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Posts Tagged: Grand Prix

Pontiac sold the 1964 Grand Prix as a personal-luxury coupe, all formal styling and quiet comfort — but buyers who checked the right boxes on the order sheet could walk out with a genuine 421 HO Tri-Power making 370 horsepower and a brand-new Muncie 4-speed. Here’s the real top-of-the-line engine lineup, and why one number that keeps getting repeated about this car isn’t quite right.

Roadkill’s David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan take delivery of a 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat, a 707-horsepower Charger Hellcat, and a 645-horsepower Viper GT straight from Dodge, then head for a motocross track with zero regard for what any of these cars were actually built to do. With guest appearances from Motor Trend, Dirt Every Day, and a professional drifter, this episode marked the start of Dodge’s sponsorship — and it shows exactly why the partnership worked. Watch to see 2,059 combined horsepower meet terrain built for dirt bikes.

Pontiac built the first Firebird in barely six months after General Motors killed its pitch for a genuine two-seat sports car, borrowing GTO taillights and a shared Camaro platform to hit showrooms by February 1967. Four completely different engines, from a mild inline-six to a 400-cubic-inch V8 pulled from the GTO, all wore the same sheet metal, and only 697 of the ultra-rare 1969 Trans Am package were ever built. Read on to find out which engines actually made this car a legend.

New emissions rules were reshaping every engine bay in Detroit by 1975, and the Pontiac LeMans found itself right in the middle of that shift — still offering a genuine 400-cubic-inch V8 alongside its first catalytic converter. Here’s how Pontiac balanced compliance and horsepower in one of the most transitional model years of the era, plus a closer look at the car pictured here.

Long before CGI animations and slow-motion breakdown videos existed, engineers explained the differential using nothing but physical models, a chalkboard, and patience. ConceptVBS resurfaces a 1930s instructional film that still explains the axle assembly your muscle car depends on better than most modern content manages, and the reason why is almost as interesting as the mechanism itself.

The Pontiac GTO gets the magazine covers, but the Grand Prix and Catalina were built on the same performance-oriented foundation for a fraction of the price. This entry breaks down the shared drivetrains, the four-speed option sheet details collectors look for, and why a 1964-1981 Grand Prix search typically turns up asking prices well below GTO money. Read on to find out why Pontiac’s overlooked models deserve a second look.

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