I used to love working in the Sears Willis Tower, and one of my favorite things about arriving there in the morning and leaving in the afternoon was that various Curbside Classics would sometimes appear in the rush hour traffic near its southeastern intersection of Jackson and Franklin. In fact, two of my earliest photo submissions to the Curbside Cohort that were featured at this site were snapped right outside this iconic skyscraper: an early-’70s Mustang Grande notchback and a ’75 Caprice Classic convertible. Parked mere yards away from where those two vehicles were rolling along at different points in time was our featured Grand Prix. Nineteen Seventy-Eight was the first year of this generation of downsized A-Body personal luxury coupes from GM.
I realize that neither the basic styling of this Grand Prix (“Medium Prix“?) nor its paint job are going to be to everyone’s liking. I, however, like both. Long before I had watched the Steve McQueen classic movie “The Hunter” as a kid, where a bad guy stole a really nice, two-tone green example of one of these and subsequently plummeted something like ten stories from Marina City Towers into the (really filthy) Chicago River of the late-’70s, I had admired the clean, taut styling of these cars.
While this paint job may appear to lack technical precision of the work of a high-end body shop, the overall effect is pleasing. To me, this color combo seems not unlike a delicious, blended blueberry-lemonade frozen slush that had been sitting in the refrigerator for a little while awaiting later consumption, having emulsified into sweet blueberry flavoring on the upper half and tart lemonade on the bottom. An actual slush like that may have been just what the doctor ordered after work on a warm day in mid-July, almost five years ago.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Thursday, July 16, 2015.
If a person does not look at the prior generation GP, these don’t look too bad – if equipped correctly. If keeping the prior generation GP in mind, these seem rather watered down and uninspired. The paint job on this one is rather unique, in a good way.
When watching the linked clip for the Steve McQueen movie, the tow truck was hooked to a second GP that gets the front yanked off.
At least the one in the clip was the same color as the river. 🙂
Jason, like you, I noticed that the black car that had its front yanked off by the tow truck was also a GP like the green one. They wrecked two perfectly nice ones for this three-minute sequence!
And JP, I had to laugh at your comment, but I’d guess that the Chicago River of 1979 (when this film was made – released in 1980 as Steve McQueen’s last picture) was perhaps closer to a murky brown?
The best of this generation of A/G cars are really well done, particularly in proportion if not always detail. The worst – and I’d put the GP and Monte Carlo in that category – are so off in proportion, that even the clean details of the GP don’t make up for it, to me. But the paint job is unique, and probably better this way than with the yellow on top and the blue below.
I like the car and dont hate the paintjob. Pontiac had a similar 2 tone paint fade effect on the later GPs, though not in those colors.
I know Paul lists these as a Deadly Sin but I respectfully disagree. Its not as ‘Grand’ as any of the earlier GPs but I think the 1988 GM10 that replaced these did for worse damage to the nameplate (and Pontiac overall) than the G-body GPs.
I can almost hear “Don’t Look Back” from its 1978 speakers.
Agreed. The Deadly Sin was written featuring a weather beaten base model GP that appeared to have near zero options.
There were a bit north of 228,000 Grands Prix’s sold in 1978, about 55% of those were the base model. It may have been a bit too plain to play in the “personal luxury” field, and likely contributed to the perennial problems Pontiac’s Le Mans experienced. Still, most base cars carried a decent group of options and 45% of production were either the sport oriented SJ or luxury oriented LJ, which could be had with a leather interior when leather was generally rare in all but very high end cars.
The 1981 refresh of these cars brought back some of the earlier Pontiac panache, and my Dad’s 1983 version of the base car reached fairly deep in the options bin, and was very nice indeed. It was black with a light grey landau top, had Pontiac’s rally wheels, and the light grey interior was festooned with bucket seats, consol with floorshift, air, tilt, cruise, four speaker AM/FM stereo, power windows and wire grid rear defog. Most folks thought it was a pretty sharp car!
LTDan, your comment freaked me out a bit.
My first car, a 1980 Malibu coupe, the very first song I heard on its radio was Boston ‘Don’t Look Back’. And I never did until I sold that car, now I look back fondly.
I also own a VW LT but I don’t think your name stands for that
From the factory, the ’85 had a similar paint scheme done with a wide tape stripe. My Dad’s was dark blue over silver. I really like the look.
A friend with an earlier eighties one of these, (an ’82 or ’83 perhaps?), worked with his father owned a body shop. His was a t-top version that they did this way in red over silver to mimic the later paint & stripe schemes. The blended paint looked great compared to the stripe job you got from the factory.
When I see a paint job like this I always want to see a bumper sticker that says “my day job is painting luxury conversion vans”.
