(first posted 12/14/2017) At first glance, this particular car may not seem to be of much interest to folks attracted to unusual cars. After all, it looks like the type of vehicle that often appears at car shows or cruise nights – a LeMans with a custom paint job and racing stripes. But one little word on the front fender indicates it’s something more uncommon. That word is “Luxury,” and this is no ordinary LeMans.
Interesting things happen when worlds collide, such as with Pontiac’s 1972 Luxury LeMans. The 3rd generation LeMans was a delicately balanced combination of muscle car and generic intermediate car, but then for 1972 a third element came swooping in: Luxury. This red example – a car created as a luxury-oriented intermediate, but with racing stripes and other enhancements added later – shows all three of these elements on one vehicle. It’s almost a condensed version of the early 1970s car market in general, and is one of the few cars that can look good with both a racing stripe and a vinyl roof.
When the LeMans name first adorned a Pontiac in 1962, it was on an upscale/sport-oriented version of the intermediate-size Tempest. The LeMans package quickly became a hot item… after a little help on how to Anglicize its name. Nearly 40% of 1962 Tempests wound up carrying a LeMans badge.
The new name earned its keep, and for the Tempest’s 1964-67 2nd generation, LeMans continued as an upscale variant. Pontiac’s intermediate line presented an intriguing split personality during this era; the Tempest Standard, Deluxe and Custom models chased the value-oriented intermediate market, but just as many cars were performance-oriented LeMans and GTOs.
Yes, the GTO. Accounting for less than a quarter of Tempest/LeMans sales, but about three-quarters of attention, the GTO elevated Pontiac’s performance credentials provided the division with one of the most desirable mid-size cars among the Big Three. Tempest, LeMans and GTO somehow managed to exist in a stable equilibrium through most of the late 1960s.
For 1968, GM’s A-body intermediate entered its third generation, with contemporary, coke-bottle styling and a prominent nose that split the car’s grille. The design marked a cautious departure from the simple splendor of GM’s 1960s styling, but still made for a clean and visually interesting car. Tough times, though, lurked ahead. While the 1968 A-body Pontiac sold 346,000 units, that number fell by a third within two years, which was when the distress really set in – distress that eventually begat the Luxury LeMans.
From a modern perspective, people often associate 1968-72 A-body Pontiacs with GTOs, but most examples were equipped rather boringly. The base Tempest could easily get lost in the sea of similarly-equipped value-oriented GM products.
For 1970, the Tempest name was dropped altogether, and LeMans inherited the fleet-counter specials. At the same time, even for performance-oriented versions, fun was quickly being sapped out of the engines and the muscle car era quickly faded away. Seeing itself losing market share in the important intermediate sector, GM hoped to furnish an A-body replacement for 1972. Those plans, though, were thwarted.
An extended strike hit GM in the fall of 1970, and the disruption sent ripples through the whole company. Among other things, the eagerly awaited A-body replacement had to be delayed.
For Pontiac, this delay meant that a car with rapidly plunging sales would have to be strung along for another year. Needing to conjure up some enthusiasm for what was likely an unwanted model by that point, Pontiac faced a quandary: What to do? Something minor was the obvious answer, since it was pointless to invest significant money on a car that would be replaced a year later. The solution would become a common resolution to the Big Three’s troubles throughout the 1970s – add some superficial ornamentation and call it luxury.
Not just “luxury,” but “Luxury.” To ensure consumers understood this strategy, Pontiac christened their new concept the Luxury LeMans. Available as a 2-door or 4-door (and technically a separate model from the standard LeMans), the Luxury LeMans came with what Pontiac described as extra “niceties:” fender skirts, upgraded wheel covers, extra brightwork, and a fancier interior.
Source of production figures: Standard Catalog of GTO, 1961-2004
These were the all minor changes, but Pontiac hoped they would stir enough interest to keep 1972 from being even more dismal than 1971. The move worked – as well as anything could have. Luxury models accounted for over a quarter of total LeMans sales, and total ’72 sales increased marginally over the previous year. While still a far cry from the LeMans glory days of 1965-69, the Luxury LeMans helped Pontiac avert a completely embarrassing showing in 1972.
Our featured car is something of a rarity, as only 8,641 of the roughly 46,000 1972 Luxury LeMans sales were 2-doors. This car has also been modified somewhat from its stock appearance. The candy apple red color, racing stripes and hood tachometer are undoubtedly recent additions, and the fender skirts are missing. But otherwise, this car appears relatively intact. If nothing else, the recent modifications serve to magnify the Luxury LeMans’s split personality.
The 3rd generation Pontiac A-body had a distinctive styling persona, with or without the luxury accouterments. Bulging fenders, a wide and sleek appearance, and a long hood / short deck presence made this a memorable design, particularly given its plentiful sales figures.
