Just wondering about this 73 Pontiac GTO I purchased last summer, VIN 2F37T315#####/ It has, 400 cu in. 4sp standard, power windows, rally gauges and Rally wheels, front and rear sway bars, GTO badging on grill but not on door panels interior. Any help on this appreciated
Wasn't the GTO on the 73-74 Ventura/Nova platform? I don't really know but the only 73-74 GTO's I've seen were on the X bodies. I'd like to know though. Nice car though, and a 4 gear will make it fun!!
Your car looks amazing for an Oshawa built car, it has many parts on the body that are near impossible to locate. It has a neat feature to me at least in that the window louvers match the roof, this indicating that the car was ordered with a factory installed vinyl roof. In those days dealers would commonly install vinyl roofs for added profit but never paint the louvers to match.
The VIN does not tell us if the car has the GTO option, but by decoding we get a strong clue.
Your car is built in Oshawa as the #1 in the seventh pace of the VIN indicates.
F37 indicates Sport Coupe and the GTO option was available on both the F37 and D37 body styles, D37 being Colonade Hardtop.
GTO`s were only built in Oshawa in 1970 and 1973 and in 1973 only 231 cars had the GTO option from Oshawa.
The 400 is shown as the T in the VIN, position 5 and the 400 was the standard GTO engine.
All the other options were available in any LeMans, including the 4 speed so it is not specific to a GTO however figures on 4 speed production are hard to nail down, a number of 189 or so has been bandied about for years in total production so it is a very uncommon. A 3 speed manual was standard in the GTO so an upgrade to a 4 speed would have been easy during its life.
I sense you have doubts about the car`s authenticity`and two things do raise an eyebrow. The lack of door emblem is an warning sign, consider why someone would remove them. In the first place they require a disassembly of the door panel and removing a sport coupe emblem is a logical step to take if you are recreating a GTO. These emblems were never reproduced , similar to most parts for the 73 until very recently. The hood is also a warning sign, it does not have cowl vents which the 73 hoods with scoops all had. the smooth hoods are most prevalent in Canada in 1975 on GT models. These hoods with cowl vents are near impossible to find in Canada although finding a 75 smooth hood is not really that hard as I personally have two.
If you are worried you might also check the trunk underside. The sport Coupe emblems were not installed on GTO option cars so if there is any evidence of the two post holes for the emblem being filled on the right side above the taillight it could be a sign, of course trunk lids can always be changed in a restoration.
You can get the paperwork on your car from GM Vintage Vehicle Services. I hope that it proves this is a GTO because a 73 is the rarest A body GTO produced.
There are emblems on the door interior panel but they are Sport Coupe, when you talk about cowl vent, you mean the top edge of bonnet? There are vents on upper edge, just hard to see
-- Edited by BJ on Monday 12th of February 2018 10:04:43 PM
-- Edited by BJ on Monday 12th of February 2018 10:11:12 PM
Well the door panels do raise the biggest question to me, as I said the GTO door panel emblems were never reproduced and are extremely hard to come by , there is no question the interior panels are from a Sport Coupe. So much of the VIN does check out for a GTO so the paperwork is the only true way to find out.
Here's a picture of a salvage 1973 GTO hood that shows the vents I'm referring to. The other oddity is that all service replacement hoods were the smooth type and the ones I have seen are stamped 1973 even though they have no vents. Just the factory production oddities we see but bare none the 1973 GTO had vents in the hoods from factory.
1973 with vents:
Late 1974 and 75 no vents
Do you have a photo of the door panels, mine below are 1973 and are original so they should look like mine except colour.
-- Edited by 73SC on Monday 12th of February 2018 11:15:35 PM
Yes my hood is like the one on top, i'll post pic tomorrow to show, will need to get the paper work from GM, hopefully it pans out
There are plenty of things pointing to a GTO optioned car that's for sure, good luck with the documents search. For me the 400 tying into the VIN is the strongest plus the Oshawa build in one of the only years GTO's were built there.
I would say it's possible for a GTO to have Sport Coupe emblems on the door panel from the factory. I remember seeing new Pontiacs at the dealer in the 1970s and 80s with mismatched emblems and such. It's possible that they were waiting on a backorder of GTO emblems from the supplier and put the car through with Sport Coupe emblems to keep production going.... or a mistake was made by the assembly line associate (or even some tom-foolery, which is well known to have happened back in the day).
It's also possible that a previous owner replaced the door panels due to damage and could only find Sport Coupe panels, after all the car is 45 years old and a lot can happen to a car in 45 years.
I really think you are sitting on a rare one there a 4 speed 400 Oshawa built 73 GTO will be super low production. It is always a great idea to have the GM documents in any case as these will substantiate the car and insurance value.
I'll be interested to see what the documents say, I've quoted 231 Canadian GTO's (both F37 & D37) so I'm interested to see if that is still what they are reporting, with any luck you will get a breakdown of manually equipped cars as well. I just thought of another tell tale sign, GTO's and Grand Ams had 15" wheels and all other cars in the LeMans line had 14".
This Glamour Magazine GTO SD455 one of none was put together with a LeMans Sport Coupe, replicated the Car Craft road test for the 73 SD that never made production. It's VIN is a T for 400 since no X SD455 were ever built.
Hope so, when I get the documentation, I will certainly let you know. I finally found a car that is of interest for this hobby, I have 2 other Colonnade cars but this one is definitely a true muscle car. Another question, do you know of any 73 GTO's with cloth interior for seats? All I've ever seen is vinyl, my buddy thinks they may have been reupholstered but you never know. If it is original, another rare feature?
-- Edited by BJ on Tuesday 13th of February 2018 12:47:55 PM
-- Edited by BJ on Tuesday 13th of February 2018 01:23:10 PM
All you need is a 73 Chevelle SS to finish the collection. The interior of your car is very nice. I'll have to refer to my 1973 Salesman's ordering guide on the cloth option. I've never seen it other than in a Grand Am, Grand Prix or Luxury LeMans.
The door panels are 100% 1973 though and that's how mine look with the red Sport Coupe emblems.
I believe the seats from another LeMans , Grand Am would certainly fit, even some interior from Firebirds were interchangeable. Got a tilt column to go in it also.
-- Edited by BJ on Tuesday 13th of February 2018 01:59:56 PM
My sense is the seats are from a different year LeMans, 76 or 77. They look very good.
Whoever built your car knew what they were doing with teh parts they sourced. I have a source for the standard equipment one year only chrome exhaust extensions if you are interested.
The Cloth covered seats are quite a bit different than vinyl. I just picked up new 2 1/2" magnaflow exhaust for it, send me a link to the tips as I am interested. I found a pic of owners manual sales brochure for 1973
-- Edited by BJ on Tuesday 13th of February 2018 02:48:38 PM
Consulted my Salesman's Ordering Guide. All Morrokide Buckets seats are optional at no extra cost in LeMans Sport and Luxury LeMans. Cloth only available on bench seats in 1973.