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Rare One Owner Red Can Am on 2040-cars

Year:1977 Mileage:115954
Location:

Bradenton, Florida, United States

Bradenton, Florida, United States
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Get yourself, or your sweetheart a great Valentine's Day present, it's even the right color!

This is a one owner 1977 Pontiac LeMans with the Can Am performance package, and as far as I know the only one in this color, all were made in white, this one is not.  The short lesson is that there were either 1,177 or 1,377 (Depending on your source, no one seems to pin down a hard number) LeMans Sport Coups converted into Can Ams by a company called Motortown Corporation in 1977 as a GM project to resurrect (sort of) the GTO.  The project got cancelled by GM when the stamping machine that made the rear spoilers broke and was down for most of the spring.  With hundreds of white LeMans SC's sitting in the yard at the factory, GM management eventually pulled the plug on the project and sent the last batch of about 450 machines to be modified after the stamping machine was fixed.  There isn't much else to say, if you're looking for one of these then you know what we are talking about, if you've never heard of it before, ask questions and I'll try to answer as best as possible.

When I purchased the car, I was working at a Pontiac dealer in Ypsilanti Michigan and was told it was sent in with the last batch of Sport Coupes that went off to Motortown for conversion to the Can Am.   Supposedly our Sales Manager was a golfing buddy of the VP of Pontiac at the time and he is the one that slipped the red one in at the last minute.  I can't verify that, but that's what the manager of the dealership told me when I bought it and hey, it's a good story.  I purchased this in August 1977 as my first new car and drove it for twelve years as my only vehicle.  I had it restored in 2000 although the numbers don't match anymore, the heads got lost but I acquired a set of factory correct units and the motor is in stock configuration.  The last 10 months the car has been sitting outside and there was a leak that allowed water to do the damage you see in the photos of the interior.  The engine and drive train, in fact the entire car, only has 15,000 miles on it since it was restored, the tires have less than 500 miles on them and are a year old.  If it were not for the rusted out floor, you could drive this car anywhere, although the gas bill would be a bit high.

The car is equipped with the Pontiac T/A 6.6 (400 C.I.D.(Option W72)) engine with 4 bbl carb rated at 200hp at 4,000 rpm, and 325-lbs.ft. of torque at 2,200 rpm with a TurboHydramatic 400 transmission running a G80 code positrac rear end.  Some Can Ams were built with the 6.6 Litre (403 C.I.D. Oldsmobile) engine with 4 bbl carb., but this one sports the Pontiac motor.  The interior is the standard LeMans bench seat, Can Ams were supposed to have bucket seats with a console and floor mounted shifter and full gauge package from the Gran Prix, this car did not get that.

The only options of note are A/C which works very good and an AM/FM Stereo radio with 8 Trac tape player which does not work, but the car was and still is an eye catcher and in its day, a heavy hitter in the stoplight wars.  That may sound like a bit of a stretch by today's standards but in the mid to late seventies, many cars barely boasted 150hp.  The Pontiac 400 has A LOT of torque at low RPM and it can still give a good account of itself from 0 to 60.  I installed headers and a custom exhaust along with the old Trans Am style side splitter tailpipes.  The shaker hood is functional and at wide open throttle not only does the car feel like it's pushing you into the back seat, it sounds like a P-47 Thunderbolt on wheels.

This is not a garage queen, as I said above, I drove this car for over twelve years both city and highway, it has traversed the country and never let me down.  After restoration I drove it only on short trips to local car shows and up to a year ago, almost every day to work, I would have continued had not the floor started to give out.  She runs fine on pump gas and all I've used in it for the last ten years is Chevron with Techron additive fuel to keep the system clean.  The oil has been changed religiously every 3,000 miles using Mobil 1 fully synthetic motor oil, and the transmission has Amsoil fully synthetic fluid in it.  The cooling system has been drained and refilled every two and a half to three years and belts and hoses changed at the same time.  As stated above, the tires are just about a year old with about 500 miles on them and filled with nitrogen.  The car drives straight, no pulling left or right and cruises fast or slow, your choice, although at 70+ it gets a little noisy with the 3.23 rear and that three speed automatic, but power is instantaneous if your foot gets itchy as more than one tail light gazer can attest.

It's tough to let this car go, but circumstances are forcing my hand, this is a good solid eye catching machine that makes everyone take notice when you pull in wherever you go, be it the grocery store, the beach, a hamburger joint or a national car show.