Befitting its genesis as a last-resort creation for a long-in-the-tooth model, the Luxury’s exterior embellishments were rather modest (aside from the fender skirts, which are missing on this car). For example, while standard LeMans models featured a split grille with mostly dark nasal cavities, Luxury models gained a brighter egg crate design with two horizontal bars.
Pontiac adorned its luxury intermediate with “liberal (but not heavy-handed) bright metal trim.” That refers to the grille and a full-length bodyside molding. Overall, this was a rather restrained luxury package.
Unique wheel cover designs came standard as well, though our featured car rides on Pontiac Rally II wheels. These were optional on the Luxury LeMans, however it’s likely that these wheels may have been added to this car more recently.
Finally, there was a scripted monogram roundel on each C-pillar… so just a handful of items to check off on the Official Luxury LeMans Spotters Guide. The limited scope of these design additions show that Pontiac did not jump head-first into the Brougham Pool with this car.
Interior enhancements were similarly discreet. Pontiac’s brochure highlighted “an instrument panel with the look of rare Ceylonese teak,” as if it were an improvement over the standard LeMans, whose fake wood was simply described as “teak.” Maybe the plain faux teak was patterned after the more common Burmese variety? Regardless, they look awfully similar. More discernibly, Luxury LeMans buyers were treated to upgraded carpet, better sound insulation, and (for coupes) standard bucket seats.
Luxury LeMans also came standard with Morrokide upholstery (available on other LeMans models as well). Morrokide was Pontiac’s term for vinyl – it was basically Naugahyde – and the excellent condition of our featured car’s seats comes as no coincidence.
Naugahyde (named after Naugatuck, Connecticut where it was first made) lived up to its promise of being indestructible. If diner booths can last decades with Naugahyde surfaces, then car seats upholstered in this vinyl are almost overengineered. Of course, hot days aren’t much fun, but after a few decades, an owner will come to appreciate the durability.
Even aside from the upholstery, this car appears in very good shape. Small details like the colored armrests have been changed, but then again, this car appears to be driven regularly, so such modifications are not unexpected.
Reflecting an era when 2-door cars commonly transported multiple passengers, the rear of GM’s intermediates were comfortable and roomy, and rear seat passengers had their own ashtrays.
Some Luxury LeMans features were optional on other LeMans models – most notably the engine. While a 6-cylinder engine came standard on the base LeMans, only V-8s were offered for the Luxury version. Most examples left the factory with the 350 cid 2-bbl. V-8, though either a 400 cid V-8 (in either 2-bbl. or 4-bbl. form) or a 455 were available.
If you’ve read these paragraphs and come away feeling the Luxury LeMans was a barely modified version of the original – you’re right. Customers got a standard V-8, some extra amenities, and that nifty monogram, all for a base price of $3,196 – a $345 premium over its non-Luxury equivalent. Barely modified, yes, but ultimately adding these trifles onto a car about to be put out to pasture wasn’t a bad idea for Pontiac… at least in the short term.
The Luxury LeMans’s mission was to generate some renewed interest in Pontiac’s 1972 intermediate line, and in that regard it succeeded. Little things mean a lot, and to many consumers, those little things added up to more than the sum of their parts.
Having captured 27% of 1972’s total LeMans sales, the Luxury LeMans earned a spot in the refreshed 1973 lineup as well. Perhaps this is where the concept started to turn a bit sour, for instead of being a temporary fix, the Luxury package seems to have become habit-forming for Pontiac.
Using the same formula as the ’72 model, this Luxury LeMans achieved a similar degree of success as its predecessor. Around one-quarter of both 1973 and ’74 total LeMans sales were Luxury variants. Oddly enough, body style popularity for these years inverted from 1972: Whereas the vast majority of ’72 Luxury LeMans were 4-doors, for the following two years, a similar majority were 2-doors.
1974 however marked the end of the Luxury LeMans nomenclature. Pontiac renamed the upscale LeMans model Grand LeMans for 1975, a designation it kept until the entire LeMans nameplate was dropped after 1981. But the Luxury LeMans concept outlived its name: The 1970s marked a period when Pontiac searched about for a genuine identity, and for better or worse, the offering of faux luxury throughout its product line became one of the brand’s defining characteristics.
The Luxury LeMans was a bit player in the 1970s automotive marketplace. Neither an industry-wide trendsetter nor an icon, the 1972 Luxury LeMans concept was simply an expedient way for Pontiac to generate interest in a faltering model. In some ways, its story begins and ends there. Alternatively, one could view this car as a gateway drug for GM’s full Brougham addiction. After all, it provided instant and inexpensive relief to a painful sales problem, but relying too heavily on such a strategy could easily become self-destructive, as Pontiac and other GM divisions eventually discovered. Nonetheless, few other cars demonstrate the ease with which relatively simple luxury additions could improve a tired car model’s sales figures. And few other cars can wear both racing stripes and a vinyl roof so proudly.
