A fine way of putting a classic car into proper context is to imagine driving it to see a coeval big screen release. I have many memories of leaving the theater to return to the succession of cars I’ve known over the years; on a muggy Friday or Saturday night after a bad movie, it truly is entertainment after the show. Returning to a Gran Torino coupe after a good disaster flick (maybe Airport ’75) on a hot August night, for instance, makes for a nice, complete mid ’70s snapshot, doesn’t it?
Actually, for that entire era the ever-popular domestic coupe seems to work best as the perfect cinema shuttle (returning to a Colonnade Cutlass after seeing Rocky would work just as well). So was this Pontiac, with its Exorcist-inspired graffito, driven to see that Christmas ’73 blockbuster? It would surely be appropriate, for what appears to be a very late ’60s or early ’70s example.
Just as the movie marked the corruption of the main character’s innocence, so does this model mark the the end of LeMans’s youthful charm. Before long, the intermediate Pontiac coupe would be more reminiscent of Linda Blair in Chained Heat. Do we blame the execs on the fourteenth floor? Or was it Captain Howdy?
I’m pretty sure that that poor, rusted hulk is a ’68 or ’69. The ’70-’72 models had the more squared-off rear wheel cutouts, as in the photo of the yellow-with-black-vinyl-roof example, and the rear side marker lights were incorporated in those wrap-around taillights. The ’68-’69 had them on the rear fenders, right where that hole is in the first photo.
Cool. I will make note.
Base for a GTO tribute?
Could be used to save a more complete example that was hit anywhere but the front, if it’s not completely rusted out.
It looks like it started off as a 1969 LeMans or Tempest that someone welded over the Pontiac arrowheads on the rear quarters to turn them into 1969 GTO shields
Since that poor car is already completely gutted, it would make a great starting point for a balls-out, 9-second drag strip monster. Just a thought 🙂 .
It’s Keith or Aarons next project.Should only be a weekend for them to have a show winner