[agetech]

Here is a 72 I found 80 miles from home last year. Body is in great shape, but the engine leaked like a sieve, ran rough, and was hard to drive. Pulled motor in May and completely re-sealed, RPM intake, Holley 770 Street Avenger, and 3.42 gears and 3 series carrier in the 12 bolt rear. Runs great now, and does not leave huge (any) oil spots on the garage floor.

[Judge273]

Very nice! Need a 72 grill/exhaust for the 71 ones someday?

[agetech]

No, the wife likes the 71 grills better than the 72 style.

[adam woodmancy]

my 72 Luxury LeMans. 2nd owner, bought it at 16 for $500 bucks off the old man who bought it new. I had a tire blow out driving home with it, and when he asked my dad how the car was doing dad said good, but we had a mishap on the way home. He reached in his wallet and handed my dad $200 back and said "tell your kid to go get some tires." Now has a 400 / th400 with 3.73 gears. Repainted the factory Anaconda Gold about 7 years ago. This car has won 2 track championship and r/u'd twice more drag racing here in IL. We bought it with the intent of parting it out for our two 70s, and our 71 GTO and then some a- hole said to me " who wants a lemans?? its a wanna-be gto ,lead sled peice of sh*t." I proceeded to sell one of the 70s and the 71. Turned the other 70 into a drag car project, then i took the ugly duckling LeMans out on the warpath. I love it just because its a odd color, a undesired model, if it were a kid in p.e., it would be the last one picked, and i can certainly relate to that. we were meant to be.

Heres how it looked when i got it, rough.. and rusty. I had added the rally IIs in place of the hubcaps, and put drag radials on the back, but other than that, it was as is.





Here it is now.

[OVERULD]

Awesome story and great contribution to this thread! Love the way the car looks and that you took that guy's put-down and turned it around to give a great car a second chance! I absolutely love the slogan on the T-shirt..."Buttons are for Blouses".

BJ

[adam woodmancy]

thanks BJ. between me and my dad, we've had 12 70-72 GTOs, but we;ve both kinda been won over by the LeMans. Its got a million stories to go along with it, especially being my high school car in my younger, stupider years.. HAHA Sometimes things like that just make the cars take on their own personality. Even my mom has raced and won in it when the local track has a powder puff race on mothers day. HAHA

The buttons are for blouses was my dads idea.. The big reason behind it is because NHRA has a sportsman class, which is basically for modified street cars, with no electronics. Basically for the cars that arent race enough to fit in to the Pro class. The only real rule though is no transbrakes. Well, the local hot shot in pro and sportsman uses a adjustable button, wired into his 1 step rev limiter, and just chips it way low so he can mat the pedal and not push through the line lock on the starting line. Its within the rules, but it allows him to adjust his reaction times by using an adjustable launch button just as people do with transbrakes. Ive always foot braked this car.. I tried the transbrake once, and just couldnt get it to be consistent. So as the year went on and me and this other guy were battling it out, my dad though that was a good little poke at him for kinda working around the rules a little bit. We drive the car to the track, foot brake it, then drive it home all summer long. We won the championship last year, the first to beat him in about 6 years, and we did it with a true street car with no fancy gadgets.. Footnote.. Probird, from this site was the first to beat the same guy in Pro points for over a decade, back in 2009.

[OVERULD]

Adam - that makes the story even better and the car all the more special. Your High School car still driving back and forth to the track and winning fair and square...it doesn't get much better than that!

BJ

[adam woodmancy]

thats for the kind words bj. Im pretty fond of your car too.. I love the green/yellow/white stripes on the white car, and the white top on white is also very cool and rare. thumbs up!!!!

[PMDRACER]

My 1971 LeMans Sport. Bought it from MacPherson Chevy on Feb. 15, 1985 for $857.20. Attached pic is from the day I bought it. Had to have a friend drive it the 20 miles home because my 16th birthday was two days away and didn't get my license until two days after that. Up until about 4 years ago when I bought my 1999 F-250, this was my daily driver and the only car I've owned.

Originally blue with a white paint roof, 350/TH350/2.78:1 column shift car, it's now equippped as in my signature as of about 3 years ago.