Photographed in July 2017 in Burke, Virginia.
Related Reading:
1972 Pontiac Luxury LeMans: Motown’s Mid-Size Rebel Gets Broughamed (Vintage Review) GN
Some of the fussiest looking of the 68-72 A-Bodies. Not really a fan of these, although Pontiac’s terrific advertisement photography makes it look wonderful.
I prefer the Colonnade Luxury/Grand LeMans…
Nice example you’ve found, though.
I agree with the other brother William. I’m not a great fan of these either but this particular one seems to pull it all together.
This LeMans, excuse me, Luxury LeMans, does indeed pull off the vinyl roof and racing stripes. Too bad the fender skirts aren’t still there for the full monte – they could have been painted to match the roof and stripes.
In the big scheme of things, the ’72 Luxury LeMans could wear all the frippery much better than the ’73. The ’73 pictured above just hurts to look at. Maybe that is why the two-door models sold better???
Eric, this is a very intriguing find. As usual, you do it great justice.
“the full monte”
Very apropos. Given that I was not alive during the this car’s heyday were I to witness a crime committed by someone driving a full stock luxury skirted Lemans and were the lighting conditions poor, I’d swear that it was a Monte Carlo I saw fleeing the scene.
This seemed redundant or stepping on the toes of the new for ’73 Grand Am, which was more luxurious still. Real wood for example, and the fancier Grand Prix dash/console.
Grand Am was meant to replace the GTO, which was ‘option package’ in ’73.
I’m glad they made sure everyone could pronounce the name wrong correctly.
Perhaps more important than you think. One of our family stories is about us following a then-new Pontiac Grand Prix in bumper-to-bumper traffic while 5 year old me was just learning to read. Grand Prix was a new one for me, but everyone knows “Trix are for kids!”
I thus announced that the car in front of us was “a Grand Prick”. My father nearly drove off the road laughing while, my mother desperately tried to give me a lesson in French pronunciation … and getting mad when my dad insisted that “the kid is absolutely right”….
Kids’ first attempts at pronouncing “Grand Prix” – I think that one was a problem for most of us. 🙂
I made that same mistake when I mispronounced “Prix” at my Catholic CCD study group when I was about 9 years old. Miss Coleman, the lay teacher had a conniption.
It definitely was an issue! My Pop got a new Grand Prix in ’72 when I was in Kindergarten, and I announced it to the class. Miss Watson had to deal with that one carefully! “Gron Pree is a famous race and they named a car after it!”
except here in QC
One cannot expect more than lipstick from a company that viewed the hood tach as a “innovation”… Nice find, and for some strange reason, I have always liked the 70-72 Pontiacs
A friend of mine in college had the same car, but in non metallic red. The PMD rally wheels look much better than the pie tin hubcaps, the stripes would be better on a Chevelle SS and the tach on a GTO. But to each his own.
A couple of thoughts:
Imagine being on a budget, and cross shopping an Opel Kadett AND a full sized Chevy sedan.
I wasn’t a huge GM fan in the early 70s, though I did buy a Vega the same year this Luxury Lemans was produced. I would buy a Grand Lemans in the early 80s….just to get a car with air conditioning and cruise control in a manageable size.
Looking at this car, I’m left thinking it is trying to have the best of 2 worlds (wasn’t that what Pontiacs did anyway?). The stripes were a feature of Chevrolet’s performance cars while the “luxury on a budget was a bit more Buick than Pontiac…
I almost think I would rather have the fender skirts versus the stripes as it would surely make this car even more distinctive.
Is GM the only manufacturer that put colored armrests on white door panels?
I’m pretty sure the original armrests would have been white, and that the red ones (as well as the black center armrest) are replacements.
I think I recall seeing some of these A-body cars where the armrests wore out sooner than other interior fabrics for some reason, and I can see white ones starting look especially ratty… so perhaps that’s what happened here. Just a guess.
Some of their white plastics yellowed with age, but some didn’t, which is worse than all of them changing.
Imagine being on a budget, and cross shopping an Opel Kadett AND a full sized Chevy sedan.
You’d have to have a very over-stimulated or warped imagination to imagine such a thing, as no one ever did, obviously. GM was just showing the wide range of cars available for under $2700. You might be surprised to know that there were a wide variety of customers then, as now, interested in a wide variety of cars, but they pretty much knew what they were interested in before they set foot in a GM dealer. “Let’s see, do I want a Kadett Rallye or a Biscayne 4-door? Hmm”
Do people cross shop a Mustang and a Transit van?
What can I say that I haven’t said many times before? Whether it’s a Chevelle, Le Mans, Regal or Cutlass, these GM mid-sizers were simply the greatest American cars ever, and 1972 was the last of them.
