The Energon Pub

It's a 74...

I've been a long time fan of the GM F-platform, and between its 2 models, I'm more of a fan of the Pontiac Firebird than the Camaro. But when I was 16 I wanted an F-body so bad i was willing to settle for a camaro. And I found one I wanted to buy: It was a 1980 Camaro Z-28. Its body looked Identical to bumblebee. Unfortunatly I didn't get it because my uncle freaked my mom out and told her with a rear wheel drive car I'd wreck and die in the snow. I ended up with an '89 cavalier wagon instead.

Anyway the body style of that camaro ran from 1979-1982, before it was restyled on the 3rd Generation F-platform. Bumblebee is any one of those years.

BTW as much as I liked bumblebee the Trans Am Looked even better during those years

did a google search for 1979 Chevrolet Camaro, here's what came up:



Looks like bumblebee to me

Bumbled wrote:It's a 74...

Explain your reasoning, because a '74 doesn't have wrap around back windows, the windows shown on the older bumblebee deluxe.

The wrap around was added to the firebird and camaro in 1976 to increase visability, but prior to that, your right, no wrap around, no back windows at all

I just checked wikipedia and it lists him as a 1977 camaro. looking at the 1979 camaro the changes are very subtle between the 2 so I 77 is probably the correct answer

OK. I've owned both a '74 and '77 Camaro and those who stated that the '74 is wrong because of the rear window are spot on. The rear windows from '70 - '74 were rectangular, while from '75 - '81 they were the wrap around. Cormaster628, the second gen ran from '70 until '81, with '82 being the first year of the 3rd gen F-body. Probably the most famous being KITT. (Camaro and Firebirds both being F-bodies as he said.)

To really figure out the different years of 2nd gen Camaros, you need to pay close attention to the bumpers, headlights and taillights. That is where you will find the biggest tells. In the later years ('78 and up), the bumpers became covered in plastic (urethane), like the '79 that was posted. Note that BB has metal bumpers. From those two things (rear window and bumper) we can surmise that BB was anywhere from a '75 - '77. According to the November '06 issue of Hot Rod magazine, the movie actually used 3 cars to portray BB as a '76 Camaro.

Now here is an eBay auction for a real movie BB Clicky
Note, it says '77. Hot Rod states they are '76 according to the movie studio, but I honestly don't think that they were too picky. It's actually pretty common to substitute other year cars in films and TV. Example: The General Lee is a 1969 Charger, but the crew used numerous '68 Chargers, simply swapping the rear valence and front grills to make them look like '69s.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response, I'm also a car nut and it's been bothering me seeing people use the wrong years on here for BB. Oh! And here is a great resource for anyone who wants more info on the differences between model years of 2nd gen Camaros: Clicky

And a bit of trivia about BB's 5th gen mode: At the time of filming, Chevy didn't have any road worthy Camaros around, so they gave the mold from the concept to Saleen who used them to make the body. They used an '04 GTO chassis as the underpinnings and quite a few of the parts were VERY non-functional.

-Brandon

Justicity wrote:

Bumbled wrote:It's a 74...

Explain your reasoning, because a '74 doesn't have wrap around back windows, the windows shown on the older bumblebee deluxe.

How about in the movie? Does it have wrap around?

Auto Bot wrote:

Justicity wrote:

Bumbled wrote:It's a 74...

Explain your reasoning, because a '74 doesn't have wrap around back windows, the windows shown on the older bumblebee deluxe.

How about in the movie? Does it have wrap around?

... Yes...


(Found after searching "Bumblebee" & "Bumblebee transformers" respectively)

Justicity wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:

Justicity wrote:

Bumbled wrote:It's a 74...

Explain your reasoning, because a '74 doesn't have wrap around back windows, the windows shown on the older bumblebee deluxe.

How about in the movie? Does it have wrap around?

... Yes...


(Found after searching "Bumblebee" & "Bumblebee transformers" respectively)

Then that settles it.

