(first posted 2/22/2013) The year is 1977: Jimmy Carter’s inauguration is followed closely by the introduction of brother Billy Carter’s eponymous beer. The musical stars align in a bid to provide supermarkets and TimeLife™ with an endless supply of goose-down-soft “rock”; meanwhile, Elvis expires at Graceland. In Detroit, the Renaissance Center springs forth from the downtown waterfront, signaling a new era. GM wasn’t ready to make the transition just yet; while making great strides in the market with its “downsized” full-size cars, the General still had one foot firmly planted in the early ’70s with its “Colonnade” mid-sizers.
Image Courtesy of paintref.com
In 1977, GM had an unprecedented mission: to actually downsize its full-size cars. Their efforts paid off in the form of new full-size bodies from every division, and the silhouettes of each remained a huge presence on American roads throughout the 1980s. The chances are quite good that you’ve either owned (or spent considerable seat time in) a “downsized” GM. For me, it was my family’s ’79 Impala Coupe, which was followed by an ’85 Caprice Classic that my father still refers to as the greatest car he’s ever owned. A sea change was certainly afoot among the Detroit Three…but what of the left-behinds?
GM’s intermediates were forced to endure another year of the Colonnade body style first introduced in 1973. Although generally derided as overgrown mid-sizes, the Colonnade series of vehicles did manage to produce some good looking rides. Pontiac, still hanging on to its ’60s Wide-Track heritage of sport and luxury, managed to produce some of the better-looking cars of the era, even though they were still saddled with B-pillars and Federally-mandated bumpers.
In particular, the ’73 Pontiac LeMans and its later brethren were able to manage what is arguably the best rear-end styling treatment of all the Colonnades; their graceful, “brush-tip” integration of the 2 1/2-mph rear bumper (5 mph rear bumpers arrived in ’74) flows nicely into the fender and door sheet metal and looks particularly good in profile.
While the look was definitely successful in coupe form, the sedans were another story. Their steeply sloped rear trunk, combined with the extra length of the sedan greenhouse, makes for a somewhat awkward outline, and no amount of Landau goodness can mask the fact that there’s just too much glass in the upper half of this Colonnade sedan.
Nonetheless, the Pontiac overlords did what they could for ’77 as they participated in GM’s crash diet, which finally hit the mid-sized cars in 1978. Our feature car is a 1977 Pontiac Grand LeMans, in ’70s-tastic Buckskin Poly with a Light Buckskin vinyl roof. As a Grand LeMans, it sits at the top of Pontiac’s mid-sized lineup, followed closely by the LeMans Sport Coupe and the plain ol’ LeMans.
Image Courtesy of paintref.com
So what did ponying up for the “Grand” get you in a Pontiac mid-sized car? Not a whole heck of a lot, really. You could get “seats richly upholstered in cloth or Morrokide”, along with “thick, cut-pile carpet” underfoot…a “Grand Prix-like” instrument panel…and that was about it. Wait, there was one more thing:
…a lovely octagonal stand-up hood ornament, done up in the classic style of monogrammed bath towels. Grand MansLe? Either way, it was a bonafide symbol that the owner had arrived on schedule to the Brougham party, likely with Hall and Oates playing at a tasteful volume through the (optional) AM/FM/CB radio in the dash.
You’d need those soothing sounds to drown out the choking noise coming from under the hood, as the Grand LeMans was a prominent victim of the emissions era. Starting out with the base Buick-sourced 3.8-liter 231 V6, the Grand LeMans was also available with the ill-fated Pontiac 301, as well as a couple of old standbys: the Pontiac 350 & 400 cu in V8s, each sporting a four-barrel carb and putting less than 200 hp to the ground—two once-mighty engines now reduced to hose-adorned wannabe gas misers. Like 99.9% of ’77 LeManses, our feature vehicle is equipped with the venerable Turbo Hydramatic, though technically a three-on-the-tree was available.
Note the prominent ship’s prow and slight point in the middle of the grille…this understated vestige of Pontiac’s once-iconic design language would hang around for quite a few more years. This is also a prime example of GM’s approach to 5-mph bumpers—a huge hunk of rust-prone steel, pre-drilled with slots for the jack. Our feature car has a dainty set of rubber nudgers in case it needs to do The Bump with a lesser vehicle, and nicely integrated turn signals reside between them.
A Grand LeMans also got you this tasteful light bar across the trunk, though the inside “lights” were simply reflectors. And again, we’re reminded of Chris Rock’s screed on planned obsolescence: “They got metal on the space shuttle that can go around the moon and withstand temperatures up to 20,000 degrees. You mean to tell me you don’t think they can make an Eldorado where the [flippin’] bumper don’t fall off?” Luckily, this Poncho hasn’t quite reached that point.
So there we have it, the final postscript to the Colonnade era at GM. The Bicentennial Hangover of 1977 would give way to a brief period of optimism before Jimmy Carter (possibly under the influence of Billy Beer) introduced America to a new energy crisis and the great “malaise” era in 1979. During that brief respite, GM would finally shed its attachment to the Colonnade cars while introducing an all-new series of mid-size platforms. I, for one, still raise a glass of beer to the Colonnades…and to paraphrase Billy Carter, I’ve tasted a lot.
I don’t understand why people dislike the Colonnades so much. They could actually handle, unlike the intermediate Fords. They had adventurous styling. They could be very nicely specced. They had convincing luxury (Grand Prix, Grand LeMans) and sporty (Century GS, Grand Am) derivatives.
But from a looks point of view… Wow. I love this Grand LeMans sedan. For once, the sedan wasn’t just some dumpy afterthought. The 68-72 A-Bodies were gorgeous, but they had fairly ungainly sedan derivatives and I feel they were much less distinguished from each other (especially after the Skylark lost the side sweep for ’70). They all looked like the same car, whereas the Colonnades all had very different themes going on. And bold themes! The prow-like hood of the Grand Prix with its formal grille, the “hips” of the Monte Carlo, the figure-8 of the LeMans, the creases of the Century and Regal. And then the more formalized revisions for ’76, like this LeMans and the even more formal Cutlass/Century/Regal coupes… They still looked great! And not clumsily redesigned.
I love the Colonnades.
I like Colonnades, but not all were great handlers and not all intermediate Ford’s were bad handlers. It all really depended on the version and suspension package you got. There was a great variation on how these cars handled. For example, in 1973 Popular Science tested a 1973 Chevelle Laguna, a 1973 Gran Torino Sport, a 1973 Satellite Sebring and an AMC Matador. The handling test results were as follows:
Chevelle: 53.0 MPH
Matado: 53.0 MPH
Satellite: 56.3 MPH
Torino: 58.2 MPH
It all depended on the suspension package these cars had for how well they handled. Here are some more results:
1973 Buick Century (4-door, stock suspension): 54.5 MPH
1973 Pontiac Grand Am: 60.0 MPH
1976 Chevelle: 53.0 MPH
1977 Monte Carlo: 58.2 MPH
1977 Olds Cutlass Supreme: 60.0 MPH
1972 Torino (4-door seden, stock suspension): 53.0 MPH
1973 Montego (4-door stock suspension): 49.9 MPH
1977 Ford Tunderbird: 54.5 MPH
For Comparision to some known good handlers:
1973 Mercedes 250: 60.0 MPH
1973 Citreon DS 21; 60.0 MPH
1977 Chev Caprice: 60.0 MPH
So although the Colonnades generally out handled the Ford’s, some of the Ford’s were good handlers depending on the suspension package (ie the 1973 Gran Torino Sport), and other’s were terrible. Same goes for the Colonnades, while the best versions are up there with some of the best 1970’s cars.
The base suspension in the Chevy collonades was a floppy mess but the upgraded, heavy duty suspension including rear sway bar, made a huge difference. I believe the cost was something like $45. Money well spent.
Even the base Pontiac cars were not that bad, however.
All of the stock suspension on ANY of the Big three intermediates from this era were a sloppy mess. Only the upgraded suspensions were half-way decent, as you can see by the numbers above the great variations in the same platforms.
The 1973 Grand Am was Pontiac’s answer your Mercedes and BMW. Handling was a cut above other intermediated of that year. Anti sway bars front and rear were enlarged and suspension geometry improved. Tip and sway were greatly reduced in its class and especially from 1972.
Note too that there was a difference in handling between the V6 and V8 cars with many variations. The Buick’s generally were the softest and most floppy with the base suspended Pontiac’s usually the best. There were also HD springs, HD suspension and F-41/FE3 upgrades on many of these cars. There were also several different tire sizes. So generally speaking one usually had to upgrade to the top V8 engines, top suspension upgrade and the largest tires to get some of these handling figures. I still thing the GM’s had better steering and feel for the most part in these Colonnades.
I always wondered why American cars in general came with such incompetent suspension. These handling package results show that the engineers did know how to make a capable suspension, and from what I’ve read the ride was still quite decent – so why weren’t these handling suspensions standard? Did they think people really wanted to drive a wallowing mess?
As had been said in many other postings, to the average American driver a good handling car is one that is easy to park. They saw no value in heavy duty or sport suspensions and much preferred a smooth quiet ride. While many heavy duty or sport suspension cars rode just fine there was that perception the ride was not as good. And why pay extra for a harsher (perceived) ride?
