Real Deal? 1978 Firebird K-Type Wagon For Sale On Craigslist

What would Burt Reynolds or James Garner think of this F-Body wagon?

Here’s one from the “Real or Not Real?” file. A red 1978 “Kammback” Firebird Formula has popped up in a California Craigslist ad. Upon first glance it looks like it could be one of two Firebird “Type K” Station Wagons that were built by General Motors in the late Seventies. The seller states its a “custom”, so maybe the asking price of almost $30K seems like a screaming deal for an authentic GM concept car…or is it?

Looks like it could be show car but upon further inspection, where rear window meets tail lights is very different.

The back story of the “Kammback” Firebirds is interesting because they’re probably the last show cars Bill Mitchell was involved with before he retired in 1977. Two, all steel cars were originally built in Italy by Pininfarina and delivered to GM in late 1977. A red base model and a full tilt, silver Trans Am.

David Holls and Jerry Brockstein were the lead designers on the the project which featured gullwing doors and steeply cutoff, drag reducing Kamm tail rear end. They were initially equipped with the “Polynesian War Canoe” front end of the ’77-’78 models and were updated later to the even wilder ’79-81 front fascia the 2nd Gen F-body retired with. Of the two produced, the red base model was crushed and the silver Trans Am soldiered on and exists to this day.

So this red Formula “K-Type” is likely some kind of replica even though seller says “two known to exist, the other one is in Europe.” If you look at pic of original show car, the Kamm tail is different than the car for sale. Seller claims 70K original miles, Olds 403/Turbo 350 and “totally restored.” Now that we know that we’re not dealing with a rare piece of GM history, wouldn’t this be cool with every resto-mod trick in the book thrown at it? For inspiration on what this car could be, go here.