Pontiac Firehawk Time Capsule Blows Our Minds
Iconic 2002 Pontiac Firehawk has only 10,000 original miles and looks as if it rolled off the assembly line yesterday, but it has a slight issue.
We absolutely adore seeing low mileage survivor cars. This rings especially true when it comes to limited-edition vehicles, like Pontiac Firebird Firehawk. The Firehawk is an extra performance version of the firebird built by SLP performance and sold through Pontiac dealers. The 2002 models feature a zestier 345 horsepower from the mighty LS1 brute under the hood, thanks to it’s Blackwing intake and tuning. You don’t see them often, and you certainly see them less in remarkable showroom condition.
Thankfully, though, Youtube’s very own Car Wizard, real name David Long, outlines that exact scenario in one of his newest videos. This 2002 Firehawk is likely the cleanest one you’ll ever see unless there is another one in a collection somewhere. This truly is a rare and majestic piece of Pontiac and LS history.
“Even the foil on the hoses is like brand new. It’s as if I just went to the dealer back in 2002 and bought a Firehawk, then drove it to my shop. It is that much brand new,” says Long.
Unfortunately, cars do not go to the Car Wizard for no reason. This Firehawk has what Long has deemed a “speed problem” in that the speedometer is not matching up to the actual speed of the car. In a test drive with an OBD II scanner plugged in, Long finds that the vehicle is going 31 MPH when the speedometer reads 40, and only 51 MPH when the speedometer reads 65. Given the fact that he verifies the OBD speed output with GPS, it seems the Firehawk has a cluster issue. It just goes to show that no matter how low mileage something is, problems can always come with age.
“The clusters start to fail, and it’s really common to go to a junkyard and get a Camaro, Firebird, they’re all the same and swap it out. The issue I have with doing that on this car is that his instrument cluster is absolutely immaculate. 10,000 miles. Perfect. I’m not just going to throw a junkyard instrument cluster into there, and it looks ratty and scratched up. You can’t buy these new, not anymore,” says Long
Undoubtedly, this creates a bit of a dilemma. The cluster needs repair, and that is outside the scope of most mechanics. However, one commenter suggests a shop in Pontiac, Michigan, conveniently, that can repair the cluster. Perhaps there is hope for an accurate reading speedometer. Long also states that he knows for a fact the rear end gearing and tire sizes have not changed.
“I did verify in the door jamb the sizes match exactly what it’s supposed to be, so the tire size is not an issue. It’s guaranteed to be the speedometer,” says Long.
While Long can’t fix the issue with the speedometer, he does do a full inspection on the car. A faulty speedometer is reason enough to call the reported mileage into question. However, the cleanliness of this car from top to bottom really convinces us that the 10,000-mile display is accurate. There isn’t a nut or bolt out of place.
Even though the issue is not resolved, we still couldn’t be happier about seeing such a rare car in this condition. It’s a scarce sight, and we hope the owner can get this minor issue situated.
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