options to make it a sprint it costs more than the v8 it didn't make as much horsepower so they didn't sell a whole lot of these the gentleman that that bought this originally was in the navy and i think he audited through one of those programs where military people can get a discount you know so he got the six he got power steering power a bunch of different options on it he really outfitted exactly the way he wanted it was the way i would have had it so there it is it's only had a couple of owners it's just such a rare car we've sort of resto modded it we'll show you that uh i did some restoration blogs for the last couple years uh here here are some updates on the car take a look now here's a car i've been looking for for a long time this is a 1968 pontiac firebird now what makes it rare well okay okay it's got the hood tack which i always like ordered from the factory with tachometer under the hood four-speed transmission most worth three speed uh power steering and power brake which is unusual radio convertible this is a pontiac sprint if you don't know what that is well let me show you what it is here this is a six cylinder overhead cam engine this engine was john delorean's idea he wanted a car to compete with the jaguar xke so they come up with this 4.1 liter overhead cam straight six the first time that ever been done in america overhead cam six cylinder engine and normally this would be the low engine on the scale you know they came with a one barrel carburetor then they made a high performance version 4.1 liter quadrajet four-barrel carburetor high-performance camshaft i think it was 215 220 horsepower but the thing that makes it cool is it's extremely lightweight a lot lighter than the v8 so this thing really handles and drives nicely the trouble was the high performance sprint was about the same price as the v8 so consequently why get a six and get a v8 well this is 68 firebird i told you about uh we pulled the engine out went through it it's really worn out well over a hundred thousand miles on it so we decided just to do it proper so we're going through that put it back to stock maybe a few performance modifications like a cam and big pistons and but just not too much not going to make it crazy obviously you want to sandblast everything and do it up do it up right dude this is going to be a frame off because the car is in pretty good shape i got the engine now at ed ping's engine shop you know ed pink does all those singer motors you know for the singer porsches so he's been rebuilding that six cylinder engine for us doing the cam and everything hopefully we'll get maybe about 250 horsepower i'm hoping uh we'll hook that to the tremec five speed and i think this will be just a fun sporty good handling car when we're done so we're getting there we're getting there the real sort of bugaboo on these engines were these the rocker arms okay they wore and they wore excessively so oil pressure was kept low so it didn't put too much pressure on the cam and they just wore out this is an original one uh we rebuilt this motor we had these made and these are just beautiful out of tool steel we had them hardened and then we used something called dlc diamond light coating this has been run on the engine for quite a while and you it's not a wear mark anywhere this way we can bring the oil pressure up a bit and this engine should last a long long time i mean you can see the wear on the original piece but it's pretty cool i mean these are just just beautiful look at these we have these all custom made so i'm real excited to get this thing going and fire it up you know i always like the firebird i thought it was better looking than the other gm uh bodies you know the camaro or any of those and pontiac had a reputation of being a better handling car than some of the other gm divisions so that's why i always like this and you didn't see this everywhere camaros were everywhere camaro versus mustang rarely was it firebird firebird was always the you know um kind of the second after after the camaro so i that's what i liked about it it's the right color what else have we done we put 15 inch wheels originally came with 14s we put wilwood disc brakes all the way around my friend john hotchkiss the hotchkiss suspension he makes everything for this car which made it so easy i'm so used to doing stuff like that talbot lago or weird bugattis or duesenbergs where there just aren't any parts everything is available for this car as i mentioned year one had everything just i'd like a new interior for a 685 yeah no problem and every single piece you're not combing through ebay looking for little bits and pieces everything is available the thing that i love the most is the hood tech you know it was funny growing up in new england and massachusetts anyone that i saw was always probably four or five years old and what happened was condensation would get in here and make it cloudy and when you sat behind the wheel or in the passage you really couldn't see the tack because well like i said because of condensation that was always a problem to put a brand new one on and fix it and get it restored properly it's really great i even like it better than the heads up display it's really cool to sit behind the wheel and see the tack outside the car it's just one of those neat things this has got the tremec 5 speed in it that tkx i believe it's called which is a terrific transmission because the shifter location is adjustable you can move it where you want it we'll put this up on the lift and we'll show you what i'm talking about originally it had the borg warner four speed which was the same as the corvettes of the period this also had the fold-down rear seat which i think is pretty cool can make it kind of a two-seater deal that's pretty neat