Here is a picture I took at one of the weekly Thornhill cruises last summer. This woman drove down from Barrie and she had just purchased this GTO. I checked the VIN and lo and behold it was an Oshawa built car!
Unfortunately for her there were a lot of guys loudly doubting this was a "real" GTO. Can anybody tell why ?
As I said I checked the VIN and since GTO was an option the VIN will not tell you for sure, you'd need the build sheet for that. Anyway I was satisfied it was a GTO.
It was an American Pontiac V8, blue in colour, and the VIN showed code T which was a 400. BUT you are on the right track, although there is enough in the photo to cast doubt.
You got it. That is a 1973 Luxury LeMans Grille. The GTO emblem is also on the passenger side and should be on the drivers side. The hood was up before the picture and the underhood emmission decal was for a 350 2bbl! and GTO's were 400 or 455. The hood has no cowl louvers either which a 73 GTO would have originally had.
What I think Happened. The car's interior door panels were properly marked with GTO emblems, It had 15" wheels and a rear sway bar both GTO only features and the VIN showed T for a 400 and 1 for Oshawa and GTO's were built in Oshawa, so at some point this car must have had a bad front end crash and a front clip from a Luxury LeMans was added with a service replacement hood. The emission decal from the LL would be a 350 2bbl and it still is on the front header brace panel.
So to me it is a GTO and I was glad to see it. Even if it wasn't it is still a very nice 35 year old car!
