Late muscle cars are growing on us. Seriously. A few years ago we would not have given a second thought, glance, or care about a ’em. Now? Now we’re kind of interested because the cars can still be had relatively cheap and they are ripe to be updated and made better. There are even rare exceptions where the cars themselves are cool and interesting enough that they don’t need any help or hot rodding at all. This four-speed equipped 1973 Pontiac GTO is one of those cars.
No, it is not the fastest GTO ever made but with a 400, a four barrel, and a four speed manual transmission it was one of the more rare examples with the seller claiming it to be one of only 600 made. This thing looks crazy clean as well. There’s no visible rust, there’s no signs that someone lives in it, and the interior is all there and clean as well. This was a one year only body style for the GTO as it would morph onto the smaller X-body platform for 1974.
Someone really cared for this car. It is for sale in Illinois and that is a part of the world where things rot and rust if they are driven all year ’round. Clearly this one did not suffer that fate. While the mileage is not given in the ad that’s linked below, we’d love to know it just for kicks. Clearly it has had a set of tires or two on it as those on the car in the images are not the factory stockers.
This is the most want we have ever experienced for a 1973 GTO!
Here’s the Craigslist ad for this 1973 four-speed Pontiac GTO
Never understood why Pontiac didn’t use the 73 Grand-Am grill on the GTO, they were so much nicer. My ’73 with a 400, 400 turbo managed 15.9’s in the quarter, completely stock. Not blazingly fast, but faster than most cars of that era. Was a great car.
I have to agree on the Grand Am front end but the GTO is starting to grow on me. Maybe getting older is mellowing me out.
was the ‘Can-Am’ nose available in ’73? I thought the Can-Am came out in ’76 or ’77
Grand Ams were made from ’73 through ’75. Nothing for ’76, but in ’77 Pontiac morphed it into a Can Am, a really cool car. For ’78 & 9 they were downsized onto the Malibu platform. That was it until the mid eighties when they once again returned as a front wheel drive POS.
If the numbers match, I’d say it’s a bargain. There can’t be many of them left.
Damn that thing is sweet!!!
Sweet. You would never see another one at the local show and shine or drag strip.
My buddy had a new one when we were kids. Black on black. His dad was into oil and very wealthy.
This is a sweet 73 GTO!!!
In my little burg, there is a black 73 or 74 Grand Am that is original and very, very mint. The real kicker is that there are two interesting letters on the engine call-outs on the fenders. One is an “S” and the other is a “D.”
Well, last night a 73 Grand Am, the same color, did $16k on Barrett- Jackson.
I’d say this is a very good buy.
Wasn’t this the ‘Car of the Year’ for a minute by Joe Oldham at some magazine?? 🙂
I too ignored these cars, the huge bumpers were a turn off and at the time there were so many better looking cars out there. But when you haven\’t seen one in years there is no denying this is a beautiful car. The body lines are art and Pontiac always had a way with dash and interior design.
Thank you for not saying a “big block 400”. With the exception of the bastard child 301 (& 265), ALL Pontiac blocks ’55 – ’79 had the same general external dimensions. Exceptions are the bellhousing area early on, and the 2 somewhat major head revisions. Of the ’64 – up engines, the 326, 350, 389 & 400 all had the smaller 3.00″ main bearing journal diameter, while the 421, 428 & 455 all had the larger 3.25″ diameter. Those differtiations are the closest there could be to small and big block Pontiacs.
The ad was already gone. I wasted today helping a Jeeper get one 4.0 XJ engine off a ‘nature crane’ the replacement out of the back of his XJ and rehung from same tree.
75 Grand Am or 75 Lemans somethin had the same hood.
I would love to have that car, get a replacement 400 block and send out out to 455+ inch work. Keep the original to put back in. Find another cars buckets to swap out and preserve those for another 10-15 years till replacement parts will be made ( if they are). I’d put 100,000K miles on that and never regretted a single one.
Bought mine in 2001. Of course there is a story here. If you are so inclined, it\’s here:
http://www.showrods.com/73gto/00.gto_home.html