For my Pontiac Grand Am article, which I published last month, I had wanted to include this launch commercial. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate it anywhere on the internet and I thought it had been lost in antiquity. Never fear, it’s here!
This is a commercial created for enthusiasts. There’s no talk of convenience features, no mention of style (although the Grand Am had this in abundance), no quirky shenanigans by the occupants of the car. This is Pontiac bragging about how they made their mid-size GM A-Body handle well, perhaps even well enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the vaunted European sport sedans rising to prominence by the 1970s. As a bonus, there’s some funky music and a head-on shot of an impact to the Grand Am’s polyurethane nose.
This is easily one of my favorite car commercials.
Plus its got the roadability of a sports car! I guess that means you can drive it on the road, just like you can a sport car.
I think it was about that time that Pontiac swiped the WIDETRACK feature from CHECKER !!
I still like the one-time-only GTO ‘Humbler’ commercial during the 1970 Super Bowl half-time show as my favorite Pontiac commercial, which showed the short-lived, dash-mounted exhaust cut-out knob.
That’s so cool!
GM upper management was pretty good at squelching anything that even hinted at street racing, but a few ads slipped through. Besides The Humbler commercial, there was the (in)famous 1968 magazine ad which showed a couple guys in a GTO waiting on a Woodward Avenue median turnaround with the caption, “You know the rest of the story”. It only ran once, too.
+11!
What was the knob on the dash that he pulled midway through the ad? Was there some sort of exhaust bypass knob on the Goats?
Yep, I just had to look it up after watching it, it was a cancelled option that essentially bypassed the baffles in the mufflers.
“THIS IS THE WAY IT’S GOING TO BE, BABY!” Love that pure ’70s American attitude!
Ahh a commercial devoid of fake consumer morons. The first half ad plays almost like the dumb Chevy ads currently aired (what kind of car do you think this is), but the difference is they don’t gather a bunch of airheads in a showroom with a big behind the curtain reveal to shatter their simpleton expectations. No, they tell you, and they don’t need to tout their competitors in name – “like i think it’s a BMW” – or touting an irrelevant award by J.D. power. No. It’s the new Grand Am, made by the same automaker who made Grand Prix, Firebird and GTO. That’s literally all the information you need to know.
Man, I hate those new Chevy ads with a passion. Just picturing the dim-bulb, gushing “non-actors” sets my teeth on edge. Bah!
GM REALLLLLLLY needs a marketing department. They’re the largest company (of any kind) in the US without one and it really shows.
The sad thing is the truth that there really are so many gullible folks out there who give these things credence.
How are your opinions any more valid?
Mine aren’t played on TV every 3 minutes on every channel.
Love it! I’ll take mine in red.
I want to say the first time I saw one of these and its distinctive, ahem, snout, it was on police cruisers the local constabulary had acquired. Some Googling tells me I’m probably wrong, and that the Pontiac Enforcer package used LeMans (LeManses? LesMans?) not Grand Ams. All the same, as a young Pontiac aficionado, I was cool to the styling of the Collonade Pontiacs and especially the Grand Ams. I still am, no matter how well they may have handled.
I have an equally irrational affection for their downsized, 1978+ successors. A Grand Am of that generation, equipped with a 4 bbl. Pontiac 301 or Chevy 305, has a spot reserved in my dream garage, even with the fixed rear windows.
Nice car and one of the better offering’s from the vehicles of this era, I’ve read somewhere that this car is supposed to have the luxury of a Pontiac Grand Prix and the sportiness and performance of a Pontiac Trans Am and thought they did a great job on this car, too bad it had to come out during the Malaise era when power was down and the Emission Control devices and smog pumps were affecting its performance
I don’t know if Fitzpatrick and Kaufman continued as Pontiac’s ad agency through the time period of the 1973 Grand Am. Whomever it was throughout the sixties and much of the seventies had an enormous impact on Pontiac sales, and the close relationship between John Delorean while at Pontiac and adman Jim Wangers is legendary.
