2002 Pontiac Firebird WS6 - Jay Leno's Garage

You know, this still makes me smile, it's a great car, this car is pretty loaded, it has power seats and all that and of course the 350 pound-feet of torque, very impressive, an episode of the

garage

pandemic edition of jay

leno

yeah it's still going on and I'm still here alone okay the car featuring today the

2002

Pontiac Trans am ws6 These are fascinating cars to me and this is the best version. You know, I'll tell you why in

2002

I was lucky enough to be asked to host the. pace car at Daytona, which was fiber, this is the last year of the Firebird, this is their swan song and I think it's the best one they've ever built and they had all the Pontiac Firebirds from the beginning there and we drove every one of them on the track.

It was funny, I drove one from the '70s with the big engine, it was the 455. It could barely hold 110 miles an hour on the Daytona bank, I mean, it just wasn't, so it was completely stock, but it was throttled. for emissions and everything else so 110 was like barely hanging on uh this was I think the best version they ever built people always say what does ws6 mean. I don't know how, this is one of those old wives' tales. I thought it was a wide suspension, six pieces, meaning four springs, two thicker stabilizer bars, that's what I thought it meant.

You know, I always felt that the Pontiac version of that GM body handled better than the Camaro version than the Chevrolet version. I have a fiber 68 with a six-cylinder engine, we'll do it pretty soon and put a custom suspension on it and it's a lot of fun to drive, but to me this is just a four-seater corvette, it's got 325 horsepower. It doesn't have as much as the corvette because that's how the pecking order works, but when they put the ws package in, I remember it had a few things, the cam was a little different and it gave you five more horsepower, a little more fuel injection big. uh through these wheels and it's a good looking car the nose is a bit controversial I know if I like it or not but it is what it is you know anyway when I drove the safety car I think that one year was horrible yellow and green. horrible and you know they said what do you want? uh to drive the safety car and I thought about paying me a product oh, how about a fireball?

Okay, we'll give you all the safety cars. I said, you know it's so ugly that I can. I can't stand the color I said, just please could I go dark? Get one exactly like it with the ram air, all the options and this thing is fantastic to drive, it really is you know it's so funny how with GM their latest version is always the best you know it's the fiero when it came out yeah it was kind of a grocery shopper, the iron duke, that four-cylinder engine that was cast was nothing, but when they came out with that high-performance version, boy, that.

It was a good car, I mean it was on its way to becoming an even better car, but then they discontinued it. You know, GM had a two-seat car which was the Corvette. Thank you very much, but this thing, uh, and me. I think this is the fastest, if not the most powerful on paper, best handling and fastest Firebird ever, certainly faster than anything built during the gang era. You know all those cars or the 455 or any of those. I think I might be wrong here, but in Real World Driving This is just a wonderful car, a wonderful car to drive and as you can see, it still looks new.

He's almost 18 years old now. Easy. I'll be 20 very soon. Come on, let me open the hood and show you what it is. Like down there, as you can see, I keep it pretty clean, this car is 100 original, except I put an optimal battery in it. I like these, they last 10 years, 12 years, the best thing about Optimus, especially on classic cars, is that they are sealed. so they don't give off gas, there's no corrosion happening up here, there's no corrosion happening in the bays, there's no corrosion happening around all the connectors, so I'm just adding that because I'm trying to put one in. of these on every car I have and this way I know they will always work, but as you can see, a 100 percent original, very good car, this nose is, as I said, a little controversial.

I opted out of the giant chicken on the hood. Take a look at the trunk as you can see a pretty good trunk, good size, well no, it's okay, not bad, I haven't even taken them out, these are just for cover, I guess what you have back here and The seat folds, no. I don't think I've ever folded it, but it really is like a four-seater corvette, basically, it's basically the same engine as a corvette with maybe 25 horsepower or more. Nice interior on these, I like the interior, as you can see nice. nice interior this is a real ws6 look i have it here look there go see that look at that ws6 let's see what it has good 5.7 liter V8 hotspot six speed manual 325 torque 350 lb-ft uh speed eagle Goodyear rated high tires high performance custom wheels rear axle ratio 342 rear power rack and pinion uh yeah, pretty good um optional standard features optional ram air induction uh performance handling package uh 10 pound-feet torque increase over model standard your short throw shift linkage traction control really uh this the car is loaded it has everything um these were taken for granted I don't know why but they just work and it really is a very nice drive I mean, I've been driving this car for 20 years, I haven't owned one. problems with it nothing breaks it has a nice guttural roar um obviously i keep it in perfect condition we'll take it to the side we'll put it on the left we'll show you what it looks like underneath but it's nice It's fun to keep it in stock 100.

People tend to want to modify them and then After a while you forget what it was like when it was new. No, I didn't have that, no, so this is exactly what they left the factory. and well, it's not perfect underneath, but it still looks like a new car and sounds great, listen, let's take it to the side, okay, we have our

firebird

on our stella cronin lift, let's see, I'll show you what we have here, mufflers. It seems to be in good shape, I mean considering this car gets used a lot, I like to keep it clean.

You see, you've got four-wheel disc brakes, a sway bar, thicker coils, what did I say? The ws6 is a six piece wide suspension, right? I have four coils and the two sway bars, but as you can see, it's not perfect down here because it drives, but I like to clean it up. Put it in the elevator. Simply cleaning everything helps you find places where there may be leaks or corrosion, but. there's nothing here, there's no corrosion at all, transmission right there, let's see, there's your shocks and your thicker coils and that sway bar here, do some pull-ups on this.