LowVolticus wrote:OK. I've owned both a '74 and '77 Camaro and those who stated that the '74 is wrong because of the rear window are spot on. The rear windows from '70 - '74 were rectangular, while from '75 - '81 they were the wrap around. Cormaster628, the second gen ran from '70 until '81, with '82 being the first year of the 3rd gen F-body. Probably the most famous being KITT. (Camaro and Firebirds both being F-bodies as he said.)

To really figure out the different years of 2nd gen Camaros, you need to pay close attention to the bumpers, headlights and taillights. That is where you will find the biggest tells. In the later years ('78 and up), the bumpers became covered in plastic (urethane), like the '79 that was posted. Note that BB has metal bumpers. From those two things (rear window and bumper) we can surmise that BB was anywhere from a '75 - '77. According to the November '06 issue of Hot Rod magazine, the movie actually used 3 cars to portray BB as a '76 Camaro.

Now here is an eBay auction for a real movie BB Clicky
Note, it says '77. Hot Rod states they are '76 according to the movie studio, but I honestly don't think that they were too picky. It's actually pretty common to substitute other year cars in films and TV. Example: The General Lee is a 1969 Charger, but the crew used numerous '68 Chargers, simply swapping the rear valence and front grills to make them look like '69s.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response, I'm also a car nut and it's been bothering me seeing people use the wrong years on here for BB. Oh! And here is a great resource for anyone who wants more info on the differences between model years of 2nd gen Camaros: Clicky

And a bit of trivia about BB's 5th gen mode: At the time of filming, Chevy didn't have any road worthy Camaros around, so they gave the mold from the concept to Saleen who used them to make the body. They used an '04 GTO chassis as the underpinnings and quite a few of the parts were VERY non-functional.

-Brandon

Yeah I just read about the GTO Chassis, thats crazy. Sorry about getting some info wrong, but I was always more of a firebird guy rather than a Camaro guy. I knew when the generation ended just off by one year.

Cormaster628 wrote:Yeah I just read about the GTO Chassis, thats crazy. Sorry about getting some info wrong, but I was always more of a firebird guy rather than a Camaro guy. I knew when the generation ended just off by one year.

I hope I didn't come off as an ass, sorry if I did. I tend to get a little overzealous about cars, and coupled with the fact that I have a 5 day old daughter I think my etiquette may need some work!

And I agree with you about Firebirds. Something about them, even though they are nearly the same as Camaros, really does it for me. In fact, I just picked up a '76 T/A!

-Brandon

Cormaster628 wrote:

LowVolticus wrote:OK. I've owned both a '74 and '77 Camaro and those who stated that the '74 is wrong because of the rear window are spot on. The rear windows from '70 - '74 were rectangular, while from '75 - '81 they were the wrap around. Cormaster628, the second gen ran from '70 until '81, with '82 being the first year of the 3rd gen F-body. Probably the most famous being KITT. (Camaro and Firebirds both being F-bodies as he said.)

To really figure out the different years of 2nd gen Camaros, you need to pay close attention to the bumpers, headlights and taillights. That is where you will find the biggest tells. In the later years ('78 and up), the bumpers became covered in plastic (urethane), like the '79 that was posted. Note that BB has metal bumpers. From those two things (rear window and bumper) we can surmise that BB was anywhere from a '75 - '77. According to the November '06 issue of Hot Rod magazine, the movie actually used 3 cars to portray BB as a '76 Camaro.

Now here is an eBay auction for a real movie BB Clicky
Note, it says '77. Hot Rod states they are '76 according to the movie studio, but I honestly don't think that they were too picky. It's actually pretty common to substitute other year cars in films and TV. Example: The General Lee is a 1969 Charger, but the crew used numerous '68 Chargers, simply swapping the rear valence and front grills to make them look like '69s.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response, I'm also a car nut and it's been bothering me seeing people use the wrong years on here for BB. Oh! And here is a great resource for anyone who wants more info on the differences between model years of 2nd gen Camaros: Clicky

And a bit of trivia about BB's 5th gen mode: At the time of filming, Chevy didn't have any road worthy Camaros around, so they gave the mold from the concept to Saleen who used them to make the body. They used an '04 GTO chassis as the underpinnings and quite a few of the parts were VERY non-functional.

