The Pontiac formula Firehawk gave no external indication that it was the second coming of Godzilla, but street performance would never be the same. This was a super hot American Hot-Rod whose one purpose in life was to go damn fast, and it did that with thrilling effectiveness. Compared to any of the touted high performance Pontiacs, the Formula Firehawk was Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde or Superman to Clark Kent. Unlike the Firefox high-performance experiment, the Firehawk was the street-legal, SLP modified Firebird you could actually buy from your friendly neighborhood Pontiac merchant. Built to be competitive in the IMSA Bridgestone Potenza Supercar showroom stock racing series, the Pontiac Firehawk was a no-holds-barred race car for the street. Though the car’s name came from the Firestone Firehawk tires on which it rode, the car was ineligible to compete in the Firehawk racing series. Some were raced, but most ended up crawling the drive-ins of America. Be afraid.
The interior was unchanged except for a new console over the Corvettes ZF 6-speed manual gearbox. Some options were a Simpson 5-point harness in a 6 point roll cage. SLP modified the stock 5.7 liter V8 with upgraded Pistons, rods, crank, and a proprietary high-flow, downdraft TPI intake manifold to retrieve 350 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque. The outrigger elements of the intake lengthen the runners to improve low-rpm torque.
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