[TheProfessor47 has posted a lovely 1974 Pontiac Luxury LeMans Safari at the Cohort, including some commentary, which I will now turn over to him:]
This car is a motley collection of spare wheels and tires. Look at the size of the rear tire compared to the front one!
I can’t even see how this is possibly street-legal. Both headlights have long since gone to the grave, and even this car being on the street is a ticketable offense.
What’s up with the tail lights on this car? As I recall, GM also put them on the Malibu wagon and El Camino, and I think they just don’t work. In fact, they probably don’t.
The rear bumper is slowly detaching from the rest of the car.
As if the rest of the car’s appearance wasn’t bad enough, its rear is filled with hubcaps and spare parts. Who owns this car?
Well it’s a 3 seat wagon, the flip out quarter windows gives that away. Even the parts car 77 Chevelle i have taken apart in the garage appears in better shape than this one. It at least has most of its lights in place and working.
I’m dying inside — please Mr. Pontiac owner, don’t leave your car like this on the street! Ugh..
I spot an uncommon ’82-’85 base Camaro wheelcover on the 14″ LF wheel, possibly the correct ’73-’74 Pontiac PO1 cover on the 14″ RF wheel, an early 80’s DeVille cover on the LR 15″ wheel, and a Ford Elite cover on the RR 15″ wheel. Not sure what the plans are for the 16″ or 16.5″ Chevy covers inside (they are hard-to-find!).
These are my favorite ’73-7 wagons, although the ’73 model has the coolest El-Camino style taillamps — extremely rare – 1 year only design and unlike the El Camino version…there were four taillight/brake lights and separate backup lamp cutouts close to the license plate.
What a paintjob would do for this car… I wonder how it’s optioned…
Wow – I have not seen a 74 LeMans in years. My mother bought a new 74 Luxury LeMans sedan. Honduras Maroon and the interior was maroon, except for the white bench seats. The 2 bbl 350 was a dog of an engine that drank gasoline like a Lincoln. Sort of Pontiac’s version of the Ford 352?
Mom’s car had fender skirts, which I do not believe were ever offered on the wagons. I vividly remember the variable ratio steering and the fact that the car cornered really, really flat. It may have had a performance suspension, although it still used bias ply tires.
This front end is, to me, the best looking of all of the colonade-era A bodies.
Some LeMans wagons had those vertical chrome strips on the tail. Ugly for sure, were they doing a 1958 retro look?
Wow, it looks like a big toy with those tires. Actually, that would have made a cool Hot Wheels toy–Custom Luxury LeMans Safari! Here’s what it would have looked like new:
There’s a very rusty Golden Olive ’73 LeMans Safari out there with its original 400-4 engine, 4-speed transmission and factory tach. Someone on the Pontiac forums found it. It is/was a northern car & probably a 1 of 1. I sure hope he rebuilds it.
I used to have a light blue one of these – it was a ’75 model & was dragged out of a field into “my” field….never got it running b/c I moved away & it was destroyed in the Nauvoo Holocaust. Hopefully the ’75 sedan is still down there. It still ran & is/was a 350/350 combo with HD suspension.
Are the bolt patterns the same on 14″ and 15″ rims?
Yep, 5 x 4 3/4 inches. The only concern would be the 11″ discs up front clearing 14″ wheels — they will but barely.
Is the rear bumper slowly detaching, or has the GM-quality trim panel that once spanned the chasm between the bumper and the body simply disintegrated in the sun?
My money is on the crumbling bumper filler since it’s a pre-’78 vintage.
Yep, mine’s disappeared as well. they do make fiberglas replacements.
One of my best freinds would borrow from her Mother the family Green GRand Lemans SAfari//… musty seafoam green , stepping on the gas felt like an exhausted lung trying to gasp its way up a hill…. a pillow effect… it would get there, but slowly and good if you helped by using the gear selector.
Rather unpleasant drive New .Worse as time goes by.
id love a 78 just as top of the line, with all 4 wheels bigger than the originals that were surely too small.
The bumper mounted taillights were a feature on all GM mid-sized wagons of that era, and was continued on the downsized split-tailgate wagons from 78-83. It’s probably taillight designs like these that led to CHMSLs later on.
I saw one of these dominate a demo derby when I was a kid. I got to take the “Safari” emblem home as a souvenir. Good times.
We had one of these in Buick trim in the early 80’s when I was a kid. I don’t think my dad ever really liked it, I don’t think it was a very good car. Us kids hated the dark blue vinyl seats which would burn you in the summer. But I always liked the looks of these wagons for some reason, maybe because it’s the first car I remember riding in.
My sister had a Buick Luxus model of this… I think it was a 74. She Liked it way better than her 70 Colony Park. I could never understand why . She found it handled easier for her. I remember the mushy brakes.