But aside from the Swiss-cheese Catalinas and first GTO when there was no competition, Pontiacs were actually pretty far down the hierarchy of the fastest street machines, with the only slower cars usually 390 Fords. But it didn’t matter where it counted: sales. Pontiac ads were extremely effective in reeling in the sixties performance car consumer.
The Grand Am was a total mystery to me at the time it was launched; neither fish nor fowl, neither luxury car nor muscle car. I knew a guy who bought one new. He was an accountant who dreamed of being cool; he wasn’t handsome. I thought and the Grand Am were a perfect match for each other.
I never knew about factory cut-outs on GTO’s….. how freakin’ cool! I am sure that somebody from Pontiac got called on the GM carpet for that feature. Too bad somebody was dumb enough to run an ad where the boss saw it.
I thought it was just because they didn’t work very well. The inside of a muffler isn’t the greatest environment for moving parts, moving METAL parts!
From the best info I can find, the ‘Vacuum Operated Exhaust’ (VOE) was offered on the GTO from November, 1969 thru January, 1970 (the time of the Super Bowl commercial). Something over 230 cars (a very small amount) got the option before it was pulled by GM. The way it operated was there were movable baffles inside the muffler that were controlled by a vacuum actuator on the front of the muffler (hence the name).
My guess would be it was a combination of both GM not wanting to be seen as encouraging street racing, as well as the system’s longevity (warranty claims). I’m certain that there are some states that prohibit exhaust cut-outs so there could have been a legality question about it, as well, even though the mufflers were not technically bypassed. It doesn’t seem like it was all that effective, either, with the commercial having an enhanced soundtrack that exaggerated the sound difference.
Ironically, there has been a very similar ‘dual mode exhaust’ option for new Corvettes (code: NPP at $1200) that seems to do the exact same thing as the 1970 GTO VOE, albeit likely in a much more effective and reliable manner. I think the Corvette system may just have one baffle at the end of the muffler, whereas the GTO’s VOE had multiple, internal baffles.
I believe the Mitsubishi 3000 had a similar system, though I don’t recall the mechanics.
Definitely noticeable, though the owner never seems to get it above idle
https://youtu.be/I2JACXH3HG8
Unfortunately, it’s hard to know if that’s an OEM VOE or a retro aftermarket system that’s not exactly the same. I’m guessing that even the stock-appearing dash knob and panel has been reproduced.
Given the small number made and how quickly they likely would have deteriorated, I’d guess the latter. In fact, I can’t imagine a factory-installed exhaust remaining on just about any musclecar from the sixties that had seen any road miles in less than a perfect climate.
Well I can’t imagine the fundamental operation being that much different, if it bypasses the baffles it’s basically functioning as straight pipes, definitely would be a volume difference one way or another. Now I think the performance function would be fairly dubious, that large of a chamber probably isn’t the best thing for flow.
Thanks William for affirming that this was not a fabricated memory of my juvenile mind.
I don’t recall ever seeing the Trans Am style steering wheel in a GTO. Is it that rare or was it available only for a limited time? I recall seeing the woodgrain rimmed sport wheel a lot. And the VOE option was so cool – imagine finding one today with it!
As far as the Grand Am is concerned, I was always enamored with the looks of them. I am surprised they didn’t sell better, and I’m certain that finding a nice original condition one today would prove to be extremely difficult – especially the sedan version!
It looks like the Firebird Trans Am steering wheel became available in the GTO as early as 1970. Don’t know the break-out of how many cars got it, though.
Grand Am was supposed to be the GTO, but insurance companies put a surcharge on them. Was option package for chrome bumpered LeMans instead.
Collectible Automobile had a picture of what would have been the ’72 GTO, with Grand Am front. Just no 5 mph bumper. UAW strike deleyed them a year.
The Am’s snout just didn’t “play in Peoria”.