Thanks, Yeah, I hope so; been negotiating with RU-vid for the last few days and finally managed to get my monetization back like just a few hours ago, so hopefully I'll be posting more often in the future again 😉
I loved Rockford Files. The cars, the trailer, the dad, Gretchen Corbet and the J-turns. Well the whole series. It was fun to watch the cars switch years during a trip.
@@marko7843 True. Her name means 'pearl'. Certainly a fitting moniker. She was fine. She just came across as a very nice person. Another person that seemed genuinely nice was Mariette Hartley. She only appeared once on The Rockford Files, but did a lot of Polaroid commercials with Garner. Many people thought they were married, so much so she had a T-shirt made up that said, I am not James Garner's wife. Thanks for the reply.
LOVE ROCKFISH AS ISAAC HAYS CALLS HIM IN 2 OF THE SHOWS THAT HE APPEARED IN ..JIM GARNER WAS A KOOL DUDE ... I OWN THE 6 YR. DVD SERIES THATS AVAILABLE & IM WATCHING ONE NOW ..GO ROCKY !!!
What I found interesting is that Rockford’s mobile home was temporarily parked in the parking lot of a seaside restaurant near the beach during the filming of the show.
@@CarStarz42 The Rockford Firebirds looked ten times better than those others. They were very elegant, understated, and classy, while the General Lee and Starsky and Hutch car were overdone and gaudy looking. The '68-'70 Charger was a beautiful car in stock form, but the '75 and '76 Torinos were actually not very good looking at all. The last good looking Torino was the 1972 model.
It's worth mentioning James Garner was a veteran of Westerns. The car chases in The Rockford Files are unique because the cars could be swapped for horses and they would still make sense. The show was (and is) successful because of Garner's experience and creative input.
When I was in the USAF I went to LA for training and had to go to Universal Studios because I’m a movie buff. When we were on the tram on the back lot there was a car hauler filled with gold firebirds for the Rockford Files. Those were good days.
I always thought the Firebird was a cut above the Camaro. I recognize this is just personal taste. I detest the way GM dealt with many of the Pontiac Dealers. Very disrespectful considering many of the dealers were selling lots of cars. Again an opinion based on knowing a couple of dealership owners. Good people treated badly!
Great to see you back (although I did follow you over to Rumble)! It's interesting for me, as a kid I always liked the Trans Am more (still do) but the appreciation for a "Rockford style" Firebird has grown considerably for me. Same with the 79 Trans Am reface. I didn't care for it then, but especially on the Turbo TAs, it looks good now. Anyhow - thank you as always ~ Chuck
Thanks Chuck, yeah Rumble is a good place, but it just doesn't cut it income wise to be worth it at present anyways. However, any new videos I put out here I guess I'll put up on Rumble too, no reason not too I suppose 😉
I saw an article in a magazine about this many many years ago and Garner was in Grand Prix was a professional race car driver also and a really really good one and the article stated that he got formula 400 Firebirds with the WS6 suspension and then had them repainted the same color gold, and the cosmetics in the hood removed and basically backdated the car to us to sprayer down dated or down option the car to look like an spree, but it was really formula 400 made to look like an spree so it performed a lot better and handled way better for all the driving in the shows
Well, you're actually wrong about the model-year range... The show debuted in 1974 and NEVER had the pre-1973 bumperless front ends. They basically went from the straight-center-column grill, to the tapered "bird-beak-center" grill and at the end actually refitted the last models with that same grill because Jim & I both hated the "vacuum-nozzle-grills" used!
MY DAD BOUGHT A 75 FIREBIRD IN 76 , I GOT TO DRIVE IT IN 79 WHEN I GOT MY LICENSE AT 16 , THOSE CARS COULD HANDLE AND EVEN THOUGH THE HORSEPOWER WAS NOT MUSCLE CAR STANDARD , THEY WERE VERY TORQUEY !!! THE 400 W / A TURBO 400 WAS A SOLID COMBINATION FOR THE TIME !!!
Great video. Always loved the cleaner look of base Firebirds over Trans Ams. No shaker,no chicken,and no non functional extras. Tho I do like the Formula hood quite a bit. Has this channel done Ponch's Formula from CHiPS?
Cool accurate presentation!! I've seen a presentation on why this great car was used on the show!! He said the front end steering geometry was perfect for all the stunts they where trying to accomplished on this vehicle choice!!! For price!!! 👍🙂💙🙏🏼
PS my statement didn't actually come out correct I saw a presentation with Mr James Garner talking about why this car was used size and steering geometry!!!