Hello Kitty plate not included.

  • I reserve the right to end the sale of this machine at any time.
  • The car is sold as is and where is, no warranty implied or stated.
  • The buyer is responsible for all shipping / transporting costs.
  • I will assist and cooperate with shipping companies if needed, I have bought and sold other cars over the years and know the way things work.
  • A $500 deposit is required immediately after the auction ends and an email with your contact information.
Thanks for stopping by.

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Junkyard Gem: 1996 Pontiac Grand Am SE Coupe

Thu, Jun 22 2023

The Grand Am was the best-selling Pontiac model in the United States for every year of the 1990s, and it outsold most of its N-Body platform-mates (including the Chevrolet Corsica/Beretta) during nearly all of that decade. A sporty-looking compact with two or four doors, the Grand Am offered true 1990s radness—and, in some cases, respectable performance — at a good price. Today's Junkyard Gem is a nicely preserved example of the facelifted 1996 Grand Am, found in a Denver-area car graveyard. This is an SE Coupe with base engine and transmission, the most affordable Grand Am available in 1996. List price was $13,499, or about $26,523 in 2023 dollars. The factory-issued Monroney sheet for this car was still inside, so we can see that the original buyer got the car at Bob Ruwart Motors in Wheatland, Wyoming (about 175 miles up I-25 from this Pontiac's final parking spot), and paid a total of $16,054 ($31,543 in today's money) after the cost of options and the destination charge. The '96 Grand AM SE buyer had to pay extra for cruise control, air conditioning, power windows, rear glass defogger and other features we now take for granted on new cars. The base engine was the 2.4-liter Twin Cam four cylinder, a member of the screaming Oldsmobile Quad 4 family. This one was rated at 150 horsepower and 155 pound-feet. A 3.1-liter V6 with 155 horses and 185 pound-feet was an option. If you got the V6 in your '96 Grand Am, however, you couldn't get a manual transmission. This car has a proper five-speed manual, which made for fun driving with the high-revving Twin Cam engine in a machine weighing just 2,802 pounds (which is quite a bit less than what the current Honda Civic weighs). It traveled just over 160,000 miles during its 27 years on the road. The body and interior were still in fairly good condition when the car arrived here, so we can assume that some expensive mechanical problem doomed this car. Perhaps the original clutch wore out and the owner didn't consider it worth replacing. After all, a mid-1990s Detroit two-door with a transmission most people can't drive isn't worth much these days. Though nobody knew it when this car was new, the Grand Am would be gone in nine years and Pontiac itself would get the axe five years after that. It makes the ordinary extraordinary. Husbands and wives would argue for 12 hours over who got to drive the Grand Am, if we are to believe this ad. Proud sponsor of the 1996 Olympic team.

Sci-fi movie Jinn features car designer, Firebird-bodied Camaro

Tue, 08 Apr 2014

If you're an automotive engineer being tormented by an immortal being made of fire, then wouldn't you think it best to have a custom coupe called the FireBreather for your getaway car? That's the FireBreather in the image above, adorned by the red wings that once fronted the Pontiac Firebird, running away from a black cloud of evil in a trailer for the movie Jinn.
The Jinn is eternal evil, always waiting for the chance to make things float across rooms before going on homicidal urban rampages. The FireBreather is a Gen-V Chevrolet Camaro - from the V6 to the ZL1 - that's been through Classic Design Concepts' extensive list of exterior and interior modifications, including entirely new front and rear fascias and side skirts, sway bars and springs, Pirelli P Zeroes and an available Edelbrock supercharger.
The movie - FireBreathing chase scenes and all - was shot in Monroe, Michigan. You can watch the trailer below, but since the FireBreather only get a couple of seconds on screen, you can find out more about it on Street Legal TV and its official site.

GM recalling 426,000 sedans over faulty transmission shift cable

Fri, 21 Sep 2012

General Motors is recalling some 426,240 sedans that may have a faulty transmission shift cable, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report this morning. The recall concerns a fault within four-speed automatic transmissions equipped on 2007-2010 Saturn Aura models, and 2008-2010 Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 models.
The report specifies that tabs on the transmission shift cable may fracture and separate. Such a fault could cause a discrepancy between the actual position of the transmission and the apparent position of the shift lever.
GM is currently working to notify owners of the vehicles in question, and dealers will check and replace shift cables free of charge. Scroll down to read the complete NHTSA report.