normally i don't get convertibles or something about this car and people go nuts they wave and they see it on the freeway this seems to bring back all sorts of memories for people but the fun part is when you go to a cruise night or cars and coughing and people go oh you put this on right i go no no no it's overhead cam what and then you show them the engine and they look at you like okay this is like some comedy reality car show right no no that but they only did that engine for a couple of years it just was not hugely successful but there is a a club which is great the overhead cam club they've got a newsletter and everything and they'll give me all the information and eat on these things so if you've got one of these check into that as i said the new interior we made a tonneau cover yeah i've kept the body completely stock uh it's just this handling package makes all the difference in the world i mean it's amazing how nice this car drives and you know the fun part is it's the only car i have where the engine doesn't overpower the chassis you know a lot of times when you get cars from this era you put these big motors in 400 500 700 horsepower and they over this you can use all the power all the time you just keep your foot in it and is it real fast no no but it's certainly fast enough and it's certainly as fast as an xke from the period which is what i think john delorean was trying to uh trying to do you know the the jaguars said it had 265 horsepower but whenever you put one on the dyno that almost came out at 215 220 225 which is exactly what this is um since we put those um our our own rocker arms in there uh we put the oil pressure up a little bit so we don't have that problem anymore so you could rev this thing all the way to 5500 all the way to 5500 and and it's fine come on let's take it next door i'll put it up on the left and i'll show you what i'm talking about so okay here's the car in our sterile coney left before i put up me i want to show you something here in the trunk if you see these weights in the rear here there's another one on this side i guess they're filled with lead or something i guess they're there to cancel on any harmonic imbalance they're very very heavy um so again i'd love to hear from somebody who's more familiar with that than i am but i guess that's what they do they're just there to to kind of to balance it i guess you know packard used to have something like that in the old on the end of each bumper they would fill with some fluid and it would it would uh help to well cancel out the harmonic imbalance all right but oh how's that stupid spare that's the original they didn't work then they don't work now the dopey tire inflators but hey come on let's put it up in the air and see what she does all right let's start at the front of the vehicle let me tell you about that hotchkiss sports suspension you got uh the sport upper and lower a-arms as you can see up in there you got the uh sports coral springs and the adjustable sway bars as well and the back we've got this sport leaf springs did i mention the four barrel on this is not a quadra jet it's the uh edelbrock there's our headers right there well that is there we go it's got that oh and of course the uh steering box too we've got that's that really makes all the diff this car steers and drives so nicely and the cool thing about all this stuff is it bolts right up um you know if it sounds like an ad for hotchkiss it's not supposed to because we should pay for our stuff but you know when suppliers are good and it works i think you you should support them you know it drives the bad people out and the good people in you know um you got the sub-frame connectors there that steering box we're back up there again can you get a shot up there uh what is that 12 to 1 12 to 1 ratio whatever uh you got the chassis brace underneath here take a look at that okay and you got the machine tie rod sleeves as well uh you know we want radial tires on this and radial tires uh increase the caster to increase i guess the grip right you know stock suspension even the reproduction stuff doesn't work with doesn't work with um radial tires because of the suspension geometry it says we kept the stock mirroring ratio on this which i think i remember oh and of course hotchkiss suspension there we go there the shocks and there's our wilwood disc brakes on all four wheels you know the fun thing is you take something like this which is a six cylinder and you make a great handling car out of it and the power is secondary most cars of this period it's that straight line power and then you're sort of bobbing and weaving in the corners whereas with this thing it's the exact opposite you use all the power all the time is it fast yeah it's reasonably quick but it's certainly not fast like a 389 would be in it or a big 400 but it handles so much better you just sort of you you can bring it it's i can't describe it you'll you'll see it when we drive it you you know the steering box right there it just makes it so nice it's so precise you move your hand in the slightest and immediately responds this brace right here that gives you some tightening up a bit and those those are the sport leaf springs as well now this all works really good i'm quite pleased with this and i i thank john hotchkiss and of course uh year one and all these guys for making this stuff available we can save these cars come on let's put it on the ground we'll take it for a ride [Music] i gotta say this is one of the easiest restorations we've done because everything is available that's what's it just me i'm so used to scrounging for parts and everything fits you know this firebird is like the quintessential california car i mean i was looking for a coupe but i'm so glad i got this convertible because