The Pro Street fad that ran through the 1980s and deep into the 1990s did have one very neat unintended consequence: a lot of the boring, hopeless front-wheel-drive machines that were being cranked out like clockwork got converted to rear-wheel-drive and stuffed full of no-joke power. Dodge Daytonas got the V8 power that their looks begged for. People looked at Ford Tempos, looked at Kenny Bernstein’s ride, and slowly reached for the death wheel. And GM Xerox copies got tubbed, slammed, and filled to the brim with thumping engines. They might have been filled with tweed interiors and never saw so much as one dragstrip pass, but that doesn’t mean that they were bad ideas. It was just the way things were back then. All you needed to do was to have the proper thump come out of the pipes while you were tooling around DuQuoin and you were set.
With that heyday long past, this 1986 Pontiac Grand Am is now in “throwback” territory. A beautifully-done machine, this car has been around for a minute and is currently up for re-homing. Street-legal? Depends on where you live, but I’d pay $20 to watch someone try to get this one license plates in Washington State just once. We aren’t saying it’s impossible, just problematic, that’s all. Nobody is going to confuse a 406ci Chevrolet for an Iron Duke. But if you can make this 2,100 pound testament to craftsmanship legal, do us all a favor: get it out to a drive-and-race event as soon as humanely possible. Get some miles on this beauty!
A pro street Grand Am? Seriously? Talk about putting syrup on a turd…
That thing screams for an Indian Adventures block-based 500+ CID Pontiac engine!
I guess I should have done that to my 1989 Grand Am SE instead of sending it to the wrecking yard 3 years ago. Head gasket puking Quad 4 was a terrible design. It sat for almost 20 years before going to the wrecking yard.