...and the bird of legend finally comes to rest.

Overview
The Firebird lived through the muscle car era, lived through the death of the muscle cars, and has stood alone as the last remaining muscle car through to the ending of the century. Even though it's time has come to and end, this remarkable beast continuous to terrorize the wanna-be cars that have become the staple of todays youth. They were built to live up to their names, and these birds of prey will rule the street for years to come.

Even with the death of the F-body, the legend will live on. The Trans Am has been a major player in the muscle and sports car world for decades, and will continue to be respected for years to come. I'm going to outline my experiences with my 2002 SLP FireHawk here and try to list all the weak points of the car (though there honestly aren't many). More than likely, you've heard all kinds of things about them already...such as reliability issues, lack of power, tacky styling. Unfortunately, many of these things comes from people who haven't taken the time, or had the chance, to fully experience the car. So I invite you to forget what you've heard up until this point, and hear what a long time owner has to say about these cars. If you're thinking of buying one, and you don't, you'll probably be making a big mistake.

First, if you're not familiar with SLP FireHawks (or "Hawks" for short), they are made by a company called Street Legal Performance (http://www.slpeng.com). More specifically, SLP is a tier-1 supplier for GM. What this means is that you would order a Hawk through a Pontiac dealer. Pontiac would make the car, ship it on a car carrier to SLP (20 miles down the road). There SLP would do their modifications and send it back to GM via another car carrier. Then the car goes to you from GM with a full factory warranty, just like a new TA.

So what does a Hawk get you over a TA? Like the WS6 Ram Air TA, the Hawk package includes a new Ram Air hood (which looks better than the WS6 hood in my opinion), an upgraded suspension, a more free flowing intake, an upgraded exhaust, 17" wheels, and the Firestone Firehawk tires. The Hawks come rated at 345 hp, 20 more than the WS6 and 40 more than the TA. Much more importantly though, SLP offers a variety of options of their own. I opted for the optional Bilstein suspension system, which improves the handling over the base TA dramatically (bringing the skidpad rating up to .91g). I also got the chrome wheels, perf. differential, and just about every other option they offered which brought the cost of my Hawk to just over $36k out the door at $500 under invoice. Was it worth it? Most definitely!

Overall, the Hawk is an amazing car. For many people, all the downsides in the world won't matter, they want to own one and nothing will be able to take it's place. It truly is an amazing experience. I guarantee that the Hawk will give you the most power and performance for your money. Remember when making comparisons that it's $35k price tag doesn't match the $60k+ tag on the Mercedes and some other cars you may compare it to...so give it it's chance and bear in mind what it was built to be: a muscle car.

To understand the article, there are a few terms you'll have to be familiar with. TA means Trans Am. F-bodies refer to a specific car style, including only Camaros and TAs. Hawk is short for FireHawk and SLP is short for Street Legal Performance. Also, I'm going to make a number of references to my 99 TA for comparison and support purposes. The 99 and 2002 model years were almost exactly identical. So what is true of the 99s will most likely hold true of the 2002s.



Handling
For the most part, handling is not the main focus of the F-bodies. They are muscle cars, which means that they cram as much power as they can under the hood, usually at the expense of other components. However, with the Bilstein suspension, I found my Hawk to be extremely maneuverable and nimble. It easily could outrun my friend's 96 3000GT or 00 Prelude in the twisties. I also found that it could out-maneuver my finacee's mom's new Mercedes which I also had the chance to drive. The most amazing part, is that I can keep up to my mom's C5 Corvette on a nice curvy road. It had very little body roll when taking a sharp turn and is able to right itself quickly afterwards making S curves a blast! If you have a choice, definitely try to find a Hawk with one of the optional suspensions (Bilstein or 1LE).

How does it feel? How can I describe it other than: "how it's supposed to". This isn't a highly dangerous SUV with it's center of gravity 10 feet off the ground and a suspension so soft you're likely to topple onto the guy in the next lane on any turn. This is a car built for performance. The ride is rough, because the smoother a car's ride is the less traction you have. If you need a nice smooth ride, you're better off looking at a Cadillac, Lexus, or some other car built to be comfortable. This beast is built to run, and I think it feels great. I love being able to feel every little variation in the road; every little bump. That way you know what's going on under your tires and you can react to it.

