[Alvin]

"Doctor Larry" from the A-Body site posted this as a larger image from a '70s magazine.

I've cropped out this pages advertisements for clarity.
Anyone have any additional information on these rear deck and front T/A style spoiler systems?

[Alvin]

For those interested, from 'Dr. Larry': "Car Craft October 1973 if you are scouring eBay" for this article.

[Pontiacdaver]

I am awaiting a copy of the Oct, 73 Car Craft as we speak. I think the Grand Am looks absolutely freakin' awesome. I am looking at buying a black on black 455, non-A/C, posi Grand Am and was thinking how cool it would be to replicate that car. I will post the info on this thread. If I can find someone to scan it for me, I'll post the article as well.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Pontiacdaver

I am awaiting a copy of the Oct, 73 Car Craft as we speak. I think the Grand Am looks absolutely freakin' awesome. I am looking at buying a black on black 455, non-A/C, posi Grand Am and was thinking how cool it would be to replicate that car. I will post the info on this thread. If I can find someone to scan it for me, I'll post the article as well.

Excellent. Suggestion: You might check with local FedEx/Kinkos etc. location to scan to a flash drive.

Did you notice the "455" hood call outs, the pinstriping, painted back bumper, and the removal of the wheel opening trim on the GA?

[Sirrotica]

The car was a street driven facsimile of a NASCAR cup series car, probably made to look like the Herb Adams cup car. The window molding chrome was taped with electrical tape to give it the blacked out look. I had a 73 G/A at that time I wanted to pattern after it, however the spoiler is evidently a one of and the article gave no hint as to where they came up with a spoiler for the build. My car was a ascot silver 4 speed car originally and I had it painted black in 1978, that's as close as I ever got to a replication. I had a guy that was a sheet metal expert that said he could make one for me, but I sold the car before we ever got to that point.

There isn't a ton of information in the magazine article, but it sure is a slick looking car, enough that I wanted to make mine like it.

[mat]

do you know if anyone has a 4 speed console for this car ?

[Pontiacdaver]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

The car was a street driven facsimile of a NASCAR cup series car, probably made to look like the Herb Adams cup car. The window molding chrome was taped with electrical tape to give it the blacked out look. I had a 73 G/A at that time I wanted to pattern after it, however the spoiler is evidently a one of and the article gave no hint as to where they came up with a spoiler for the build. My car was a ascot silver 4 speed car originally and I had it painted black in 1978, that's as close as I ever got to a replication. I had a guy that was a sheet metal expert that said he could make one for me, but I sold the car before we ever got to that point.

There isn't a ton of information in the magazine article, but it sure is a slick looking car, enough that I wanted to make mine like it.

Yep, just like Brad said, it says nothing about the spoilers. The design was a few years ahead of it's time. I can't imagine electrical tape holding up for long as a blackout material. Aside from the text, there is only one other pic of the car, a high view from the front left corner that shows the 455 callouts nicely. To my 55yr old eyes, it still looks sweet today!

[Pontiacdaver]

Originally Posted by mat

do you know if anyone has a 4 speed console for this car ?

Mat, you might try posting in the '61-77 GTO, Lemans, Tempest parts wanted' section. You might also post on the A-body site (http://users.boardnation.com/~abodysite/) as well.

Dave

[rexs73gto]

I posted this on the A-body site to , but awhile back there was someone who posted a piece about that spoiler on the A-body site saying that that spoiler was built & avaiable for sale from a comp. in CA. back in the day. The name of the comp. I don't remember but I know they said it was in CA. As I stated before the reason it proberly didn't last is because it would only fit the 73 rear end as Pontiac changed the rear to the arm chair tail lamps in 74. I don't care for the 74 arm chair tail lamps. Now the reason I say arm chair tail lamps is if you were to open the trunk it looks like the rear is an arm chair from the way it looks you can just sit in the trunk & let your arms hang down like an arm chair. Now this isn't to make any one mad but thats just the way it looks. Just the same way all the new cars just look like EGGS on wheels. Even the 04-06 GTO is nothing more then an egg on wheels . They all look excatly the same . Without the name tags on the new cars you can't tell them apart. At least our cars back in the day had some style, now they have nothing but bacon on the side.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Pontiacdaver

Yep, just like Brad said, it says nothing about the spoilers. The design was a few years ahead of it's time. I can't imagine electrical tape holding up for long as a blackout material. Aside from the text, there is only one other pic of the car, a high view from the front left corner that shows the 455 callouts nicely. To my 55yr old eyes, it still looks sweet today!