This car has way too many memories wrapped up in it to ever part ways. In no particular order -

Met my to-be wife because she liked the car. We went on our first dates in it.
Won two Pontiac Drag Days LA County Raceway championships.
Won my class and King of the Hill on the final PDD race at LACR July 22, 2007; the track was shut down 2 weeks later.
Drove it from SoCal to Pontiac Heaven #7 in Phoenix. Won the Pontiac race on Saturday, r/u in the musclecar race on Sunday, drove it home Monday.
Brought my 2 day old son home from the hospital in the car.
Been in National Dragster and in High Performance Pontiac 'Pavement Pounders'.
Was used for the driving shots in the TV show 'From Wrecks to Riches', in the episode 'The Apprentices'.

All this, including all the car shows, cruise nights, 'Sunday drives', etc.

[Judge273]

Those are some nice LeMans' 71 and 72 sport and luxury. Cool stories and graphics there Adam. Well driven fun!

[adam woodmancy]

i remember seeing PMDRacers car before i ever repainted mine, and i loved how clean it looked with all the trim off of it. That car is a big part of why i took the luxury lemans trim off of mine when i redid it. Your car is awesome Bill... i love the fact that it runs how it does, but also was your driver, family cruiser, and racecar all at once. Also like bill's car.. mine was a 350/350 auto on the column.

[OVERULD]

Originally Posted by PMDRACER

My 1971 LeMans Sport. Bought it from MacPherson Chevy on Feb. 15, 1985 for $857.20. Attached pic is from the day I bought it. Had to have a friend drive it the 20 miles home because my 16th birthday was two days away and didn't get my license until two days after that. Up until about 4 years ago when I bought my 1999 F-250, this was my daily driver and the only car I've owned.

Originally blue with a white paint roof, 350/TH350/2.78:1 column shift car, it's now equippped as in my signature as of about 3 years ago.

This car has way too many memories wrapped up in it to ever part ways. In no particular order -

Met my to-be wife because she liked the car. We went on our first dates in it.
Won two Pontiac Drag Days LA County Raceway championships.
Won my class and King of the Hill on the final PDD race at LACR July 22, 2007; the track was shut down 2 weeks later.
Drove it from SoCal to Pontiac Heaven #7 in Phoenix. Won the Pontiac race on Saturday, r/u in the musclecar race on Sunday, drove it home Monday.
Brought my 2 day old son home from the hospital in the car.
Been in National Dragster and in High Performance Pontiac 'Pavement Pounders'.
Was used for the driving shots in the TV show 'From Wrecks to Riches', in the episode 'The Apprentices'.

All this, including all the car shows, cruise nights, 'Sunday drives', etc.

Wow - another great LeMans story! Awesome car and pics. That pic of your car in its original blue/white could be a spitting image of my first car - a 71 LeMans, Blue/White with blue bench, 350/TH350 PegLeg Column shift but with wheel covers instead of Ralley IIs.

That brings back some great memories!

BJ

[PMDRACER]

Aw, shucks.... Thanks for the kudos, guys!

[PMDRACER]

Finally found a picture I've been looking for. It's one of my favorites. IIRC, it was November of 2008. Our club was having an All-Pontiac show at a place called Ricky n Ronnies in Torrance, CA, about 30 minutes from my house.

When we left the house that morning all was fine. About 5 miles from the diner the skies opened up big time. We ended up getting there about 20 minutes early and were the only ones there. Got out in the rain and took a few pictures.

About 30 minutes after the picture was taken the rain stopped, the sun came out and we had one helluva great show. I came home with a 'Top 10' plaque.

Three weeks later, without any warning, Ricky n Ronnies shut their doors for good.

[OVERULD]

Sometimes those unplanned, spur of the momemt photos like that turn out to be the best ones. You couldn't have planned that photo any better. Looks like a neat little diner too - too bad it closed.

BJ

[davesjudge]

Had it out today... Funny, the paint takes on a much deeper gold tone in the sun than I've noticed in the past.

[mike nixon]

Originally Posted by davesjudge

Had it out today... Funny, the paint takes on a much deeper gold tone in the sun than I've noticed in the past.

It's just getting it's sumer tan on!

[chicagoland]

The Luxo LeMans was my favorite non GTO when I was in HS, there were a few in my Chicago neighborhood that owners had 'souped up'. If I had one, I'd leave all the chrome, as a sleeper.

The kids dissing LeMans have no clue about Pontiac history!!

[RATNEST]

Just brought this home, sadly its gonna be a parts car, mother nature has been very unkind, and the previous owner parking it under a tree for 15 years not willing to part with it till his recent divorce, the wife got the house and wanted the car gone.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by davesjudge

Had it out today... Funny, the paint takes on a much deeper gold tone in the sun than I've noticed in the past.

Black wing??? What are the details on that?