One Year Wonder: 1977 Pontiac Can Am

The Pontiac Can Am was a limited-production muscle car that was made for only one year (1977) and was part LeMans and part Trans Am. Pontiac’s marketing partner, Jim Wangers, conceived it, but it may have been too little, too late, as only 1,377 copies were ever built (5,000 was the original target). The seller’s car is a barn find which may have been in one since 1995 and has been revived mechanically, but loads of cosmetic work remain. Located in Olathe, Kansas, this project Poncho is available here on craigslist for $11,000. A thumbs up goes to Rocco B. for the tip!

By 1977, Pontiac’s most famous muscle car, the GTO, had been out of production for three years, stifled due to increasing insurance premiums and tightening emissions controls. The Trans Am had emerged to take over that role and would stumble into infamy by being featured in the good old boy’s movie, Smokey and the Bandit, in 1977. Wangers pitched (and sold GM on) the idea of a LeMans-based muscle car with the Trans Am’s W72 400 cubic inch V8 that produced 200 horses based on the then-current measuring stick. The new Can Am got its name from the Canadian-American Racing Series.

Whatever potential the Can Am had ran out of gas when the mold for the rear spoiler presumably got broken, and GM decided not to continue the car as the Colonnade intermediates of 1973 to 1977 were in the process of being downsized for 1978. You could get a Can Am in any color you wanted as long as it was Cameo White. And you could get any transmission you wanted as long as it was a TH-400 automatic.

The seller’s Can Am was parked in a barn for more than 30 years with 106,000 miles to its credit. It’s an original car, including the rust found in the rear quarter panels. The seller got it running and says the W72 and tranny now work as they should. The car’s original 15X7 Rally wheels have also survived. A restoration is in order, but when you are finished, you’d have a vehicle of which only a few hundred copies may still be around.