Pontiac also offered a police package – called the Enforcer – with the beefed up suspension, heavy duty battery, radiator and other bits. Wonder how popular that was with LE agencies. Certainly an alternative to the popular Mopar cop cars often seen on shows like Adam-12…
1977 Pontiac LeMans Enforcer police package, which succeeded the 1976 Ford Torino at my agency, outhandled and outaccelerated the Torino handily. Its suspension rode hard, though. The next year, the 1978 Dodge Monaco outdid both of them and rode decently, too.
It was my duty car for several years and the bad guys called them “the swoop”. Fantastic ride considering the weight of large batteries, lights and the current police radios at the time. Never overheated either by prolonged idling and the occasional full throttle. A dozen in the fleet, and it caught everything except for the modified Couger. The city had good mechanics who kept the cars in great shape; fast but maneuverable. I’ve been looking for one for many years but they are unobtainium.
Bill Mitchell, thanks for the stats. and clarifications.
http://www.buickpartsdirectory.com/centurion/centurion_mag.htm
Everyone (including me) seemed to assume that the full size/intermediate FoMoCos of the era were inferior handlers to GM cars. Not necessarily so. Ain’t necessarily so.
I loved the Grand Am, coupe or 4 door. After that not so much.
A rare shot of the synchronized Brougham stunt spectacular during practice.
It always amazes me how much time seems to “simplify” things, like all GM’s were good handlers and all Fords were bad. The truth was, there was great variation in how these cars handles depending on how they were equipped. Further, most of these 1970’s cars actually had decent suspension geometry compared to their 1960’s counterparts (the Colonnades were far better than the previous A-bodies). With decent springs, shocks and sway bars they can handle as well. I have done these upgrades, they are cheap and easy to do and will improve the car without anything that takes away from the stock look.
So that’s where the Lucerne got its driving dynamics. Argh!
Thankfully, there are parts available to make these “decent handling” cars a real blast to drive, despite their almost two ton curb weight for a loaded one. All of my A bodies have been treated to poly stabilizer bar bushings, Bilstein shocks, and Trans Am 1.25″ front stabilizer bars, with the 1″ stock A body rear bar.These mods still allow the car to have a solid, comfortable ride without sacrificing grip in the corners. My tires are the BFG Radial T/A’s which are far from the latest technology, but better than any radials from 1977. Stock skidpad numbers from 1977 were .80, which isn’t a supercar number, but good for the times and size of the car. The same era Trans Am would pull a .83, and a modern Crown Vic police car is good for .88 with their larger wheels and updated front suspension. Nice thing is if you really want to get serious, all front suspension parts for a 1970-81 Trans Am, and all front and rear suspension parts for a 1994-96 Impala SS/Caprice are just a catalog away. Additionally, there are several authentic appearing 17″ wheels available to get some really grippy tires.
The dislike seems to be from the enthusiast camp, because families snapped up the Colonnades like hotcakes, back in the day. As a suburban kid/teen, I opened the doors of a lot of Cutlasses when I worked the carpool lane as a “patrol boy” at school.
And it may not be fair, but the dislike may stem from how government regulations affected this generation of the A-body, particularly when compared to the previous one. The rooflines, particularly in side view, are undoubtedly bulkier-looking. The engines were choked with primitive emissions controls, and let’s not get started on the bumpers that appeared in 1974, which were not well integrated into the original design.
Even though these cars were originally planned for the 1972 model year – before 5 mph bumpers – and delayed a model year, I’ve often found it odd that the bodies weren’t designed to better integrate the front and rear battering rams that were surely known to be on the way. But then again, there were so many regulations being introduced at that time, that engineers and designers may have been learning as they went along…
William, as a young enthusiast in that time, every October issue of Motor Trend, Car and Driver and the like was met with great anticipation on the new stylings for the coming year. After a three year run of 70-72, the GM Intermediates were riding on the crest of a tidal wave of great styling, great interiors and even better power trains.
So, one can imagine the utter shock when opening the New Car Issue to find my old frend replaced by these large bumpered, side sculpted, slab doored monstrosities.
For those not young enough to remember those visual shocks to memory, the recent Chris Bangle BMW Flame Broiled Stylings would be a good comparison to consider. But you know, I’ve maybe finally come around. I like them, especially the 2 door models. Pontiac did it best with the LeMans, GTO and Grand Am models. I love that sloping boat tail rear on the Pontiac. When I go to Ebay to dream of GM Intermediate ownership, I find myself lingering the longest by a Colonnade. In recent times there have been excellent examples, but their frequency is few and far between. I’ll take a 73 GTO in medium metallic blue, manual transmission and 400, please. Second choice: Chevelle SS 454 or Olds 442 or Buick Gran Sport or…..
Today the Colonnades have been completely overshadowed by the 1968-72 intermediates, but they were a huge hit at the time. People forget that the bloated 1972 Ford Torino outsold that year’s Chevrolet Chevelle/Malibu – the first time that had happened since Chevrolet entered the intermediate field in 1964. (Until the Colonnade generation, the Chevelle/Malibu was generally number-one in sales for the segment.)
The collector car market reveres muscle cars, but, in the 1970s, your typical middle-class car buyer didn’t want one, and had very little nostalgia for the late 1960s, which, truth be told, had been a fairly volatile time in our history. They wanted comfort and luxury and status (and low insurance premiums). Muscle cars were largely driven by either high-school kids looking for a cheap ride, or young adults who either hadn’t grown up or couldn’t afford anything better.
The Colonnades successfully fought back the Ford challenge, and made the Chrysler intermediates largely irrelevant. The Colonnades were the first of four counterpunches by GM – the next three being the downsized full-size cars for 1977, the downsized intermediates for 1978 and the downsized E-bodies for 1979 – that had Ford on the run and Chrysler on the ropes by 1979.
@geeber Nicely said. Chrysler was basically kicked out of full-size cars, government fleet sales and law enforcement bought base versions of their mid-size cars, so Chrysler’s profits per unit were weak, other than Cordobas.
Ford was basically kicked out of mid-size cars, the 77 T-Bird being the saving grace, and traditionalists still bought LTD and Marquis, the “full-size cars that kept their size”.
Ford and Chrysler were on the ropes going into the summer of 1979, but it was the Japanese imports and high inflation that delivered the knockout blow to Chrysler, and almost Ford.
Initially GM had the X-car, but in a few years, the X-car and GM’s poor quality would sow the seeds of it’s demise. In the early 1990s, GM posted huge, record losses, that only (formerly rich) GM could absorb–any other company would have folded. Less than 20 years, GM and Chrysler needed government bailouts.
The only ppl that like these used them to take their grandkids out for ice cream.
Who cannot look at this car and not think of Sheriff Buford T Justice? This makes me think of all of the CB movies that were popular in the late 70s. My 81 Imperial has a factory CB and when I drive it is fun to pick up traffic. Although CB traffic is much diminished these days…
Too bad you couldn’t do a cross CC write up on a late 70s black Trans Am at the same time…
Somehow they do look a little bit better with the roof sheared off……..
I saw that, you sumbitch! You did that on purpose! You’re goin’ away till you’re gray! I got the evidence! Put the evidence in the car.
“Daddy, the top came off.”
What in the heck is the world comin’ to?
I saw that, you scumbum!
Aint no way……no way…..that you could come from my loins……
When I get home, the first thing I’m gonna do is punch yo momma in da mouth….
The first thing that popped into my mind was Buford T Justice!
The Grand LeMans in this feature would work well as a Sheriff Justice clone, or one of the several police agencies that actually used the LeMans Enforcer police package in 1976-1977. This 1976 NYPD LeMans clone began life as a Grand LeMans.
My department and the one in the bigger city up the road both used the 1977 Le Mans police packages. They handled better than Ford’s 1976 Torino police car…not so much in ultimate adhesion or speed but because the steering had feel to it. The Torino’s steering was likened to spinning a propeller in a bucket of water. Resistance only, no true feedback.
Both went to Chrysler in 1978, the Dodge Monaco which handled much better but rode stiffly.
When we moved to the suburbs in 1976, the police were using these. Replaced with downsized Chevy Malibus then Dodge Diplomats.
I am no fan of the Colonnades, especially the sedans. But if I had to have one, it would be the Pontiac, which wore the style best.
Does anybody else think that the perfectly rectangular front end doesn’t work on this otherwise curvaceous car? I know rectangular headlights were in vogue in 1977, but the front end looks entirely tacked on.
I’m amazed that the driver’s seat isn’t ripped and torn.
I don’t like the square snout Jim,the coupe looks great,the 4 door a bit odd,not ugly just strange
Agree, agree. This front end certainly doesn’t work. How could people not see this when the cars were new?
If GM felt they had to use rectangular headlights, the detailing around them and the grille borders should have been curved slightly, with rounded corners to blend into the curved body shape. Having it ultra-square like this absolutely screams “Square peg in round hole!” Sure it draws attention to the new feature, but at what aesthetic cost?
Some designs that appeared “out there” at the time come to be viewed as groundbreaking or iconic in later years. While the earlier colonnades are just ruined by the bumpers but look good despite them, these ones still look gawky.