-Brandon

Yeah I just read about the GTO Chassis, thats crazy. Sorry about getting some info wrong, but I was always more of a firebird guy rather than a Camaro guy. I knew when the generation ended just off by one year.

The community i live in does not have these muscle cars.

But i've known and heard of Firebird and Transam long ago. It's like a typical American muscle. Together with Mustang.

I've never heard of Camaro up until recently, with the concept car. And later on, in the Transformers Movie.

I know, i know. I live in a cave.

Whats really tragic is Bumblebee will not have a pontiac sister. In these years of retro styling cars, with the new mustang and new Dodge Challenger coming out, seems like a travesty to not see a modern incarnation of say the 77 trans am "Bandit". Of all the muscle cars I'd say the General Lee and the Bandit are easily the 2 most recognizable.

There is a Zeta car coming out for pontiac, the G8, but its the Grand Prix Replacement. Its a RWD full size family car, while the Camaro will be much smaller, weigh less, and be lower to the ground. While the G8 is nice it is no Firebird replacement.

Still think it was the dumbest move ever by GM to kill off the F-platform. Here's a photoshop rendering of a 2008 Trans Am based off the Camaro concept:


Now THAT would be a good Barricade Killer! lol

Cormaster628 wrote:Whats really tragic is Bumblebee will not have a pontiac sister. In these years of retro styling cars, with the new mustang and new Dodge Challenger coming out, seems like a travesty to not see a modern incarnation of say the 77 trans am "Bandit". Of all the muscle cars I'd say the General Lee and the Bandit are easily the 2 most recognizable.

There is a Zeta car coming out for pontiac, the G8, but its the Grand Prix Replacement. Its a RWD full size family car, while the Camaro will be much smaller, weigh less, and be lower to the ground. While the G8 is nice it is no Firebird replacement.

Still think it was the dumbest move ever by GM to kill off the F-platform. Here's a photoshop rendering of a 2008 Trans Am based off the Camaro concept:


Now THAT would be a good Barricade Killer! lol

Wow! What a beauty! They should make this Movie Cliffjumper. Instead of a BB repaint.

It's so much easy for Hasbro to make a Cliffjumper out of it. Just put in a new front facia mold, and a new head sculp.

Cormaster628 wrote:Whats really tragic is Bumblebee will not have a pontiac sister. In these years of retro styling cars, with the new mustang and new Dodge Challenger coming out, seems like a travesty to not see a modern incarnation of say the 77 trans am "Bandit". Of all the muscle cars I'd say the General Lee and the Bandit are easily the 2 most recognizable.

There is a Zeta car coming out for pontiac, the G8, but its the Grand Prix Replacement. Its a RWD full size family car, while the Camaro will be much smaller, weigh less, and be lower to the ground. While the G8 is nice it is no Firebird replacement.

Still think it was the dumbest move ever by GM to kill off the F-platform. Here's a photoshop rendering of a 2008 Trans Am based off the Camaro concept:


Now THAT would be a good Barricade Killer! lol

Of course Pontiac is going to have a 2 door Zeta car. It's just not going to be called Firebird. GTO was already approved along with Camaro and G8. The zeta Impala and other possibles such as Buicks are on indefinite hold for now.

It's good GM finally killed the FBody, so that the names could eventually be used by GOOD cars. Don't get me wrong, I own a 2002 Firebird Formula with the LS1 and love the power and style, but everything else about the car is 30 year old tech. And it's a real tooth rattler.

And like I posted days ago, and LowVolticus posted, BB was a series of 76 Camaros all painted to be exactly the same and with new fuel injected crate motors dropped in so they'd have the power and reliabilty required for the scenes. (see article attached to my previous post)

As an owner of a 2004 Cavalier LS Sport, I can relate to the new car with old technology. My cavie is faster and pretier than all the 80's cavaliers, but its still everybit of a cavalier that a 1985 rustbucket one is.

