Guess the year, make and model!

This orange Firebird’s shovel-nose front end and round headlights only appeared on Pontiac’s build sheets for a single model year. It’s also tied to the final year of the brand’s biggest V8, right before emissions rules reshaped what muscle meant. Take your guess before the reveal — the details narrow it down more than you’d expect.

Take a hard look at that fastback silhouette, the shaker hood scoop, and the deep orange paint before you scroll to see if you nailed the year. Pontiac only kept this exact “shovel-nose” front end and round headlights on the books for a single model year, which narrows things down more than most guessing games allow. It was also the last year Pontiac’s biggest engine option could exist in this form, a casualty of tightening emissions rules that nobody driving past this Firebird in a parking lot would have suspected. So does the shape in front of you belong to the last of a breed, or somewhere earlier in the second-generation Firebird’s long run?

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A One-Year-Only Face

For 1976, Pontiac reshaped the Firebird’s Endura front end into a smoother, more aerodynamic look finished with integral body-color bumpers, and paired it with round headlights used only that year before the design changed again for 1977.

The End of the 455

1976 also marked the final year for Pontiac’s 455-cubic-inch V8, which by then was rated at just 200 horsepower (185 for the standard 400-cid V8) as emissions regulations tightened around it — a steep drop from the same engine’s muscle-car-era numbers. Despite the shrinking output, the Trans Am still found roughly 46,000 buyers that year, plus a special black-and-gold 50th-anniversary edition that became one of the most recognized Firebirds ever built.

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