If Darth Vader had to own a car, and it had to be an early 90s GM product, a mass-produced Pontiac modified into an ASC/McLaren Grand Prix Turbo coupe would be on top of the list. This car is so underappreciated, in my humble opinion, by the enthusiast marketplace at large. It has flared fenders, mesh wheels, a ridiculous tech-laden interior, and a drivetrain that was actually given real performance enhancements – and yet, a car like this sits here on Facebook Marketplace, nearly impossible to find for sale, for under $10,000. Will these rare turbocharged coupes ever have their day in the sun?
The seller has dropped the price to $8,000 or best offer, as mentioned lower in the listing. Around 750 examples were made in 1989, making this a legitimately rare find. Whenever an aftermarket company gets involved in producing a limited performance model, it can usually go one of two ways: entirely underwhelming and over-hyped, or ridiculously cool but seen as expensive and a lousy seller. Really, that seems like the way it goes time and again with the performance models enthusiasts beg manufacturers for but never want to step up and pay the MSRP. The Grand Prix Turbo was also just an unusual car no one was likely expecting when it arrived – and it remains somewhat of an obscure model, even with the rise in popularity of so-called “Radwood”-era vehicles.
After all, it’s not like Mustang shoppers were disappointed they couldn’t find a Grand Prix to cross-shop their Fox body with. The Grand Prix was predominantly a family vehicle, and while the two-doors could be gussied up and marketed as a sporty alternative, it didn’t have the performance chops to make you think twice about buying a Mercedes-Benz 560SEC. But ASC/McLaren did an awful lot of tweaking to make the Grand Prix into a comer, from the 205 horsepower turbocharged V6 to the firmed-up suspension to the cross-lace gold alloy wheels. ASC focused on bodywork, lending their expertise to the flared fenders, air dams, hood louvers, and a few other styling upgrades. The interior was in a league of its own, with tons of whiz-bang features controlled via the steering wheel and four true bucket seats, front and rear.
The only reason these cars haven’t become truly sought after outside of their relative obscurity is that it’s still a front-wheel drive, automatic transmission-only product born from 1980s GM quality standards. In some ways, the Ford Taurus SHO suffers a similar lack of enthusiasm, but it’s still leaps and bounds ahead of a car like this, likely due to being offered with a manual. I’m a believer that cars can be highly entertaining even with a boring slushbox, but you usually have to have rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive to make up for the lack of three pedals. Why do you think these intriguing ASC/McLaren Grand Prixs aren’t more sought after?
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