Ditto that!

[Alvin]

Here's the update with the original Grand Am and build information:

http://users.boardnation.com/~abodys...;threadid=9671


[quote]etac100 Re:Anybody ever seen one of these?
« Reply #13 on: Today at 06:11:15am »

Well as I have said before I like that rear spoiler on the Car Craft car so I did a little digging. I got a hold of the Oct issue and since there is no author noted in the article I looked at the front, and took a chance tried to locate the Technical editor at the time Norm Mayersohn who now works for NY Times. Took a chance called left him a voice mail inquiring about the article and he was gracious about calling me back the same day. I told him that I wanted info on the rear spoiler and if there were any made or was it just a prototype. He said he would talk to a few of the folks who were involved and get back with me. the next 2 days I was CC'ed on the emails back and forth and I think it was very cool to know what was going on back then.
Well I let you here what they said, and they did give me permission to share with you guys.

Gene, It looks like you're not going to be able to get one of those spoilers. This is from Don Green, who remembered all the details:

Norman,
You don't remember that car? Probably the only 4-speed Grand Am built? I ordered the car, then decked it out in pseudo-NASCAR style with some genuine NASCAR steel wheels that must have weighed fifty pounds each--made for hitting the wall, I guess. I had them nickel-plated, then done in gold iridite to give them a color like a genuine, vintage magnesium wheel. The hood was lettered on both sides with the number 455 in gold leaf, the coils were cut to lower the car in a rake, the rear bumper was blacked out and a prototype spoiler I got from GM styling was mounted on the deck lid. It was a very pretty car, rather menacing looking. You might recall that we used to bury our feet in the plastic front beak with a swift kick so we could watch it slowly pop back out, Christine style. The car's major flaw was the Hurst shifter that kept breaking--even without the abuse that we were capable of dishing out. The car would simply release the shifting lever from the mechanism whenever it felt like it, leaving the driver with what felt like a big spoon in a big mixing bowl. The car would go to the dealer for repair on those occasions and stay for a long time. We always chalked that up to it probably being the only 4-speed Grand Am in the world.

Don tells me we did the shoot at Ontario Motor Speedway, long since gone. Norman

I think that the unseen hand in this may have been Herb Adams. Adams prepared a Grand Am for NASCAR competition in 1973, and the spoiler appears to be similar (perhaps a little shorter) than the spoiler on the CC NASCAR replica. Perhaps the spoiler was a backdoor project done by GM Styling for Adams? Scroll down about halfway through the interview in pontiacsonline.
I worked with Herb for several years after he moved to California on catalogs and newsletters for Herb Adams Very Special Equipment, and there were no Grand Am artifacts in his shop that I can remember. I heard he's now living in Tennessee. Cheers, Rick V.

Hey Gene,
How are you doing? I'm the guy who did the '73 Grand Am for Car Craft many moons ago. I see that Norm Mayersohn and Rick Voegelin have been good at passing along the information we've been exchanging over the past few days. It was fun seeing the magazine article again--I had forgotten how nice looking the car was. I don't suppose your car is a 4-speed--at least I'd be really surprised if you had found one. Is your car black, or will it be?
The things I'd do slightly differently today would be to have the rear bumper powder-coated rather than painted. Powder coating wasn't available to us in '73. I don't know if you can tell from the photos, but the wheels have both GM and Ford-Chrysler bolt circles drilled into them. I did that mainly for the added racy look and I planned on using the long NASCAR-style wheel studs but that didn't happen. When we did projects like that we tried to make it easy for the car to be returned to stock since the project cars were still owned by the car companies and had to be sold at some point. Naturally, for liability reasons, the companies were hesitant to sell anything that was not stock, though I imagine the spoiler stayed on that car. The spoiler would be easy to duplicate out of aluminum or even sheet plastic. You can see how thick the original was in the photos. Make a poster board pattern and go from there. If I can help you with any information, feel free to contact me. And I don't mind if you want to share the information on the car with people on the Grand Am sites. Take Care Don Green

I know this post is a little long but I think its worth sharing.

Looks Like I will fab one of these myself.[quote]

Note: "[quote]" purposely used here for ease of copying info. Props to etac for scoring the info.

[camerjeff]

Great info Alvin, thanks for posting it!