1987 Pontiac Tojan, a Firebird Like You've Never Seen Before, Is Today's Bring a Trailer Find

• The Tojan married unique styling and a Firebird chassis.
  

• The cars were sold at Pontiac dealers in the 1980s.
  

• This is one nearly forgotten piece of Pontiac history.
  

The 1980s F-body Pontiac Firebird was incredibly popular, thanks in part to its starring role the show Knight Rider. The Firebird-based Tojan, however, is a car most people have never heard of. This all-black example shows its unique design off best, and it's up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. Somewhere between an official production car and an independent build, it's the kind of car that will have nearly every bystander asking, "What is that thing?"

Should you make the winning bid, here's the story you should get ready to tell and re-tell again: At the start of the 1980s, Pontiac was looking for opportunities to set itself apart from GM's other brands. Specifically, executives wanted to lean into the “We build excitement!” tagline. Thus, they contracted with Omaha, Nebraska–based Knudsen Automotive, a coachbuilder that made cars similar to the neo-classic Excalibur, to build a prototype Firebird-based machine that would offer next-level performance and exclusivity.

The Tojan's design—that's "Tojan" not "Trojan," possibly due to some obvious copyright issues—was sketched by Harry Bentley Bradley. Bradley had designed most of the original Hot Wheels toy cars as well as the modern version of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. The Tojan sadly would be far a more obscure example of his work.

Which is a shame because, given the constraints of working a gen-three Firebird body, the Tojan's design looks like it might have rolled out of the futuristic dystopia of the videogame Cyberpunk 2077.