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

I am sending off paper work to GM Historical this week

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

-- Edited by BJ on Tuesday 13th of February 2018 01:22:26 PM

Here's a shot of mine with my buddys 73 Goat a few years back when my GTO and a Camaro came from Alberta, my buddy bought the 67 Camaro

So yours a Sport coupe? Is the white one GTO? Nice shot

BJ wrote:

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So yours a Sport coupe? Is the white one GTO? Nice shot

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 Yes to both. GTO is the model for the Johnny Lighning die cast car, owned by member near Buffalo NY.

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.

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. 

The GTO emblem is smaller, see below...

 

The interior of your car is very nice.

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.