The Definitive GM Performance Car List Part II: 1973-1985

[Ming]

Originally Posted by rsbaker

I had forgotten about a lot of these. It's a shame you couldn't find Photos of them all. It's good to see that ones that you did have. 1970s and 1980s weren't so bad after all. Every car on the list is certainly super rare. I wonder if they'll ever be collectable.

I think there should be photos out there for most of them, but in the last list I didn't have them - about half were contributed by 87Aero, so I added some of my own photo links. Kind of a bonus.

Also, I strongly encourage people to add these cars to their list of cars to take photos of at auto shows or on the street corner, and post them here or in the "GMI Photoshoot" HERE.

[jrj]

1976 and 77 Pontiac Lemans Enforcer. I guess the Catalina too. Anyone familiar.

[RPOZ28]

WOW,The 1973 Scuncio V8 vega made the list. Here is some info on the car. Ed

[Ming]

Originally Posted by RPOZ28

WOW,The 1973 Scuncio V8 vega made the list. Here is some info on the car. Ed

Thanks for the info, Ed, and welcome to GMI!

[Ming]

Originally Posted by jrj

1976 and 77 Pontiac Lemans Enforcer. I guess the Catalina too. Anyone familiar.

Interesting info:

The information I remember on that particular year car was about its engine. The owners manual had listed that the Enforcer came with a factory bored over 460ci engine and was called the 460 Police Interceptor. The owners manual also stated the same things you had already listed about the heavy duty suspension and anti-sway bars.

http://www.abodysite.com/enforcer.html

[Aurora40]

How about the 1984 Corvette Z51? That car pulled almost 1g laterally! I'd list that before the TPI change for '85. It was a brand new car in '84.

[Buick61]

When are we going to get to the 1950s??

[SierraGS]

I see the 1980 Grand Am but you forgot the 1978 and 1979



You could get a 350 Chevy in California 1978 models, but 1979 it changed to the 305 4V for CA with the 301 2 or 4V for Federal emmisions and the bottom "two-tone" color changed from Silver to Gold in 1979.

These cars handled well and had a very good suspension under them for the day and like all "A" or later known as "G" body cars are great platforms for a project car today.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by Buick61

When are we going to get to the 1950s??

Someone else will have to do the 50's and 60's as I've been pulled away from this website for the most part recently. Same thing for trucks.

[Buick61]

I think it should be broken up as such: 1955 - 1963 (which takes us from the 265 to the 409 for Chevy and just before the GTO for Pontiac) and then 1964 - 1972 (which takes us from the GTO up until the end of the Muscle Car era)

[philr]

Since decal packages are already included in the list, I'd include the
-1975 and 1976 Buick Century Custom Indy 500 replicas,
-the 1980 Skylark sport,
-the late seventies Century Sport wagon (it shared it's cosmetics with the Century turbo coupe) http://www.imcdb.org/images/007/530.jpg
-the 1984-85 Century T/Type (the only A body with a 3.8 liter V6)
-the the 1978 and 1980 LeSabre Turbo
-the 1974 Apollo GSX
-the Stage1 Buicks from 1973-74 (in 1974, in addition to the Century GS Stage1 and the Riviera GS Stage1, there were also the LeSabre Luxus Stage1 and the Electra Stage1!).

I have no interest in the J body SkyHawk but since the Sunbird turbo is already mentionned, the 1984 SkyHawk T/Type Turbo should also be there.

[philr]

And I think it's time to speak about the pre-73 GM performance cars!

[ponchoman49]

Originally Posted by SierraGS

I see the 1980 Grand Am but you forgot the 1978 and 1979



You could get a 350 Chevy in California 1978 models, but 1979 it changed to the 305 4V for CA with the 301 2 or 4V for Federal emmisions and the bottom "two-tone" color changed from Silver to Gold in 1979.

These cars handled well and had a very good suspension under them for the day and like all "A" or later known as "G" body cars are great platforms for a project car today.