Although the Colonnades replaced the pillarless wonders, and even though they were still the best, having lost the hardtop styling they simply weren’t the same.
I’m with you, Zackman. The ’68 to ’72 GM two door mid-sized cars are my favorite cars of all time. Love the styling.
And you’ll notice Ford basically copied these cars with the ’72 Torino…
Really great piece, Eric.
I found it ironic that the absence of the fender skirts – for me, a defining feature of the Luxury LeMans – make it look about 1000% better.
I can see you metaphor as to the LML being the “gateway drug” to the broughamification of Pontiac. Before it, the personal luxury Grand Prix was it. It’s like with the LML, Pontiac put one toe into the brougham pool, then just dove right in after ’72.
I love me some Firebird Esprit – don’t get me wrong, but if I had been a Pontiac performance car fan in the ’60s, I probably would have been upset or confused.
I agree, I’d take the skirts off too.
Thanks Joseph!
Ever since I found this car, I’ve been debating with myself about the fender skirts’ absence. While I’d love to find a Luxury LeMans with the skirts on, I simply can’t picture this car — with the racing stripes and rally wheels, etc., with fender skirts. They would seemingly make the car completely at odds with itself. Unless, perhaps, the owner follows Jason’s advice above an paints the fender skirts white…
I have to be the contrarian here, Joe. I always thought that the skirts worked surprisingly well on these, but the 4 door better than the 2 door. Skirted high end Pontiacs had been a normal sight up through 1970. Those long, low, sleek Bonnevilles always looked great, so maybe I saw a little of that in the 72 LLM.
The 73 is my least favorite due to the addition of a lip around the rear wheel opening. The skirt looks like a J C Whitney hack job on the 73. They fixed that on our 74 with a new lip-less rear quarter panel design that worked seamlessly with the skirts. That skirted 74 sedan may still be the best looking of the Colonnades to my (admittedly skewed) eye.
Take off the vinyl roof and paint it maroon, and you are looking at our old car. I always thought the rear 3/4 view was its best angle, too.
LML’s were sort of popular in my old neighborhood and first “mod” was removing skirts. Many were hot rodded just like the 60’s Goats with jacked up rear and loud mufflers.
The Grand Prix was #1 reason for declining LeMans sales, I think.
A fascinating find! I have been looking for a LLM for years and have never found one. A look at this car reveals a mystery – the chrome trim around the rear wheel lips indicate that this car was either a skirt delete car (via an order form or a dealer’s parts department) or has been de-skirted during body work. It is funny that Pontiac was tacking hard from sport to luxury at the end of this car’s run while the owner seems to be running back in the other direction.
Pontiac was in a tough spot. The sport thing was a decade old and pretty played out. Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, Cutlass Supreme, etc was where the action was by the early 70s, so it is natural that the LeMans (being the sportiest in both looks and name) would take it on the chin in sales. By the 70s, Luxury was the new Sport.
My family was one of the few buyers of a Luxury LeMans – a 74 sedan. I never knew that the coupes outsold the sedans in 73-74, I just knew that these things were very seldom seen even then.
“…while the owner seems to be running back in the other direction (from luxury to sport”.)
I call it musclecar creep – it doesn’t matter whether a car was originally built for comfort or general transportation, if it’s a 1955-80s RWD two-door domestic with a V8, someone WILL make a muscle car out of it.
That was the first thing I noticed, too. As the prices for genuine muscle cars continue going through the stratosphere, more people will try to make their own out of regular models with the same body. It’s ridiculous. Here’s a nice distinctive older car that could proudly stand on its own, but the owner’s attraction to it is not for what it is, but for its proximity to a muscle car. On the other hand, the owner is as conflicted about his car’s personality as Pontiac was in ’72: somebody else would have ditched that vinyl roof during the repaint to make it a better “tribute car”.
I liked mild customized ’72 LLM’s when a teen, but lately seen some with all the character removed to look like a common ‘mid life crisis resto-mod’ or Goat clone
Was the LeMans really ever truly “sporty”? It had zero changes to its suspension or any other performance tweaks. It was a higher-trim version of the Tempest. Even the bucket seats went away after the first two years. How can one say a bench-seat six-cylinder LeMans is “sporty”?
Incomes were growing, and folks were tired of riding in low-trim cars. What the 1960.5 Monza (which also had no actual performance differences) showed was that a huge number of American buyers would rather spend their car budget on a smaller but better-trimmed car. The GM $2700 ad really drives home that point: would you rather have a Biscayne 4-door or Monza convertible or Camaro?
Well, by 1968, the question had long been answered, and that’s why low-trim big cars were in terminal decline and would be gone within a few years. But before 1960, there were essentially no such choices, at least from the Big Three. So yes, folks on a budget got stuck with a Biscayne. Which also explains the import boom in the 50s, as they imports well relatively well trimmed.
