'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
I seem to recall what must have been that car back in the 1990's in an issue of Pontiac magazine. It was a single b&w picture in the Reader's Rides section. It spoke of a manual steering (rare!) manual everything 400 4-barrel 4-speed 1974 LeMans sport coupe. I also seem to remember that they claimed it would go 142 mph, as they verified it on a closed road with a police radar. With 3.23s out back, maybe. Where's that RPM vs. speed calculator?
That car would be tough to restore, but there are some talented people out there. The thing is, it might never get restored, or would it just become a drivetrain donor. I think it's value as a restored car would come from it's uniqueness
Shown below is a 1974 LeMans Colonnade coupe with GT equipment as shown in a fall 1973 issue of Motor Trend. A Sport Coupe came with the louvered side rear windows as standard.
5758 RPM would be 140 mph in 4th gear assuming it had G60 X 15 tires which is what I could find online as the likely stock tire. I'd be surprised if that stock 400 could pull out that kind of RPM in 4th gear. A 74 model 400 wasn't exactly at the top of the charts for Pontiac 400 performance! Mayyyyyybe if it was modified?
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I did some digging and located it in the April 1994 issue of High Performance Pontiac. It isn't the same car but it is listed as 1 of 2 Oshawa-built 400 4-speeds. Take a look:
Regarding the attached car above, no power steering, manual front disk brakes, no radio, O.K. But no carpet? C48 Heater Delete? In Alberta? What a freak of a car! Also 3.42 rear gears it is claimed. I would figure 3.23. I wonder if it makes a difference if it rolled off the line in Oshawa; for example in '72 a 400 4-speed would normally come with an 8.5" 3.55 10-bolt, but in Oshawa it was a 3.55 12-bolt type C rear instead. With the sharing of certain unique drivetrain combos in Oshawa with Chevelles (i.e the L48 Chevy) I wonder out loud if they may have used a 3.42:1 rear gearset as shared with Chevelles?
As for the Sport Coupe that Ray is sharing in this thread, it doesn't say that it was built in Oshawa, just that it was sold in Canada. It may or may not be 1 of 2 alleged 400 4-speed LeMans built in Oshawa that year.
An ex-neighbor owned a '72 LeMans GT that was stripped with manual everything, just having the 400 4-barrel 4-speed, 3.55 Safe-T-Track, GT equipment and an AM radio. He bought it from the original owner in 1989. Never winter driven, though my friend repainted it in 1989 & painted on the GT sword stripes (it still has original OEM stripe set bought as spares when the car was new). Sold new at Grant (Gus?) Brown, it was built in Pontiac, Michigan.
Good work Cam on Pete Bruner's car and article. Pete was the host of a forum now defunct called A Body Site. I'd say 99.9% its the 2nd of 2.
Now lets break this one down. a 1974 400 was rated at 225 Net HP 330 torque. That's 320 Gross HP, the old pre '72 measure.
My 73 has a 454 that was rated stock at 230 Net HP and 365 torque and its somewhat modified but even stock 230 Net is 330 gross HP. The 454 runs through a 2.73 rear end.
I will say this about the claimed speed of the 74 400 4 speed car. Our dear friend Hillar, the lawyer, told me to never admit to anything illegal on line or in writing.
My LeMans has a 160 MPH speedo from a Trans Am and it works properly as the cluster parts of the Firebird and LeMans Interchange. That's all.
Can you believe the Ultimate GTO guy stole my picture!
-- Edited by 73SC on Friday 8th of May 2020 11:29:20 AM
Good work Cam on Pete Bruner's car and article. Pete was the host of a forum now defunct called A Body Site. I'd say 99.9% its the 2nd of 2.
Now lets break this one down. a 1974 400 was rated at 225 Net HP 330 torque. That's 320 Gross HP, the old pre '72 measure.
My 73 has a 454 that was rated stock at 230 Net HP and 365 torque and its somewhat modified but even stock 230 Net is 330 gross HP. The 454 runs through a 2.73 rear end.
I will say this about the claimed speed of the 74 400 4 speed car. Our dear friend Hillar, the lawyer, told me to never admit to anything illegal on line or in writing.
My LeMans has a 160 MPH speedo from a Trans Am and it works properly as the cluster parts of the Firebird and LeMans Interchange. That's all.
Can you believe the Ultimate GTO guy stole my picture!
-- Edited by 73SC on Friday 8th of May 2020 11:29:20 AM
The advertised LeMans has been up for sale a number of times. The price is not the issue, but the extent of restoration and remote location make it a harder sale. Everyone that's mentioned it to me has said it would be a worthwhile project given its specs and rarity.
As far as Peter Bruner, he went underground, and his ABodySite Forum continued on for years without him. I put the forum into suspended animation about a year ago because of dropping participation rates and increasing spam. I don't know if Pete kept the 74 LeMans, the 1973 GTO and other classic cars he had. I keep thinking I should look him up (he's local) but never get to it, I am just trying to survive CoVid and all the other related madness.
The fellow who made the 1973 GTO SD455 one of none car owns a lucrative business and a stable of GTO's, he told me that he would never in his life tackle a 73-77 restoration project ever again, he was asking $50,000 for the car he created and told me he had twice that much into it. He was driving the butternut 67 the day I took the photo below. I call this shot "Goats Feeding". There are some nice cars in that shot the least of which are two Oshawa built '73 GT's, one a Canadian Market the other a US Market car.
-- Edited by 73SC on Tuesday 12th of May 2020 03:33:00 PM
The advertised LeMans has been up for sale a number of times. The price is not the issue, but the extent of restoration and remote location make it a harder sale. Everyone that's mentioned it to me has said it would be a worthwhile project given its specs and rarity.
As far as Peter Bruner, he went underground, and his ABodySite Forum continued on for years without him. I put the forum into suspended animation about a year ago because of dropping participation rates and increasing spam. I don't know if Pete kept the 74 LeMans, the 1973 GTO and other classic cars he had. I keep thinking I should look him up (he's local) but never get to it, I am just trying to survive CoVid and all the other related madness.
Thanks for the update. Many things can happen to a person and their situation.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
The fellow who made the 1973 GTO SD455 one of none car owns a lucrative business and a stable of GTO's, he told me that he would never in his life tackle a 73-77 restoration project ever again, he was asking $50,000 for the car he created and told me he had twice that much into it. He was driving the butternut 67 the day I took the photo below. I call this shot "Goats Feeding". There are some nice cars in that shot the least of which are two Oshawa built '73 GT's, one a Canadian Market the other a US Market car.
-- Edited by 73SC on Tuesday 12th of May 2020 03:33:00 PM
That is a great shot! A nice selection spanning 3 generations.
I wonder if that '69 Judge belongs to a guy in the east end of the city? There is one like it about 2 blocks from me as the crow flies. A real Ram Air car is what I heard.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
That photo was taken on Hamilton Mountain, HMP GM dealer had an all Pontiac day back then. The first three cars were from Hamilton/Niagara area, next Buffalo NY and then me from Toronto.