It's weak point is the way that the car was designed. I'm not a car mechanic, but I understand the basic principles, so try to bear with me here as I stumble through the jargon I'm unfamiliar with ;). The F-bodies have a live axle. The important part is that it is not able to react as quickly to small variations in the road. What does this mean? It means that if you're going over a bumpy surface (like inner city streets often are) you are going to have a noticeable loss of traction. Of course, you'll still have the equivalent of your normal family car (probably more), but don't expect to swing the curves like you do on a country road. In a situation like this, the Hawk, even with it's upgraded suspension, could never compete against a Vette, or any other sports car with a more adaptable suspension system. Don't worry though, you'll still be able to outrun just about any import under $50k on the road ;).




Safety
I can't help but touch on this point after all that I've heard about how unsafe my car is. Actually, the TA is one of the safest cars out there for two reasons. First, the F-bodies have a uni-body construction. Because of this, the car is able to withstand much more force and take much less damage. They've actually managed a 5-star crash rating. That's better than most of the cars on the road! I hardly consider that a lack of safety. They also come standard with dual airbags.

However, my view is that the best way to survive an accident is to avoid it...and I've managed to do so once or twice because of my TA. On the road, there are times you need to react quickly. If you're coming down a major road at night, doing maybe 50 or 55...and then see a dear, slam your brakes, and hit it at 15. You'll likely think there was nothing else you could do. But what if your car could stop faster, you might have stopped before hitting the dear or it might have gotten out of the way. Likewise, what if you're stopped for a car in front of you making a turn. Then someone comes barreling down the road behind you, and he's watching some girl get in her car off to the side of the road. So you're stopped, the guy in front of you is just getting out of your way, and this guy is coming up on you at 40 and not slowing down. Well, if you have a TA you need about 4 seconds to get up to his speed and avoid him hitting you. A Ford Escort may take 8 or more seconds to get up that fast. Could you afford those 4 seconds? You can see that the performance of the car can make an impressive case for it's safety.

Of course, no matter what, you're going to be in an accident sooner or later. In situations like that, you're thankful for the dual air bags and 5-star crash rating.




Performance
Here is where the Hawk really shines. With a rating of 345 horsepower, you can't go wrong. The nice thing that I found is that my Hawk is (and later found out that all LS1 based TAs are) grossly underrated. The TAs use the same LS1 engine as is in the Vettes with only minor changes. In addition, SLP makes more dramatic improvements on the engine when they're modifying it. In effect, a Hawk will actually put out more power than an LS1 'Vette. I guarantee that you will be putting at least 315 rear wheel horsepower out in a Hawk, and probably much more (that would be equivalent to approximately 365 hp at the flywheel where the factory ratings are supposedly done). Dyno tests have consistently shown this. GM just doesn't want to take the wind out of their flagship car's sails, so they underrate the TA to make the Vette look better.

As many tests have shown, the TA does reach 60 in some 5.3 seconds and the Hawk will shave that down to 5.0 (Car and Driver rated it at 5.06 in their road test). Unfortunately, (and you probably won't have to deal with this on a used car) the LS1 engine does not reach maximum power until around 7000 miles are on it. However, even if you jump on it right from the start, you get a huge rush of power. It's truly amazing. I can say from experience that there is no car under $40k that can begin to match the speed of a TA and nothing under $50k that will match a Hawk.

The one thing I don't like is that the LS1 has a very smooth power curve...too smooth. Basically, when you push the gas down the power comes on very smoothly and there's not big jerks. This makes it so that the car really doesn't seem really fast, even though it is. I preferred the older LT1 engine that would whip you back in your seat at the slightest touch. Then again, many people like this about the LS1 as it makes it easy to drive the car around town. You can feel like you're driving a luxury car...but when you need the power and jump on the gas, you're in a whole other world.

As far as gas mileage goes, it's great. Well, that depends what you're comparing it to. It's no Geo, that's for sure. I came in expecting 9-14 mpg. Instead, even driving it moderately hard all the time, I consistently get 18-20 mpg around town. On my long trips I've noticed that number jump to close to 25 mpg when doing highway only driving between fill-ups. These are numbers that I've actually documented (logged mileage and gallons at fillup) and not just picked out of the air.