i really enjoy it and it's not about the power it's just about the handling i mean you put your foot in it goes pretty good it's fine that's kind of a different sound i almost always like the first generation of any new car first generation mustang first generation camaro first generation firebird they seem to get it right the first time then after that they could figure it's like a mini cooper when it came out oh it's the perfect set now the big thing with four doors it's huge although i give credit to uh dodge you know the challenger body has not changed and what is probably 12 13 years but they keep refining it making a little bit better oh i just realized when i was up on the lips i forgot to point out the uh tremec transmission you know this thing just shifts so nicely you know the funny thing is you buy old cars with 70 80 100 000 miles on them and they shift okay sometimes but it's not that crispness you get with a brand new transmission and that's what i love about this thing you know it pretty much bolted right in uh looks stock well the shift is a little bit different a little thicker but it's such a pleasure to shift it i just enjoy up shifting and downshifting with the six you do a lot of shifting believe me and the five speed really makes it because you can cruise at fairly high highway speed 75.80 no problem when i got this car it had about 90 something thousand miles on it uh and now this engine's been completely rebuilt and with those new rock arms i don't think we'll have any problems for a long long time yeah cut to me stuck by the side of the road but no i don't i think uh i use this thing to run around to go to work every day it's really great it's just a wonderful car and people seem to get a kick out of it because it looks 100 stock i really believe the 15 inch wheels they should have done that from the factory in the beginning because it fills out the wheel wells nicely and i wanted to use a pontiac wheel so i didn't want to put you know american bags or something on it you know that chassis bracing you really can't feel it especially there's no flexing of this no creaking when you go around corners everything's tight everything's exact no brake fade stops boom like that and it's amazing what a difference radial tires make on a car you know i've got a 37 cord and that had just some kind of bias fly on it and i thought it handled poorly just because of the design and it was that it was front wheel drive then i put a set of radials on it balanced them oh my god it was like a brand new car i mean i couldn't believe how nicely it rode in drought i love looking at that hood tack it just makes me laugh just pin the tack every time you drive it it's fun and there's six of course a little lighter than the v8 so i think that makes a difference too in the handling but the great thing is with the aftermarket you not only make these cars like new you make them better than new i mean this stops better it handles better i mean everything is just better and it's and it still looks stock uh the rescue mod in this is so slight edelbrock set a quadrajet you know little things like that all the steering box suspension pieces but visually it looks the same this is the perfect road for this thing it really does handle like a sports car i know that sounds silly but don't knock it see you trying to john delorean is the guy who really turned pontiac motor division around it's a shame i don't know if you saw that netflix documentary framing john delorean i didn't watch it because i thought oh framing john delorean like he was framed you know to me anybody gets caught with 10 kilos of coke but then it turned out that wasn't the case and then it turned out uh he did some pretty unsavory things you know and it's a classic case of when i don't know whether good people do bad things or bad people do good thing or whatever you want to call it but he was extremely successful he could have done so much more without forging documents and trying to pull scams and you know it's a shame he had some good ideas the delorean car was was not one of them i mean the basic idea was pretty good but you know i'm always amazed when i see people that say oh the big three were afraid of him and you don't sell that many stainless steel gold wing door cars most people don't want gold wing north you'll always sell a few and it's a shame a brilliant guy a great engineer it's very sad the way it turned out but he did some great things with pontiac motor division i gotta give him credit there you know in europe they don't have the same disdain for the six cylinder that we do you know it's always like that commercial you could have had a v8 that's why people like the v8 but it's just so different than usual when you get among enthusiasts they have all kinds of questions about them i mean i've seen this with weber carburetors and all sorts of trick stuff done to them a little bit fun to see if they had developed a dual overhead cam setup like the jag that would have been great anyway i hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane uh maybe this is a piece of uh gm history you didn't know about so if you learned something that's great and i hope you found it entertaining it's certainly fun to drive and uh if you're thinking of using any of those pieces i that i talked about whether it's year one or or tremec or wilwood couldn't recommend them higher see you guys next week thanks [Music] huh

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 524,598

Keywords: Pontiac, Firebird, Sprint, John DeLorean, six cylinder, overhead cam, GM, General Motors, American Cars, 60s cars, car porn, gearhead, restoration, restomod, restoration blog

Id: S5gWSWH053Y

Length: 23min 49sec (1429 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 29 2021