Shop Talk: Aero Dreams

Written by bsullan on 09.20.2025.

The third-generation Pontiac Firebird was a sleek silhouette of the 1980s, chasing speed and style.

For this third installment in the Shop Talk series, we take a look at a 1983 Pontiac Firebird, featured in the mashup below. The Firebird has much in common with the car featured in the previous post, the Chevy Chevelle. Both are known as "muscle" cars with aggressive styling and high-performance options. The first Firebirds produced in the late 1960s were more commonly known as a "pony" cars since they were intended to compete with the Ford Mustang, which first came out in 1964.

1983 places this model within the third generation of Firebirds (1982–1992). This was a groundbreaking era: the first Firebirds with factory fuel injection, four-speed automatics, four-cylinder options, 16-inch wheels, and the now-iconic hatchback body. As shown in the 1982 Trans Am model below, the car was completely restyled that year as a hatchback, along with a dramatic 62-degree windshield and retractable, electronically controlled headlamps. The Trans Am proved to be the most popular and well-known of the Firebird models due to its top-of-the-line performance and aerodynamic styling.

Sicnag, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The image was cropped at top and bottom but no other changes were made.

KITT Casting

A customized 1982 third-generation black Firebird Trans Am, much like the car shown above, was built for the NBC television series Knight Rider, which aired from 1982 to 1986. The show followed modern crime-fighter Michael Knight, portrayed by David Hasselhoff, who was partnered with the Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT) — an artificially intelligent, nearly indestructible car voiced by actor William Daniels. Although critics gave the series poor reviews, it went on to achieve cult status with a devoted fan base.

Macho Macho Mash

The base image for this mashup was taken at Lyons Vintage Junkyard near Loretto, KY in May 2025.

The textured images below taken from other vehicles were layered in to provide the familiar aesthetic found in my other mashups, with the final image of handwritten typography added as the "pièce de résistance" fitting for a sleek muscle car like the Firebird.

In keeping in fashion with the other posts in this series, the original mashup is provided again below, along with an alternative version that shines a different light onto this macho-mashup.