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Originally Posted by njsteve
The second gen Firebirds are wonderful driving cars. There is no comparison in ride quality to a first gen car. Pontiac spent a lot of time and energy developing the ride and handling packages on these cars, much more so than Chevrolet did on the Camaro.
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Absolutely correct! Herb Adams and the engineering team did real world testing when developing the 1970 Firebird, Formula, and Trans Am suspensions. They did a lot "enthusiastic" street driving, using exit ramps and other surfaces to develop their springs, shocks, sway bars, and bushings.
Chevrolet developed the 1970 Camaro suspension with a computer, and it didn't translate as well to real world driving.
According to Witzenburg's comprehensive book on the Firebird, the Chevrolet engineers wanted the specs on the Firebird and Trans Am suspension specs. Pontiac protested, and considering all the work they put into their suspensions, GM agreed and permitted Pontiac to keep their designs proprietary.
1978-1981 WS6 cars were simply incredible back in the day.