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  • 7 months ago
Tim Allen and Jay Leno revisit Jay’s iconic Pontiac Firebird featured on Shifting Gears. As Jay shares the story behind the classic ride, Tim keeps the laughs rolling. Stream Shifting Gears on Hulu.

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00:00This week's car is one of Jay's, coming on Matt Parker's shop, but let Jay tell you about it.
00:06Well, what this is, is John DeLorean was the chief engineer for Pontiac.
00:11Among other things.
00:12Yeah, he loved the, remember they just followed the white line, that was the cool one.
00:16He was enamored in the XT, he wanted to build an American XT, and he said, no, we already got
00:21the Corvette, you're not doing that.
00:23He still wanted to develop the motor, so he took a Chevy six-cylinder, and it was the base engine
00:28for Pontiac,
00:29and I put an overhead cam in it with a rubber belt, as with modern technology here, and I'll show
00:33you.
00:33And this one is called the Sprint, and it left the factory.
00:37We'll need someone to help Jake it up.
00:39Wow, he got it right away.
00:42It left the factory.
00:44Wash your head.
00:45With this six-cylinder in here, and you got the Sprint package, which includes a big four-barrel, I think
00:50that's a QuadraJet.
00:51It had headers on it, a little different timing, but it had the hood tack and all that kind of
00:59stuff.
00:59See, it says right on the hood, 4.1 liter.
01:03Right.
01:04Yeah, I mean, it's kind of cool.
01:05So what he told me, and what he's saying is that even Pontiac guys know Pontiacs, don't know much about
01:10this.
01:10Well, they only ran this engine for a couple of years in the 60s.
01:12It was the base engine.
01:13It came with a one-barrel, like 115 horsepower.
01:16Then you could hop the engine up to make it a little more high-performance.
01:20And by the time you got through hopping up to six, it cost more than the V8.
01:24In the 60s, nobody wanted a six-cylinder to have a V8.
01:27Seemed like a good idea, and then you go, isn't it?
01:29Well, it is, because it's light, and you can use all the power all the time.
01:33But this is kind of interesting with a rubber belt driving the overhead cam.
01:37We 3D printed this as being a high-impact plastic.
01:42It just sort of wore out.
01:44Like, all this stuff, half the up-population, you go, what the hell did he just say?
01:48I am packed plastic.
01:50But it's cool, because it's a straight six.
01:51I'm not a six, I don't like six-cylinders, because they don't make, they make a weird noise.
01:56They're kind of a thumpy.
01:57Well, a six-cylinder is actually inherently smoother than a V8.
02:00Okay, I'm wrong, Jay.
02:02Well, you don't have to convince me of that.
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