My point is: what we refer to as “sporty” was really “luxury” in the context of the early-mid 60s. Nice pleated vinyl upholstery, fully upholstered doors, proper arm rests, chrome trim inside and out, etc. Compare them to the interior residential/commercial decor of the early 60s. Was the decor “sporty”? Vinyl-seat dinette sets, and skimpy Danish-style vinyl sofas?
i suppose one could argue that there was a “sporty” aspect to all these pre-brougham high-trim cars, because their origins were largely in the Monza, which had a sporty reputation and image. But calling the LeMans “a performance car” is about as accurate as calling any Impala a “sporty/performance car”. The LeMans was just the analogue to the Impala, or the Catalina, one size smaller. And nobody in the early 60s had yet imagined that panty-cloth or crushed velour interiors would someday define “luxury”. At the time, Morrokide simply was luxury.
When I used the term “sporty” it was in a general sort of way. Before the LTD took hold, what was the high-trim version of almost everything? Some kind of “sport” motif, like the Chevy Impala SS, the Ford XL, the Sport Fury, etc. You tarted up a car with things like bucket seats, consoles, spinner wheelcovers and such. The Buick Invicta became the Wildcat. Sure, most of them were no different under the skin and still had a base V8 and mushy suspension, but the cues were taken from that mental picture of the kind of car James Bond would drive.
By 1970 the whole atmosphere was different. The new thing was luxury. It was a classical conservatism that called to mind a whole different aesthetic. Now the big options were lounge seats with center armrests, multi-speaker stereo systems and fake wire wheelcovers. The Buick Wildcat became the Centurion. I chalk it up to the aging/maturing of the fat part of the “adult” car market between 1962-ish and 1975. Those buyers were growing older and their tastes had changed.
To me, the Pontiac A body from 1968-72 had a sporty vibe to it – it had a fairly aggressive look that was very different from the restrained, more classic “luxury” look of the Grand Prix or Monte Carlo.
My point is this: the definition of “luxury” is always changing. It’s not static, as in “plush, or overstuffed, or wood veneer”. It’s simply what is considered in the best or most desirable taste of the time (obviously arguable, in the 70s). In the late 50s early 60s, luxury cars and houses showed decidedly stark minimalist influences to varying degrees. The pleated vinyl buckets that were suddenly in were obviously a copy of the pleated vinyl buckets in a Mercedes and other European cars. European and even American luxury cars of the 50s could be quite severe in their starkness.
Yes, in the mid 60s, a conservative reaction to that trend that that had its roots in European minimalism in the 1920s (Bauhaus, etc) took hold in the US, and even in Europe in the 70s, to varying degrees. But that was just a new definition of luxury. And obviously it didn’t last. What do contemporary luxury cars look like now? No crushed velour or panty-cloth to be seen. The European look long took over again, and one only needs to look at the trends in interior decor to confirm that.
LeMans was the fancier Tempest, early on. Just like the Buick SPecial Skylark and Olds F-85 Cutlass.
Was “sporty” if one equipped it that way, but the GTO was the true “muscle car”.
Some casual car fans think all mid size Pontiacs in the 60’s were GTO’s. One time saw a blog post about a ’69 Custom S, with caption “this is some kind of weird GTO”.
Had the same thought about the skirts and the arch trim. I’d put my money as a delete at build – the skirts really look better on the less hunchy 4 doors.
“For less than $2,700 GM has a lot to offer”
My handy-dandy inflation calculator says that’s $19,500 today. I see a lot less cars from GM with that sticker price now, but I’d easily pay $19,500 for ANY of the new vehicles in the picture except maybe the Opel and Corvair.
I can only think of 3 current GM cars under that barrier, the Sonic, the Spark and the Cruze.
GM cars probably sold closer to MSRP back then, though.
Interesting set of choices though – do you go for size, sport, luxury, versatility or status?
And apparently adding full wheel covers to the Buick Special would put it over budget, but you could have a loaded Corvair convertible. And I wonder if even the fully-optioned Opel would meet the $2700 limit.
It was fairly unusual for GM cars to sell for MSRP in that period. There were a few exceptions — the Cadillac Eldorado was one, for a while — but for most of those cars, I think buyers would expect to be able to haggle for a fair margin under sticker. This was presumably why there was a fair bit of fat built into the option prices; the list price giveth, the RPOs taketh away.
My father got either 15 or 17% off MSRP on a ’73 Century wagon that he ordered from the factory. That was paying cash in the affluent NoVa suburbs.