I didn’t mind these Pontiacs, even in sedan form. They weren’t the best looking cars, but far from the worst. I actually like the fact that these cars have lots of glass, unlike modern cars, you can actually see out of them. Our company cars at work are late model Taurus’ and they have horrible visibility due to the lack of glass space. I do prefer the Chevrolet V8’s to Pontiac’s though.
Overall though, these and other Colonnade’s were decent cars for their time, they just were very prone to rusting. We have, and still have, a 1976 Malbu 2-door in the family, and it’s been one of the best (and most reliable) cars anyone’s owned in the family, and that includes many modern Honda’s and Toyota’s in the fleet as well.
I always liked the Collonades. My dad had a ’77 Buick Century 4-door that he bought used in 1980. It had been, literally, owned by a little old lady who only drove it on Sundays and had only 21,000 miles on it. With the 350 2-barrel it moved along pretty well and wasn’t bad on gas. He put in heavy-duty springs and shocks for pulling a trailer, and they had the added bonus of making it handle quite well for a big car. I could take corners at well over the legal speed with nary a hint of body roll. We kept it until 1986, by which time it had over 100,000 miles on the clock and was getting rusty. One of the better cars we owned.
So there we have it, the final postscript to the Colonnade era at GM. The Bicentennial Hangover of 1977 would give way to a brief period of optimism before Jimmy Carter (possibly under the influence of Billy Beer) introduced America to a new energy crisis and the great “malaise” era in 1979.
With respect, whatever one’s politics, I don’t see how this is relevant. I know that associating contemporaneous events with a car that was built in year 19XX is, in a sense, a logical approach – but it’s facile. What real connection can be made between a car first planned and sketched before 1970 and the term of a president who wasn’t yet elected governor of Georgia at the time?
From an objective standpoint, most of the effects of the 1970s on car design came from the Nixon administration. Rollover standards (that never totally materialized) played a large part in the collanade design, CAFE, bumper impact standards, and the general effect of the initial oil crisis of 1973. 55MPH speed limits and the seat belt interlock thing from 1974. Aside from the 85MPH speed limit I can’t think of any legislation from the Carter administration that directly affected car design. Other than the Chrysler bailout. Reagan reduced slightly the bumper impact standards and gave us the third brake light and passive restraint legislation. I am not sure ABS was ever legislated.
More to the point, the MOOD of the nation is reflected in the cars of the period…cars, as styling exercises, are representative of popular art and tastes of the time. The tailfin excesses of the 1950s would never have been done at any other time – the technology in metalforming didn’t exist in the Art Deco era; and the 1960s represented, first a youth-oriented, minimalist time period, and then the darker mood as hopes were dashed. It’s telling how quickly the gull-wing Chevrolets fell out of fashion and were damned as anachronisms.
Whereas the practical styles of the 1960s and 1970s look fresh even today.
The late 1970s represented the meeting of renewed hope with disillusionment…all meeting at the cross of government edicts and timetables. And this at a time when inflation was about to eat up disposable income and make time purchases a risky business…all of it toxic to the auto industry. So what might have been a one- or two-year styling exercise became semi-permanent; and what replaced it was something made with one eye on the budget.
So, yes…whatever your politics or preferences, the markers of the times are relevant for context.
So, let me get this straight. They produced this intermediate A-Body alongside the all new for ’77 full size B-Body? Because? They were roughly the same size, even sharing parts. And the B-Body was supposed to be a down-sized full size, that was actually the same size as the former intermediate. But who in their right mind would by a Colonnade in ’77 over the completely new Impala? Talk about model overlap sizewise…
You want to experience real cognitive dissonance? Try reading about them in the same full-line brochure – I have the Pontiac one for 1977.
I presume that the LeMans series could be offered at a lower price for the same “amount of car” because the design was in its fifth year and was simpler to build (e.g., fixed-glass wagon tailgate); they certainly sold.
I would have chosen a ’77 Monte Carlo over a ’77 Caprice Impala and I would have chosen a Regal/Century Coupe over a LeSabre also.
Yes, the sizes were very close, but the b-body was more space efficient. That said, the old A-body colonnades were considerbly cheaper than the new b-bodies, so that was the incentive to buy the old cars.
I like Colonnades, but I’d take 1977 Caprice 2-door with the LM1 350 and F41 suspension any day over any 1977 Colonnade.
Despite the downsized big cars, the intermediates still sold well, primarly because of the personal luxury coupe versions. For 1977, if I recall correctly, sales of the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Buick Century/Regal INCREASED over 1976 figures.
Their total sales figures included the coupe body styles, which, at that time, were considered to be far “sportier” and more “youthful” than any full-size car – even GM’s downsized models.
I don’t know how the LeMans performed in the sales race for 1977. Since the 1973 models had debuted, the Pontiac LeMans had been the weakest of the GM siblings in terms of sales. The Pontiac Grand Prix was a big hit, and Pontiac was selling every one it could make in 1977, but I don’t know whether LeMans sales were still strong in 1977.
The downsized B’s shared no more with the A’s than the pre downsized B’s did. Lots of people like to say the downsized B was just a new body on the old A chassis but it just isn’t true. Yes they share the same basic chassis architecture but so did all the mid and full size GMs going back until the 60’s.
The B’s got the downsize treatment first since they were still the bread and butter of the GM line up and they had to start somewhere. Once the A’s went on their weight loss diet they had similar exterior dimensions as the X’s. Fact is they didn’t have the man power or cash to downsize everything at one shot.
True, the frames are not the same, the 1977+ B-body was built to be lighter, and had less crossmembers. Some of the suspension components will interchange and they are clearly similar in design. It’s more of an evolution if anything.
All of the major components swap from a 1996 Impala SS to a 1973-77 A body. The Impala uses a 5″ wheel bolt circle, versus the 4.75″ for the A body, but the A arms, rear end, steering box, stabilizer bars, control arms all bolt right on the A body frame.
“You want to experience real cognitive dissonance? Try reading about them in the same full-line brochure – I have the Pontiac one for 1977.”
Ford’s 1983 lineup was even more baffling. Because the Tempo wouldn’t come out for another year, the now “midsize” LTD ran along side the “compact” Fairmont, sharing virtually itentical bodies.
Kind of sort of but the LTD was marketed as a premium midsize with a V8 available and tended to be fitted out better, while Fairmonts were all but dead by 1983. The Tempo replaced the Fairmont in 1984 while the LTD continued on at least through half of the 1986 model production season ostensibly to see how the Taurus was received. While the Fairmont and LTD were virtually the same car mechanically, from a styling perspective, the Fairmont was dated and by 1983 was basically sold as a cheapo car. An old Cadillac customer of mine’s son manages the security at an old folks home and was able to purchase a 1984/5 Marquis off a resident that had low mileage for a typical paltry amount and I looked the car over after he bought it. It was definitely an improvement over the Fairmont/Zephyr just on trim and appointments alone. The car had the fuel injected 3.8 V6 and it was a nice, moderately sized, comfortable, and fairly efficient car for the traditional buyer who might have wanted something smaller than the Panther cars.
A couple of interesting things about the ’83 Fairmont is that buyers still had a choice of the basket-handle coupe (the one that launched the “Futura” name but they were all called that by ’83) or the regular two-door sedan (as well as the 4-door); and that it was the only ’83 Ford car to still have “FORD” in block letters on the grille and trunk rather than the blue oval.
The Tempo arrived at midyear as an early ’84 launch.
Ford’s use of the Futura moniker dates back at least to the 1961 Falcon Futura.
I can imagine a lot of people would have wanted that ’77 Colonnade. Even now, every time a new model comes out, there is resistance, with many people preferring the old model. Some people psychologically want the tried and true, familiar model rather than something that just came out (and might turn out to be a flop). In hindsight it’s hard to imagine, but in ’77, the Colonnades were 5 years into being hugely popular winners, and the new downsized B-bodies were shocking, new, and maybe a little strange to a lot of eyes. (Personally I like both, always have, and have owned both.) After a little time, especially with an intrinsically good car like the ’77 B-bodies, people come around, but keeping the big mid-sizers around for one more year was a smart strategy for GM, and probably helped them sell even more cars. (Olds sold over 1 million ’77s, and a LOT of them were Cutlasses. In fact, the 1 millionth car was a Cutlass — the GM Heritage Center near Detroit has it in its collection).
Although the Chevrolet B bodies were good cars, they were boring. I never cared for their dash with that large sweep speedometer, although one could order the “gauge” package that featured round instruments. Talking about Pontiacs, I would still rather have the LeMans over a Catalina in 1977..
An excellent treatment of a nearly forgotten car. What is it about some cars that make them slip quietly down the memory hole? Everyone remembers the colonnade sedans, and talks about the Cutlasses, the Malibus, the Centurys and even the Grand Ams. Nobody remembers the LeMans.
2 minor nits – the slots cut into the bumpers were for the jack. GM bumper jacks of those years did not cradle under the bumper in the usual way, but were stout tabs that were inserted into the slots in the bumper surface. Second, the rear bumpers on 1973 cars only had to meet a 2.5 mph standard, which would explain why the 73 LeMans rear bumper was so dainty. The 5 mph requirement, though front-only for 1973 went to front and rear beginning in 1974.
