73-77 A-body TECH Includes 73GTO, LeMans, Grand Am, Can Am

          
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Old 01-12-2014, 12:07 PM
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Default '77 Can Am - Blvd of Broken Dreams

This PHR article states :
"Parked in front of the Motortown facility, this is Jim Wangers' original Carousel Red 1977"
True?

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/fea...m/viewall.html


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Old 01-12-2014, 12:08 PM
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Old 01-12-2014, 12:13 PM
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Bench w column shift

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Old 01-12-2014, 12:14 PM
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Black Gut w Taco Bell Mascot

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Old 01-12-2014, 12:17 PM
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Old 01-12-2014, 12:18 PM
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Old 01-12-2014, 12:20 PM
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Old 01-12-2014, 02:11 PM
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A genuine Can Am racing namesake vehicle:

Mid-Ohio Can-Am McClaren August 12, 1973

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Old 01-20-2014, 01:44 AM
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well, from reading the article, the car didnt fail; pontiac failed to build it--they had the sales offers already. i akin the can am to the trans ams of the same era which were great sellers. i think that a can am or a lemans gt program should have been in place as soon as the gto badges were put to rest on the 1973 models. if that had happened, youd see a ton of lemanses today like the 76-79 trans ams.

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Old 01-20-2014, 09:50 AM
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...more like "Blvd of Broken Tooling"....

K

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Old 01-20-2014, 03:00 PM
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The point is that Pontiac management in those days were all about the personal luxury cars, and after 1977, the Trans Am. They never really liked the car, since in their eyes, the muscle car era was long over. The GP dash is what killed the car, yet it also made the car. They could not make those last of the good, big, real GP's fast enough, and one dashboard used in the Can Am was one loss of a potential sale of the higher profit GP.

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Old 01-21-2014, 12:24 AM
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I still to this day don't understand why it was going to take 90 days to make another tool. If they just would have started to build a new tool as soon as the other one broke & told no one about it they would have been that much a head of the deal. Also why was it going to take 90 days to build a new tool. Most tools are repaired not completely remade . I think someone was just dragging there feet on the deal. If it were me as soon as I would have been told the tool is broke,,,, There would have been an order for a new one that very HOUR.

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Old 01-21-2014, 09:05 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Seymore View Post
...more like "Blvd of Broken Tooling"....

K
Indeed.

"...tooling contracts were written."

"...there were almost 1,000 special white (1977) Le Mans Sport Coupes waiting to be shipped to Motortown. Our storage lot was already completely filled, so these cars sat at the factory. As you can imagine, storing over 1,000 white cars in one place becomes somewhat of a spectacle. Every time management looked out of their office window on this virtual 'sea' of (old model design replaced by '78 downsized platform) white cars, they got more concerned."

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Old 01-21-2014, 11:01 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rexs73gto View Post
I still to this day don't understand why it was going to take 90 days to make another tool. If they just would have started to build a new tool as soon as the other one broke & told no one about it they would have been that much a head of the deal. Also why was it going to take 90 days to build a new tool. Most tools are repaired not completely remade . I think someone was just dragging there feet on the deal. If it were me as soon as I would have been told the tool is broke,,,, There would have been an order for a new one that very HOUR.
I believe you are correct.

K

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Old 01-21-2014, 12:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alvin View Post
Indeed.

"...tooling contracts were written."
Tooling Repair and/or Replacemet would be dependent on the Terms and Conditions, Scope of Work, Schedule of Work, and Contractual Monetary Reimbursement per the contract. ie: 3rd party vendor/supplier.
Which if anyone here can provide details - to the spoiler tooling detailed contract - please feel free to contribute those terms. It's not emotional...it's contractual. See below.

From the Motortown Head:

"I call cars like the 1973-77 Le Mans a '5-minute car.' "...this car was a loser. Four years later it had not been improved." Jim Wangers - Glory Days

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Old 01-22-2014, 12:41 AM
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Jim may have called them 5 min. cars but I would bet that BY CONTRACT he made a sack load of money even though they didn't complete the contract. Thats how a lot of money is made in that group of guys. Plus he is making a lot of money through his book deals that he sells by slamming GM for not helping him complete his cars to. Also he says there 5 min. cars in one sentence & then says in the next that the 77 Can Am is the best car that Pontiac made that year. To much back peddling, but it sells books.

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Old 01-22-2014, 06:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alvin View Post
"...there were almost 1,000 special white (1977) Le Mans Sport Coupes waiting to be shipped to Motortown. Our storage lot was already completely filled, so these cars sat at the factory. As you can imagine, storing over 1,000 white cars in one place becomes somewhat of a spectacle. Every time management looked out of their office window on this virtual 'sea' of (old model design replaced by '78 downsized platform) white cars, they got more concerned."
I would still love to find one of the "non-Can Am" Can Ams, there has to be a few out there somewhere.

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Old 01-22-2014, 08:11 PM
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Jim hates the 73'gto but loves the can am.

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Old 01-22-2014, 08:15 PM
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That makes no sense at all as the 73 GTO is where he got the idea for the Can Am. Well some of the ideas came from the All American design from the Pontiac design studio but the 73 GTO was the base for it. OH! I forgot to say that in 1984 when he was at the GTOAA Nats. he did say he really did hate the 73 GTO as he was quoted in saying a while back that it looked like 2 different people that designed the 73 GTO 1 for the front & 1 for the back & then they just pushed it together. But A the 84 Nats he did say he really like my 73 GTO with the rear spoiler on it. He did say it made it look as though it was complete that way. I don't know if he was just saying what I wanted to hear or ?? But I have over the last 40 + years have been told the rear spoiler on mine make it look really good. I haven't gotten any negative comments yet about it. Plus it took a while to get it to fit so it looked right when I put it on. I had to re angle it to make it sit on the rear deck lid correctly.


Last edited by rexs73gto; 01-22-2014 at 08:34 PM.
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Old 01-22-2014, 08:33 PM
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Tell me about it. Lot of similaraties
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