From the A pillar to the C pillar, a remarkable similarity to the Buick and the Chev, but the front and back ends made this Pontiac look very different, to the point that you had to look hard to know they were related as cousins. Never a fan of these 72s, but to me, the 73s were one of the worst looking cars GM ever came out with. I’m talking Aztek bad. My colleague who had a Cadillac, and was a GM guy through and through, coined the term, ‘knife job’ to describe the look and how he felt about the rear end of the 73 Le Mans. The 74 and 75 were almost as sharp. My buddy had a 73 Cutlass, and the trunk space on that was limited, I would hazard a guess the trunk space on the 73 was even smaller.
Having said all that, this is a great find, and in beautiful shape. The interior is well cared for, and the exterior paint and colour fit this car nicely. Excellent article for a nice morning read. Thanks Eric.
I will say that I had an opportunity to drive a 72 Buick, and also a 75 Le Mans, both with 350’s, on several occasions, and I did enjoy the ride they offered versus the beating I was dishing out.
I recall reading that there was some buyer resistance to the trunk and quarter panel design of the 1973 Le Mans. Some compared it to a melted Hershey bar, and complained that it clashed with the upright front.
The 1974 “butt” lift was supposed to address this issue, as well as increase trunk space.
Also, another reason for the 1974 ‘lift’ was rear 5 MPH bumpers added.
So that’s what a nauga looks like…..
I always wondered. Never new they used to roam Connecticut
Majestic creatures the Nauga, now confined to conservation herds so that our children and children’s children may see one in person instead of merely in the history books.
I do miss their tough hides in car interiors, although most automotive “leather” now-a-days makes Naugahyde look positively luxurious.
It was a terrible thing the way unscrupulous breeders and poor conditions resulted in herds of nauga with notoriously thin and brittle hides by the late 60s. I think Chrysler may have been behind the abuse because most of the hides of those breeds turned up in their cars. Hopefully with the rehabilitation of herds of healthy wild nauga, a properly managed harvesting program can bring those hides back into limited use in the future.
Naugatuck is a great little mill town along Route 8, with a number of early 20th century public buildings by McKim, Mead & White around the town square, and the old U.S. Rubber factory at one end. There’s also this great mid-century modern (former) bank building.
I grew up in Waterbury, CT: just north of “Naugy”, and I had an uncle who worked at US Rubber there, who got us sneakers for $50 a pair with the “Keds” circle ripped out.
My father bought a close relative of this car – a 1971 Skylark Custom – at Frank Buick in Naugatuck, likely upholstered in Naugahyde. It used the same visual trickery as this car – slighlly fancier accoutremonts. I recall a broken tail light lensthat that had rectangular painted silver surrounds; the dealer accidentally replaced it with the “plain’ version, and it took weeks for us to notice it.
Whoops – make that 50 CENTS a pair!
I have a soft spot for these… my first wife had one when we got together, although I wasn’t fond of the color… That 70’s Burnt Orange. It had a black interior and matching vinyl top, and had the 350 under the hood. I liked driving it, once I had it tuned up for her (it was running on 7 cylinders when we started dating).
With respect to putting stripes on a car with a vinyl top, yeah, it probably sends mixed messages, but I for one am happy it’s lost its wheel skirts. But I just don’t like those on any car, even the cars that are supposed to have them. Just a personal preference is all.
Similar comments were posted about this A-Body sporting stripes and a vinyl roof, but I like this car (that Joseph Dennis shot a while back). While I like the featured car at this link, I’m not a fan of its wheels. It really needed the Buick Rally Wheels, like our featured car sports the Pontiac Rallies….
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/cc-capsule-at-the-diner-blue-cars-blue-collars-blue-plate-specials/
I love the non-standard color on this LeMans. I also like that it appears to be someone’s well loved daily driver.
I had no idea my ex-wife’s old car was so rare! Of course my memory could be a little fuzzy here (this WAS back in 1981 or 82). Hers could’ve been a normal 2 door hardtop with the optional engine.
Great piece, Eric.
Question: did this car actually have fender skirts? The chrome trim around the wheel openings makes me think it did not. If it had skirts, that would outline the skirt’s edge and not look “right”. The other photos of 4 door skirted models have no such chrome trim strips. Perhaps this was a 2 door “skirt delete”?
I’m guessing that whoever did the paint and other touches, having decided to lose the skirts, installed new chrome trim.
Reflecting an era when 2-door cars commonly transported multiple passengers, the rear of GM’s intermediates were comfortable and roomy
I sincerely hope you wrote that tongue in cheek. If, not, I’m going to ask you to have someone take you for a longer ride in the back seat of one of these, assuming you’re taller than 5’7″. If not you’re off the hook. 🙂
Seriously: when GM moved the 2-doors to a 112″ wheelbase in 1968, the extra 4″ that the 4 door had was ALL in the rear seat leg room, as the front seat was in the exact same relationship to the front half of the body in both versions.
Prior to 1968, the difference in the 2 doors and 4 doors was little or any, but that really changed when they knocked those 4″ of wheelbase off.
