I’ve endlessly ranted about how new first-year designs almost inevitably get mucked up. Sort of understandable: the designers work for a long time nailing down a fresh new car design, and then have to figure out a way to refresh or re-skin it a year or two later, making it look somehow different, but rarely better. But occasionally, the Take Two approach works; sometimes even quite well. The 1971 Grand Prix falls in that category, it managed to enhance the very handsome 1969 GP’s looks, making it a bit more dramatic and chiseled without coming off affected or desperate.
Not that the ’69 really needed much help there, one of the most dramatic and expressive beaks around. Obviously, I shot the ’69 under more advantageous circumstances (full CC here). That was pure coincidence too, not a staged shot. Sometimes you just get lucky.
Not so much so with this poor old bird, stashed away under a tree, waiting for a change of fortunes for its owners so they might be able to afford to get it back on the road. Looks fundamentally sound.
The ’71’s tail got even more attention than the beak, developing a distinctly boat-tail quality to it. The ’69’s is a bit bland; not its best end.
The new nose dropped the bumper surround for a more dramatic and classic grille, which given the GP’s stated intent of evoking the Duesenberg SJ, it certainly does so relatively more convincingly. I’m somewhat surprised that they put a bumper bar across it. The single headlights enhance the neo-classical look.
Here it is in more flattering circumstances. Ironic: It’s shown here in Monaco, and the one I find is in the very poorest neighborhood right next to the freight yard. Another classic Pontiac rendering by Fitzpatrick and Kaufman.
Update: The famous 1963 neo-classic renderings by Virgil Exner led to the ill-fated 1966 Duesenberg revival, which undoubtedly influenced the ’69 and ’71 GP.
Here’s a somewhat better look at the tail. I’m seeing that the newly-creased sheet metal is all in the trunk lid and the new bumper; the fenders look like carry-overs. Probably the same with the front.
Needless to say, the GP’s new protuberances were only a mild foreshadowing of things to come; when the new ’73 Collonade GP appeared in a rather garish new suit. I know where there is one…
I like it, wonder what’s under the hood and what exactly is wrong with the sleeping beast.
At worst it has a 400 with 4-barrel carb, turbo 400, & dual exhaust. This drivetrain was standard equipment in these cars all the way to 1974. I always thought of these as “Gentleman GTOs”.
It could have the 455 though.
I enjoyed this contribution
Beautiful car. Would look striking in silver with a red interior.
Did this `71 have a vinyl top at some point? It’s hard to tell. Regardless, it looks much better without.
You keep doing it, Paul. Here I was, growing up when these things were all over, and it never registered with me how significantly restyled the 71 was. You know how you just get so familar with something that you stop looking at it? I had completely forgotten about the dual/quad headlight thing or the flat vs. pointed tail. I would see one or the other and remember (wrongly) that they were all like that.
Maybe I was just not interested enough in GM cars at that age, and I never knew anyone with one of these. The first GP I really noticed details on was the 76 (I think) that borrowed the 41 Continental’s grille theme. I hope the one you found is one of these.
With a fresh look at this car, the Pontiac stylists did quite a job. This design came dangerously close to those single headlights getting lost in that big expanse of room on either side of that narrow grille. But they pulled it off. Still, I go back and forth as to a preference between the first and second version. Rear? No contest – the 71 is a big improvement. Thanks for the education.
The question is whether this model kept the same awesome pop-out lever door handles like the earlier version. Anybody know?
Yessir! They sure did. I like the fact that these handles were not installed on any other GM make or model.
Didn’t Toronados have them to at one point?
The 69 looks elegant to me. I like the clean lines of the rear end…its tight and trim. The 71 has too much space around the lights in the front, and too much junk in the trunk.
I still like the 69 GP better.
You gotta be kidding me. I have a 71, it was my first car at 16yrs of age in HS. i just brought it back out since i parked it in 1979.
I had a ’71 Grand Prix! White with black vinyl top and Keystone Klassics! Also had a bench seat. I bought a ’77 and sold my baby- I’m still regretting it til this day!!
