[Brian Baker]

What's the offical tally these days? Has it ever been confirmed through PHS?

[77 Canamman]

According to a copy of the official "News from Pontiac" memo from 1977 that I possess, it states 1377 were produced. As far as I am concerned, that should be considered gospel since it came from the company in an official document.

[Brian Baker]

That's good enough for me. I've heard this number too, but only after hearing 1130 and 1138 that was touted for years before the 1377 was out there. How many are in the registry?

[77 Canamman]

I can't speak for Verne Howard's official registry, but I have 340 cars listed in an Excel Spreadsheet that I created several years ago. This is from car shows, E-Bay, internet, etc.

[77 Canamman]

I just found the public registry Verne released from 2005 and he had 247 cars listed then.

[Brian Baker]

Hmmmm, I thought the number in the registry was closer to 400.

[W72-Bandit]

I'm a little fuzzy on these cars but wasn't there a number of them that sat converted (GP dashes) at Pontiac waiting on Motortown to repair the rear spoiler machine? Could that be the discrepency(sp) in the production numbers? IIRC, some were shipped/sold without the C/A goodies, just white LeMans Sports with GP dashes?
Brian I believe you and I posted a while back that yours and the one I sold in '03 are both blk buckets, column shift/no console? Last I heard mine was in Atlanta.

[Brian Baker]

Originally Posted by W72-Bandit

I'm a little fuzzy on these cars but wasn't there a number of them that sat converted (GP dashes) at Pontiac waiting on Motortown to repair the rear spoiler machine? Could that be the discrepency(sp) in the production numbers? IIRC, some were shipped/sold without the C/A goodies, just white LeMans Sports with GP dashes?
Brian I believe you and I posted a while back that yours and the one I sold in '03 are both blk buckets, column shift/no console? Last I heard mine was in Atlanta.

Yup, mine is a black interior, buckets with no console and a column shift. Very "queer" to order it with buckets but no console (which automatically left the shifter on the column). The original owner was a woman who purchased the car from Rosenthal-Hayman Pontiac in Alexandria, VA...I can't imagine the dealer would have ordered it like this for "stock", the woman must have ordered it that way.

The ones that were never fully converted shouldn't be in the list of Can Am's, in my opinion.

[77 Canamman]

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

Yup, mine is a black interior, buckets with no console and a column shift. Very "queer" to order it with buckets but no console (which automatically left the shifter on the column). The original owner was a woman who purchased the car from Rosenthal-Hayman Pontiac in Alexandria, VA...I can't imagine the dealer would have ordered it like this for "stock", the woman must have ordered it that way.

The reason you see that a few cars were equipped with the bucket seats sans console is that a lot of people assumed that if you ordered bucket seats, the console was included. Obviously, this was not the case. The center console was RPO D55.

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

The ones that were never fully converted shouldn't be in the list of Can Am's, in my opinion.

I agree, they kinda are, but not. However, it would be great to actually find one of these cars, and look at the PHS for it. It should have the WW3 option code. In theory, one could take the spoiler, shaker, and the stripes and add them to one of these cars, and have a PHS documented Can Am, even though the car spent it first 33 years as a very plain white LeMans. How do we know that this hasn't happened a few times already?

[W72-Bandit]

Mine was ordered by a GM employee in Norwood. He ordered it with buckets for himself but the wife required column shift. Odd thing too it had a factory CB radio that was mounted on a bracket on the trans tunnel.

[fiedlerh]

Jim Wangers told me the leftover cars were simply sold as regular LeMans Sport Coupes. Nothing special about them. He didn't mention anything about stripping partially completed cars. I assume they would have had some spoilers in inventory and only made enough cars to use them up. I've always wondered if anyone has a 6.5/6.6 litre white LeMans Sport Coupe with a build date from around the time this happened.

[77 Canamman]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

Jim Wangers told me the leftover cars were simply sold as regular LeMans Sport Coupes. Nothing special about them. He didn't mention anything about stripping partially completed cars..

The statement that there was nothing special about them is not correct. Those unconverted cars would have had three big items not found on any other non RPO WW3 Sport Coupe:

1. T/A 6.6 W72 400 (49 state cars)
2. TH400 transmission (49 state cars)
3. Grand Prix instrument panel (also available on LeMans GT)

There was one of them in my area that existed until 1993, then was junked. It had the W72 400 with the chrome valve covers, and the GP dash, but no decals, spoiler, or shaker scoop.

[77 Canamman]

Here is the 1977 News From Pontiac document:

[fiedlerh]

I'm just relaying what Jim Wangers told me. I thought the comment was odd at the time too. Maybe what he meant was that they did nothing special to the unused cars. He said the leftover cars were simply sold as LeMans Sport Coupes. I don't claim to be a Can Am expert. Might be best to contact Jim and ask him what he remembers.

[77 Canamman]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

Maybe what he meant was that they did nothing special to the unused cars.

That was probably the case. I have talked with Jim on three occasions about the Can Am at different shows. He is a wonderful asset to the Pontiac community. My only wish is that he didn't feel so harshly against the '73 GTO. (LOL)

[mike nixon]

I know of 3 or 4 of them that were junked in this area.

Mike

[Brian Baker]

I will never sell my father's Can Am (he's been deceased for 5 years now and I still think of the car as his) and intend on leaving it to my son when I croak. Having said that, I would gladly volunteer to take over the registry where Verne left off if he doesn't have the time to devote to it anymore.