Proportion Perfection

1970 Trans Am: Great Styling and the Last of the High-Squeeze Ram Air 400s.

- Barry Kluczyk

Proportion is everything in automotive design, and GM’s second-generation F-bodies had it down like Julie Newmar’s curve-hugging Catwoman costume. Free from the design constraints that came with styling the first Firebird and Camaro models on an existing architecture, the second-gen cars would have a body structure shared with no other vehicles. GM Design chief Bill Mitchell’s affinity for European touring cars drove the overall design theme, with the F-body proportions radically reimagined, pushing the passenger compartment farther back on the chassis. The result was a longer nose and fast-sloping rear profile, though surprisingly, the basic exterior dimensions weren’t all that different from the 1969 models.

The first- and second-generation cars shared a 108-inch wheelbase, and while the second-gen cars were noticeably lower, they were only fractionally wider. That longer, lower look was also reinforced with loonngg doors and the elimination of the rear quarter-windows. Those doors made it difficult to squeeze out of the car in garages and parking decks, but such was the price of proportion perfection.

While the second-generation’s F-bodies’ future was ensured with the redesign, the Pontiac Trans Am’s was not. Plans for the second-gen were well underway when the comparatively paltry 697 Trans Am models were built for 1969. The car was intended as a homologation special for the popular SCCA racing series, just like the Boss 302 and corporate cousin Camaro Z/28. Unfortunately Pontiac’s Trans-Am racing engine program was never fully realized, so the production model had no ties whatsoever to its namesake racing series.