Eighty years have passed since the first Pontiac motor car rolled into the light of day, and the marque has been responsible for some eye-catching machines
There were also some Pontiacs that put up a good fight during the Muscle Car era, continuing through to the oil crisis years with a car that was something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I have read that Pontiacs were, for many years, considered to be ‘ho-hum’ cars; not something I would agree with, even in regard to some of the earlier models. In that frenetic decade that bristled with the letter ‘f’, the fabulous ’50s, filled with flashy, fantastic, futuristic, flamboyant, fun-filled and finned four-wheeled flyers, Pontiac shone like a beacon in some areas. Toward the end of the decade, into the ’60s and even further, things just got better.
DeLorean
Someone who had more than just a little influence in the path that Pontiac would take was none other than John Z DeLorean, the man who fathered the Pontiac GTO in 1964. It was the GTO that brought about the phrase ‘factory hot rod’, and although the idea of cramming a large displacement, high power engine into a small-ish car was nothing new, DeLorean manipulated General Motors into putting such a combination into production for the masses. It proved to be a winning combination and the GTO, along with many other innovations spearheaded by DeLorean (a man with around 200 patents to his name), took Pontiac to third place in automobile sales, and the marque showed the highest profit (at the time) for GM.
John’s business performance, combined with the performance of the vehicles he helped create at GM, couldn’t save him from the eyebrow-raising brought about by his jet-setter/swinger lifestyle. It was a lifestyle that GM big-wigs thought was not the stuff of corporate management; well, not one that should be in the public eye, anyway. Rubbing more than just shoulders with the likes of Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch wasn’t what God-fearing Middle America wanted from their business leaders. John’s relationship with supermodel Christina Ferrare, who was half his age and who he later married, was reportedly the last straw. In 1973 the DeLorean/GM coupling was over.
Grand Prix
Even so, Pontiacs continued their assault on the asphalt, and apart from the GTOs there was plenty to choose from in the ‘Poncho’ arsenal. Take the Grand Prix, for example; introduced in 1962 as a hardtop only, the Grand Prix was based on the 3048mm (120-inch) wheelbase of the Catalina. Simple but stylish exteriors blended well with the sporty, luxurious interiors and with a 6375cc 4V, 226kW (389ci, 303hp) engine as standard equipment under the hood this combination turned out to be a winner. Also on offer were the Tri-Power (triple carb) 389s and the ‘Trophy’ series of engines with heavy duty parts and bigger cams.
On top of the power pile was the Super Duty 421 engine with 544kW (370hp), but only 16 were built, in ’62, and only one is known to survive. There was a 2V, lower output engine available, but who cares?
So popular was the Grand Prix that 30,195 units were sold in its first 12 months, and that figure grew to nearly 73,000 units the following year. Sales continued to be strong for a couple more years but the GP did put on the beef, which affected sales, and by ’67 (the year the convertible arrived, along with the 6555cc and 7014cc (400 and 428ci) engines) the Grand Prix was looking positively chubby, even though the wheelbase had remained unchanged. Change did occur at the end of the decade though, and production figures proved that the change was for the better. There was a sales brochure for the ’69 Grand Prix that proclaimed the following: “Occasionally an automobile comes along that takes all the high-flown adjectives some people bandy about and turns them into drivel”. It has to be one of my favourites, and there must have been some truth in it because in 1969 the totally-revamped, fourth generation Grand Prix sold a whopping 112,486 units! Rolling on a new platform, the Grand Prix was now sporting a nippier 2997mm (118-inch) wheelbase and motive power was now the aforementioned 400s and 428s, the torque and power of which could throw your Grand Prix down the quarter mile in just 14.1 seconds. The following year, 1970, not much changed on the outside but there came a new sledgehammer for walnut cracking purposes; the massive 7456cc (455ci) engine.
Jeff’s Grand Prix
The 428s were dropped, but what was picked up was an astounding, ground-pounding 678Nm (500lb/ft) of torque from the 455. (Tyre retailers would have been laughing in their Budweiser.) This engine carried over to a slightly re-styled 1971 model that grew in length by 51mm and featured a sort of boat-tail effect on the rear end. This body style rolled into the 1972 model year, and a ’72 is what caught the imagination of West Auckland’s Jeff Mathews.