My mother owned a 74 Luxury LeMans sedan when I first got my drivers license. The 2bbl 350 was a dog and gas hog at the same time. Maybe its familiarity, but I always thought the 74 the best looking of this series, particularly for the rear end treatment. Pontiac was also the only colonnade sedan that incorporated fender skirts as an option. I think these were the best looking colonnade sedans of all, especially in a dark color with the skirts.
William Stopford is right about the handling. Our car still had bias plys (thus lacking the “Radial Tuned Suspension” badge on the dash) but it cornered really flat and had very fast steering. Had the car been more powerful, I might not be here to tell about it, because I used to do some terrible things to that car as a 16 year old. Try as I might, though, I could never find enough clear road to get it to 100.
My favorite colonnade rear end. I thought the rear with the horizontal taillights was a downgrade. And the wheelcovers with the bazillion holes never did much for me. This car needs the Pontiac mags.
The photo shows the 1974-75 tail. Although not mentioned above, I read at the time that the 1974 trunklid was reshaped because of complaints about the limited trunk volume of the 1973 cars. This raised trunklid persisted through 1977.
Style over function. IMO, Pontiac got it right in 1973. Trunk contour is ugly in 74-75. Tail lights worse as well. 73 was first and last for most desirability. Pontiac promised a super duty 455 for these, but reneged.They we’re to be offered in TA, GA, and GTO. In the end, only the Trans Ams were built w this option. This after building two GTOs with the SD455-AND letting a car magazine test and publish on it. DeLorean was definitely gone.
Except for the TA’s in the Burt Reynolds era, Pontiac began its suicide mission here.
You don’t like those wheelcovers? They are one of my favorite designs, LOL. My ’77 Esprit came with them & I’m soo glad. 😛
The wheel covers are what drew me to the car. Seeing an old Colonnade sedan in these parts isn’t exceedingly rare, but seeing one with all four wheel covers intact is.
I’m pretty sure they’re a one-year-only design. Because I neglected to take a shot of the VIN, the wheel covers were essential in pinning this particular car down as a ’77.
The full-size base Bonnevilles had these wheel covers too. I snagged one as a cast-off on 30th Street in Rock Island back in about 1994, but it did not make it to our new home in 1995. Sigh…
I had a ’77 LeMans coupe from ’81 to ’85. One day I lost a front wheelcover. I went to the main junkyard just outside of town and in about 5 minutes I spotted a set of 4 of these covers neatly stacked in a pile on the ground. I took one to the office and $5 later it was mine.
These “cheese grater” wheelcovers were used on almost all Pontiac models in 1977 and the Firebird and Full-size B bodies in 1978. They are fairly common.
This is my ’75 LeMans sedan rotting away in AL — virtually identical to the ’74. I wish it was the above shade of green (and in NC where I could work on it). I picked this up from a wrecker sale for a hundred bucks around ten years ago.
Ironically, it was parked next to a ’76 LeMans coupe in the same nasty buckskin color as the feature car. The buckskin coupe had the 250 engine and it also sold for $100 to someone else.
My green bean is the base model and about as sparse as can be. It’s the only shade of GM green I dislike and was ordered with A/C, a white painted top, full wheelcovers and some kind of HD suspension package with rear swaybar but nothing else.
Its worn out 350-2 surprisingly still runs although the LR quarter is rusty due to the ingenious rear window channel design. I think it would make a very nice sleeper if I can just get it up here.
I much prefer the round headlights and weird taillights to the ’76-’77, but think the ’73 is by far the sharpest of them all, especially from the rear.
Cannot agree on the 73, I always thought that its tail end looked pinched-off. The 74-75 taillights were just right, working with the very nice fender shape that was set off from the raised decklid. The 76-77 wide-light version tried to ignore the beautiful sculpting and just slather on some bright rectangles (in classic 1970s style).
The painted roof in a contrasting color is fascinating – it seems that GM would do this long after others stopped, but I wasn’t sure they were doing it as late as 1975. My grandma bought a 69 Catalina sedan that was silver with a black painted roof. It was the only one like it I ever saw. Anyhow, the big question: do you have fender skirts for it? 🙂
Ha! No fender skirst but I do have a set of NOS wheelcovers for it though, bought off E-bay (when E-bay didn’t suck). I’m guessing this thing was probably some sort of fleet order due to its yucky paint scheme & option combo.
Fixed your nits!
Thanks for the information.
Ewww…I wanted to get rid of my gas-hog 1976 C-20 Chevy pickup before I got married and checked out a 1977 Chevelle in the same color as the top photo that summer.
The model was a stripper coupe and the external quality was absolutely abysmal – grind marks painted over around the fixed side glass with no trim to hide them, and comparing this to what I was currently driving…well, I kept the truck and downsized to our Gremlin a few months later. I made the wise choice for many reasons!
Those of us who were around in those days were shocked when the Colonnades came out in Sept. 1972. When I visited the Chevy dealer to check out the new cars, I was stunned, as I couldn’t envision a world without pillarless hardtops! It took a while to get used to not having them as they gradually disappeared from the automotive scene.
Of course, everyone and their brother, especially Syke knows how I feel about fixed glass that SHOULD open somehow, but I digress…
Whenever I see one of these today, which is rare, although someone at work drives one (!), I can’t get over how HUGE they are!
Of all the Colonnades, the Pontiac 1973 coupes were the best of the lot.
Fixed glass. I KNEW there was something I liked about those cars.
“Of all the Colonnades, the Pontiac 1973 coupes were the best of the lot.”
Amen brother, amen.
My grandfather owned a ’73 LeMans 4 door with 350/TH350 4bbl. That car actually had some power, although the accelerator travel was very small between idle and WOT, so I think some of the “power” when stepping on the gas was psychological (“Hoo-wee Gertie! I barely mashed the gas and look at ‘er go.”)
And, as CraiginNC said, I think of Buford T Justice in Smokey and The Bandit when I see this car.
Junior: My hat fell off daddy.
Buford: I hope your goddamn head was in it!
Jackie Gleason stole the show.
“………… a dainty set of rubber nudgers in case it needs to do The Bump with a lesser vehicle, and a couple of nicely integrated factory fog lamps that reside between them”
Uh, those are the turn signals.
Fixed, and thank you.
I personally like the Colonnades. They certainly looked better than the bloated, claustrophobic Gran Torinos. I’m not crazy about the verticle B- and C-pillars, but I think the large greenhouse was ahead of its time. I’m sure the sloping off rear didn’t provide great trunk space, but I’m a fan of uniqueness.
The light and airy greenhouse of this car s certainly better than the gun slits many new cars have for side and rear windows.
Not that an airy greenhouse would make a difference, what with the ridiculously huge headrests that have become so popular lately. I sat in a Mercedes E-Class HARDTOP at the auto show and side visibility was somehow worse than in my father’s Grand Marquis (and rear visibility was nonexistent, in typical Mercedes fashion).
Ah, yes, a real hardtop! Simply delicious! Any visibility issues are immediately forgiven.
Trouble is, I can never afford one. Sniff…
To me, visibility is the whole point of a hardtop (well, maybe not the whole point, but certainly the main point). The CL600 might be better, with its bigger glass area, but I wouldn’t know because they always keep the $160,000 cars locked at the auto show…
You’d think that with all the pop-up roll bars installed in convertibles these days they could design a pop-up headrest, or at the very least an inflatable ’70s-style low profile headrest. Just imagine taking a new car for a test drive and actually being able to see out of it!
And you know, for less than a used Impala you could always get a full-size V12 hardtop BMW 850i. Unfortunately, thanks to its “legendary German engineering” it would probably cost about a thousand dollars a month to repair. Still, such a magnificent looking car for $8,000… it almost seems worth it…
I thought the roofline was based on the Jaguar XJ6 that Bill Mitchell admired so much. Well anyway, looked great on a 6000 SUX.
I always found these awkward and kludgy…what you’d expect from a kid doing a kit-bash. There wasn’t any flowing of the theme, as you look at the greenhouse…they may have handled light (I never drove one) but they looked heavy and ponderous.
I couldn’t WAIT for them to disappear from the landscape; and now that they have, they’re valued only for a contrast from the UJA (Universal Japanese Automobile) design thesis which is truly universally practiced.
I wouldn’t blame the Japanese for today’s design language (at least not entirely). One of the first cars with the ubiquitous short-hood-nonexistent-deck, tall-roof-no-ground-clearance tinted-windows thin-tires LED-headlight designs was the GM Ultralight concept in 1992. Oddly enough I kind of like the Ultralight, and it also ensures that Demolition Man will go down in history as one of the most accurate depictions of the future (2032 Oldsmobiles and Cadillac Voyages notwithstanding).
And just for comparison, that’s when Toyotas still looked like this. The genre-defining Prius was still half a decade away in Japan, even longer in the rest of the world.
Don’t knock the Cressida! These cars were incredible!!! The first Toyota I ever drove was a 1989 Cressida. I was all of 14 and it belonged to my mom’s boss.
I’d still love to have one of these…
I wasn’t knocking it, I was pointing out that even Toyota was still building good looking cars when GM was experimenting with a modern Blobmobile. Japanese companies may not have done anything to delay the aeroblob revolution, but they aren’t singlehandedly responsible either.
