The REAL Story of the Pontiac Firebird Hood Bird

May 23, 2025 5 CommentsBill Porter, John Schinella, Ted Schroeder, Videos

Sketch by Ted Schroeder

The Story Behind the Creation of the Firebird Hood Graphic

Bill Porter started it; Bill Mitchell hated it; John Schinella resurrected it and managed to sell it to Mitchell.

Original Motor Car granted permission to post this video on Dean’s Garage. This video is a part of a larger work yet to be released entitled Norwood Legends.

5 Comments

May 23, 2025 at 4:16 am

DICK RUZZIN

WOW.
What an incredible opening sketch.
If you ever wanted an example of a professionally done, dynamic and memorable sketch, made by a professional automobile, designer, that’s it.
May 23, 2025 at 9:55 am

Chris Dowdey

WOW. Amazing inspirational
Gifted, talented GM Designers.
Great story about the evolution
of an idea to reality.
Porter was just so engaging.
Great story Dean. Yes, agree with Ruzzin that sketch is beyond amazing. Schinella, what a gifted,
Talented Designer.
May 23, 2025 at 1:16 pm

Sheldon Payne

The ‘79 T/A was our 3rd Firebird, but I chose not to order the large Firebird graphic for the hood. The reason was I saw Ron Hill’s car in the executive garage, and looked really good in dark green without a hood decal and no deck spoiler…the overall effect being like the car was kind of stealthy. As it turned out, I didn’t consult my wife, whose car it was intended to be, and she was truly disappointed when we took delivery. What we had was a dark metallic brown over tan car, complete with the last of the real Pontiac 6.6L V8s, manual transmission and the WS6 performance package but no bird on the hood! Not a good decision, especially when it came time to sell it on. (Happy to say we’re still married, but she does bring up that decision every now and then.)
May 24, 2025 at 8:59 am

Ed Matula

Great video of the Pontiac Firebird hood birds creation. Good ideas are not always accepted initially. The public will let you know if a new icon will sell.
May 26, 2025 at 1:28 pm

Todd Duhnke

That was fascinating. Thanks Gary!

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