[BR57]

Originally Posted by Gloryhound

I'm wondering if it could have been a COPO type order that put these SBC 327 engines in pontiac Firebirds. You would think if it was a standard practice to put SBC engines in the 1st gen Firebird their would also have been an option to put a BBC 396 in the cars also. Several dealers in the US placed COPO orders to meet the requirements of different racing associations. They went with the ones that were popular in their given area since it would be easier to move them. If Trans Am style racing was a big hit in Canada I'm sure GM would have obliged the dealer ships in the area with a special COPO order. If GM was able to charge more and have the car cost less it would be even more incentive to do it. Maybe I'm really barking up the wrong tree here since I have never heard of a COPO Pontiac like you do the Chevy COPO, but also on the same note Pontiac production numbers for simular cars to a chevy generally were lower, so the COPO idea was not really that big of a deal or done by such a small group of dealerships that it was not that well known of!

Just some thoughts on the chevy engine in these 1st gen Firebirds.

My compliments Gloryhound, with all these senior chiefs and yackers, me included commenting on this, your idea makes a lot of sense. GM Canada/Pontiac would have been involved in getting the cars approved to race so it makes sense that some sort of deal to knock out enough cars to qualify it could have ocurred. Since Trans Am was limited to sbc for GM there would have been no need to make any 396 Firebirds. There are orange engined Firebirds here in Canada, seen them with my own two peepers.