The 1977 Lemans was a weak seller starting in 1976, after the Grand Am was dropped. It was the disco, post Vietnam era and everybody wanted opera windows. The Monte Carlo, Cutlass and Grand Prix led the way in sales. All the big three could offer was a big car with a weak smog motor, except for the Vega and Pinto. All they could offer in performance was handling and tape stripes. The EPA, OPEC, NTSB and finally Japan, caught them on the pot. In their defense, Americans love big rear wheel drive cars, with big V8’s. Just look at the recent SUV craze. Jim Wangers, a former Pontiac ad exec, started a company to do tape stripes for the Mustang II Cobra. He went to Pontiac and talked them into re-issuing the Grand Am body with a Trans Am engine. This was the Can Am. In 1973 Pontiac did a design exercise with the, Lemans, Firebird and the Ventura. They all had shaker scoops, rear ducktail spoilers and the hottest engine of the time. They were supposed to be a cheaper alternative to top end muscle and to be known as Formula X cars. Pontiac produced them, but not as a group. The Ventura became the 1974 GTO, the Lemans the 1977 Can Am and the Firebird was what it was. I own a Can Am and it handles amazingly for such a big car, better than my mother’s 1977 Cutlass Supreme did. The problem with all the Colonnades was that GM used a malleable type of steel to get the great shapes. This steel dissolves in rain water. Not as bad a Vega. They were made from compressed rust. To me, all the Colonnades had potential. Any GM big block would fit under the hood, especially the torque monster meteorite known as the Cadillac 500. A warmed over version in any Colonnade would ruin a lot of car owners ego. Quit bashing the 1972 Torino. It was designed by a GM designer that Bunkie Knudsen brought with him when he took the reins at Ford.
That’s a rare car Patrick,I never heard of it til this year show us more please
Here’s my Can Am. It has all original paint, interior, driveline.
Once about 8 years ago I had the opportunity to buy a 1973 Pontiac Grand Am Coupe that was semi rotten from a neighbor of a custom. I passed because the car was really too far gone and I had no real interest in the car. With that said, it was really interesting because it had the 400/4V/Dual set up, louvered windows, swivel bucket seats, the unique urethane front end (1973 only design), and the “6.5 LITRE” badge on the trunk which Pontiac tried to use to impart some European flavor on the car. It came with radial tires/suspension that the RTS label on the dash including REAL wood trim. It was dark cherry with matching interior and rally wheels. It must have been a looker back in its day.
They couldn’t have been swivels unless they were changed over. Only Chevy and Olds used them. Grand-Ams had recliners with a Volvo-inspired lumbar knob.
As a fleet operator, I must be the only person in the world who liked 5 mph bumpers. On today’s cars, even the most minor touch will cause at the very least a scuff and a 5 mph hit will cost you thousands of dollars. In fact it was the insurance companies that lobbied for the big bumpers and they indeed did reduce the cost of claims. These big bumpers could really take a beating and it is amazing the abuse I have seen them take.
Of course the real reason Detroit was so dead set against these bumpers is the materials were expensive. Had they actually tried to integrate them instead of tacking them on, I am sure they could have developed a lower cost and better looking system. Alas, under Reagan, big business got what it wanted and in the long run, it worked against them.
The savings offered by the 5-mph bumper in low-speed crashes were cancelled by the higher cost of replacing the heavier bumper and associated support structure in higher speed crashes.
Companies switched to today’s body-colored bumpers because customers thought the old chrome bumpers looked outdated and clunky.
As someone wrote in a letter to the editor published in Road & Track – I can have a car that looks ugly after a fender-bender, or I can have a car that looks ugly all the time. Most customers prefer the former.
Geeber, you’ve obviously not had the experience of having to replace one of those wonderful body coloured bumpers. Speaking from the place of having done both many times, the 5 mph bumpers were way better. They protected the a/c condenser, radiator and all the other fragile stuff up there.
Last year, an elderly lady pulled right out in front of my wife while she was driving her Taurus. The hit was not more than 10 km/h but it wiped out $3000 worth of stuff, including radiator mounts and the a/c condenser. That kind of hit would not have even phased a B-Body with Battleship Bumper and I know this from first-hand experience.
As for buff books like Road & Track, they were and are nothing but industry shills; the railed about emission controls, safety standards and CAFE all through the era. Naturally they shilled against 5 mph bumpers.
Typical for Detroit, instead of trying to adapt to regulations (that mostly benefited the consumer) they used lawyers to cut their costs. Had they taken the 5 mph regulation seriously they would have had wonderfully integrated bumpers, like in the Can-Am and Firebird for example.
In fairness to the B body/Taurus comparo, all of that luxurious front empty space that we were used to in the 70s and before is long gone. All kinds of jobs that were once childs play have been rendered utterly miserable due to the tightly constricted real estate where parts are expected to reside. The parts of a car in front of the cowl were once like a small town in Michigan, but are now like a city block in downtown Tokyo as far as density goes.
The quote was from a letter to the editor, not the editorial board of Road and Track, so dismissing the views expressed therein as a “shill for Detroit” won’t work.
Your accident with the Taurus does not prove my example incorrect. 10 km/h is about 6.2 mph. I never said that the old style bumpers didn’t provide better protection at very low-speed impacts. They were still more expensive to repair in higher speed impacts.
The simple fact is the style of bumpers used on the B-bodies (and similar cars) were ultimately eliminated as much by the need for improved aerodynamics – which, ironically enough, was in response to CAFE – as anything else.
That resulted in flush-mounted bumpers and European-style, flush-mounted headlights. The bumpers used on the B-body or the Can Am would simply fail to pass muster from an aerodynamic standpoint (while generating increased wind noise, as well).
They would also be rejected by buyers who do not want either a chrome railroad tie (as with the B-bodies) or a painted railroad tie (as with the Can Am) hung on each end of the car, anymore than they want tailfins or wraparound windshields.
When it comes to passenger cars, today’s buyers expect the car to feature a smooth, integrated appearance, and that means flush-mounted, body-colored panels at each end of the car.
As jpcavanaugh noted, today’s cars are packaged much more tightly than their 1970s counterparts. That is why there is more damage to a Taurus in a low-speed accident than a 1977 B-body. When we look at those domestic curbside classices from the 1970s, there are inevitably comments about how inefficient they are in regards to use of space, both under the hood and under the roof. Today’s cars are much better in that regard – while packing in many more standard features – but that comes at a price. Check how far away from the front the air conditioning compressor and radiator are located in a 1977 Impala or Delta 88 compared to a new Taurus. The extra space that provides an additional barrier of protection in a low-speed accident was once called “wasted space.”
A fair number of 1970s cars didn’t have an air conditioning compressor, as buyers simply didn’t order that option. Today, even Focus buyers expect their car to have air conditioning, cruise control and power steering and brakes.
And I don’t know why you are laying all of the blame solely on Detroit. Not every American manufacturer weakened their bumpers in the wake of the rollback – Ford and Oldsmobile, for example, continued to meet the 5 mph standard for years after 1982. Meanwhile, I’m not seeing where Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai consistently score better than their domestic counterparts in bumper strength. The bumpers on our 2003 Accord are not any stronger than the bumpers on our 2005 Focus.
Well…using that logic, we would be better off putting push-plates on the front and rear of all our cars. Or at least, railroad ties or six-by-six beams.
I hear what you’re saying; but what it did to design AND HANDLING (all that weight hung on the ends of every car) was inexcusable. Better, wouldn’t it be, to let the markets decide? There were always cars with sturdy bumpers; and always cars that you could replace the bumpers with something more substantial. I’m thinking of various trucks and a few cars that actually DID have bolted-up 4x4s as bumpers.
Today’s bumpers with plastic facia don’t do so well in impacts. True enough…but cars aren’t supposed to be hitting each other. If a car is new, an owner with pride will either repair the damage or make the offending party pay for it. In an older car…too bad, too sad.
I love 5mph bumpers, and while they may have looked tacked-on in the ’70s, the sharp, geometric designs of the ’80s really made them look good (and by the 1994-6 Cadillac Fleetwood they were so well integrated that you wouldn’t know they were there, although those might not be true 5mph bumpers, possibly more like 2.5 again). The funny thing is, they were originally introduced to avoid damage to headlights and steel fenders, and now that they are really necessary they are gone. The people who complained about the cost of repairs in the late ’60s would be appalled at today’s repair costs (even adjusted for inflation).
But what really bugs me is the way car designers still insist on putting the slightest hint of a bumper on new cars. New cars don’t have bumpers, so why pretend they do? Just take a hint from ’50s hot rodders and get rid of the whole idea of bumpers (it wouldn’t make new cars look any better, but it certainly couldn’t make them look any worse).
“In fact it was the insurance companies that lobbied for the big bumpers and they indeed did reduce the cost of claims….
….Of course the real reason Detroit was so dead set against these bumpers is the materials were expensive. Had they actually tried to integrate them instead of tacking them on, I am sure they could have developed a lower cost and better looking system. Alas, under Reagan, big business got what it wanted and in the long run, it worked against them.”
So when the insurance BUSINESS lobbies for profit, it’s ok, but when the auto business lobbies for profit they’re screwing us?
