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Petty Edition: Sub-10,000 Mile Pontiac Grand Prix

Richard Petty has some impressive staying power. Despite retiring from the limelight years ago, his name is still revered in NASCAR fan circles, and it has graced motorsports memorabilia for generations. Upon his retirement in the early 1990s, Pontiac built a commemorative edition of its Grand Prix coupe, and you’ll find this example here on Autotrader.com with under 10,000 original miles. 

Admit it, you have button-envy now, don’t you? What a strange feature this was in Pontiacs of this vintage, which seemed to predict that we would someday rely on steering wheel controls, but certainly never this many. The Grand Prix here sports a 3-speed automatic transmission and cloth seats, which are a bit of a let-down considering only 1,000 of these were ever made. Other special features include the color-matched wheels, “Petty-blue” paint and rear trunk spoiler.

The 3.4L six-cylinder was your standard-issue Grand Prix drivetrain, a bit disappointing for a car connected to a name like Petty. Now, if you placed value on memorabilia, perhaps that will help make this limited-production Grand Prix more appealing: a validation letter signed by Petty, brochures about Petty, a unique Petty key ring and more were some of the goodies thrown into the mix for the original buyers of this limited edition.

The color-keyed mesh wheels work well on the Grand Prix’s body, and the paint color is quite attractive, too. The seller says this is your chance to buy a special edition car you’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford when new; truth be told, I hadn’t heard of this Petty edition until just a few days ago. While it is a looker, I’m not sure the seller’s $10,999 asking price is realistic – unless, of course, a hand-signed letter from Petty is a game-changer for you.

Comments

  1. Avatar flmikey

    …Petty putting his name on a front-wheeled drive, automatic, V-6? He must have needed the money, or drunk…or both….and the lighting must have been bad when they took the pictures, because that just does not look like Petty blue…

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  2. Avatar angliagt

    I stayed in Greensboro,North Carolina,& noticed that
    High Point & Level Cross weren’t very far away.
    I found his museum (Lee Petty’s home is on part of it),
    & was not overly impressed.All of the old race cars were restored
    to as good as new condition,which didn’t look right to me,& it appeared
    that Petty signed almost everything there,as if we didn’t know who
    he is/was.
    It was kind of a letdown,as I’d always thought highly of him.

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    • Avatar Steve R

      It’s too bad you think less of him because you didn’t like his museum.

      Me and some friends went to his last race at Sonoma raceway, I remember he was standing at the fence behind the car haulers more than an hour after the end of the race signing autographs for a crowd of fans. Not one other drive could be seen. When he talks about the race fans being the backbone of NASCAR it’s not cheap lip service.

      Steve R

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  3. Avatar MathieuB

    The cars of this era are the ones I grew up when I newly got my licence. It excited me to see one in this condition but I’ll have to admit that I’m not sure theses will past the taste of peoples in few years. Pretty Petty edition though.

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  4. Avatar doug6423

    I’m not a big NASCAR fan, but I am a big Richard Petty fan. He’s a class act. A great ambassador for the sport.

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  5. Avatar Todd

    One of the nicest people I have ever met. Can’t say the same about Rusty Wallace. These cars were pretty quick for their time as I almost bought one even though I didn’t. My mechanic told me that you had to flip the motor over to replace the alternator since it was on the bottom of the motor and there was no way to get to it otherwise.

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    • Avatar Glen

      Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but can you not reach the alternator by lifting the car on a hoist?

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      • Avatar Ken

        This commemorated his last year of NASCAR racing in which he drove this body style. I am proud to own one, it’s one of the 75 manual trans cars produced and signed by the King

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  6. Avatar JYA!

    A fine representation of that automotive era and the GM mindset for good or bad.

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  7. Avatar Vin in NJ

    That steering wheel always reminded me of the Mach 5

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  8. Avatar Joe Haska

    I am a NASCAR fan (78 Martin Truex Jr.) and always liked Richard Petty 43. However,I don’t know if I would step up to 11K for this car. As one of the comments stated, it doesn’t seem like a real tribute the man and his history.
    Also about celebrities, I have been lucky enough to meet and even get to know some of what I consider icons in the automotive world. Most have been all I expected , sometimes not so much! But to be fair you have to consider where and when did you meet them, and for how long, not exactly fair to make a bad conclusion of an impression that might have been only a few minuets long. Anyone can have a bad day.

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  9. Avatar Poppy

    That’s the twin cam 3.4L good for 210 hp. Not bad for ’92. The blown 3800s in ’92 were rated at only 205 hp (with presumably a lot more low end grunt).
    However, the rest of the car is straight out of the late ’80s Pontiac playbook. Gaudy plastic lower body moldings and nary an inch of soft touch plastic in sight in the pushbuttonous interior.

