The car you’re looking at right now is dead, assassinated ten years ago by company bean-counters more interested in making bland SUVs for soccer mums than hardcore muscle machines that breathed fire and melted polar
ice-caps in equal measure.



Luckily, though, since the last Pontiac Firebird Trans Am rolled off the GM corporate production line in 2002,  a dedicated movement of enthusiasts have performed CPR on  this Yankee icon — a car that debuted
in 1967, and is so American its engine note revs to the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner. Probably.The Firebird’s latest kiss of life has been administered by Hurst Performance Vehicles and Trans Am Depot, who’ve created a version that, while true to its retro ’70s roots style-wise (the gold, hood-mounted Screaming Chicken is pure Smokey and the Bandit), has all the goodies you’d expect from a modern muscle car.



We’re talking 6.2-litre 403kW V8 engine, Eibach suspension kit and forged wheels, while the interior gets buttock-caressing two-tone leather and cool Trans Am stitching. Of course, all this bespoke styling means a bespoke price (on application only), but sometimes, it’s not all about the money..