I am not a tremendous fan of the car or of the paint job, but you bring the blueberry-lemonade freeze into the thing and make it a win. When Pontiac hands you a lemon, make a blueberry lemonade freeze? 🙂
Two-toning was quite popular in the ‘50’s, available in an array of colors across all brands. Then by 1960 seemed to totally disappear, replaced later in the decade by vinyl roofs, most of which were in a contrasting color. In the ‘80’s the vinyl roof phase started to fade and two-toning made a brief return on later years of this generation GP, as well as on Caprices, LeSabres and other GM cars of this era. Then, by the late ‘80’s, it went away again and really never returned.
Are we overdue for a comeback?
Two-tone paint jobs have made a small comeback with cars like the Nissan Kicks and Kia Soul, but the two-toning’s usually limited to a contrasting roof color.
My father bought one of these, maybe even a 78, two-tone dark gray over silver with a red interior (of course). It also had the Pontiac rally wheels with white wall tires.
It looked nice but my only memory of it was that it didn’t seem to sit level when viewed from the front or rear. The dealer had no answers and it was replaced with a Toronado a couple of years later.
I have learned that you need to take the GM body of work as a whole for these things. What was the equivalent Chev/Olds/Buick of these? The Monte Carlo is one. The Cutlass? The Century also? I don’t count myself a fan of these, but I do appreciate that there were droves of people who bought them.
The paint job immediately reminded me of the Mako Shark II which I saw on display in Niagara Falls in 1967. This was in the summer of 1967 if I recall correctly, age 12. The paint scheme was cool. The car was like “wow.”
Good tie in! I didn’t think of that but it’s so apt.
I’m with you on that. I’d go so far as to say these were the inspiration.
I was reminded of the two-tone corvettes that came out the same year as the featured car – the 25th anniversary and the Pace Car. GM definitely was into two-tones in 1978.
Within this context, I think I like the paint job on this Grand Prix even more than I did before.
Nice capture Joseph! This unusual colour combo reminds me slightly of the distinctive Navy Blue and Sandstone finish Buick used on later model Regal Somersets. Reversed from the ’78 Somerset, where blue now became the primary bodyside colour, with the sandstone lower body.
I was thinking, what might the owner of a ’78 Grand Prix be listening to in the Spring of ’78? I’m going to suggest Pablo Cruise!
Daniel, I probably wouldn’t have made the connection between the color scheme of this Grand Prix with the Buick Regal Somerset if you haven’t pointed it out. A great catch.
(And the song is a perfect choice. I’m a big fan of that West Coast sound from the late ’70s – early ’80s.)
I love the G-bodies from this era, but they all were improved by the 1981 restyle.
I am also a 1978 model, and I think this GP has aged slightly better (but then again I was a little younger 5 years ago too.)
Chris, agree with you that the ’81 restyles were successful. I generally like what all four divisions did – but I’m partial to the 1978 – ’80 Cutlass Supremes over what followed. There’s just something about those first downsized Cutlasses that I just love. This might also have something to do with first noticing them when I first started noticing cars in general.
Joseph, out of all the original ’78s I think the Cutlasses were certainly the best executed. I think a ’78 with the four-headlight ’81-’87 front end would be a killer combo.
That being said, with my Buick bias I’m going to vote Grand National every time. 😉
In the ’80s Pontiac offered a factory paint fade two-tone on the Grand Prix that likely inspired the subject car.
They were fairly rare, but I thought they were sharp…..
Agreed. This look was hot – exactly how the Grand Prix in this brochure photo was pictured.
I have a 87 grandprix. Nice
When cars get fancy paint-jobs, it signals a bigger problem with their look. Good looking cars don’t need fancy paint jobs, right?
These cars looked like the stylists at Pontiac were in the process of evolving away from the super-brougham styling of the previous generation, but not quite certain where to go from there. They had good reason to wonder too.
Ford plunged directly into miniature versions of their garish Baroque Thunderbird and Mark VI and these cars looked awful in every way. GM had the common sense not to load these smaller Prix with the tacky goo-gaws of the 1973-76 era, and seemed to stop when the smaller design couldn’t visually handle the nastiness.
Ford, however, discovered the Aerobird and soon they had a very attractive Mark LSC and Cougar, by 1984. GM never figured that out. Instead of redesigning their Prix, Monte Carlo and Cutlass into the 1980 era look, they had locked themselves into a conservative design and then did that awful aero-style Prix and MC in 1985-86, which flopped.
So, this generation was the beginning of the end of a decent decade of luxury coupes for the Prix. They don’t get their Mojo back for another decade.
