I’m pretty sure we all know that sinking feeling of regret. When you know you’ve done something stupid, that just can’t be undone. Maybe it’s crashing a car, maybe it’s walking in on your parents, or maybe it’s selling your pride and joy. In some situations the feeling kicks in straight away, while in others, it takes much longer to rear its ugly, unwanted head. For Daniel Vincent, it was the latter — the long, slow increasing feeling of regret about selling his dream car.

Sure, he replaced it with other cars, plenty of them in fact, but nothing could ever match the feeling that he got when he was behind the wheel of his ’67 Camaro. Like most custom car owners though, Daniel always likes to be a bit different, and prefers not have a car the same as anyone else’s. So what do you do when you’re in this situation? The more he thought about it, the more the idea of (more…)

If you think Stephen Farmer’s Pontiac looks good from the top, wait till you see what’s hiding underneath.

It’s all too common these days to find cars that look like the toughest thing since Jake the Muss, but which lack any real substance underneath it all. So it’s refreshing when you stumble upon a car such as Stephen Farmer’s 1968 Pontiac Firebird, which is far more than initially meets the eye.

From the outset, it’s easy to see the car has been well-built, although it’s fair to say it looks more like Jake the Muss wearing lipstick and a summer dress than it does anything tough. However, the car could be compared to some sort of archaeologist’s dream. The more you dig and look, the more you find, including things that you didn’t know ever existed, and parts that have never before been seen on this side of the globe.

Bird Of Prey

Given the spare-no-expense quality of the Firebird, it’s perhaps surprising to learn that Stephen had never previously owned a muscle car. He was, however, lucky enough to grow up around American iron. “I remember the late ’60s when dad had a ’68 Pontiac Laurentian with bench seats, with the same peaked nose, and the days when we’d go to Browns Bay for holidays; it was miles away then. I have great memories of that car, but now I’m older and know a bit more, the Firebird is a better car.”

But why, after all these years, build such an impressive beast? The short version goes something like this: after being around motorsport and particularly circuit racing all his life, when he returned from overseas 10 years ago Stephen got involved with International Motorsport and its owner, Lyall Williamson. International Motorsport runs a host of circuit cars, including NZV8 touring cars, Porsche Cup cars and more. “During the motorsport off-season, a lot of International Motorsport’s resources were underutilised,” Stephen says. “Lyall had recognised this in the past, and had the staff perform a few very impressive nut and bolt restorations on Mustangs and an old Porsche, although one of the Mustangs did end up with an NZV8 engine in it!”

Knowing International Motorsport had the knowledge ” thanks to Lyall and his staff ” the facilities and contacts after years of being involved in the motorsport scene, it made sense for Stephen and Lyall to join forces and create a company that could work alongside the motorsport business and focus on creating vehicles such as the Pontiac that Stephen was dreaming of. And so International Performance Classics was born.

The first project for the new venture was sourced and the rest is history.

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While Classic Design Concepts (CDC) isn’t trying to bring Pontiac back to life, the inspiration for its latest vehicle is obvious. Because the first thought that springs into our minds when seeing the FireBreather is that it’s a modern iteration of General Motor’s Firebird Trans-Am pony car.

Based on the 2011 Camaro this distinctive vehicle was originally created as a one-off movie car for Exxodus Pictures’ new sci-fi flick, Jinn, but the company decided to build a limited series for sale in the States. So for now, the order book is open with the maker planning to complete a run of 50 exact replicas of the FireBreather, priced at $60,000 USD a piece.

The Firebreather’s body has been completely redone with a new front fascia, headlights, bonnet, rear bumper, tailights and 20-inch wheels. In the cabin, it’s full leather with piano black trim mixed in and red ambient lighting.

The FireBreather also gets supercharged version of the Camaro’s 6.2-litre V8 with 599-horsepower plus numerous other goodies such as a cold-air induction system and a 3-inch cat-back dual exhaust.

So is everyone ready to read more of me, whopping on about myself when I should be writing about feature cars, other people and such like? Sick of hearing me going on about my personal involvement with so many cars I feature? Well I’m not. Perhaps I love the sound of my own voice a little too much. Lets get my involvement with this one over and done with, so you can move onto the important stuff. Like Bridie Hewsion I have owned a Pontiac Firebird and I can tell you they are very cool cars. Personally, and I know I’m not alone here, I love the whole front-end styling of them. The fact that even back then they had a clean look with no obvious front bumper. The 1970 Firebird Trans Am was the best of the bunch, with its functioning shaker-style hood scoop, small rear wing and muscular looking rear guards.

Tough Times For Pontiac

Pontiac, with the 1970 production run, was really up against it. Sales were down more than 20 percent and the company’s third place in the industry rankings was lost for the first time since 1960. The unpopular model of 1969 wasn’t helped by the fact there were ’69s still left over in 1970, so while they were apparently unwanted, they were still being sold on the yards new. The actual release of the 1970 model was delayed for that exact reason. There was more bad news for Pontiac and the Firebird range, and that was the collapse of the pony car market, a real pity considering that the 1970 models were the most gorgeous cars on the road. The GM Camaros were nice but, in terms of physical beauty, the Firebirds were something special.

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Classic V8 racing from Eastern Creek, genuine 1978 Group C Holden A9X Torana that raced Bathurst in 1978 and 1979; 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible; Powercruise and more

Classic V8 racing from Eastern Creek, genuine 1978 Group C Holden A9X Torana that raced Bathurst in 1978 and 1979; 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible; Powercruise and more

For those who really get a kick out of driving

1969 Tran American Road Racing Series promotional film