On a side note, no one I know has any idea why, but the TAs consistently put out 5-10 more horsepower on the dyno than Camaros do even though they use the same engine and basically the same engineering design...so in case you have any kind of friendly rivalry with a friend who owns a Camaro... ;)



Appearance
Well, this is highly subjective, but I think the TA is one of the nicest production cars on the road after the Ferrari F50 and Lamborghini Countach. It's not made for sheep who like to be like everyone else. It's lines are bold and muscular. If you ever see one bearing down on you from behind, especially a ram air TA or a Hawk, you know just how muscular they can look. The car screams "I'm faster than you and I'm ready to prove it!" I don't know anyone who doesn't love the honeycomb tail-lights or the wide rear end. My friends all love the sleek lines of the ram-air Hawk hood and it's rear-facing heat extractors.

One thing to note is the difference between the TA and the Formula/Firebird. The TA has a different front bumper with the foglights inset toward the middle and a more muscular feel. The FFs have a less muscular front end, though it looks more sporty in a way. They also have different spoilers as the TA's is held up above the rear end by 2 supports and the formula/firebird's is molded to the bumper. The Hawk has a different hood, Hawk decals, and the 2002s (and a few special edition 2001s) offered an optional more muscular spoiler.

The paint on my car was is premium quality, though I've found the hood easy to scratch. I've found by looking around that the metallic paints were much stronger than the regular ones. I had a Pewter Metallic TA and I have to say that it was unbelievable. My Hawk is bright red and although most of the car is quite strong and vibrant, the hood seems to have a little less luster and be weaker paint. I attribute this to SLP since they would have been the ones to paint the hood while the rest of the car was done at GM.

I recommend the Pewter Metallic paint if you're looking. The paint would not take damage. I am being completely literal when I say that you could key it and you may or may not see the mark. In addition, it was the most metallic paint that I had ever seen. It was a silver normally, but the metal flakes had a gold hue...so anywhere the sun was hitting almost seemed to color change into this rich gold. The color suited the TA very well, but not the FFs. If you are looking at TAs or Hawks, I strongly suggest that you look at the Pewter Metallic one before making your decision on color.



Interior
Many people don't like the interior, but I wonder if that isn't just a cliche that people agree with without thinking. I found that the interior was beautiful. The dash is all black and made from the same plastic material that you find in most GM cars. It was very high quality though and shined up beautifully with Armour-All...even after 3+ years. The gauges were lit with a blood red light, which fit in nicely with the muscle car theme. The manufacturing was of high quality. Unlike other cars I've been in, I never had any squeaks...even from the center console glovebox that I constantly lean on while driving. Approach with an open mind and you may find that you like it.

The seats need a special mention here. I have been in a 97 Vette, 2000 Mercedes, 98 GTP, 96 3000 GT, a few new Lincolns and a few new Cadillacs. I have never been in any car that is as comfortable as my TA was or Hawk is. Especially once you start playing with the lumbar support. I drove to Florida (950 miles over 15 hours) with my fiancee, best friend, and best friend's girlfriend in my 99 TA and we weren't stiff in the least when we got there. In fact, we stepped out of the car and immediately when running up to the beach!

Also, the TA has a decent amount of storage space because of it's hatch design. It's rated at 38 cubic feet as opposed to, say, my Grand Prix GTP which is rated at under 30 cubic feet. When you put the back seats down, you can fit a ton of stuff in there. I moved my fiancee to college in a single trip...that's enough stuff to almost fill up her mom's SUV and we got it all in my Hawk!



Reliability
GM had some reliability issues with the F-Bodies, especially in the 3rd generation (84-92) but seems to have corrected everything for the 4th generation. I had absolutely no problems at all. The only maintenance that I ever did on either my 99 TA or 2002 Hawk was having the oil changed, the brakes changed once and the tires changed once. My cars never hesitated to start, even when it got down to 0 degrees F. I picked up my brother twice when his MX6 wouldn't start and picked up my one friend once when his car had trouble due to the cold. In my opinion, this is one solid car!

