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Old 06-11-2011, 08:48 AM
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Default What turned you on to Grand Prix's

Before I got my license at 15 a friend had a 69 428 h.o. triple black Grand Prix. I couldn't believe how quick it was. It had so much torque! Loved the looks of it. Then next year my buddy Bob's dad (gave) him a 72 hurst SSJ. 455 h.o. blueprinted by hurst. 1 of 60! Which we didn't know at the time. What's your memories and good times with Grand Prix's

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Old 06-11-2011, 09:21 AM
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I saw one in the dealers showroom back in '67 and just thought it was the most amazing car I had ever seen. Now 40+ years later I am finally driving one.

I had a string of full size Pontiac convertibles once I started driving so after I got all the go fast cars out of my system it was inevitable that I would end up with another one.

-Harry

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Old 06-11-2011, 09:32 AM
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That's a real nice 67 Coach! My dad gave me a green 67 convertible when I was 15. Should have kept that one. Didn't know it was the only year convertible.

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Old 06-11-2011, 10:33 AM
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I think it kind of sneaked up on me. Before I knew it I had five GP's in my yard. So often this top notch ride is overlooked.

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Old 06-11-2011, 11:05 AM
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In 69 my father and his business partner bought two 69 SJ , when i turned fifteen in 75 , after years of riding in the back seat , i bought his mint GP for $850 , Had a hell of a lot of fun in that car . Wish i still had it .
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Old 06-11-2011, 11:54 AM
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My mom actully got me started with Grand Prixs. She traded a Dodge Dart in on a 69 J to the man that later became my step-father. He owned a used car lot back in the day. After they were married, I was given the GP. I SO loved that car! Wish I still had it. Some jerk in a rusty Ford Mustang (probably why I hate Fords) hit it and totalled it. I sold it in 1987. They also bought me a 72 GP J model that was blue with a black interior. Loved that car as well, but prefer the 69-70 models. Both of those cars are long gone, but I have since replaced them with serveral others. I have tried to find my first 69 several times with no luck. Would buy it back in a heartbeat no matter the condition. Once these car get in your blood, there in NO CURE!!!!!!! Except for more GP's, but that only last for a little while. Lol.

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Old 06-11-2011, 12:23 PM
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As a kid growing up with my best friend Gene that lived down the street, his parents had a '70 GP J that they bought new. I remember riding in the back seat of that car as a kid and listening to the sound of the dual exhaust while staring up the long console to that beautiful cockpit dash. I thought it was such a cool car, especially having such boring cars in my family growing up. Years later Gene was given the car for his first car in high school. We had a lot of fun in that car and surprised a few Mustangs! After driving his GP for the first time I had to get me one! A few months later (this was 1980) I bought a '70 GP J, Pepper Green with a white top and green interior from the original owner for $750. I got my first bank loan and bought the car with my own money. It was a great feeling and little did I know that many more GP's would follow!
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Old 06-11-2011, 12:46 PM
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From plastic model kits, car magazines, to repairing cars, i was always a BIG musclecar fan. Just before I graduated high school, my cousin bought a run down black 72 GP with Cragar SS wheels. We cruised the high schools checkin out girls, and makin noise & right then and there I was HOOKED!

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Old 06-11-2011, 02:54 PM
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I loved mechanical stuff. Grew up on the farm so it was easier to hand in the garage and fix stuff rather than pick fruits and veggies. GOt hooked on vehicles with a 66 Chev truck, which I was driving at age 9. At 14 I had to have a car, saved up $$$ to get something by cutting grass, farm work and selling firewood.

Missed out on a $125 66 Le Mans convert but hen found a 66 GP 421 HO 4 sp car. Opened the hood and I was hooked. $200 Still have that car. Still needs work since it rusted from the bottom up to the beltline. Sat on a dirt floor barn.

69 GP iterest came in college, when HPP reprinted the Cars magazine article on the 69 HO 4 sp Royal car. And it was all downhill from there....

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Old 06-11-2011, 09:46 PM
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My first experience with GP's was in high school. A friend of mine had access to his dad's70 J plain jane but it had the 455 engine and ran top notch. This car had the bench seat, hubcaps, nothing to tip off how powerful it was. We took a ride along the expressway-long straightaway- and he floored it at around 40. I remember the car hunkering down into second gear (auto-trans) and just taking off! He stayed on it until we hit about 100 mph and I couldn't believe how fast it was. My friend (Mike) told me his dad had taken him on the same ride to show him how powerful the car was so he would be careful. My first job during high school was at a gas station and my first GP was a warwick blue J. I've never been without one (GP) for the last 32 years!

