By 1967, the once-fashionable Pontiac Grand Prix had fallen out of favor. This 1967 hardtop still had all the sporty cues, including bucket seats and the seldom-ordered 4-speed manual transmission, but it now seemed increasingly out of place in a marketplace dominated by midsize performance cars and full-size luxury.
One of the roughest dilemmas for a business or a popular artist can face is when the tastes of the audience change faster than the product does. You keep doing what you’ve been doing, as well as or better than ever, but the bloom is off the rose, and fewer and fewer people seem interested. That was the position Pontiac was in with the Grand Prix. In 1963, it had been a much-admired, influential popular hit, selling a very respectable 72,959 cars. Within just three years, its sales were about half their 1963 level — 36,757 for 1966 — and the GP had largely fallen off the radar.
The 1967 Grand Prix followed much the same formula as before: It was based on the Catalina, but with a distinct hardtop roof design, some unique exterior styling features, a more powerful standard engine, and a plusher interior with bucket seats.
Its most obvious point of exterior distinction was a different front clip with horizontal concealed headlights.
The hardtop roofline had a more formal shape, with a slightly concave backlight. The hardtop GP also deleted the front vent windows. (They were retained on the new Grand Prix convertible.)
Rear “fender shields” were normally a standard Grand Prix feature, although the seller of this particular car apparently decided the car looked better without the skirts and put them in the trunk for most of these photos.
By contrast, a Catalina two-door hardtop had a semi-fastback roof and vent windows, and rear fender skirts were a $26.33 option rather than standard.
Pontiac’s 8-lug aluminum wheels with integral brake drums were a $117.96 option on the Grand Prix. For once, the Fathom Blue car was actually ordered with them (along with whitewall tires) rather than their being a later addition.
The Grand Prix also had unique taillights.
Inside, the Grand Prix had woodgrain trim, standard Strato-Bucket front seats, a center console, and either expanded Morrokide or Princessa pattern cloth upholstery. A front Strato-Bench seat was a no-cost option on the hardtop. Although it’s hard to see from this angle, there was also a passenger-side grab handle.
The Grand Prix came with Pontiac’s deluxe steering wheel with translucent upper rim, although the woodgrain Custom Sports wheel (a $27.91 option on the GP) would probably have been more in character with the woodgrain dash and console trim.
Standard transmission on the Grand Prix was the Ford-sourced all-synchro 3-speed manual, but very few cars were actually built with that transmission, or with the optional ($226.44) 4-speed. Most Grand Prix buyers (98.2 percent) ordered Turbo Hydra-Matic. I couldn’t find a precise production figure for the 4-speed, but only 565 base-engine GPs had either manual transmission, so the 4-speed total was probably around 500 cars.
Both manual transmissions came with Hurst shifters, a status symbol for the GTO that was probably lost on a lot of Grand Prix buyers.
Rear seat room was not great in these cars, but rear passengers did get a folding center armrest and ashtrays. Incidentally, while the rear speaker grille was standard, actually putting a speaker behind it cost an extra $15.80 on top of the cost of a radio.
This particular car is sparsely equipped for a GP. It has power steering and brakes plus a radio, but no other convenience items. The Grand Prix did come with two-speed wipers, courtesy lamps, a clock, and lots of interior brightwork, so it was at least better-equipped than a Catalina.
The base engine in the Grand Prix for 1967 was the 400 cid V-8 with a four-barrel carburetor and 10.5 to 1 compression, giving 350 gross horsepower. Tri-Power carburetion was no longer available this year due to a GM policy decision. If you were adverse to buying premium gas, the two-barrel low-compression Catalina version of the 400 was a no-cost option, reducing compression ratio to 8.6 to 1 and gross output to 265 hp; the regular fuel engine wasn’t available with manual transmission.
Dual exhausts were standard on the Grand Prix, which didn’t improve gross output, but probably provided about 25 more net horsepower than the single-exhaust engine.
Car Life‘s road test of a 1967 Grand Prix recorded an unspectacular 9.4-second 0 to 60 mph time with the base engine and Turbo Hydra-Matic. However, that car had the sleepy standard 2.73 axle; the 4-speed normally came with a 3.42 axle, which gave snappier acceleration. If you wanted to go faster, both 428 cid and 428 H.O. engines were optional, but only 1,827 GPs were sold with the standard 428, and just 559 had the 428 H.O.
The original buyer of this car paid $9.32 for the Ride and Handling suspension, which gave crisper handling than the under-damped standard suspension. It still wasn’t all that stiff — front spring rate increased only from 79 to 90 lb/inch at the wheel — so it did little harm to the plush ride.
All this was fine so far as it went. Other than the concealed headlights and different roofline, the Grand Prix offered little you couldn’t get on a Catalina hardtop, but if you wanted the bucket seats, more powerful engine, and other features, the Grand Prix was a pretty good deal, starting at a reasonable $3,549. This particular car had a sticker price of $4,196.42 plus destination, which wasn’t too bad, and this Fathom Blue paint is a handsome color.
