Pontiac Firebird 1968 images

This 1968 Pontiac Firebird looks like a straightforward turquoise survivor until you start checking the option sheet. Buyers that year could walk away with anything from a mild inline-six to a 400 Ram Air-cubic-inch V8 most dealers never bothered to stock. Pontiac built over 107,000 Firebirds for 1968, but the ones equipped like the rarer examples still command serious attention from collectors. Here’s what made this early pony car more complicated than its badge let on.

In 1968 the entry level Firebird is powered by the same 230 block previously offered, but it has a longer stroke this year and is now 250 cu in (4.1 L), with the one barrel carb, it puts out 175 hp (130 kW). Â The old 326 has been shelved and replaced by the Pontiac 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8, which delivers 265 hp ( 198 kW) with the basic two barrel carburetor. The top of the list for power beginning in ’68 is an “H.O.” version of the 350 (actually 355 cu in) with it’s hotter cam, will produce 320 hp (240 kW). To put the torque to the wheels there are the choices of a 2 or 3 speed automatic as well as the 3 or 4 speed standard transmission.

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A pale turquoise 1968 Firebird sitting on a showroom floor doesn’t look like it’s hiding anything. But peer past the chrome trim and one-piece Astro-Ventilation glass — a quiet running change most buyers never noticed — and there’s a bigger story about what Pontiac almost didn’t build that year. The base six-cylinder under this car’s hood was already old news by 1968, stretched out to squeeze a few more horses from a design GM wanted retired. What buyers really wanted was tucked further down the order sheet, in an engine option most dealers barely stocked. Just how far Pontiac was willing to push the Firebird’s muscle in only its second model year is the part the brochure glossed over.

The Engine Pontiac Didn’t Advertise Loudly

Beyond the 350 cubic-inch options most 1968 Firebirds left the factory with, Pontiac’s real weapon for buyers in the know was the 400-cubic-inch Ram Air V8, rated at 335 horsepower with functional hood scoops feeding a recalibrated Quadrajet — replaced mid-year by the even hotter Ram Air II at 340 horsepower. Few dealers pushed the option hard, and fewer buyers checked the box, which is exactly why Ram Air-equipped ’68 Firebirds are among the most sought-after examples on the collector market today. (A genuine factory 428 never made it into a Firebird — that big-inch V8 stayed under the hoods of Pontiac’s full-size cars, though outfits like Royal Pontiac would drop one in for buyers willing to go outside the factory order sheet.) It was less about outright horsepower and more about making a statement in a segment that was still figuring out what a pony car should be.

A Second Model Year, and Already Changing

Pontiac built 107,112 Firebirds for the 1968 model year — 90,152 hardtop coupes and 16,960 convertibles — a healthy jump that proved the nameplate wasn’t a one-year fad. Styling stayed close to the 1967 original, but the switch to one-piece Astro-Ventilation side glass, replacing the old vent windows, was the year’s most visible update. Pricing started around 2,785 and climbed from there once options like the Ram Air 400 were checked off, putting a well-equipped Firebird within reach of buyers cross-shopping the Camaro and the Barracuda.

Why This Color, This Trim, Still Turns Heads

More than five decades on, clean first-generation Firebirds like this one are drawing renewed attention from collectors who grew up idolizing the Trans Am but couldn’t afford one new. The turquoise-over-turquoise combination photographed here was a factory-available color, not a repaint chasing trend, which matters to buyers who care about originality. Engine bay presentation, dash condition, and matching-numbers status all factor heavily into what a 1968 Firebird commands at auction today, and cars that left the factory with the less common 350 H.O. or 400 Ram Air tend to command a real premium over base six-cylinder survivors.

Born Alongside the Camaro, Not Long After It

The Firebird arrived in February 1967, a few months after Chevrolet’s Camaro launched, sharing the same GM F-body platform underneath a distinctly Pontiac-flavored exterior. That shared-platform arrangement let Pontiac get a genuine pony car to market quickly without the enormous engineering cost of developing an entirely new chassis from scratch, a common GM strategy that also produced closely related pairs like the Chevy Nova and Pontiac Ventura in other segments.

The Engineer Who Shaped Pontiac’s Whole Image

Much of the Firebird’s early identity traces back to John DeLorean, Pontiac’s chief engineer and later general manager during this period, whose influence on the division’s performance image extended from the GTO through the Firebird and beyond. DeLorean pushed Pontiac toward a more youthful, performance-oriented brand identity throughout the 1960s, and the Firebird’s launch fit squarely into that broader strategy of positioning Pontiac as GM’s performance division for buyers who wanted more excitement than Chevrolet but couldn’t quite justify a Corvette.

Ram Air’s Lineage Ran Straight Into the Trans Am

The Ram Air induction concept featured on this car’s optional 400-cubic-inch V8 didn’t disappear after the first-generation Firebird’s run ended. Ram Air branding and functional hood-scoop induction carried directly into the second-generation Firebird and its Trans Am variant beginning in 1970, becoming one of the signature performance features associated with the Trans Am nameplate for years afterward. Understanding that lineage helps explain why Ram Air options on any first-generation Firebird carry outsized significance today — they represent the direct ancestor of a feature that later became inseparable from Pontiac’s most famous performance nameplate.

A Second Model Year Still Finding Its Footing

Still just in its second model year, the Firebird was very much a work in progress by 1968, with Pontiac making running engineering changes — like the switch to one-piece Astro-Ventilation glass covered elsewhere on this car’s story — that reflected a platform still being refined in real time rather than a finished design coasting on its first-year momentum. That willingness to make mid-cycle improvements so early in the model’s life speaks to how seriously Pontiac was taking the pony car segment, rather than simply riding out the Camaro’s coattails with minimal changes.

The Firebird’s Next Chapter Was Already Being Planned

Pontiac was already planning the Firebird’s next major chapter while this 1968 car was still on dealer lots. The second-generation Firebird arrived for the 1970 model year with an entirely new body and, within a year, an increasingly performance-focused Trans Am variant that would go on to define the nameplate’s reputation for the following decade. That transition means a first-generation car like this 1968 example represents a genuinely different chapter of Firebird history than the cars most casual enthusiasts picture when they hear the name today.

Why First-Generation Firebirds Live in the Trans Am’s Shadow

Ask a casual muscle car fan to picture a Pontiac Firebird and there’s a good chance they’ll describe a second-generation Trans Am — screaming chicken hood graphic included — rather than a first-generation car like this one. That imbalance in public recognition has kept first-generation Firebirds comparatively undervalued relative to their genuine historical importance as the platform’s foundation, which makes clean, well-optioned survivors like this turquoise example an appealing entry point for collectors who appreciate the nameplate’s full history rather than just its most famous decade.

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