I recall reading somewhere not long ago that James Garner would often take the cars home and drive them on the road as a personal vehicle outside of series filming. I can't seem to find the article again as I just kind of stumbled over it but I thought it was really cool as someone took his picture with the car and it wasn't on set or during a shoot but James just doing everyday errands like we all do with his onscreen car.
Jim Rockford wouldn't carry a gun because he thought that would get him shot, but he got pistol-whipped in every episode. That is a concussion in every episode, all one hundred and twenty-three of them.
Haha, I always got a kick out of how they would switch to different model Firebirds, one with 4 square headlights and the other with 2 round headlights. I never understood why they did that. But I didn't care because I loved that show, just recently been binge watching from episode one forward on Roku, they have them all.
Indeed, not in the same league as earlier gen birds IMHO, but here you go if you like KITT ... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sxhoWESa5ZA.html
Yeah, I tried that famous “J-Turn” with my Pontiac Sunbird…cost me $500 back then to have someone reweld the suspension mounts I ripped out trying it on a dry parking lot.
@@CarStarz42 The 1976-1980 Sunbirds (along with their cousins - Monza, Firenza) were notorious for having weak welds in the suspension. There actually was a shop in my area that specialized in fixing them - that's why it was actually pretty cheap. Of course I was an idiot kid and tried to do it again, but only on a slick asphalt parking lot - not on concrete pavement.
Hollywood don't make shows like this anymore. I'm in process of watching all the Rockwood Files by buying my ROKO device for $40. I'm watching season one from 1974... and love seeing the old cars and looking at how nice Southern CA was back in the 70's before the crowds came.
Can anyone tell me the goldish looking car that's partly out of shot at 9:36 in please as it looks remarkably like a Simca 1100 but I don't think that they were sold in the US?
Hmm, looks quite similar to an 1100, but it's not as there are some differences, like the different window frames, side markers and gas door, so it's something else, just not sure what exactly. Maybe some Datsun model perhaps?
Howdy. Yeah, had to delete some videos the other day, so putting them back up as I've been negotiating with RU-vid for the last few days and finally managed to get my monetization back like just a few hours ago, so hopefully I'll be posting more often in the future again.
'Say jim, where is your firebird i haven't seen it for over a week.' That's one thing our hard working p.i. wishes his car is available as being severely underpaid does really hurt his job ( i don't think bad guys like him at all 😅) anyway my friend, you did incredible job on this video ( p.s.i somehow forgot to add comment a month ago 😂) so with that i go so see you later bye now.
I often wonder why car manufacturers don’t reproduce classic models exactly, as they would sell like hot cakes. Who wouldn’t want a bandit style trans am?
They quite often do, but only for a limited time like anything else that has brief, but immense popularity, like the factory Bandit edition Trans-Ams and factory Starsky and Hutch edition Torinos 😉
my aunt had a rusted blue 77 firebird for 45 years and she decided to sell it or put it in a junk yard probably 5 years ago here in california it needed alot of restoring she wasn't able to afford it
Obviously not as I have of a video covering that "Firebird" on here too; Pony and muscle cars just got so "watered down" in the 80s and 90s that they really didn't even deserve the same badging as their far superior predecessor models IMHO
They should've kept the 74 nose, and the 455 4 speed. When they go changing things around too much, they lose the appeal of the vehicle. Instead of adding a bunch of emmissions crap and reducing displacement, they could've switched over to using alcohol fuel on all vehicles.
That would have been cooler indeed, but then again companies always want to place their current models first, so I get it; a "business decision" for sure.
Lol, double reruns more like, lol. However, I did fix a lot of things that were incorrect in the original video on this one though, so it's worth a re-watch 😉
@@CarStarz42 Disagree. This is why electric options have become such a... viable option. Why would any doofus build a 600 lb engine to be so weak? And why would any doofus buy a car with this? It's dumb. A 600 lb engine ought to take you from 0-60 in 3 seconds.
@@Elephant65 Well young person, at the time it was really the only thing they could to both meet new regulations that were forced upon them and be able to stay in business, they just had to make what they had meet new requirements. Also, both batteries and electric motors were very different back then to what is available today, so that kind of "conversation", would not have been feasible and even if it were, they would preform way worse with the electric tech of the the day of course no one would of bought it anyways. It was a very different time than today friend 😉
There are not 10 interesting parts in a late 70’s Firebird. I defy you to find 10 fascinating facts. 2:08 look at that “sports” car bounce around a turn..🤣
7:55 the paint on that restoration doesn't look right. It's like a mirror. Or maybe they painted it right but the lights in there are so overpowered they make everything look shiny, because shiny cars are worth more.