Yup, every business will lobby to keep its profits high, that is the responsible thing to do, as they have to answer to their shareholders.
Correct.
It’s called “fiduciary responsibility.” This might shock you…but with most businesses, the CEO doesn’t own the place. He’s a hireling…and he answers to the shareholders, the owners.
And if he does NOT maximize return on shareholder investment…he forfeits his JOB. And if he screws it up badly enough, he can be prosecuted, civilly or criminally.
Buy a modern French car they are designed for push parking no bumper damage.
Never been a fan of this era GM A-bodies and I have driven and worked on many. It’s not that they are so ignominous in their own right, it’s the comparison to what they replaced that brings their inadequacies to bright light.
The Colonnades were newsworthy cars and stood out. The dramatic new Monte Carlo, 5-mph bumpers, pontoon fenders and side windows on the sedans dominated the first impression.
Dig a little deeper and there were the innovative Endura front ends on the Grand Am and Laguna. This generation included of course the #1 selling 76-77 Cutlass Supreme Coupe with the beautiful waterfall grille.
Surprisingly the 73 Grand Prix was a tad larger than the 1969 model which inspired it. Remember the 69 had the longest hood in modern history — that’s how large these cars had become. The GP was a very successful evolution and you could tell GM compromised the sedans to make the personal coupes as competitive as possible. In retrospect a smart move…
Dig deeper still and there were the popular suspension packages with quick ratio steering and beefy sway bars. The full-size Mercury and Buick road test above shows 4:1 for the Merc and 2.9:1 for the Buick, that’s a big difference. The Colonnades road and handled exceptionally well and were the basic underpinnings for the well-loved B-bodies that followed.
A mix of successes and failures, old approaches and new. One thing is for sure the Colonnades were distinctive and seem to be inspiring designers to this very day.
The new Jeep Cherokee
I wish we’ve had those wonderful models when new. The only colonnades we saw in México were the Chevelles two- and four- door. They look elegant and somewhat sporty; with a soft ride and great maneuverability, good fuel economy and roomy for six grown adults. The only flaw: B pillared cars, in my opinion.
The Grand Lemans wagon I drove about a 1975 was Wheezy to say the least.
It was among the most unreliable and hard to handle cars I remember in our circle.
The Olds sold Much better, as did the Chevy.
I don’t know about that 301 Pontiac V8. I don’t have any personal experience with them and people seem to bag on them a lot.
Still, I seem to see an awful lot of them still running these days.
So they must at least be pretty tough?
Their reliability was basically no different than any other V8 of the period so it is probably not surprising some of them are still around. I have always thought the Pontiac 301 was the weakest of all of the baby small blocks (Chevy 305, Olds 307, etc.). By the late 1970s, Pontiac only had the 301 and the 400 as their motors and only the 301 after 1979. The TransAm had a 301 Turbo optional for 1980/81 which really was a dog compared to the previous years. The hp/tq figures were good but considering you had to rev the engine to spool up the turbo and it was boost limited to 9psi and with the carburetor it was rather leisurely initially off the line. The 301 was Pontiac’s only “small block” and was just about completely different than the other motors. I have never seen anyone advertising hop-ups for this motor.
Pontiac offered an even smaller 265 cubic inch version offered in ’80 and ’81. I would imagine it makes the 301 a stump-puller comparatively speaking.
I found this:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/the-almost-forgotten-engine-1980-1981-pontiac-265-cid-4-3l-v8-why-did-they-bother/
In all of my years I do not remember ever seeing one of those motors. I have seen more 260 Olds V8s but I always tried to wear sunglasses when looking at those… 😉
Chevy had a 4.3 V8 during the 1990s before the Caprice expired that was sort of a “baby LT1” that you would occasionally see.
I can only imagine back then, and I did not think of it at the time, that part of the rationale was that then, people still associated a need for a V8 and GM felt that a tiny V8 was publically more acceptable than V6s which were still relatively a new phenomenon in cars. The vast downsizing that took place with virtually all cars between 1977-1981 was about as dramatic a change in cars in a short span of time as any design ever. None more than Chrysler who, in 1980, sold nothing FWD except for Horizons and Omni, but just two years later sold almost all FWD except for a handful of Cordobas and the Fifth Avenue.
The 301 was a tricky engine. It’s block was lighter than the traditional Pontiac design with a lower deck height and it’s own unique intake manifold to feed the Siamesed intake ports. The heads were also unique and lighter as was the crank which lost counterweights and instead relied on an externally balanced flywheel. It is often said that the 301 has a very fragile bottom end and the nylon timing gears are a weakness when they shred and clog up the oil pickup screen. I have owned many of these engines and it was vital to keep the oil changed religiously, keep them in tune and not over heat them. Replacing the timing chain and gears before 100k was a good way to get well over 200K out of these engines. The 301 turbo and all 1980-81 blocks were beefier so seek those years out for the best 301 engines if your looking at a stock Pontiac in these years.
I agree that the exterior styling of Colonnade cars has grown on me over time, although the low-trim interiors haven’t usually survived very well.
The one feature of the Colonnade that always bothers me is that the sedan/wagon B pillar looks like it isn’t connected to anything at the bottom. It’s an optical illusion, caused by the vinyl covering ending just above the doors and there appearing to be a gap underneath it. Still, it’s weird for it to LOOK like the B pillar is floating in midair.
The colonnades were big hits from Chevrolet and Olds in particular – Chevrolet sold a lot of 4 door Chevelle/Malibus as well as coupe and it seems that Olds sold about 3 times as many coupes as sedans. Buicks and Pontiacs seemed to have confused buyers some during those years. For the 68-72 A-cars, people were used to Chevelles, LeMans/GTO, Skylarks, and Cutlass. I never quite understood why Buick dumped the Skylark to the X-platform via the Apollo for a few years and then brought out the Century/Regal as their version of the colonnade. Back in the day, I saw a fair amount of Regal coupes, occasionally a Century sedan, almost never a Century coupe. Although I did have one customer that owned 1973 Century coupe (fastback no opera window) Stage 1 that was different and had a 455 engine in it. It seems as though Chevrolet and Olds combined accounted for about 75% of colonnade sales while it wasn’t quite that drastic in generations before.
My uncle owned a 1977 Olds Cutlass Supreme Brougham that was a pretty shade of light blue with light blue pillow interior (that seemed to have gold flecks in it) and a white vinyl top with color-keyed Olds rally wheels. It had the 350 Olds Rocket V8 with THM 350 transmission. There is was no doubt as to why those cars were popular it was extremely attractive and drove well.
Our neighbor across the street had a 1976 Olds Cutlass S sedan that had the quad rectangular headlamps but unlike the squared off flush front panel like the Supremes, the S’s used a canted header panel which IMO wasn’t nearly as attractive.
Of course on a personal note, we had a 1974 Chevelle Malibu Landau coupe that was purchased new and when its original driving days were over, was restored and revamped into a nice muscle coupe with upgraded suspension pieces, 400 small block with Holley 4 bbl backed by a THM700R4 overdrive unit and 8.5″ 10 bolt 3.73 posi rear end that gave it good launching off the line while the OD trans kept things settled down at speed. A really good balanced combination.
Wow what a cool Chevelle, the 400 must give great torque and the holeshot must be good with those gears.
The great thing about all these cars was extra power was but a few dollars away. What was even more surprising to me, anyway, was how rarely anyone every hopped a Colonnade sedan, or B body in my case. I did several 350 B-Bodies with cams, new intake, Holley and headers but when the customers tried to resell them, they found them hard to move. Apparently the buyers felt the cars would be unreliable!
It is nice. I will say that putting in the overdrive transmission did more for the car on an enjoyment basis than anything else. It still allows you the punch from the built 400 but cruising at 45 or 55 isn’t a 3000+RPM screaming affair and returned upper teens MPG. Using polyurethane bushings on the control arm bushings, sway bar links, and other places made a huge difference as well.
I haven’t seen too many hopped up colonnades, but they do appear from time to time. Here in SE North Carolina where rice burners are a bit less prevelant and the climate keeps rust to a minimum. Most cars in junkyards are there due to wrecks or simply being clapped out.
I sketched once some ideas then Pontiac could had used for the 1976-77 LeMans then I posted on Deviantart http://fav.me/d5gemfj
And one guy created a “Phantom” 1975 GTO Judge, if you enjoy more “what if?” 😉
http://ultimategto.com/cgi-bin/showcar.cgi?type=lot&pic=/pasture/75judge2
But there was a 73 GTO. Not a big stretch! The Can Am was a GTO as much as there could be without actually calling it that.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Pontiac/1977%20Pontiac/1977_Pontiac_CAN_AM_Folder/1977%20Pontiac%20CAN%20AM%20Folder-01.html
Of course by the time that the colonnades came out, the bottom had fallen out of the market for traditional muscle cars.
A customer of mine has (well not sure if he still does its been a few years) a 1973 Century colonnade with the Stage 1 455 package in a green color.
Rick Treworgy of Muscle Car City in Florida has a 1973 Pontiac GTO colonnade in blue with white interior swivel seats, floor shift, and 400 motor. Oddly, the GTO was available with bench or bucket seats depending on the model the option was attached to.