I don't think you'll see me doing pull-ups anytime soon, not with these arms. and this chin, that's for sure because it breaks again, as you can see, it's pretty simple, this is a 100 unmolested car, it's never been in an accident, in fact, it's never rained, I don't think it doesn't rain here in California when it does. they take a little more, but over 18 years of ownership it looks pretty good if I may say so modestly, as you can see well, if you put a 411 core in this thing it would really fly, but 342 is pretty good, you'll get good gas mileage, would you?

OK? Let her down and we'll go for a first spin and take a ride in one of these. You know, this still makes me smile. It's a great car and this is a real world car. You know, nobody really drives Lamborghinis and Paganis and stuff. This is the kind of high-achieving person you can have fun with on the weekends and then drive to work every day if you want. I mean, I've had it for almost 20 years. I think it's obvious to the dealership that we do. our own oil changes and all that kind of stuff the seats are very comfortable I like the interior I like the dashboard design I like the discreet dark blue with the black interior it only says ws6 on the back that's the only place yeah, I wasn't a big fan like I said before, but great chicken and the graphics and all that kind of stuff because you know you don't want to get that when women look at you how old are you?

You know it's my son's car, it's not having a son. I don't have a kid, but you have to say that sometimes 350 lb-ft of torque is very impressive, this car is pretty loaded, it has power seats and all that, and of course the panels come off. John Delorean is the one who actually played Pontiac in the performance, what was Bucky Knudsen's name? I think when he was boss, I think he originally instituted Delorean, it was under him, you know, the wide track and all the famous things that the planet said because Pontiac was mainly, it was kind of old.

The car didn't really fit and they decided to turn it into General Motors Performance Armor with the GTO and some of the other models, the Catalina Grand Prix, all of those and they were pretty successful, they really were the performance arm of General Motors. engines and that 421 engine was cool, they used to win all kinds of drag races with them and this is kind of the end of an era, I mean this is the last and probably the best muscle car they built at least until 2002 because it's a nice balanced package, you know, it's not discs in front or drums in the rear, it's disc brakes on all four wheels, you have a heavy duty suspension, but not so heavy that it's like a punch in the kidney when you drive it, I mean, it's pretty comfortable, it just handles really well, it's a good-driving car and it's faster than, I don't know, nine-tenths of the cars on the road, you know, I mean occasionally you You find your Camaro Mustang or something, but in terms of an everyday car, I could drive with four seats, it's fantastic, I mean, this car is living proof, you can keep a car your whole life, you can take care of it, I mean, it helps to have 198 other cars, but you know, I mean, I always use some of our products on the dash, you know, the things to preserve it, some of the detailing sprays, you know, all that stuff works great, all of it. they work great you know, keep the vinyl from cracking, keep it out of the sun, worst thing you can do Any of these GM cars in this area just park them in the sun because then the dash cracks and it's really not because it's a product less than the fact that in California the temperature on that board will be 145 to 150 degrees, so I always want to use something to protect it.

I remember driving this one, not this one, but one just like it on the high banks of Daytona and what a thrill, the thing is this way and you are running what 135, I don't know something. like that, right up there and stuck like glue, good car, good handling, good handling, the only thing that drove me crazy is when you turned on the headlights, the headlights would appear on this thing and then you turned them off, it went crazy, you know , like someone. I dropped a bowling ball on the hood, it didn't hurt anything, it was just a little too loud.

You know, it's amazing how the sounds of a car can affect your feelings. You know, I remember all those Chrysler cars from back in the day. In the early '80s, K cars, even minivans, every time you turned on the turn signal, you hit the turn signal to do it right now, it was like breaking a chicken bone, one crack, the thing would break, the Most annoying sound, horrible sound. It doesn't sound like quality, you know, it's funny, the cars that really affect people, these are the ones that do, the mustangs, the camaros, the

pontiac

, you know, we'll do it like a pagani or something, you'll get maybe half million views and then Do something like that, but we had one of the first Firebird streams on it a couple of months ago.

You know, one of the big chickens in the hood, I think it was a 77 and I think it's got close to a million views already. but it wasn't that fast and it didn't handle like that this is a whole other level they did their homework as much as I like that 77 I think it's fair to call it a sports car and a six speed box that's fabulous I think this car loaded with all these Options in 2002 cost around 31,000, which would be what it would be today maybe 45 something like that. It's still a good deal, it's cheaper than a Corvette and you get two extra seats, but unlike other brands, the Pontiacs weren't.

It's not just about straight line speed, they really didn't handle well, it's a fun car to take on the hills and I walked in the

garage

this morning and I saw this box in the back and I said, you know, I can't see a guy. He goes blind flying next to me in a mustang, well, I'm doing 65. He has to be over 100. They're going to nail him. I think this car brings that out to people. They see him. Not WS-6. Let me. I know if I'm wrong about that six piece wide ws6 suspension, I know it sounds funny, it's not something you get a k kfc is it? and give me the six piece suspension mail, yeah I'll take it, but anyway, there's a pandemic going on.

No one in the store is empty so I thought I'd take this out for a spin and show you and I hope you appreciate it as much as I do because I really love it. I love this stuff and I love these high performance vapors. Cars, okay, guys, see you, uh, okay,I say I'm covering up. I'm starting to babble now anyway, I'll let you go, see you next time guys, thanks, see you next week.