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Old 06-12-2011, 02:44 PM
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The first Gp I drove was my parents Firecoral color??? '74 with a 400 4bbl and duals, learned to drive with that car. The day came that I got my license (good until 9pm) and I had the opportunity to drive some friends to football practice without a parent present, after dropping them off I unleashed something that I had no idea that car could do, it lit up and smoked the one wheel from one end of the parking lot to the other, at least 150 ft. I was hooked and could not beleive my parents would let me drive something with that much power. The car fit me to a "T" with all the power I wanted, a driver cockpit surrounding me and seats that seemed engulf you not to mention a great ride and handling too.
Sadly, I wound up totaling that car before I had my full license, but the seed was planted. I later bought my own '74 that I found way in the back of a used car lot in Denver where I was attending school in 1983 for $350. This one seemed to have less power until I drove back east with it and it came to life with the altitude drop. That car later served duty as my bracket car, the 400 was pulled and 455 dropped in putting me down close to 13 seconds flat in full dress! I've owned from '64 to '77 vintage and there hasn't been a day since '83 without a Gp (or two) in the barn.

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Old 06-14-2011, 04:40 AM
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my reason for being into Pontiac's isn't exactly about GP's, i guess for myself, its something which started with my father. back when he was about my age ( Im 21) he would often be the driver of one of his good friends car, a 64 GTO which worked out to be the car brought to Australia for the 1964 Sydney motor show, i think its a factory right hand drive car, which would have had originally a 389 ? also had a 4 spd. the thing was just a non stop torque beast, and being a chevy man in particular, really showed him about pontiacs as a first experience, ive heard dozens of stories involving racing up a hill from a standing stop to hit 90mph at the top, racing and just having fun in general, then when the car was sold without him knowing of it, it was gone, out of his life, and he moved back into chevy's.

the guy who ended up buying the car back then still has it to this day, hes actually a good friend of mine and my fathers, and the car now has a 412 fitted in the engine bay, if people are interested enough of pics of a RHD 64 GTO il be happily be able to get some pics for the site

when i got the opportunity to be able to purchase my GP, i couldnt resist, when they would drive around in the goat, no one knew what on earth the car was, alot of people thought it was a customised EH Holden. yet theres alot more imported cars in australia today then back then, still there is hardly any GPs, to date i think i know of/seen less then 15 cars including mine.

i love the fact of how pontiac just built a car with not only the power of a decent muscle car, but the luxury of a higher end car, with striking looks, that distinctive pontiac v8 rumble, it does the excitement division proud!

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Old 06-15-2011, 12:59 PM
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A GP is a better GTO

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Old 06-15-2011, 04:50 PM
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same as some of you guys......My friends dad on the street had a 71' J. We tooled around in that car terrorizing the town. A case of genesee in the trunk, Doors or Zepplin tunes. It was a very fast car, the orig mtr was replaced with a 455. Ended up totaling it in Maine during summer at Lake Sabago (sp). He came home really bummed!! The speedo was buried on numerous occasions, once in the park doing donuts in the soccor field. His dad was pissed the next am, x NJ State Trooper & truant officer at our HS. Mud was everywhere, the back bumper was FULL. He was cleaning it the next day and the driveway & curb down the street was brown. It was bronze w/tan top sandalwood int in the cloth material. I bought my first after my 18th B-day!! I already was into Pontiacs by 12, had my first Nunzi catalog at 16. Dave K.

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Old 06-15-2011, 08:20 PM
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Bought my first G/P for 65.00 [that's right] from a dopehead needing a stereo payment. car was a 74 455 th400 SJ with a 3:23 12 bolt. After a little freshening the car ran well, really well.
2cnd was the 72 that turned into a 12 second street racer. have had several since then from 65-90 models.

Mike

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Old 06-15-2011, 09:18 PM
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When I was 18 I had a '70 Monte Carlo..... I went out with a girl that had a '72 GP.... after I drove that GP I was ready to trade....


The list of past and present GP's

1 - '64
1 - '65
2- '67's
1 - '69
2 - '71's
1 - '77

.... thats all that I can remember

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Old 07-25-2011, 11:56 PM
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On leave after boot camp, bought a '71 from my uncle. Wrecked on the rt side, missing the rad and carb, put it back togethet with junkyard parts and drove it for 20 days. Threw a rod on my last night home. Re-upped in '88, found a dark blue with white top '72, for 1800. out of my bonus. Drove it till my wife called from alongside the road, holding the phone to the engine telling me to listen. Almost rebuilt the car and dropped the wife....Almost. didn't make enough money to rebuild, then landlord caught the property on fire, and the fire dept wiped out the frt end...

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Old 07-26-2011, 07:41 AM
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I always loved the 1967 GP the first time I seen the front end with the hidden headlights.

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Old 07-26-2011, 10:02 AM
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Had a thought on the simple answer for this question.

How do you get hooked on Grand Prixs?

DRIVE ONE!

Nothing else compares.

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"There is no such thing as a good tax."

"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

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Old 07-28-2011, 12:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mike nixon View Post
Had a thought on the simple answer for this question.

How do you get hooked on Grand Prixs?

DRIVE ONE!

Nothing else compares.
I was about to say that, my first 69 GP was purchased in order to get the 428 in it but driving it impressed me, I remember thinking at the time how much better and tighter it felt compared to a GTO.

I always liked the profile of the car and the interior (especially the leather seat ones) but never thought much of the front.

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