I know the ‘coupe’ GTO bodystyle was standard bench seat, optional bucket seats and I was thinking the ‘sport coupe’ bodystyle was the same way also but I could be wrong.
The bench seat could have been a no-cost option on the sport coupe since both styles were available “both ways”. The pictured example (what’s left of it) is a bench seat column shift sport coupe.
TMI dept: Florentine red, white vinyl top, white bench seat, 400-4 engine, THM 400, Rally II, deluxe bumper group, bumper guards, misc moldings, AM/8-track, A/C and not much else. 🙁
Here’s my 1973 GTO 4 speed, all original paint, interior, driveline:
Very nice and at the same time, very sad, Junqueboi! It’s a shame the aftermarket body parts worlld never took to the Colonnade GM’s, especially the 73 editions of the Chevelle SS, GTO, Gran Sport and 442. And that Fiero, that rear spoiler looks familiar……IMSA body package or IRM spoiler?
You know it MIchael: I’m nuts for any ’73 GM product, especially the A, G, and B body cars. This GTO has only 85K on it but was left outside uncovered for years which pretty much destroyed it. I bought it from a Birmingham, AL junkyard for $650 and literally drove it out of there. I had planned on “re-bodying” it but never could find a rust-free ’73 shell…and now the property owner is saying it’s his. There are other cars in the field more worth fighting for (like the GV next to it) so it’ll eventually rot to nothingness or be stolen by some scrapper.
The silver ’86 Fiero SE next door is actually pretty rare being a 4-cylinder 5-speed version but the spoiler was added later. The car used to belong to my ex-girlfriend’s uncle and was immaculate when I test-drove it (he was selling it). Three years later I saw it in the local scrapyard & bought it for $150 — it had already been stabbed by the forklift & is pretty far gone which is a shame. There are actually close to thirty more Fieros here keeping it company.
Speaking of the GS, I will be towing these two guys home — the red one is a ’73 GS455 and the green one next to it is a ’73 Regal 455. I had the GS since I was 19 or 20 and it was an absolute beast. It makes me sick seeing it like this.
There’s also two ’73 GrandAms rotting away here: one’s a 2-door; the other a sedan.
Rick: nice car man. Would love to see more of it.
Junqueboi, thanks for those new pictures. In the past 2.5 months, Ebay had listed for sale 2 of the nicest Colonnades in the world (imo, of course). One was a medium blue metallic 73 GTO, 3 speed manual, bright blue interior and 400 V-8. The other was a 73 Gran Sport Stage 1 455. By the way, the Buick was the same color as yours shown here! Beautfiul beyond description were both cars. I don’t think they looked as good coming off the showroom floor! Was wondering if you had caught them 2 beauties? When these excellent Colonnades come up for sale, I am always shocked how they do not command anywhere near the price of a late model 72 Goat, Chevelle SS or Buick GS. But all the better for those of us who aspire to own a classic GM machine from it’s greatest era!
The Fiero you have does have that IMSA back spoiler. When the Fiero came out, there was an IMSA racer that included the Super Duty 4 banger, a wide body kit, the over-the-roof air scoop/snorkel and that spoiler. Here’s an example of a replica of that IMSA racer: http://the-stickman.tripod.com/myimsa.html
I love your taste in GM autos! 🙂
I currently have a fourth 1973-77 Pontiac A body (excluding parts cars). This is my project car- a 1973 Grand Am with a 4 speed Muncie, 400 4 barrel, and 3.42 Positraction differential. Mechanically it has been gone through, I am still working on the body. It was a life long resident of Washington DC.
The GTO’s instrument cluster. The car has 58k actual miles. And yes, the little clock still works, and has not been converted to quartz movement.
Not many had the tach cluster. NIce T/A speedo there 😉 It’s cool that you didn’t quartz the clock. “Quartzing out” show cars is a pet peeve of mine… the owner took the time to reproduce chalk marks on the firewall, restripe the driveshaft, buy date-coded tires… but faked-out the clock… c’mon!
My car must have just been a dealer stock order as it had the base cluster and no odd options other than the UM1 AM/8-track stereo. I added a clock when I was still driving it because looking at the black left pod drove me nuts.
Your G/A looks like one of my lost causes, although mine’s not a 4-speed. They sure look sad when the nose rots off of them, don’t they? I used to see a lot of LeMans-nosed GrandAms when these things were still on the street.
I am in the process of purchasing a Motorealm (formerly InDesign) fiberglass reproduction nose to take care of the Grand Am’s sad face.
Such a rare car. Nice find.
I remember reading once that it was thought that GM used a poor quality of metal for the Pontiac A-bodies, because premature body rot was so common on them.
They were no worse than their peers, or their predecessors. One of the rustiest cars I have seen was a 1971 LeMans.
Here is an example spotted in a local scrap yard about a year ago.
It hurts to see that, especially with the white interior.
sad ending for a 35 year survivor. This reminds me of the cars I saw as part of the demolition derby action on Velocity TV,
What a shame. That would have been so easy to fix up…
1976 Grand LeMans
Back side
My best high school friend’s parents had a Lemans just like the one above, a 1977 with 305 2V. I drove it quite a bit when my friend became too inebriated to drive as I was never much of a drinker. I recall the driving experience as vintage GM: lots of smooth torque, good shifting transmission and the Pontiac suspension was not sloppy at all.
The fit and finish was quite good, as final model year cars usually are. The dash was nice and the only real problem was common in all GM cars of the era, you couldn’t recline the seats. Still, even after our abuse, the dad drove it for many years. Eventually succommed to rust at age fifteen or so.
This is another car I can only hope someone is saving pristine examples of. There clearly can not be many 77 Grand Lemans left.
That Yellow one above in the junkyard is starting to grow on me, but its too late.
I always wonder how the plainer cars have managed to be cherished all these years.
They need help to survive, as this one did for so long.
Mike, was this car at the former Saab dealer in Iowa City? The surroundings look somewhat familiar…
Tom, it was actually parked behind a Casey’s in Monroe, IA.
Coincidentally, I was on my way to Iowa City (where I lived for nine years) from my current home of Council Bluffs, IA—had tickets to a Hawkeye game.
1st car: ’73 LeMans coupe, 350 2bbl, Medium Blue, White vinyl on top and seats.
A great car for a 16 year old: 4,210 lbs., retread tires, $500 stereo!
I first fell in love with the Pontiac Colonnades in 1979 at the age of 4 with the first time I watched Jackie Gleason, and Mike Henry ride in their 1977 LeMans Enforcer in Smokey and the Bandit. I have owned several 1973-77 Pontiac and Olds A bodies, and a ’72 LeMans. The Colonnade A bodies ride and handle much better, and have a much more soild feel to them. The dash on the ’72 was a total PITA to work on , and the ergonomics were horrid. The layout and design of the Grand Am/Grand Prix/Can Am dash was beautiful, easy to work on, and easy to read/use. Once desmogged, the 400/455 4bbl Pontiac engines are very spirited, and also return decent to good fuel economy. Many think they are overstyled, but styling has always been subjective, and most of their peers were just plain awful. Here is a image of my factory police package LeMans I have owned since 1994.
Rick, if you ever want to write a post on your cars, you can drop a line to Paul or I though the “Contact” icon at the top of the page.
I’d love to see more pictures of your “Sheriff Justice” LeMans.
+2. The only Enforcer I’ve ever seen was a brown ’76 or ’77 carcass I spotted at a scrapyard last year. It had been robbed of its drivetrain for years and the windows had been smashed out for awhile. I managed to grab the instrument cluster out of it about an hour before it got crushed (whew!). It was just the bottom-of-the-barrel clockless base cluster but it did have the certified speedometer…just what I needed.
This is probably the nicest colonnade type car in existence (unrestored) a 1977 Chevy Monte Carlo with exactly 5,828 miles on the odometer.
One NOS, another from a very rare Enforcer wagon.
Thank you, Tom. Here is another shot with the correct Texas Exempt plates from the movie:
The trio
Interestingly, if I’m not mistaken, the 77 A-bodies rode the same chassis as the new 77 B-bodies. I seem to recall reading somewhere that GM basically used the cross pollination to allow them a bit more R&D time on the new A-body design.
Of course, I’m a 61-69 Lincoln guy, so I am by no means an expert … 🙂
The 1977 B body frame is a slightly modified 1973-1977 A body frame. GM eliminated the rear crossmember from the B frame, but all of the bolt on parts will interchange. One thing to note, GM used the tinker-toy 7.5″ rear differential on many of the B bodies. The smallest differential on the 1973-1977 A bodies was the venerable 8.5″ differential, and some cars received the Pontiac produced 12 bolt 8.875″ differential. The B body wagons, towing package, and police package cars used 5″ bolt circle wheel pattern, and 12″ front brakes, and the 8.5″ rear. The floor pans and seat mounting points are almost identical. I used a factory rubber floor mat from a 1989 Caprice in my 1976 LeMans Enforcer, and it dropped right into place. I had to trim the sides, but I was tickled with the fit.
WOW, that’s some valuable information regarding the floor mat interchangeability. I balk at spending big money for repop carpet that usually never looks or fits right so I’ll hunt myself some newer B-body stuff for my colonnades.
It’s a long shot as the seat belt mounting holes were probably punched in different places but GM went to some sort of rubber-backed carpeting sometime between ’77 and ’78 and that stuff is nearly indestructible.