I actually had my 99 TA in an accident when trying to drive in the snow (ended up going into a ditch at about 10 mph), but despite the damage to the bumper that was fixed, I still never had any problems. I find this surprising as many cars taking that kind of jolt will have something loosen up and cause problems, or will take damage to something near the front of the car.

My Hawk is still relatively new with only 3500 miles on it at the time of this writing, but has shown great reliability so far. I've had no problems whatsoever, and the car drives beautifully.



Weak Points
Well, we've already went over a few. The two big ones that jump out at me are the live rear axle and, of course, the snow. Now, it's not really all that bad in the snow. Though it is rear wheel drive, the TAs come with positraction (so both tires spin, only 1 spins on most cars) and have the option of ASR. Automatic Slip Resistance means that the computer monitors the tires. It will detect slipping before you can and will immediately kick your foot off of the gas (quite forcibly) and will regulate the power to regain control of the car. Of course, you can turn that off with the touch of a button. I've found that will 200+ pounds of weight in the trunk, the TAs will handle reasonably in the snow...though that weight hurts the suspension. Bottom line: They can go okay in the snow, but not great.

Another thing that is more of a weak point in marketing than the car, is the options. I really wanted a HUD (heads up display) in my car. I also wanted dual climate control and heated seats. Unfortunately, these things are not offered in the TA. I was a little disappointed in the muscle car mentality (that frivolous electronics have no place in a muscle car), but it's hard to hold that against the car I guess.



Comparisons
There were a few other cars that I considered before I bought my Trans Am and later my Hawk. I've since had the chance to see and ride in some of these cars and thought I would share my experiences in case you are considering the same things I was.

I also considered the Camaros. Really, these two cars are basically going to be the same. The main differences are that the Camaros seem to have a little less power and then there are the looks. I love the way the TA looks, but the Camaro seems so 'normal' to me, so I went with the TA. If you like the way the Camaro looks better, I'd say go with that over the TA.

I also considered a Mustang GT. Now, to be fair, I have to say that the Mustangs cost a decent amount less. I found that the Mustangs had some power in the low end, but when you really opened it up there was nothing there. So it was nice for driving around and wound up quickly, but if you like power or plan to race, the Mustang just won't cut it. The styling on the Mustangs has gotten better over the years but isn't quite there yet in my opinion. It's still more of a touring car. The biggest thing was the interior though. The seats were nice (though not as nice as the TA), but the interior was hideous. It seemed like it was trying too hard to be a luxury car. It had a classic (non-numeric) clock and no clock in the radio. No matter how you look at it it takes longer to read one of those than a digital...and you want your eyes and mind on the road when you're driving. The Mustang did not have radio/CD controls on the steering wheel so you had to take your hand from the wheel to play with the stereo...bad idea. Besides that, it just looked generally cheap, even though it was made from nicer material. I don't think the Mustang even compares.

I thought about a Vette as well. The Vette has a few major things on the TA. First, it's independent suspension makes it handle soooo much better in the twisties, which makes it a much more fun car ;). Also, the Vette has a sportier appearance and is more recognized as a higher class and better performing car. The Vette also has a little power on the TAs (though a Hawk will take a Vette). The nicest thing about the Vette is the interior. Not only is it nicer, but you can get all the fun options like a HUD and climate control...and, of course, the awesome onboard computer systems. The problem is that the Vette is only a 2 seater, which hurts your insurance premium and keeps you from taking other friends and family with you. Considering the extra $15k the Vette would cost, I couldn't justify.



Conclusion
The TA is one of the best cars produced. It's history has been questionable, making many people wary of trying a newer one. However, GM has really come through on this one. The TA is a great all round car with the only drawback being it's somewhat high price tag. Then again, the price is extremely low considering what you're getting. When you compare a TA against a Vette or even higher priced cars, you can see that you get an awesome amount for your money. If you've got a few extra bucks to drop into the car, you can have a TA running with Vipers for under $15k in mods...that puts it at, what, about half the price. I've got a pretty good idea which I would prefer for the money ;).

If you're looking for some answers to questions you have, or just good advice, I'd advise that you head over to http://www.slpeng.com and check out the message boards. The people there are very nice and very mature (generally) and will be able to help you with most any questions you have. Best of luck with whatever you decide...