I like them both about equally, and I’ll say that they are my favorite cars to wear the
Tin Indian.
Too much space around the single headlamps, calling attention to creeping bloat.
Though more handsome and sporting in profile vs the ’69.
Just as a point of comparison, here’s my grandparent’s (and later Mom’s) 1971 Catalina (400, 2-barrel carb):
LOVE this car. Too bad it’s probably not with us anymore.
My grandparents gave the car to us when I was in high school, and I think Mom sold it soon after Dad divorced her, being a very thirsty car to run. It got replaced with a Citation, which I really came to dread seeing, as it was always attached to a lengthy list of items needing attention whenever I saw Mom.
A dead ringer for my high school driver’s Ed car.
If it keeps sitting in dirt under a tree like that, it won’t stay sound for very long 🙁 .
At least put the wheels on concrete stepstones and cover it with a waterproof canvas tarp. Geez.
Here in the Pacific northWEsTs using a waterproof cover isn’t a good idea because the ground is so wet it will cause more condensation inside and under the car and accelerate the rust rather than slow it.
The rear fenders are deceptively similar but don’t look to me to be interchangeable. Look at the top corners of the trunk lid cutout. Also note that the doors’ upper-fender curvature is carried all the way to the tail on the 1971. To my eyes that accentuates the c-pillar’s mass but does give the fenders a less slap-sided look.
In some ways the 1971 is an improvement but I kind of like the next-generation in its pre-5mph bumper form (1973). The body is bulkier but the overall design is unusually clean for a GM mid-sized car of that era. The boat tail is also carried off a lot better.
OK, Paul, you are getting super-close to my numero uno favorite car ever — the 1973 Grand Prix. Oh man I sure hope one of these is in the works…
Even though I prefer the front end of the ’69-’70 model, I really like how the ’71-’72 bridged the cap for the upcoming ’73 model: Both front and rear styling of these made the new ’73 model “clearly” a Grand Prix.
The SJs had the 455 4barrel standard but this car could have been ordered with that engine. SJ cars got the 140mph speedometer & rally gauges (less tach) standard. I think the SJs also got the dual snorkel air cleaner. I say that because some genious brought an original SJ across the scales to my father’s old scrapyard & the dual snorkel unit was thrown in the back seat. (“Genious” put the running drivetrain in his dirt track car).
Bucket seats & console were standard but the split bench was a no-cost option. Only bench seat cars had a “regular” glove compartment in the instrument panel. I thought it was strange that GM went to the trouble of making two different instrument panels for the same car. Maybe they felt sorry for the people who wanted a bench seat.
A lot of these cars were butchered for home brew GTOs which is a shame.
I prefer the rear of the ’71 but the dual headlights of the ’69. I rode in one of these once, twenty-plus years ago on a visit to New Orleans. I don’t remember the year, but thought the door handles and the quarter windows that retracted sideways into the rear pillars were super cool.
Grand Prix… The gentlemans classy sports car, and the 69’s were perfectly timed to compete with that wonky looking T-Bird of the day. To me, the ’69 always looked better. The single headlights of the ’71, along with the nose redesign just give me the impression of a cheapened car. That flat rear deck hits the mark better – simple and elegant, vs. the 70’s pimped out boat tail look (which isn’t bad per se, just over the top for this particular car). Same is true for the ’69s grille; very Pontiac yet unique…heavier and chrome, vs the plastic looking insert grille using established styling cues of the time. I’ve always loved this design, and the 69 model was probably one of the best ever to come from Pontiac Division, in my small opinion 🙂 And I think it made Ford take notice too, as many of its styling features wound up on the 72 Thunderbird.
I thought it was Bunkie who applied the Pontiac themes to the 70 Thunderbird?
I much prefer the ’71 to the ’69. To me, the grill on the ’69 has a pinched, almost comical look to it– like a bird’s beak. The attempt to evoke the look of the 1930s on the ’71 really works IMHO, and the non-quad widely-spaced headlights are a key element in that look. I remember being impressed by the ’71 GP when it came out. The ’71 went against prevailing styling trend of of the time– “if it’s big, it must have four headlights,” which made it distinctive and attractive both.