Even if it ends up not working at all, it’s an excuse to completely dismantle the interior of a GM car. Fun fun fun.
I was very disappointed with the aftermarket ACC “rubber” vinyl floor mats offered for the A body, and on a whim I tried a factory true rubber mat from that 9C1 ’89 Caprice. The outboard front seatbelts mount in different locations, but the seat belt holes from the B car mat hardly show when installed in the LeMans.The inboard front seat belt mounting points are very close, if not in fact in the same spots. The rubber mat from a ’96 9C1 Caprice is the same way.
I bought one of these when it was 4 years old in 1981. It was a Canadian-built LeMans coupe, with the smaller opera style rear side windows, and a painted roof from the factory. Light metallic blue on the bottom, white roof, white vinyl interior. It had a very airy feel. Being a Canadian car, it came with the Chevy 305 under the hood.
While the LeMans styling was not my favorite of this series – I always thought the blocky front end didn’t go too well with the curvy tail, and would have looked much better if the 2 ends were reversed – this was a pretty good car. It was great on the highway, smooth and quiet. Interior space was a bit of a joke, with lots of room up front and nothing much in the back, along with a fairly small trunk.
The huge coupe doors were always a challenge because of their weight, and the window weatherstrips and outer window sweepers seemed to wear out quickly. In ’84 I had it painted as part of getting some dents repaired and the parts dept at the local Pontiac dealer managed to find one of the last sets of outer window sweepers in the GM parts system somewhere. I also lucked into a mint pair of used window weatherstrips at a junkyard. With these installed the car was good for another few years, but the next year the gas tank started leaking and the TH350 started slipping. I met a Toyota MR2 in the Toyota showroom and the LeMans went away. I wish I had it now.
The 2 door outer window sweeps were just discontinued about three years ago from GM parts. The inners are still available. I bought a few pairs. There are good quality reproductions of the outer sweeps available, but they cost more than the GM versions did. The only reproduction parts really lacking for these cars are sheetmetal. All of the floor pans and trunk floor are available.
Well, 1984 was a long time ago, but I do know that the parts counter man at the dealer made a big deal out of finding a pair of outside sweepers. Maybe he did that for everything!
The 1977 Pontiac Le Mans police package car succeeded the 1976 Ford Torino at my police department. It felt MUCH better, largely because there was some nice FEEL to the steering; the Torino’s steering wheel felt like it was connected to a propeller in a bucket of water. Those who had to endure the prisoner-grade rubberette rear compartment on their way to jail, liked the Pontiac better, too; they didn’t have to double over to get in (and the officer didn’t have to push so hard to get them in), and stay that way all the way in, unlike in the Torinos.
I have 1977 Grand LeMans coupe with only about 65,000 mi. on it. I bought it 1979, and have owned it ever since. It is fully equipped, even has sunroof, and climate control A/C
The thing I remember most about my mother’s 76 Cutlass S sedan was that the front bench seat was not centered in the car…she bought it new, and something was out of whack with it, as the gap between the seat and the b pillar was noticeably wider on one side of the car than the other. Not GM’s finest effort…
Here’s my Buford car in front of one of the Snowman’s trucks
Nice car, I drove a 75 and a 76 for work one summer. Nice company car fleet mobiles. Junqueboi above said it well in regard to the 73s – “sharp rear end”. It was very sharp, and almost knifelike.
A friend of mine coined the term, “Knifejob” to refer to his brother’s 73. Personally,
I much preferred the back of the Malibu and the Cutlass Supreme for the colonnade cars. You certainly saw them everywhere with high sales numbers.
Our family had a 1974 Chevy Malibu Classic. Decent car, but nothing to write home about. After 10 years of service, it gave out in late ’84. That car had the ugliest taillights of the 1974 Colonnades. Should have stuck with the 1973 taillights that were also on the Corvette and Camaro. Here is an example of a 1974:
Thats a great article my parents had a 1977 LeMans Safari in the same colour. I honestly don’t think it had one extra option, 301 automatic. When it was time to be replaced I was excited to think we were getting out of station wagons (appreciate them more now) but the new car was a 1985 Caravan LE.
Export version (Japan):
Didn’t recognize it with its roof on… (just saw Smokey & the Bandit on TV):)
My stumbling blocks with the Colonnade cars were:
1) the impression that the cars were cheaply built–the plastic door panels, the disintegrating window and door seals, the adhesive oozing out from under the side rub strips and from under the trim around the windshield and backlight, the disintegrating paint;
2) the sheer size of the cars without commensurate interior space;
3) the poor fuel mileage of these cars;
4) the emissions controls that strangled these engines. I mean, just what did a four-barrel carburetor accomplish with these engines?
These cars were introduced when I was in college. Even while I was still in college, I saw these cars display the problems in item 1 above.
I was so glad when these beasts finally expired. At the time I did a lot of wheel alignments on these and many many test drives. I didn’t care for the looks of them. They were fat and lazy in every aspect. But worst of all I hated the doors! Heavy, long, didn’t fit, didn’t hardly close. And the worst part was the awful clunk that locked you inside all of that ugly cheap plastic interior with deplorable seats and poor visibility. If you could get past that they were ok.
Oh yes, I once owned a colonnade Monte Carlo. Now I am happy.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the Cutlass Salon . A neighbor had a 73 455, loaded. Similar to the Grand Am. I got to drive it as a teenager, what a ride.
The 70s where not the best of times for our nation, Vietnam, Watergate , energy crisis I and Il inflation, hostage crisis and federal regulations. The A special personal luxury cars on the longer wheelbase sold like hot cakes though.
The 70s, I miss them.
Good music, lousy cars.
I was a kid, and even then, I shared many of the sentiments expressed above—too thirsty, slow, and space-INEFFICIENT.
Yet they had a certain charm.
These cars came out in fall 1972, the height of post-war American affluence, and they reflected it.
In many ways America is a better place now, in many ways it is worse. But the sense of optimism that was dashed during the energy crisis never really came back.
For a while on my drive to work I saw a version of this type of car permanently parked in front of a Walgreens. What was the name of the chevy version of this car?
Would be interesting if Cadillac offered a Series 62 or Calais off the ’73 – ’77 Colonnade intermediates. 4 and 2 doors would have been quite the seller plus gets the buyer into the Cadillac family. This would have made a better entry level Cadillac than the “Calais” of 1965 – 1976 off the full sized body.
Like them or dislike them, the Colonnade’s were very popular cars and good sellers for GM. To me, the main thing wrong with these cars was their emission chocked lack of power for most of their lives. I think the ’73 models had stronger engines.
I like the 73 models, whether Lemans, Century or Cutlass. The rear view of all 3 makes me think how much nicer they would have been with small front bumpers. If I had the time and money, I would put a delicate bumper, frenched in at the sides on any of the three. The big square bumpers, which of course were required front and rear starting in 74, just didn’t work at all for me with the flowing lines of the Colonnades.
This 73 Olds could use a small bumper, but it shows how the lines of the car comes to life without the big battering ram on the front.
https://engineswapdepot.com/?p=12780
So true. It seems to me the ’73 Cutlass front bumper, while definitely not form fitting, was not as bad as many others. But the back end of the Cutlass in ’73 was just really attractive to me.
I rode in several colonades in my youth, but only drove two. Allow me to tell what I remember about them.
I had a friend with a ’73 Cutlass about 30 years ago. It was a soft, cushy, very comfortable cruiser. Had high miles but ran great. I don’t remember the engine size, (400?) but it had that great 4bbl growl. Cornered pretty awful, but it was all worn out suspension-wise.
Contrast it to the ’77 Monte Carlo I had a bit later.Had about 70,000 miles when I got it, and was in very good shape. Dark green with rallye wheels from (I think) a Corvette.
I believe it had the upgraded suspension. It had Goodyear STs, and could corner really tight. Surprisingly flat on a quick corner. It had a 350 2bbl and wasn’t at all in the same league power-wise as that Cutlass. It had positraction but couldn’t make much use of it with that engine, plus it seemed to have a numerically-low differential. But at least is was very smooth.
The MC’s seats and interior were vastly inferior as well.
Two colonades; two very different-feeling cars.
But both special in their own ways. The drivetrain and interior of the Olds and the suspension
/wheels/tires of the Monte would have been great.
With the Pontiac body, which is to me vastly better-looking. Those were the most rare around here, or at least it seemed like it. I’ve never been in a Pontiac colonade but I have a feeling it would be my favorite of all.of them.
Well, I was about to send this comment out when I suddenly remembered that in 1986, when I was 16, my future stepmother had a beater ’76 LeMans sedan. I remember not liking it much. Crappy bench seat and cheapo interior. Maybe it was a stripper-model. Dented and rusty and an ugly pale yellow.
So never mind about that.
All good points.
“…no amount of Landau goodness can mask the fact that there’s just too much glass in the upper half of this Colonnade sedan…”
I disagree. To me, the Colonnade sedans look airy with their large glass area, quite unlike the buttoned-up, high beltline look of crossovers today, though that’s nothing like the gunslit windows on late Camaros.
Clean up the B pillar and they look better, The original treatment visually cut the greenhouse in half.
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