Anyway I'd be fine with a GTO too, but as of now thanks to the Government pushing some new fuel standards, GM came out and said G8 and camaro and thats it! They are getting there asses kicked by toyota, nissan and honda when it comes to fuel economy standards so the Zeta project is currently on hiatus

Cormaster628 wrote:As an owner of a 2004 Cavalier LS Sport, I can relate to the new car with old technology. My cavie is faster and pretier than all the 80's cavaliers, but its still everybit of a cavalier that a 1985 rustbucket one is.

Anyway I'd be fine with a GTO too, but as of now thanks to the Government pushing some new fuel standards, GM came out and said G8 and camaro and thats it! They are getting there asses kicked by toyota, nissan and honda when it comes to fuel economy standards so the Zeta project is currently on hiatus

GTO is still alive. It's on GM's future product list with a release date in late 08 as an 09, set to come out after the Camaro. Lutz acknowledged this as recent as June in a webcast.

Oddly, even though Impala is said to be cancelled, a picture popped up a couple weeks back of Holden-ish style car wearing Chevy badges. They caught it out and about in Detroit. It's popped up on several spyshot sites now in one form or another. There's a series of pics that have the car camouflaged somewhat, and then someone got it close to the curb running around with the bowties uncovered.

Lots of speculation they could be bringing it over from the existing Lumina SS sold in other regions of the world. This one is left hand drive though, as shown in pics.

Pontimax 01 wrote:

Cormaster628 wrote:As an owner of a 2004 Cavalier LS Sport, I can relate to the new car with old technology. My cavie is faster and pretier than all the 80's cavaliers, but its still everybit of a cavalier that a 1985 rustbucket one is.

Anyway I'd be fine with a GTO too, but as of now thanks to the Government pushing some new fuel standards, GM came out and said G8 and camaro and thats it! They are getting there asses kicked by toyota, nissan and honda when it comes to fuel economy standards so the Zeta project is currently on hiatus

GTO is still alive. It's on GM's future product list with a release date in late 08 as an 09, set to come out after the Camaro. Lutz acknowledged this as recent as June in a webcast.

Oddly, even though Impala is said to be cancelled, a picture popped up a couple weeks back of Holden-ish style car wearing Chevy badges. They caught it out and about in Detroit. It's popped up on several spyshot sites now in one form or another. There's a series of pics that have the car camouflaged somewhat, and then someone got it close to the curb running around with the bowties uncovered.

Lots of speculation they could be bringing it over from the existing Lumina SS sold in other regions of the world. This one is left hand drive though, as shown in pics.

Good to see another pontiac fan on a Transformer forum! Anyway when the '06 GTO was discontinued the first rumors were that the firebird/trans Am name was coming back in '08/'09 and Bob Lutz quickly shut that down saying the "firebird really is dead", etc. They claimed a new GTO was o n the horizen but other than some pencil drawn prototype pics I haven't seen or heard anything else.

last I heard was that the Zeta platform was on hiatus. Bob Lutz said the Camaro and G8 were already too far in the production process to stop, but other than that the Zeta is on hiatus untill they can get enough fuel effecient cars to bring their average fuel economy up to 35mpg highway by 2012

The state of the "excitement division" is sad right now though. The closest thing they have to a sports car right now is a solstice. Not that thats a bad thing but they still desperatly need some sort of V-8 RWD coupe. THis is the company that brought us the GTO and Trans Am, they need to have more than just a GXP series of family cars!

Anyway what you are showing, judging by the front end is what GM is bringing over here as the Pontiac G8. sweet car definitly, but not a sports car. More of a competitor to the Dodge Magnum/Charger/300C. Big heavy V-8 powered car doesn't necessarily make it a sports car.

As for the Impala itself, the current w-body based one is the best impala yet! When my cavie had some isseus, I took it in for a warrenty claim. They had to order some parts so inturn they gave me a rental impala for free! I love it! It may be on a 1987 based platform but it still kicks ass!