The 1980 Grand Am and Grand Prix SJ both saw improvements to there suspensions and drivetrains that made them drive better than the 78-79 versions. The non California versions adopted the Trans AMs std drivetrain consisting of W72 170 HP 301 4bbl V8 and 2.93:1 axle ratio tied to the THM 350 3 speed automatic with firm shifting valve body settings. These cars also had dual exhaust and std bucket seats with floor shifter, guages, 205/70R14 tires, F41 suspension with rear sway bar and the Grand Am has std rallye wheels. In comparsion the 78 Grand AM had a 140 HP 301 2bbl tied to a 200 metric 3 speed automatic, a bench seat, hubcaps and F41 suspension as std equipment(buckets and rallye wheels were optional). The 79 Grand Am had a 231 V6 std with 3 speed manual trans along with a bench seat and hubcaps as std. The Grand Prix SJ for 78-79 had a 301 4bbl with 150 HP, 200 metric 3 speed automatic(4 speed manual was a 79 option on 301 4bbl cars), 2.41:1 axle ratio, vinyl bucket seats and wheel covers. These were all pretty neat cars but the 1980 versions were the best equipped, fastest and best handling of the Grand Am/GP SJ series and the dual exhaust looked neat. What would really have been cool was if Pontiac had installed there new for 1980 turbo 301 in these cars as an option. There were plans to do so but 1980 was a bad year for the auto industry with the 2nd fuel crunch, production capacity was limited initially on this new engine and re-certification was expensive and the G-body car program was thought to be dead and gone by 1983 when front drive cars like the Ciera/6000/ Century etc were going to take over as GM's bread and butter mid sizers.
It's funny that oil crunches have screwed up so many plans like this in the past and here we are today with rediculous oil prices once again causing automakers to rethink the V8 engine, put Zeta on hold and cancel big powerful rear drive vehicles such as the Impala for 2010. Like the saying goes "the more things change the more it stays the same". What comes around goes around.

[SierraGS]

Originally Posted by ponchoman49

The 1980 Grand Am and Grand Prix SJ both saw improvements to there suspensions and drivetrains that made them drive better than the 78-79 versions. The non California versions adopted the Trans AMs std drivetrain consisting of W72 170 HP 301 4bbl V8 and 2.93:1 axle ratio tied to the THM 350 3 speed automatic with firm shifting valve body settings. These cars also had dual exhaust and std bucket seats with floor shifter, guages, 205/70R14 tires, F41 suspension with rear sway bar and the Grand Am has std rallye wheels. In comparsion the 78 Grand AM had a 140 HP 301 2bbl tied to a 200 metric 3 speed automatic, a bench seat, hubcaps and F41 suspension as std equipment(buckets and rallye wheels were optional). The 79 Grand Am had a 231 V6 std with 3 speed manual trans along with a bench seat and hubcaps as std. The Grand Prix SJ for 78-79 had a 301 4bbl with 150 HP, 200 metric 3 speed automatic(4 speed manual was a 79 option on 301 4bbl cars), 2.41:1 axle ratio, vinyl bucket seats and wheel covers. These were all pretty neat cars but the 1980 versions were the best equipped, fastest and best handling of the Grand Am/GP SJ series and the dual exhaust looked neat. What would really have been cool was if Pontiac had installed there new for 1980 turbo 301 in these cars as an option. There were plans to do so but 1980 was a bad year for the auto industry with the 2nd fuel crunch, production capacity was limited initially on this new engine and re-certification was expensive and the G-body car program was thought to be dead and gone by 1983 when front drive cars like the Ciera/6000/ Century etc were going to take over as GM's bread and butter mid sizers.
It's funny that oil crunches have screwed up so many plans like this in the past and here we are today with rediculous oil prices once again causing automakers to rethink the V8 engine, put Zeta on hold and cancel big powerful rear drive vehicles such as the Impala for 2010. Like the saying goes "the more things change the more it stays the same". What comes around goes around.

Great info, I did not know there were so many updates for the 1980 MY.

I remember a Car and Driver article on a prototype testdrive of a Gran AM CA (Can AM) model with updated suspension, twin outlet TA exhuast, 16" Snowflakes and I think the 3.1 Turbo, not sure but it did have a TA scoop.

By the way the car in the picture looks just like my first new car, except I did not get the top line seats.

[Ming]

Open call for mods or other ambitious members to start other lists (and update this one) as I'm unable to participate here as much as I did in days of yore.