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  10. Avatar Rx7turboII

    I actually love this car! The body style, the wheels, the paint color and the steering wheel controls that look like it’s something off my 1974 microwave oven all are actually appealing to me believe it or not! The thing I find hard to believe is that why didn’t they just go ahead and put the 3.1 turbo in this car since it was available in the mid-nineties in this body style? This was a special order Petty Edition Car, why not put something special in it to make it go really fast? Still love it though!

    Like 1
  11. Avatar irocrob

    I had 2 Lumina Eurosports and a Cutlass but they all had 3.1 engines. I would not want the 3.4 as it is hard to work on and leak oil bad I was told. Seems cheap enough just to drive and enjoy.

    Like 0
  12. Avatar Oil Slick

    3.4 is a badly designed motor. I had 2 Z-34’s. Very sharp cars but the motors were problematic. Hard to work on and oil leakers. The five spd was quick but GM lost their minds during those yrs.

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  13. Avatar Clay Byant

    The thing could be signed by Mickey Mouse, who cares about that. $10,900 for a 7,500 mile car? I’ve seen people loose that much money on new cookie cutter cars in the first year, This would be like buying a new car for 11k that would return the better share of your money in 3-4 years if you decided to sell it. I had 2 of the SSTs in the 90s and at night all those dash, console and steering wheel lights put on a show quit like nothing else. I counted them one time, can’t remember how many but it was many. Set this bumper to bumper with a new car and watch which car people walk up to look at……..Isn’t that why you buy a car half the time…………?

    Like 0
    • Avatar AMXSTEVE

      yeah, only if you don’t drive it you might get that kind of return.

      Like 0
  14. Avatar GP Member

    Does not say what year this car is ( before 1995). I think it is a very nice color and should be worth close to the asking price. The 3.4 really sucks to work on no matter what you do. You can change the Alt. if you lower the sub-frame a little. I’ve owned a 1995 for 12 years and it has the 3.1, I like the ride, looks, and gas mileage.

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  15. Avatar Glen

    It is a fine looking car, however, does it come with the Petty merchandise?

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  16. Avatar Neil Aydlett

    I owned a 92 with the 3.1 and B4U package. What a car, terrible rear caliper brakes but the motor lasted past 240,000 miles. A lot of great memories with that car, as it was the 2nd car I owned. A heads up display and steering wheel mounted controls. Pontiac Grand Prixs were way before their time, tech wise.

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  17. Avatar Fred Simmonds

    I owned car #1. Glovebox signed by Petty at the Pontiac cocktail party at the Daytona Beach Hilton on Friday night prior to the Daytona 500. Cars were 1992 models; 403 were blue; of the 1,000 built, 75 were 5 speed manuals, and 163 had power sunroofs. The 3.4L OHC V-6 was the most powerful engine available in a Grand Prix at that time (210 HP).

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    • Avatar Ken Nagy

      Excellent Fred! I recently bought Keith’s Dad’s Petty car which is Neon Blue, one of the 75! Love this car! Had it signed by Richard last May at Petty Fest in Level Cross. Drove 1200 miles to the Pontiac Nationals last year, picked up a first place in its class. I just received the letter you wrote to Keith on 4/18/94 detailing the production numbers of these cars.

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  18. Avatar gbvette62

    92 was Petty’s last year as a driver. He was racing Pontiac’s at the time, and entered into an agreement with Pontiac to offer the Richard Petty Edition GP, as part of his 92 “Fan Appreciation Tour”. They were offered in 3 colors; red, white or blue. I think the blue was the most common color, but it wasn’t “Petty Blue”, it was just the standard 1992 GM medium blue metallic.

    A collector car dealer here in South Jersey, has a blue one with less than 6000 miles on it, that he’s been trying to get $14000 for.

    As others have said, reliability wise, the twin cam 3.4 left a lot to be desired, but it wasn’t a bad engine performance wise. The twin cam was created by adding overhead cam heads, to the standard 2.8/3.1 overhead valve V6. Like another GM engine converted into something it was never intended to be (the Olds diesel!), it didn’t work out quite as well as hoped.

    My brother had a Z34 Monte Carlo, with the twin cam. Among other problems, it was constantly eating plug wires. From what I remember, the plug wires ran under the intake. There wasn’t much clearance, and the wires would chafe against something, causing a misfire. The Z34 was pretty quick for the time, but it was no match for my wife’s 89 SHO.

    I’m not a Ford fan, but they built a much better twin cam, by building it from scratch.

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  19. Avatar JimmyJ

    The sho motors great because they were built by Yamaha

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  20. Avatar Jason T

    I had a 1995 GTP with a 3.4 and it was no dog, but they had a problem with oil leak down and the top end would starve for oil. Dumped mine around 40,000 miles.

    Like 0

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