Quote:
Originally Posted by scottmandue
A lot of truth to that...
But if it were mine I would leave the body/interior stock, save all the parts and hotrod the crap outta it.
1973 the smog regulation killed the 454, save the OEM block, bump up the compression, headers, a nice intake setup and that thing could be... interesting. 
Zackly why I would make it into a hot rod.
YMMV |
It's too heavy to be a hot rod. The doors weigh probably 100 lbs. each. This model was the beginning of what is now referred to as, "the dark days of Detroit..."
These were tough times for the auto industry, especially Detroit although there were some serious nose-dives in European performance as well. Think of the difference between a 2.4 911S and a mid-year 2.7 911S. This is of course reflected in collector values of the various cars.
Some pretty heart-wrenching compromises had to be made by automakers with new regulations and the lag time in coming up w new technologies to meet them. Of course later, they all made cars that burned cleaner, were safer and ran circles around anything from the old days in terms of performance.
I remember working at a local Pontiac dealer as a teenager, they were also a British Leyland dealer so Jags, MG, Triumph and Jenson cars as well. I distinctly remember that it was 1975, the first year for mandated catalytic converters on domestic cars. American cars had to accept and run on unleaded gas beginning in 1971 but in 1975, it was unleaded only w cats and little stickers near the gas filler necks.
A saleslady pulled into the service lane w a brand new Pontiac Lemans or Grand Prix, it was running on, (dieseling), and would not shut-off. Something in the regurgitation system or something, wow was that embarrassing. She had a potential buyer on a test drive and the car would not turn off.
I saw that and other running problems in brand new cars a lot more that year. It was a nightmare for the front and the back of the house, as they say in the car business.
FWIW, Pontiac Trans Ams still had some balls in those years w the 400 and 455s but really, they were boat anchors compared to really quick cars of the recent past at the time.
