[The Boss]

Jim's car?

[rexs73gto]

The seller says he bought it new , but I think while he was working at the dealer where he bought the car he just swapped a bunch of the parts to make it into a Can Am. I has the stock Lemans dash, which ALL of the Can Ams had the G/P dash even the ones that didn't get completed. Plus they were all white to. IMO I think the owner has just read a bunch of the articles about the CA & has even back then decided to make one so he would have on because he possibly couldn't get one back then but the pieces where available so because he worked at the selling dealer he was able to get the parts he needed to make one. But I don't believe this is a real one.

[ponchjoe]

Alvin & 77 where are you?

[rexs73gto]

The 400 cid engine was available in 77 for the Lemans, it was the 455 that you couldn't get anymore. But the 400 was available in all the A & G & B bodies in 77.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Jim's car?

Originally Posted by ponchjoe

Alvin...where are you?

[BluMax]

I met Tim (the owner of this Can Am) back in the early 80's & his back story on this car is the same as the eBay listing. It had all the Can Am components at that time & it appeared to be stock. He is a stand up guy in my opinion & I have no reason not to believe him for what it's worth. A PHS report would go a long way in explaining things & could possible legitimize the cars identity. My only question is whether any Can Am's came with the Lemans style dash configuration?

[Alvin]

No skin in this game, so either way no worries IMO.

Instead of a WAG from MY memory, I did a radical thing! I looked it up. For clarification of the "pilot" Wangers Motortown Can Am "proposal car" as presented to Pontiac mgmt, using HIS words from his published memoirs - Glory Days:

"...we 'stole' the highly acclaimed Grand Prix instrument panel"..."We called it the Judge, and recommended that the first cars all be painted Carousel Red (right off the 1969 car)."

"Our program called for the car to be built as a Le Mans Sport Coupe at Pontiac, with the Grand Prix instrument panel..."

Pg. 273 The Can Am

[Pontiacdaver]

A good friend of mine sent this to me after we talked about the car:

Dave - sent your pic of the red Can Am to Ben Harrison (Pontiac Product Planning Manager from '64-mid-80's). Here is his reply: Scott,

As the guy who was given total responsibility to make this car happen at Pontiac Motor by Pontiac's General Manager Alex Mair, I can assure you that the car you pictured is NOT an official Pontiac Motor Division preproduction prototype.

Ben

He followed it up with this:

Dave- I also heard back from John Schinella on the red Can Am - he backs Ben up & says that the red one was not done at Pontiac. If the seller is original owner & claims it was bought new this way, the only remaining explanation is that it's a dealer job... Looks cool, but I'd say it's a LeMans Sport Coupe done up in CA livery...

Hard to argue it is a real Can Am.

[Pontiacdaver]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Jim's car?

One thing that is interesting, the car in the above pic and the one on ebay bear a striking resemblance to each other. Both are bench seat cars, and are red i/o, too bad you can't tell what dash is in the above one.