[71 T/A]

I saw a 70 GTO Convertible on the road in my neighborhood today and it makes me wonder who has the rarest street driven Pontiac?

[goatless]

I have the only stock appearing mid 12 second triple green 1969 Limelight Lemans convertible in the world.... until someone else says they have one too.

[Steve C.]

Hopefully Tom Schlauch ( tom S ) will mosey in and mention a few of his RAV winners !


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[ta-69]

2 months ago I drove my 69 trans am 1.5 hrs each way to the dragstrip and made a couple 1/4 mile passes. With F7014 bias ply tires and gardner exhaust. Turned 14.1 both runs.

[Keith Seymore]

Maybe Tenney?

He has the '64 GTO used in the original Car & Driver road test.

That makes it one-of-two GTOs used in the article and the only surviving vehicle of those used.

K

[track73]

My car isn't the rarest but the Pontiac dealer told me that my 79 WS-6 non T-top, 4 speed Trans Am was pretty rare.

[shaker455]

Originally Posted by ta-69

2 months ago I drove my 69 trans am 1.5 hrs each way to the dragstrip and made a couple 1/4 mile passes. With F7014 bias ply tires and gardner exhaust. Turned 14.1 both runs.

I would vote for this guy as real deal 69' T/A in NH

[Nicks67GTO]

I'm sure mines not "the rarest" but it gets driven thousands of miles per year and gets raced all over. Its a '67 H.O. GTO Freemont built So Cal car that came with an Auto, AC, PS, PB, PA and factory tint. Just based on it being a Cali HO Auto car I believe it's like 1/550 or so

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[68WarDog]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Maybe Tenney?

He has the '64 GTO used in the original Car & Driver road test.

That makes it one-of-two GTOs used in the article and the only surviving vehicle of those used.

K

0-11 in less than 12 seconds? Does that car still have the heavily "breath on" engine?

[tom s]

Im not sure a engine makes the car rare.I would say any RA IV true numbers matching convertible car would be up there.Any real numbers matching 69 T/A is also,I drove mine a lot with a 303 short deck SCCA engine while the original numbers matching engine sat in my garage.Numbers matching 455 SD cars are rare.I dont think many real 62-63 alu SD cars get a lot of street driving.Tom

[72LuxuryLeMansLa.]

All of our cars are rare to see on the road these days, at least where I live. My daily Driver is a '72 Luxury LeMans.....How many of those do you see on the road? There aren't many of them and they aren't collectible so they can be had relatively cheap. I gave $10,000 for my car in November 2009 and have put 95,000 miles on it since then.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 68WarDog

0-11 in less than 12 seconds? Does that car still have the heavily "breath on" engine?

It's still got a 421 in it.



Mr Wangers commentary on the accuracy of the timing:

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

The quote that Jim Wangers said about the 1964 GTO was:

"I was standing only 5 feet away from from whoever was holding the stopwatch, and the numbers they were coming up with were unbelievable. The car was good, but not THAT good.....they weren't even burning rubber, yet the acceleration numbers were beyond anything I could do in a GTO. But I wasn't going to stop it...."

"When they came up with a 0 to 60 in 4.6 seconds, and 0 to 100 in 11.8, I knew it was time for me to shut up and watch. Our red GTO wouldn't have run from 0 to 60 in 11.8 seconds even if it had been dropped off the top of the Empire State Building."

[Chief of the 60's]

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[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by Steve C.

Hopefully Tom Schlauch ( tom S ) will mosey in and mention a few of his RAV winners !

/\ /\ This was my gut reaction.

Tom was nice enough several years back to bring out one of his RAV powered cars for me to see in person when I was visiting his area...
unfortunately we didnt' talk too much, but I was super stoked to simply see a complete running (and over the top beautiful looking) '69 GTO in full RAV trim...
Maybe some day I'll have a second opportunity to visit with Tom, and be less focused on the car...