Datsun did offered a fancy paint job with the 280ZX Black Gold edition.;-)
That car needs a miniature disco ball hanging from the mirror
I can totally see Deney Terrio driving up to the studio in one of these to tape another episode of Dance Fever.
CC-in-scale went for black and silver, and reversed the colours.
One could catch an STD just from watching that ad.
Go, porn-stache guy!
🎵”Gold!”🎵
Love it!
Wow – The background music sounds a bit like a Giorgio Moroder production, and the dude in the commercial is also rocking fa close facsimile of said music producer’s ‘stache. This TV spot reeks of 1979… and I’m loving it.
B L L A A A C K K K G O O O L L L D D D
I definitely agree about the trajectory of styling with GM vs. Ford in this era. I don’t really agree about the Monte Carlo SS and 2+2, though. They were created primarily to allow the NASCAR racecars based on them to have better aerodynamics and hopefully have cars with GM names on them win more races, or at least look slicker trying (going up against the Aerobirds). The SS was actually a pretty popular car from 83-88 for those looking for a new car in the old muscle car style. They still have a dedicated following today.
You may be thinking just of the Aeroback version of the SS, and the Pontiac 2+2. The 86 models were strictly for NASCAR homologation purposes and meant to be limited production from the get go. I would agree those were awkward looking, but they were never meant to be mainstream.
So, I really wouldn’t say they “flopped”.
The hubcaps are definitely dragging the look of this car down. Replace with some Pontiac raylle wheels or snowflakes and it would look 100 times better.
Tony, I agree that the wheel covers aren’t the best, given the fancy paint job – but I do give the owner props for keeping the wheels looking stock.
All of the GM B-body coupes except for the Chevy Monte Carlo have improved during the 1981 redesign, I thought the 1978-80 Buick Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix looked very plain, I thought the 1978-80 Chevy Monte Carlo and Oldsmobile Cutlass pulled off the downsizing style better than the Buick Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix.
These are what I call, “Rodney Dangerfield” cars; the don’t get no respect. All the G-body cars drove well, base models were by far the best. In Canada, we didn’t get all bent out of shape when a Pontiac a Chevrolet engine. All of them I ever say had a 305, which even today would be fun to drive with its gobs of torque. The base model was a good 200 lbs lighter than the loaded cars and it showed driving both cars.
These cars were good value at time but the redesign is a much more attractive design
I like it! I would be pleased to own this car, and be on the lookout for a 400 to transplant into it. To me, cars like this hit the sweet spot between, luxury, ride, efficiency and size – and I wish this basic kind of car was still being made new.
Since I can’t see the taillights I am wondering exactly what year this car is…the upper grille is a 78 but the lower grille In the bumper is a 79. So was the lower or upper replaced?
Jimmy, this one had the horizontally-slatted taillamps of the ’78, so I assumed that was the model year. Unfortunately, that picture wasn’t the best so I didn’t include it in this post.
Not a whole lotta love here for the 78-79 Grand Prix from my fellow CC readers.
I feel the opposite. Of all the 1978-87 A/G 2-doors, I liked these the best.
I thought they were the best looking, with styling that was “American”, but not gaudy. At the other end of the spectrum was the 1980 Monte Carlo.
In general, I didn’t care for the 1981 restyle, as I found the raised deck lid, smaller rear window, and lowered hood line ruined the the balanced profile.
The GP had the best instrument panel—available. Yes, you had to pay extra or get a higher an SJ/LJ, but for that you got proper round dials and a tach.
Like all A-body Pontiacs, the GP did not have that extra square binnacle to house the radio and HVAC, which seemed ungainly to me.
The folks at Car and Driver, who at age 14, I thought were the best evaluators of cars liked the ride and handling of their loaded test car, even as they noted it cost close to $10k, a lot of money in 1978.
The cars’ only drawback was that it came with the Pontiac 301 vs the Chevy 305. It was not a bad engine, but the 305 made more power (and now I think the 305 is better in every respect).
Still, it was only a minor difference, maybe one second at most to 60 or in the quarter mile.
The biggest drawback of the GP was, that in the cheaper versions, it felt cheap because it fell so far short of the potential conveyed by its appearance. The blank gauges. The rather plain standard wheel covers.
In 1978, if I wanted to “look” like I was driving a a pricier car, the a base Cutlass Supreme was the better alternative.
But if one sprang for the V8, Pontiac’s styled wheels (any flavor, from the common steel ones to the snowflake aluminum ones to the real wire wheels (NOT faux covers), handling suspension, and gauge package, if my dad had gotten a 78 or 79 like that, I would have felt we had a cool car, one of the very best cars one could buy new then