The 1971 Pontiac Firebird Pegasus concept

The 1958 Pontiac Firebird III

The Firebird III was the first space age inspired car by General Motors. The Firebird III has an aerodynamic fiberglass body and is pearlescent silver-gold in color. It has a wide, tapered nose, twin plastic bubble canopies over the passengers and a high dorsal fin at the tail. The car's most significant single feature, its control system, features combined and improved versions of "no-hands" steering and the single-stick Unicontrol introduced separately by GM Research Laboratories.

The 1956 Pontiac Firebird II

The Firebird II represented a progress report on the feasibility of gas turbine powered vehicles. Unlike the original, single-seat Firebird I that developed exhaust temperatures of more than 1250 degrees F, the four-passenger Firebird II featured a regenerative gas turbine engine that operated nearly 1000 degrees cooler. Other innovations included the first use of wheel disc brakes, fully independent four-wheel suspension and the sophisticated electronic guidance system for use on the "electronic highway of the future."

The 1954 Pontiac Firebird I

The idea of the Firebird originated with Harley Earl who also designed its fibreglass, reinforced plastic body. The car's Whirlfire Turbo-Power engine and the chassis were developed under the direction of GM Vice President Charles McCuen, general manager of GM Research Laboratories Division. The aircraft motif is evident in the car's "needle" nose, delta wings swept back over the rear of the body, a vertical tail fin and a plastic bubble over the driver's cockpit. Mechanically, the gas turbine of the Firebird is the reverse of conventional automobiles. In the nose, ahead of the driver is a 35-gallon glass fibre-plastic fuel tank. Behind the driver is an integrated power "package" with an engine consisting of two mechanically independent parts - the gasifier section and the power section.