I was going to say something on this. In 1964-67 the GM A body was 114 inches in wheelbase for 2 and 4 door cars. In 1968 the two doors lost two inches and the 4 doors gained 2 inches. I remember reading at the time some press office pronouncement that the 114 inch cars had an issue with harmonics when driving over highway expansion joints (or some kind of what I now am convinced was nonsense).
We went from a 114 inch wb 64 Cutlass 2 door hardtop to a 112 inch wb 72 Cutlass 2 door hardtop. I was only about 13 when my Mom got the new car and I remember that it was notably tighter in the back, and harder to get in and out of. Mom ditched it for a 4 door car after only 2 years, which was very out of character for her as she kept all of her other cars for 5-8 years.
FWIW, the ’64-’67 A Bodies all had a 115″ wheelbase.
That does sound like complete, total, unmitigated nonsense to me.
Dooh! You are right, 115. I should have known that. A 3 inch drop in wheelbase in those 2 doors was significant.
Just by looking at the photo of the rear seat, the legroom is obviously very small.
I recall riding in the back of these cars when I was a kid. I always remember there was no place to put my legs!
I’m 5’7″. Things tend to look different from down here. ?
Lol. I’m a very petite 6’1″ and all legs. That back seat photo shocked me. I’d think these would be roomier than that, because just from the look of it, I know I wouldn’t fit well. Legroom aside, that bottom seat cushion looks awfully short as well.
Gee, I nailed it, without ever seeing you! 🙂
Ok; then you get a pass. But even at 5’7″ you wouldn’t be very comfortable back there. Have you ever sat in one?
I have sat in 2-dr. A-bodies, but admittedly it was quite a while ago, as in back in my teens. I remember thinking “It’s big back here.”
In the 1990s, I had a 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Holiday coupe. The legroom was tight back there, although the seat was wide enough.
One thing that I did notice was that GM hadn’t yet begun shortening the lower seat cushion in order to create the illusion of legroom. The seat itself was still reasonably comfortable.
X2. The back seat of my Skylark is laughable, given the size of the car.
The dark green 4-door brochure picture is a dead ringer for a deep-cover car the cops in my home town had. This was about 1979-82, so the car was nominally 10 years old.
It was used primarily as a surveillance vehicle to catch suspended drivers. They would put a Kojak light on the dash and pull people over.
“For 1970, the Tempest name was dropped altogether, and LeMans inherited the fleet-counter specials.” Actually there was a Tempest for 1970, which became the “T-37” for 1971 before finally being dropped in favor of Pontiac’s new Nova clone, the Ventura.
Yes, there was Tempest for early 1970 MY. But then there was mid year ‘70.5 “Tempest T-37” model, then all T-37’s for ’71 as noted above.
LeMans Sport appeared in ’70 as the top line, with mid level as plain LeMans, replacing previous Custom S and Tempest Custom.
Was this the first time an American automaker copied a Mercedes grille to denote luxury?
It’s a BMW and a Mercedes!
like the stripes on this mid-sized pontiac — so reminiscent of the chevelles.
was never a fan of the vinyl roofs, even back in the day when they were popular, and i think i like them even less now.
These are pretty much my favorite A-body across the board from 1968-1972. The dash in particular is appealing for me aesthetically. Outside of the Chevelle style stripes, this is a very sharp combination of colors and trim choices.
I’m with you. Great dash/instrument panel, great interiors in general, especially with buckets and a console. That rear quarter window cutout with french curved C-pillar is a work of art.
I can’t really agree with your assumption that the Luxury LeMans was conjured up specifically because the old body style had to be used for another year. By this time, it was well into the Great Brougham Epoch, and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Colonnade car planned originally for 1972 was also going to have a Luxury LeMans trim level.
Everyone was doing this at the time, right? Gran Torino. Cutlass Supreme. etc…
And let’s not forget: Pontiac was the very first to bring back the Brougham name, back in 1964, except for Cadillac, of course. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/automotive-history-1964-pontiac-bonneville-brougham-the-true-father-of-the-great-brougham-epoch/
Here’s what was really happening: the ’69 GP had a good first year, but then sales drooped some. Meanwhile, the Olds Cutlass Supreme was heading up in the charts, already about tied with the GP in 1971. The Luxury LeMans was a reaction to the success of the Cutlass Supreme, and to offer a cheaper alternative to the GP.
I don’t see that your outlook and mine are necessarily in disagreement.
I’m not claiming that the ’72 LLM spawned the Great Brougham Epoch or that it was Pontiac’s first attempt at luxury trim. But I do think that the ’72 Luxury LeMans package itself was a direct result of the unanticipated extra model year. I agree that that the Colonnade would have been moved more towards the Broughamy end of things in any event, however it seems to me that the relative success of the (very) modest ’72 Luxury package drove home the point that sales can be generated by a bundle of luxury trifles… even when placed on a car that had a clear downward sales trajectory. And that experience, I do think, had repercussions for Pontiac in later years.
