How is it that two cars, on the same platform, built in the same year from the same company, could be so alarmingly different? GM’s F-body might have kept the musclecar flame burning through the dark days of the 1970s, but in reality, Pontiac should shoulder 90% of the credit for keeping performance alive. Seriously…in 1974, performance was all but dead in the world. The AMC Javelin, Plymouth Barracuda, and Dodge Challenger were wrapping up their lifetimes. The AMC would kinda-sorta morph into the Matador coupe (that isn’t entirely accurate, but it’s as close as a replacement as anything else in AMC’s lineup), while the Mopar E-body twins were dead in the water. 1974 was the arrival of the Mustang II, with not even a weak-kneed 302 in sight.
The Camaro and Firebird really didn’t stray too far from their roots compared to their rivals. But the Camaro and Firebird were two different mindsets. Over at Chevrolet, the second stage of the second-gen cars arrived with the shovelnose front bumper and the railroad tie hung off the back. That wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the power levels had tanked like the Edmund Fitzgerald, the suspension was softer than a New Yorker’s leather seats, and the Z28 was going up on the kill list. Outside of a couple fringe-edge builders (see also: the Baldwin-Motion Phase III that was shipped to Iran), the Camaro was happily slipping into the earth tones and mellow vibes of the Seventies.
Nobody told anybody at Pontiac anything. There was the early signs of the Brougham vs. Muscle Car civil war starting to stir, but for 1974, Pontiac still had their stuff going. Yeah, the GTO went to the Ventura platform, but if you consider their lineup, you had a hot junior supercar with the GTO, a stout intermediate with the Grand Am, and then there was the Trans Am. Herb Adams did see the writing on the wall when it came to engine power and performance. He then took out a permanent marker, drew something very crude over said writing, and continued to crank out hot-shit engines that could still play with the older, meaner machines for as long as he could.
You’re damn right I’d throw the whole farm at this one if I could.
