1971 Hemi-Cuda is Up For Grabs

[SilverBillet]

How did they pass emissions after ‘71?

My 73 Pontiac Grand Am 400/4bbl did not come with a smog pump or cats. It was actually a strong running car and handled really well with my H60x15’s BFG T/A’s all around

 

[1971demon]

My 73 Pontiac Grand Am 400/4bbl did not come with a smog pump or cats. It was actually a strong running car and handled really well with my G60x15’s BFG T/A’s all around

How did that slip through the cracks...did you buy it new?

 

[SilverBillet]

In thinking about it, maybe it did have a smog pump but definitely no catalytic converters. I bought it from the local Pontiac dealer in 1976. It was unmodified. I had to replace a cracked head later on and found out the 1973 heads on that motor were well sought after by drag racers.

 

[1971demon]

In thinking about it, maybe it did have a smog pump but definitely no catalytic converters. I bought it from the local Pontiac dealer in 1976. It was unmodified. I had to replace a cracked head later on and found out the 1973 heads on that motor were well sought after by drag racers.

Funny thing..when I was first married we were a single family car..It was a 74 corvette (what a slug)..my son was an infant...we put the basinet in that little space behind the seats...by 76 we needed a bigger car..almost bought this weird Gram Am..it had a firebird hood scoop..it was a fast back..t tops..it was all white..with this weird orange..yellow and red body stripe...it was new..a factory special of some sort...my wife said no way yer buyin that circus car...we ordered a new 76 445 Trans Am instead..(nice car..but another slug)..for the life of me cant remember what they called that Gran Am...

 

[SilverBillet]

The one you’re talking about was called a Can Am and had a backwards shaker hood scoop like the Firebird Trans Ams. I bought my 73 used in 1976. It was silver with the red,white and blue stripes. It was a nicely optioned 400/4 bbl car with red interior, reclining seats, mahogany woodgrain interior, am/fm 8 track, factory tach, PW, PS, PDB and his and hers auto stickshift. I liked that car a lot. There were not that many nice looking and relatively powerful highway cruisers available back then. This one is just like the one I used to have. It was the same body style as the GTO in 1973 and the last year for the “midsize” GTO. It was also available with a 455SD but very few were sold like that. I am a lifelong Mopar guy but would buy another Pontiac today if the right one showed up.

 

[Mike L.]

If you guys only knew what went on at Pontiac. LOL
I worked for Pontiac back in the mid to late '60s. My dealership had a GTO race car that we built and worked on after hours. We managed to get the car to low 12's. Owner of the dealership called in some favors and Arnie Beswick showed up for a week. You old timers like me know he was Mr Pontiac. I was just a punk kid that could wrench pretty good. Arnie had me tear down the top of the engine and pull the cam. He handed me another cam to install. I looked at it and it was stamped with the same GM part #. I asked why we were changing a perfectly good cam and it had the same #. What was the point? I was told to STFU and install it. We won the event on the following weekend and the car ran 1/2 second faster. Come to find out the cam was ground by Mellings especialy for PMD. Seems they built all their cams. Car passed tear down because in the old days they didn't measure if the OEM part number was stamped.
I also worked for Chevrolet. Same shit went on.
There was a big rivalry between Chev and Pontiac. Not so much with Chev and Ford. I befriended a Chev performance engineer and he told me that back in Detroit all the engineers from all the manufacturers met a a bar and had fun talking shop. My friend was called in to the office by his boss and told him " we know what you guys are doing at the bar " My friend stated that in no way did he pass on secrets to Ford engineers. His boss stated F--k Ford, it the god danm pontiac guys that are steeling our secrets.lol

 

[coolblue]

Indeed it was. Likely due to it being lighter. I owned a 1973 SD455 formula (lighter than a TA but still bulkier than a 68 bird). The RA 2 was faster in the 1/4. Best I ever did was ~13.5-6 in the SD455

Honestly, never knew you could get a SD in anything but a T/A.

 

[Demoniccat]

Emission Impossible
@jroyk this write up is a fairly good description of how P.M.D. at GM pulled the wool over the eyes on design and testing to get the beast to pass emissions

 

[Demoniccat]

Now back to the original OP topic. Being the case it’s after midnight on East Coast 7-7-21 it occurs to me it’s 1 day away from news about something new, I feel it’s going to be something added to basic platform like IDK maybe RE SS Charger or something not over the top to add to the the current collection at hand. God I hope I eat shit on this one and I am wrong, and they come out with anther WTF how did they pull another rabbit out of hat. I was wrong about 50th anniversary edition I really thought they might have done something special in terms of performance paired with a graphics package wish they had. Now looking back I think the only way they are going to ad more performance to the platform is if it’s actually the swan song to usher in following years new platform. Really want them to go with a warhead ice age engine to end the show for the last of platform. If in fact it is the last year of platform, general consensus is no, squeeze another year out of platform. Again where is RS with crystal ball teaser. This hide and seek game sucks.

edit sorry being a moron I lost track of OP. It was actually (HEMI ‘Cuda up for grabs) sorry folks I guess it’s the true definition of hijacking post with out intending to. Is there such a thing as being asleep at the wheel of hijacking?

 

[Demoniccat]

The one you’re talking about was called a Can Am and had a backwards shaker hood scoop like the Firebird Trans Ams. I bought my 73 used in 1976. It was silver with the red,white and blue stripes. It was a nicely optioned 400/4 bbl car with red interior, reclining seats, mahogany woodgrain interior, am/fm 8 track, factory tach, PW, PS, PDB and his and hers auto stickshift. I liked that car a lot. There were not that many nice looking and relatively powerful highway cruisers available back then. This one is just like the one I used to have. It was the same body style as the GTO in 1973 and the last year for the “midsize” GTO. It was also available with a 455SD but very few were sold like that. I am a lifelong Mopar guy but would buy another Pontiac today if the right one showed up. View attachment 48420

My mother had a similar car. 1973 Grand Am. Not Can Am. I actually liked it, dark metallic brown almost root beer color. I think it had a 400 as I remember. It was a lease work car didn’t have it long the oil pump failed and tore up internals, and they gave her a 4 door Catalina to use in place of it. I was pissed.