As dismal as the mid-seventies seemed to be overall for the muscle car market, Pontiac came up with a few nice surprises every so often to try and please those still longing for some sort of performance. 1973 brought us the Grand Am, which helped fill the American lack of offerings of cars with some sportiness in a luxury vehicle and vice-versa, with the first generation wrapping up at the end of the ’75 run. That car was replaced in ’77 with the Limited Edition Can Am, which featured a factory shaker hood and a standard W72 6.6 liter V8 under the hood. The Can Am here on Craigslist needs some work, but if you’re looking for a project this one may be worth considering. It’s located in Fenton, Missouri, with the asking price set at $8,500.
Gunter Kramer sent us the tip on this one, and for that, we’d like to say thank you! The exact amount of Can Am cars produced seems to be a bit of a mystery, but Pontiac’s original intention was to make 2,500. However, the response was far better than anticipated, with more than 5,000 orders submitted by eager buyers. Then, an accident occurred where the mold that made the rear spoiler got damaged, ending production at what some estimate as 1,377 units. Cameo White was the exterior color, with the car being offered for sale here in need of some bodywork and a new paint job. Fortunately, it appears pretty much complete on the outside, as I’m guessing replacement exterior parts must be kind of hard to locate.
Unless you lived in California or other high-altitude areas, the Can Am came with a standard 400 cubic inch V8, but not the base version. Instead, you got the W72 variant, which made 200 horsepower as opposed to the standard 180, not exactly electrifying performance but not all that bad either for the time period. There’s good news and bad news here though, with the latter being the motor is not the factory unit that came inside the car. The good news is the replacement powerplant is a 400 out of a 1977 Trans Am, which is running, and the locked-up original motor comes with the sale as well. More positives are in the transmission department, as the Turbo 400 is original, and it’s been freshly rebuilt plus has a new torque converter.
A look inside might have many potential buyers saying ouch, with the seats tattered and the dash cracked, plus several panels faded or in need of replacement. There’s no mention of whether or not the gauges are functioning, nor any other details stated about the interior, but it sort of speaks for itself and is saying help me. Still, it’s a pretty rare Pontiac, and if you’ve got the time and skills to fix this one up there’s a nice ride at the end of the journey. Is this one you’d consider for a project?
It’s a shame someone let this one go this far. No, it wasn’t a roaring demon, but Jim Wangers did the best he could to give the Pontiac hopeful the coolest “big car” he could.
You can buy a nice one for a few grand more
I got mine for 2K less and it was twice as nice AND it was “turn key”. . . . .
Thank God the rear spoiler is intact. They halted production of this car because the spoiler mold broke!
It’s hard to believe The mold broke and they couldn’t create a new mold.
The more logical reason I’ve head was the fact that the Can-Am used the more profitable Grand Prix dash, which was experiencing it’s best year for production at 288,430 cars, and they need the dash for the Grand Prix.
This was the last year of this body style, not worth the expense to tool up a new mold. The Can Am was introduced in January 1977, and production continued for about 6 months until the mold broke. Pontiac execs weren’t happy the Can Am cut into the more profitable Grand Prix sales, and with the 78 models being introduced in August/September, they just cut off production. Too bad, I liked the look of these cars, although I believe they would look better with the original Rally ll wheel paint scheme. This one is just sad. $8500? Limited availability of restoration parts? Buy a better one!
Another car I wanted back in the day, I only ever saw one in person. It sat about a block off of st joe avenue near thomas market. I never saw it cruising around just parked and it looked cool
Filing this one under “win Powerball, spend lots of money on ridiculous resto-mod.” These are rare enough that I would never resto-mod a nice one, but this one…oh yeah. Place a call to DCI for some serious Pontiac power, you get the idea.
This one I wouldn’t touch for the price, maybe half that amount
Yea this one’s a $5k price. Wrong motor, body/paint, destroyed interior.
There is one of these in my county sitting in a yard full of old relic Pontiacs, one of them being a 60’s Bonnieville wagon. It has this body style with the louvres at the rear but says GTO on the front fenders. Did they make a GTO in this body or is it a sticker?
You’re probably looking at a 73 GTO. Google it and get familiar. They were pretty cool cars.
Last year for the GTO was 73 BUT it was also the first year for the body style of the 77 Can Am, so, you may be seeing a 73 GTO. Body, steering and suspension parts for the “A” body cars from 73 to 77 are interchangeable. Also, the 1977 Pontiac engine blocks (V-8’s) were the weakest produced. Butler Performance says that they don’t recommend building a 1977 block for anything above 400 HP. So it doesn’t really matter whether or not the engine is original, it’s no worse than the original. I have my original 400 engine (and trans) in storage just so I can say I have the original, operable engine and trans.