There are lots of cars out there which qualify as rare, so it really boils down to what you are using as the basis of "rare";
As Tom pointed out none of his RAV cars were built that way, so they could be disqualified - but considering that Pontiac never actually released the RAV as a production engine, and only sold a couple hundred(?) over the counter setups, I'd definitely say that a car with a full/functional RAV powering it, would immediately qualify for this thread.

I have also been fortunate enough to see a couple street driven '69 TA's (1 in Vancouver WA, the others at two large Pontiac events), I've seen street driven RAIV GTO's and one (probably never to be street driven*) '70 RAIV/4spd Trans Am, as well as a '74 SD TA, and a (probably never to be street driven*) '73 SD455/4spd (red on red) Formula...
(* = both fresh out of restoration from the same shop, and if I'm not mistaken, owned by the same, very lucky guy.)

But for all out, unique (and not creepy like hearse's), this may very well be one of the more rare Pontiac's I have seen...
(see attached pictures)

[Formulajones]

I drive my 70 RA Formula daily, put about 7,000+ miles a year on it, never sees a trailer. Drive it to and from the dragstrip as far as 4+ hours one way, race it, and drive it home. Usually sees a dragstrip 2-3 times a year. Just went to the grocery store last night in it.
Not that rare of a car but from what I understand it's one of 293 produced with automatic. Has run a best of 12.78 at 106 mph in PS form, knocks down a little over 17 mpg and makes a great road trip car. Just wish it had more trunk space.

[Chief of the 60's]

Saying a RAV is "rare" is like saying a 60's Super Duty is rare. They are, but did not roll off the line like that. One cannot possibly define or group the word "rare" into one single solitary catagory. That is rediculous. I am not saying that they should be broke down like some of the Mopar nutjobs do, but there is a big difference between "roll off the assembly line built" and "custom" built. As cool as some of these rare cars are, I find it more of a historical significance when they rolled off the line as a low production piece or an all-out prototype that 1 or 2 were ever built.

[Formulajones]

Maybe we should start a second category.

"Daily Driven"

Now that's "rare" as most people don't, or won't, drive a classic of any make or model daily. My wife drives a real documented 69 RS Z/28 daily. While not rare by a production standpoint, it's rare to even see a "real" one these days, even at a show, let alone drive one to and from work everyday.

[tom s]

Thats what im saying Chief.The silver 69 T/A proto type is indeed rare as its one of 2 as I remember.I agree,assm line cars is what IMO should be considered if still surviving with its original drive train.The Delorian 63 SD Lemans if able to be street driven(it has a spool) would IMO would be the very rarest along with the wagon.They are one of 6 of each with their original powershift transaxles.Tom

[unruhjonny]

there's definitely different qualifiers of what constitutes "rare" - I tried to touch on that while making an argument for anything RAV...

I personally feel (notice my adjective) that any car which has a model run of under 10,000 is rare - once you start further qualifying it by taking drive train setups for a given model, they get substantially rarer...

In my opinion, the '70 Formula (being that all were 400/4bbl cars, and inarguably mucslecars by the nature of sharing base and optional drivetrains with the vaunted GTO) as a model were all rare;
It's unfortunate that Pontiac watered down the Formula for 1971 - but still many of those would qualify as rare...
I would guess that everyone here would agree that 70-73 Trans Am's as a whole are rare...

1970 Formula = 7,708
> L78/M40 = 4,638
> L78/M20 = 1,637
> L78/M21 = 458
> L78/M13 = 286
> L74/M40 = 293
> L74/M20 = 192
> L74/M21 = 189
> L74/M13 = 15

I would so love it if at some point in my future, I have a shot at owning this car...
I'm confident it's still out there, and if I try to be fiscally responsible, maybe, just maybe I'll have the opportunity and means to own this one.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

In my opinion, the '70 Formula (being that all were 400/4bbl cars, and inarguably mucslecars by the nature of sharing base and optional drivetrains with the vaunted GTO) as a model were all rare

Are we back to the Firebird with the GTO option?