Jeff likes his cars to have some point of difference, and one point of difference with this ex-New York GP is the 455 HO motor. A fairly stout stick in any automobile affray even in factory trim, Jeff’s 455 has had a few tricks thrown at it by a competent American engine builder by the name of Bobby Engle. Engle, and N&S Motors, had a contract with some top NASCAR racing teams, and it is second nature for Bobby to screw together engines that make big torque and power while hanging together for the duration of a tough race. It was somewhat more of a challenge to produce a serious street engine that would deliver the goods without making the TH400 automatic transmission puke its innards all over Main Street.
Did Bobby succeed? I can tell you from first-hand experience that he did. The well detailed engine looks fantastic under the hood, and it delivers quite a punch in an effortless fashion out on the road. I drove Jeff’s GP only briefly, but it was enough to rekindle a love affair I’ve had with Pontiacs for more decades than I’m going to confess to. The feeling that only comes from great dollops of torque, once felt, is never forgotten, and imprudent applications of the ‘loud’ pedal are pointless, you’ll just waste good rubber. Once moving you can inch your right foot closer to the firewall, and I can’t tell whether it’s the acceleration doing it or the feeling of having a bucket seat pushed into my back, but the grin just keeps coming.
Net power
Now, you have to ask the question; ‘If the engine made 678Nm in factory trim, what does Jeff’s example produce?’ I have no idea, but even if it’s 15 per cent better than stock you have around 779Nm, or 575lb/ft, of torque to play with, and then there’s the power figure to blather on about. In 1971 the 455 was rated at (as much as) 276kW (370hp). It’s funny how overnight that figure dropped, on paper, to 224kW (300hp), isn’t it? You see 1972 was the year that GM started to rate its engine figures in net terms, rather than gross. This ruse appeared to get the insurance dogs off their heels momentarily, but worse was to come.
As gasoline prices started to rise at about this time, compression ratios dropped to allow customers to use lower-octane fuel. So it was with Jeff’s car originally, but previous owner (since 1974), John Buetti, was the man responsible for employing Bobby Engle and returning the 455 to some semblance of respectability.
The internals of the blueprinted 455 are all new and include pistons that produce a compression ratio more becoming of a Pontiac GP, while the power-robbing emissions equipment has long since been expunged. For occasional-use vehicles I see no problem with this methodology and indeed, finding replacement parts for early emissions control equipment is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Besides, a well-tuned, efficient but hardly used performance V8 engine will pollute the planet far less than a sick and tired import from somewhere east of here that’s running (on a daily basis) on unleaded, carcinogen-laden poop-fuel without a catalytic converter.
When it came to styling, the 1972 model managed a revised grille that somehow provides a more ‘formal’ look, very popular in the ’70s. Another switch was to lower the number of headlights from four to two. My own jury is still out on these headlights, though; from my perspective it looks as though they’d forgotten to fit headlights at the factory, and someone has come along and jammed a Dolphin torch backwards into each side of the front sheet metal. That is, however, my criticism list in its entirety. I couldn’t fault the leather-trimmed interior, though; the comprehensive job absorbed five matching black hides, and even the hood liner coalesces. The black-on-black looks stunning with red stitching, but I’ll bet my last pair of lily-white driving gloves that it’s a bit tricky to keep clean.
Fully loaded
The car came fully loaded too, with power steering, air conditioning, power windows and power seats; all luxury appointments that the Grand Prix is famous for. The trunk has been ‘boxed up’ to improve the aesthetics and has been fully carpeted, providing even more sound-deadening material than the factory included. There isn’t a square inch of this Grand Prix that hasn’t had some tender loving care lavished upon it and it shows; both in the appearance and the drive quality.
For many years after this Grand Prix hit the road the American auto industry took a bit of a turn. It was as if all the stylists had gone home sick, the EPA and insurance industry took the helm, threw asthmatic engines into cardboard boxes with impact absorbing bumpers and called them automobiles. It’s nice to know that as times changed at the onset of the ’70s and the Muscle Car era met its demise there were some folk who had the foresight to purchase and preserve some remnants of that most politically incorrect period of automotive greatness.
I have to say, with a deep sigh, that the Muscle Car era was a grand affair; an affair that’s sadly unlikely to repeat itself.
Words Peter ‘PC’ Callen Photos Jared Clark
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