A pair of yrs just before John DeLorean and his team at the Pontiac Division produced the GTO by pasting a huge engine and some gingerbread on the LeMans, they created a rakish, highly effective coupe based on the staid full-size Catalina. This was the 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix, which bought like nuts and escalated the personal luxurious coupe war now brewing in Detroit. Commencing with the 1969 model yr, the Grand Prix switched to a scaled-down chassis (shared the adhering to 12 months with the new Chevrolet Monte Carlo), and all subsequent rear-wheel-push Grand Prix (that is, by 1987) remained siblings of the Monte. Today’s Junkyard Gem is a scarce 1980 Grand Prix LJ, found in a self-service garden near Reno, Nevada.
Guaranteed, a new spherical of Middle East conflict experienced set a kink in America’s fuel hose in 1979, major to fuel strains and a normal sense of malaise, but at least the new Grand Prix appeared additional sharp for 1980.
The LJ deal arrived with all kinds of physical appearance and convenience goodies, which include these “luxurious seats with unfastened-pillow layout in New Florentine Cloth.” A Pontiac Phoenix LJ was accessible as well.
These seats should have been pretty cozy when new.
Who essential a Cadillac when Pontiac would provide you this auto at a base MSRP of just $7,000 (about $26,704 in 2023 dollars)?
That value was what you paid out if you were being willing to get the foundation 3.8-liter Buick V6, even though. To get a V8 motor with 4-barrel carburetor, you experienced to pay out extra. If you did pay out the more for a V8, which one you got depended on which condition you lived in in California, you got this 305-cubic-inch (5.-liter Chevrolet smaller-block), and in the other 49 states you got a 301-cubic-inch (4.9-liter) Pontiac. The 305 was rated at 150 horsepower with 230 pound-feet the 301 manufactured 140hp and 240 lb-ft.
This motor vehicle was originally bought in California (the condition line is about ten miles away from its closing parking place), so it has the Chevy motor. The V8 extra $195 (as well as $250 for the California-only emissions system) to the out-the-door selling price of the automobile, or about $1,316 in 2023 dollars. Outside the house of California, a 4.3-liter Chevy V6 was offered for just 80 further bucks ($305 now).
All 1980 Grand Prix acquired a three-pace automated transmission as standard tools, with no manual offered from the manufacturing unit. This vehicle has the optional air conditioning, which value $601 ($2,293 following inflation).
This is the “Custom Activity” steering wheel, which was normal on the LJ. The tilt selection cost $81 ($309 now).
A pair of Rally IV wheels are in the trunk. If they had been with the car or truck when it was new (other Pontiacs of the era, such as Firebirds, acquired these wheels as effectively), they cost the consumer just $91 additional for the established.
The Grand Prix went to entrance-wheel-travel in the 1988 model calendar year, being on the W Platform right until its demise in 2008. Pontiac by itself got the axe two a long time later on.
There is certainly some rust and paint bubbling, absolutely nothing also bad. It is really uncommon to see salvageable GM G-Entire body coupes of this period in sites like this right now, but you under no circumstances know what you’ll obtain in the junkyard.
The actual gamers obtained the optional wire wheels (not the cheaper fake-wire hubcaps).
Once in a blue moon, a new car emerges. An remarkable vehicle, destined for a place in the solar.
