1967 Firebird Handling Upgrades

The quickest way between two points is a straight line or, one might say, as the crow flies. It seems that just about every 1st generation Firebird has been set up to do just that—fly straight and fast. Most of these street/strip Birds are set up with the emphasis on strip. Drop in more cubic inches, add some gear to the rear, slap on some traction bars, a pair of slicks, and you've got yourself a potent combination for straight-line performance.

Curves Ahead
Well, we were looking to go in a little different direction—around corners. Given that half the fun is in the journey, we wanted to set up this beautiful Verdoro Green '67 Firebird 400 as a budget-oriented "pro touring" machine. Of course, we want this Bird to fly—so we'll soon add some cubic horsepower—but we also want to have some fun sliding our seats around in the stock buckets as we travel between points.


In recent years we've seen a growing number of Firebird owners looking to set up their cars for more than just straight-line performance. As we began our journey, we quickly found out that there was not a great deal of availability of tuned packages for the early Birds. Availability of upgraded suspension parts had been mostly focused on the lower slung, more balanced 2nd generation Firebirds. Then, up steps John Hotchkis of Hotchkis Performance. They already had a great package for the 2nd generation F-bodies, but they'd taken things one step further with the development of the Hotchkis Total Vehicle System (TVS) for the 1st generation F-body. So we solicited Hotchkis Performance's help in making our Bird fly between two points bounded by curves.

Test Bird
Our subject '67 Verdoro Green Firebird is a numbers-matching 400 car with 83,000 original miles. The car was cosmetically restored in the early '90s and retains its original interior and drivetrain. The car needs a mechanical update, and an improved suspension is critical to building a strong foundation for future upgrades.


We couldn't wait to get started. First we removed the original 14-inch Rally II wheels and their Redline tires. These were replaced by a set of 16x8 American Racing Torq-Thrust wheels mounted with BFGoodrich Comp TA Radial tires. What an improvement just the tires and wheels made, transforming the look of our Bird from highway wimp to warrior.