Wondering out loud where Pontiac got the idea to invoke Deusenberg as a theme for the GP? They really continued that for a long time, well into the early 80s with the SJ. Was it DeLoreans idea? Knudsens?
Looking back it seems a little strange, maybe a little like the Granada ESS/Mercedes lame-o comparison. But at least they were great looking cars in their own right.
There was a major Duesenberg revival (styled by Virgil Exner) attempt a few years earlier that undoubtedly had an influence.
A great design analysis by Paul between the ’69 and ’71! My sister bought a ’76 GP new….what a beautiful car. I like how the Pontiac designers stayed true to the traditional GP styling cues throughout the 70’s beginning with that great 1969 design. And that dashboard design was unique unto itself, the first of the “aircraft cockpit” designs……………I miss Pontiac more and more each time an article like this appears.
I can remember that for a long time, finding reproduction body, interior, and trim parts for these was a royal pain in the a$$. Thankfully, aftermarket manufacturers are finally starting to wake up.
Original Parts Group has finally started making pieces for these cars, as well as a few Pontiac-only places.
Gotta disagree. The ’69 is clean and classic. The ’71 is the canary in the coal mine…the early warning that the crisp, uncluttered look of the 60s was about to be replaced by bloated designs attempting to evoke 1930s ideas of luxury. It’s a chunk (along with declining power and worsening quality) of the reason men in their 30s and 40s started looking at imports while American luxury and personal cars became the province of old guys (55+) who remembered (hazily, it would appear) Deusenbergs.
Well said! I actually like both, but I can’t look at the ’71 without thinking about all the horrid 1930’s nostalgia it helped to inspire. In my opinion, the zenith of Pontiac styling was from the 1959 models up until about 1967. The ’68-’73 cars still looked good, but instead of looking good because of clean, crisp and sporty lines, they were more about over-the-top styling flourishes. The Endura bumper, the Bunkie Beak, far-out muscle car graphics… I guess that was true of the entire industry, but Pontiacs really drove the point home. In that respect, I suppose the ’71 was actually a more distinctive and unique model than the ’68.
69 is my favorite front and back, the 71 headlights and trunk look like add ons on top of the elegant 69. I absolutely hated that neoclassic trend towards dual headlights away from the quads during the 70s. I never cared for the look on the Monte Carlo or the Cordoba either.
Give me a 63 – in midnight blue. Nothing ever topped that one, though I liked the 67, always pay the burgundy convertible in the Smithsonian a visit when I’m there. The later models just never did it for me.
I think I’d have to give the nod to the ’71. In addition to the sculpted rear trunk (which kind of reminds me of the beautiful ’67-’68 Eldorado), giving the GP much needed character, the front bumper/grille treatment is better, too.
While I’m less impressed with the dual headlights versus the quads, what is a more subtle improvement to the front end is the change from the ‘alligator’ hood to the ‘hatch’ style.
If only they had kept the quad headlights for ’71. It’s worth noting that the quads would eventually return in 1976 with the then newly approved rectangular headlights.
“I’m seeing that the newly-creased sheet metal is all in the trunk lid and the new bumper; the fenders look like carry-overs.”
Not quite. The rear fender / trunk lid cut lines are different between ’69 and ’71.
those outside folding door handles were taken straight from the 1950’s Mercedes 300SL.
This post is super old but I had to comment. For the ’71 is completely timeless. My first car was a ’71 Grand Prix and I absolutely loved that thing. Shortly after buying it I did have it repainted though. Mine originally was a brown color. I got it repainted in a Black Cherry and put the the late model Trans Am Snowflake wheels on it. We did paint the wheels as well where they wouldve been gold on the Trans Am we also painted Black Cherry. All black interior with a 455, ported and polished heads, long tube headers to straight pipe, high rise intake with a Holley 650 DP, and big nasty cam to give it that perfect sound.
Miss that car everyday and I dont even have pictures to remember it by. Shortly after I sold it to a friend of mine, he resold it and the new owners turned it into a dirt track car.