However, the thrill just wasn’t there anymore. 1967 sales were up to 42,981 cars, but that was mostly because of the Grand Prix convertible, a one-year-only model that sold a modest 5,856 units. Interest in full-size sporty cars like these was drying up in favor of intermediates — the 1967 GTO outsold the Grand Prix by close to 2 to 1 — and the GP didn’t make a strong case for itself. It felt like a placeholder, lacking the verve that had made the 1963 car a standout.
Personally, I don’t think the Grand Prix styling tweaks were much of an improvement on the Catalina hardtop coupe. The GP’s horizontal concealed headlights previewed the 1968 full-size Pontiac …
… but I prefer the stacked headlights.
In retrospect, it might have made more sense for Pontiac to adopt an even more formal roof for the Grand Prix, like the one from the Chevrolet Caprice coupe. By 1967, full-size luxury was In; full-size Sportiness was Out.
A lot of pop musicians of this era faced a similar challenge: They didn’t lack for talent, but they were now singing the wrong songs in the wrong style for mainstream success. Luckily for Pontiac, Grand Prix would successfully reinvent itself in 1969 as a rock act, going on to another generation of hits.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic – 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix: Another Time, Another Place (by Aaron65)
Vintage Review: 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix – Quiet, Large, Sport-ish Luxury; Awaiting Reinvention (by Rich Baron)
Auction Classic: 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix – Wide Tracking It Down Under (by Jim Grey)
1967 Pontiac Executive Hardtop Coupe: The Star Chief Gets A Promotion (by me)
1967 Pontiac Bonneville 4-Door Hardtop: Mixed Metaphor With A Tasty Combination (by J P Cavanaugh)
Curbside Classic: 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix – Who’s The Fairest Pontiac Of Them All? (by Paul N)
Great car for Bruce Wayne or the Hathaway shirt guy.
At the time I would have chosen this car, but now I see that Caprice above and prefer it with a 427, 4 speed and Rally wheels
Interesting to note then the Canadian Grande Parisienne have the nose of the 1967 Grand Prix along with the hardtop style of the 1967 Grand Prix coupe and keep its front vent windows.
https://www.oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/GM-Canada/Pontiac/1967-Pontiac-Prestige-Brochure-Cdn/slides/1967_Pontiac_Prestige_Cdn-01.html
because it was a Cheviac – Chevy engines too
Somebody REALLY needs to detail that engine compartment. And another pet peeve of mine is why, oh why could they never make the clutch and brake pedals line up? An engineering challenge? All were guilty, GM was the worst. The Japanese never had that problem!
Power brakes is what throws the pedal alignment off. They need less travel, so the pedal is closer to the floor. It is the same with an automatic transmission, but less noticeable.
A nice looking car, rather large for anything sporty .
-Nate
Too sporty to be luxurious and too luxurious to be sporty.
Big fan of the 67 Pontiac Bs. But the Grand Prix doesn’t have the stack lights with its superb body sculpturing around them, so I’ll wait for a more standard wagon.
I tried to edit one of the pictures of the 67 Grand Prix with Google Flow AI to see how it might have look with stacked headlights and it’s not a big success. ^_^;
I always found it fascinating that the dramatic change of the grille and tailights for the 1968 Grand Prix made it look like a competely new car, when the rest of the car’s sheetmetal, roof, and glass carried over from 1967 unchanged.
It’s a good looking car, but an automatic with AC would have been far more appealing to me. If I were in a Pontiac showroom in 1967, I’d have probably gone for the Bonneville – love the fasback styling.
In real life, a neighorhood playmate’s mom had a ’67 Bonneville two door – beautiful car. Loved the couple of rides I got in it.
The big three all had a similar car in 1967. The IMO extremely ugly Dodge Polara 500 and probably my favorite of the three, Mercury S-55, with standard four speed, front disc brakes and 428. Sales of those were probably less than the GP.
Big GM cars reached styling perfection for ’65-’66. I did not like the ’67 restyle and I think the fender skirts make the Pontiac look worse.
My favorite GP is the 63 but I’m a fan of the 67 as well. My boss at my high school job had a new 67 Grand Prix coupe in burgundy with a black vinyl top, burgundy vinyl interior, 400 four barrel, automatic. It was a beautiful car and he and his young family enjoyed taking it on a cross-country trip in the summer of 67. I think these cars look best with the skirts in place. The car looks especially good from this angle.
You are right. It looks better with skirts. There is chrome trim on the skirt to match the chrome on the front wheel opening. Without the skirts the front wheel well has chrome trim but not the back.
If it had wheel arch moldings in back, I think it would look better without the skirts. I agree that the mismatch looks a bit off.
That Turquoise 67 Convertible Looks great.
Speaking of 67 Caprice. I had a Black one in 1986 ish. ($400). Only had the 283 though. As with everything, wish I still had it.