I do think that the ’72 Luxury LeMans package itself was a direct result of the unanticipated extra model year.
Based on what? Something you read? Otherwise it’s just pure speculation. Which is something we rather try to avoid here, unless it’s clearly pointed out as such. Even then…
My point is that there’s no doubt in my ind, that given the very powerful trend at the time, that there would have been a Luxury LeMans in 1972, regardless of whether it was the outgoing or Colonnade body.
Admittedly, I have no proof either. But it’s a much more compelling argument when it’s an assumption based on powerful market trends rather than only because that body was held over for one more year. A Luxury LeMans (or comparable) was essentially inevitable, as everyone was doing it. I would wager that a Luxury LeMans had been in the planning for the new Collonade car for some time, and when that was delayed, it was bestowed on the current body style.
I guess we’ll never know, but I’ve never heard anyone come up with your theory, and it just doesn’t strike me as likely. It’s a judgment call, and the facts that are available don’t support your supposition. At least not for me.
As long as we are throwing theories around . . . I think this is getting into the era when all of the GM Divisions were trying to become all things to all people. Delorean at Chevrolet and Beltz at Oldsmobile were better managers than average, but Buick and Pontiac were both going all over the map for customers. Buick was selling turbocharged Indy pace cars alongside the Electras and Pontiac was selling cars with fender skirts alongside of the Trans Ams.
In 1971-72 Pontiac’s A body was Cheap (T-37/Tempest) Regular (LeMans) Muscle (GTO) and Luxury (LML). Pontiac had already gotten the Grand Prix. Oldsmobile didn’t get the Grand Prix and got the Cutlass Supreme body instead. It sold well, so Pontiac built the LML to emulate the success of the Cutlass Supreme, which was being built to emulate the success of the Grand Prix. I would be curious to how A body and Grand Prix sales stacked up to the Cutlass line. I think the LML was a grab for sales anywhere Pontiac could get them.
These LeMans were around when I was younger, but were generally overshadowed by the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix. They didn’t seem all that special at the time.
Interestingly, in the advertisement for the 1966 GTO (fourth photo from the top), the car is wearing a version of the division’s eight-lug wheels that had been designed specifically for the A-body. Those wheels never made it to production, however, as they were apparently deemed to be too costly by top management.
Got one of these for my wife in ’77, white with black interior and top. It was a “real good car”. Unremarkable, it succumbed to the standard GM intermediate rust under the vinyl roof/rear window after five or so years.
No one has mentioned this, but in reality, the 1961-63 Tempest/LeMans was a unibody Y platform, not an “A body”. Shared with Special and F-85, aka ‘senior compacts’, not true mid size. Also shared some items with Corvair.
So, the 1968-72 was the 2nd gen, GM mid size, A body. Previous A bodies were Chevy/Pontiac and entry Olds/Buick, standard size cars up to 1958 MY.
Hmmm… Most 72 Pontiacs imported into Israel were LMLs. Perhaps because those who could afford that size US-made car over there wanted to show off? It’s pure speculation on my part, but it always seemed to me that (Israeli) Pontiac buyers were of the flashier sort; a “sensible” person would have bought a Mopar product.
I’m not a fan of this generation of A-body, but the only thing that stands out to me in the Luxury Le Mans equipment list is making the fender skirts standard. Otherwise, it seems as Paul says: a pretty typical example of trim level merchandising concepts of the time.
Iconic Rally II rims, make any Pontiac look 100x better. Including the unique soft bevelled edge trim rings.
It’s like a Magnum 500 combined with a Cragar SS. They look good without trim rings too, ala GTO Judge.
Exactly. In the Canadian market 1983 Grand LeMans brochure that Stéphane linked immediately below, the Grand LeMans wagon can be seen wearing the Rally IIs. And looking sharp.
The LeMans contined to survive a bit longer in Canada, while we still got Parisienne (but no Catalina and no Laurentian), what was to be the Bonneville was renamed Grand LeMans for 1982 and 1983.
https://oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/GM-Canada/Pontiac/1982%20Pontiac%20Grand%20LeMans%20Brochure/index.html
https://oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/GM-Canada/Pontiac/1983-Pontiac-Grand-LeMans-Brochure-Cdn/index.html
Then in 1984, the LeMans monicker left the place for the Bonneville.
This is the type of American car is not my thing, it does not compare to the lovely clean lines of that earlier GTO, what a step backwards
Not familiar with Naugahyde but like the idea as most of my preferred British and European cars have leather that is very expensive to restore and modern vinyl does not seem to last that well either.
Is it something like MBTex used by Mercedes in the 60s