Pontiac Firebird Pegasus Ferrari 365 GTC/4 engine

Called Pegasus and built for GM Design Vice President W.L. Mitchell, this
modified 1971 Firebird initially ran a 3.3-liter Ferrari V-12 but when that was
deemed too weak it was replace with a 4.5-liter Ferrari engine.

Whether there is at whom that last exact information and photos of this car?

www.wallaceracing.com/pegasus.htm
www.motortrend.com/classic/features/c12_0603_1971_pontiac_firebird_pegasus
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Dude,

I have quite a few Pontiac Firebird historical publications, but have NEVER seen a picture of this car before!

Nice find........there's a well known link between GM stylist department and the Ferrari Daytona though, so this doesn't sound so far fetched, knowing that.......

 

I think I remember an article on that car and it had a Daytona motor with a C4 gear box.
John

 

I could be wrong... BUT... i have doughts that it was a C4 gear box...

Unless there is another C4 transmission other than the Ford unit... I highly doubt that the Vice President of GM had a Pontiac built with a Ferrari engine and a C4 auto from a ford...

again i could be wrong... and i could be mistaken...

 

From the Motor Trend article..

<<Details of the original installation are sketchy. Henderson recalls GM's in-house mechanical assembly folks mating the engine to a GM Turbo-Hydramatic at first (to suit Mitchell's fondness for low-effort cruising), only to find that the three-speed was ill-suited to such a highly strung engine. A Ferrari five-speed, likely from a 365GTC/4 was eventually installed. Other accounts suggest Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team had a hand in installing or setting up the 4.4-liter competition motor with high-overlap cams and big-bore Weber carbs. In any case, Pontiac engineers reportedly sorted the car out to ride and drive properly, installing Corvette four-piston rear brakes and making other modifications as necessary.>>

 

Absolutely wild...I want to hate it but I can't. The body...it...it just works.
The interior on the other hand...

Thanks for posting!

Cris

 

Who said anything about FORD?

 

Looks like quite a car.

 

Ferrari 365GTC/4s are called C4s. Nothing to do with Ford. The gear box is a 5 speed manual gear box from a Ferrari 365GTC/4 ie a C4 box.
John

 

A very good friend from college drove this car when Mitchell was still VP. [Tom S. knows exactly who I mean] He said it was disconcerting using Firebird pedal but getting Ferrari sounds. He said the engine was a Comp Daytona that came through Luigi Chinetti. The car was not for public dissemination as it was considered one of Bill Mitchell's more extravagent excesses.

Some one need to check it may have a transaxle and if so that means Daytona not C4.

Big Tex: Bill Mitchell was not the Daytona person that was his long time #2. His was yellow with wire wheels. If you can find an old R&T from the '70s there was a photo of what some of the design staff did to it with foam core to make it a pimp mobile.

Jeff

 

If it was Mitchell's car, how did it avoid a shark paint job?

 

Horsefly: metallic red with gold pin stripes was also very Mitchell. He also had a 77 Chevy Caprice 2 door that had a subtle shade difference of silver on each different surface. Sounds really wierd but actually worked since it was trying to highlight the surface changes.

Jeff

 

I assume the car is still in a private collection somewhere? Surely it didnt go to the preverbial "prototype graveyard".

Where is it now?

And of course, the following question, how much would it be worth?

James in Denver

 

Icandigit!

Jack.

 

And would it be worth more if it was returned to stock ;-)

 

Interesting thought. How do the experts arive at a value for a one of a kind vintage car of any make? The short answer is what ever you could buy it for.