krisb410

iTrader: (9)

After searching, I still haven't found out who designed the 3rd gen camaro and/or firebird. Anybody got some info for me?

Mikos_89

Jerry Palmer was the chief lead designer for the 3rd gen F-body. Palmer also assisted in the design of the C4 Corvette and the 1987 Beretta.

Go here http://www.corvettemuseum.com/librar...f/palmer.shtml

There's a very good book published circa 1981 called "Camaro: The Third Generation" by Michael Lamm that gives a indepth account of the design and development of the 3rd F-body.

okfoz

did he also design the Firebird??

John

CYARS92

Hard to pin it to one person, but work actually started in 1975.
One studio did the layout & configuration and another did the actual identity/design. It was actually designed to be either front or rear wheel drive, with the final decision not being made until shortly before production! (gulp)
Jerry Palmer & Bill Porter headed up each studio & knew the bird & camaro would share the same basic body.
I'm not really this knowledgable, but I like to read.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I've got the first printing from 1981 and the 3rd printing from 1987. Outstanding book!

3rdgenparts

iTrader: (8)

Ya I have the 1982 Trans am book from the same author as well,It has
LOTS of cool facts and prototype pics

Mikos_89

John, like CYARS92 mentioned, I believe Bill Porter was head of design over at Pontiac at the time and presided over the "aero" theme they went with on the 3rd gen Firebird.

The Chevy design studio establishes the important things. Front windshield rake, rear hatch shape, upper green house, basic dimensions including wheelbase and general proportions. The Pontiac design studio picks it up much later in the process and designs their own elements that will go on the car. Things like the sloping front fenders, flip up headlights, upper character line running through the C-pillar section, etc...etc.

Originally, the Pontiac designers wanted to go with a quad flip up headlight arrangement for the Firebird. Similar to what they did later on the 4th gens from '98-'02. Unfortunately, the bean counters at GM said no and they had to reluctantly go with a single rectangular headlight pod for the flip up lights.

Pontiac always had to share the basic design theme with Chevy. The 1st gen, 2nd gen, 3rd gen and 4th gens were all the same way. Chevy does most of the development work while Pontiac steps in later and "tweaks" it to give it their own unique styling elements.

In the case of the 3rd gen though, they had to "share" the same basic door skins with the Camaro. Undoubtably, a concession they had to make to allow for the pop up headlights they wanted for the 3rd gen Firebird.

tom3

Kind of interesting to see how similiar the rear drive F-bodys are to the front drive Cutlass type cars are. I always wondered if there was any real design intent to use the same structure in some ways.