1977-1980 Pontiac Firebird Esprit Special Editions: Birds of a Different Color

1977 Pontiac Firebird Sky Bird

1970’s era Firebirds often evoke images of big V8’s and tire smoking antics. Pontiac recognized that for every V8 powered Trans-Am that it sold, four or five V6 powered cars would leave dealerships, often to women. Women had become 30% of the Firebird market by 1977 and as much as 40% of the specialty Firebird market. Potential Firebird buyers regardless of sex may have appreciated the gruff image of the Trans-Am, but practical measures made it necessary to offer more low-key (and insurable) models.

1980 Yellow Bird

While these grand touring “Color birds” were being released, Pontiac did not forget the Trans-Am buyer as it released special color editions of the Trans-Am like the 1978 Gold Edition and the Black and Gold Editions in 1980-1981 of the Turbo Trans-Am. The notion of color coding wheels to a car was not new for Pontiac, who had been doing it as early as 1973 with early Firebirds, Grand Ams and  GTO’s.

Sky Bird Logo

To that end, Pontiac figured out that it could make the bread-and-butter Esprit models more appealing (and profitable) by simply adding color coordinated flair and a few choice decals that might appeal to the fairer sex (or less macho men). Starting around 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.

Sky Bird was a wonderful excuse to make a pretty bird logo just for this car. Even Ford was putting bird-like things on the hood of its Cobra Mustang. Finished with a light blue exterior and interior; The Sky Bird marked a juncture where automakers got serious about marketing to women. 1978 and ’79 were great sales years for the Firebird (318,000+) and Pontiac could not resist releasing more special editions, sometimes overlapping in availability. The Sky Bird actually made its debut at the 1976 Chicago Auto Show as “Blue Bird” before appearing in dealer lots. Others would follow with 1978-79 being the years of the Red Bird, followed by the Yellow Bird for 1980-81.  For 1978, Pontiac was marketing special color versions of the Trans-Am (Solar Gold), Formula (Mayan Red) and the Lumbard Blue Skybird which returned for the model year. Many of these color cars overlapped but were not available at all dealerships.

1979 Red Bird Interior

These cars were always Esprits, usually with 3.8 or 4.1L V6/I6 engines. Some may have been ordered with one of the smaller optional V8s (265/302-cu). With just over 100 hp the 1977 Sky Bird was not the fastest car around when saddled with the smaller V6. The later optional Chevrolet built 350-cu V8 had all of 170 hp. Most Esprit buyers were more interested in looks and comfort than raw performance anyway. The light weight of the Base model with performance was usually found in the form of the Formula.

The Esprit based color cars were all about grand touring comfort, with a hint of performance (more handling than straight line grunt). Being pretty was the “Color bird” car’s reason for being. Pontiac would color code nearly everything from the taillight lenses and wheels down to the door handles. The famous machined instrument panel from the Trans-Am was even color coded, often to match the exteriors of the Color bird edition cars.

1979 Red Bird

Total sales numbers for the Color bird cars are hard to come by. Pontiac records were sketchy and the cars seemed to be released on a haphazard schedule that responded to previous quarter sales numbers. The “ColorCar” craze seemed to die out with the release of the next-gen Firebird in 1982, but similar special editions would be released with much less frequency. If you just so happen to own a blue, red or yellow 1977-1981 Firebird and want to add your car among the flock of Color birds or stand out at the next Firebird show, a GM approved decal kit is available from 78ta.com. The company sells kits for each of the color series for just over $100 giving base or Esprit the look of one of these beautiful and rare birds.

1977-78 Firebird Esprit Sky Bird