The original Grand Am was introduced in the fall of 1972 as a 1973 model. It was based on the GM A-body platform along with other cars such as the Pontiac LeMans, Pontiac GTO, Chevrolet Chevelle, Buick Century, and the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. The GM A-body platform had major design revisions in 1973 that included the elimination of pillarless hardtops due to proposed federal rollover standards, but with frameless windows similar to that of a hardtop. No convertibles were produced due to those same federal rollover standards (that never were enacted). In addition to federal emissions regulations that reduced performance, new federal standards required a 5 mph (8.0 km/h) impact-resistant front bumper and a 2.5 mph (4.0 km/h) impact-resistant rear bumper, which increased to 5 mph (8.0 km/h) for 1974.

1973

The Grand Am, coined by Pontiac with a name derived from two other cars in its lineup ("Grand" signifying "Grand Prix luxury" and "Am" for "Trans Am performance") was designed as American's answer to European luxury/sport sedans and available as a 4-door Colonnade sedan or a 2-door Colonnade coupe. 43,136 Grand Ams were built during the first year of production (both two door and four door models).

The Grand Am could be had with a standard 400/2bbl engine (170 horsepower), an optional 400/4bbl engine (230 horsepower), or an optional 455/4bbl engine (250 horsepower). Originally planned but never materialized was the availability of 310 horsepower (230 kW) Super Duty 455/4bbl that was originally set to be available on several 1973 Pontiac models including the Grand Am, Grand Prix and GTO along with the Firebird Trans Am and Formula. However, production of the 455 SD was delayed from its planned debut at the start of the model year due to emissions considerations. Production of the 455 SD was delayed until the spring of 1973 and then it was made available only on the two Firebird models. One early '73 Grand Am prototype was reportedly assembled with the 455 SD engine.

The 400/2bbl, 400/4bbl, and 455/4bbl engines were available with a Turbo-hydramatic 400 automatic as standard equipment.

The 1973 Pontiac Grand Am style had a unique flexible urethane front fascia center nose that was squeezable and could return back to its original shape following a minor collision, a total of 6 grille openings with vertical bars, round front turn signals, horizontal rear tail lights, and chrome rear bumper. Additionally, Grand Ams featured a Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS) as standard equipment which included the radial-ply tires, Pliacell shock absorbers and front and rear sway bars for improved ride and handling. This basic suspension tuning also came standard with the Grand Prix SJ option in 1973 and optional on two other Pontiac models that year including the full-sized Bonneville and the sporty Firebird. The Grand Am was one of only three GM cars to come standard with radial tires and appropriate suspension tuning in 1973 with the others being the Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon and Chevrolet Monte Carlo S.

Inside, the Grand Am came standard with Strato bucket seats upholstered in Naugahyde[1] vinyl or corduroy cloth featuring recliners and adjustable lumbar support - both features common on European-style sports/luxury sedans but unusual for American cars of that time. Also included were an instrument panel from the Pontiac Grand Prix featuring a Rally Gauge Cluster with full instrumentation (tachometer optional-on cars so equipped, the clock was moved to a space on the lower instrument panel under the radio), three-spoke steering wheel with large padded hub and Genuine Crossfire Mahogany trim on the dash facing, radio and clock surrounds, as well as the center console between the front seats. Grand Ams also were among the first U.S.-built cars to come with a turn-signal mounted headlight dimmer switch that had been common on imported cars for decades.

Pontiac also produced a single 1973 Grand Am station wagon as a feasibility study. This was a LeMans wagon converted to a Grand Am. A functional ram-air induction system was developed for the Pontiac A-bodies utilizing twin NACA openings in the hood, but the option was dropped due to inability to pass federally mandated drive-by noise standards. A few functional Ram Air systems were sold over the counter, but are extremely rare. The twin-scoop NACA hood was an option for any Pontiac A-body for all three years, but was non-functional.

1974

Described as "The mid-sized Pontiac with Foreign Intrigue ... American Ingenunity" on the front cover of the four-page 1974 Grand Am brochure that featured a green four-door sedan, only minor styling changes highlighted this year's model including a refined front urethane fascia with a redesigned nose and grille with 12 openings with horizontal bars. 1974 Grand Ams had The rear end styling was redesigned for the new 1974 5 mph crash standards and had vertical rear taillights with relocated license plate and fuel filler above the bumper. Engine and transmission offerings were the same as 1973. Only 17,083 1974 Grand Ams were built this year with very few being four-door sedans.

1975

The 1975 Grand Am looked the same as the 1974 model, but had vertical front grille bars, a body-colored rear bumper, and a single-exhaust catalytic converter which mandated the use of unleaded fuel along with GM's High Energy Ignition and other items promoted as part of Pontiac's Maximum Mileage System. In addition to the standard roofline with louvered rear side windows, Grand Am coupes with the optional vinyl roof could be ordered with a full triangular rear side window or a vertical opera window similar to that found on the Grand Prix.

Inside, the Strato bucket seats received revised vertical trim patterns, the adjustable lumbar support controls were dropped and only the passenger seat had a recliner. New this year as a no-cost option was a 60/40 bench seat with center armrest.

The advent of the catalytic converter spelled the end of dual exhausts this year. Engines were also detuned to meet the 1975 emission regulations with compression ratios dropping to a new low of 7.6 to 1 on some engines. Standard engine was the 170-horsepower 400 V8 with two-barrel carb, optional were a 185-horsepower 400 or 200-horsepower 455 - both with four-barrel carburetors. Turbo Hydra-matic was standard equipment and the only transmission offered this year.

Only 10,679 Grand Ams were built in 1975 and the series was dropped, a factor leading to the Grand Am's cancellation were plans for all 1976 Pontiac A-body cars receiving the new rectangular headlights which would necessitate a complete redesign of the Grand Am's urethane nose and Pontiac officials decided that the expense of such a redesign could not be justified based on low production numbers. All 1973-1975 Grand Ams were built at the Pontiac, MI assembly plant, which was the home plant of the Pontiac Motor Division. The basic GM A-body design remained until 1977.

Factors that led to the demise of the first-gen Grand Am

By the time the first-generation Grand Am was discontinued in 1975 federal emissions standards all but killed performance, which was the final nail in the coffin for the muscle car era. Although designed to compete with European sport/luxury sedans, the Grand Am was considerably larger and heavier than its intended imported competition which was more in the size and weight class of U.S. built compacts - and much bigger than the largest cars built in most nations outside of North America. Detroit also began to offer upgraded luxury compacts such as the Ford Granada, Mercury Monarch and even Pontiac's own Ventura SJ, along with the similar-bodied Chevrolet Nova LN, Buick Skylark S/R and Oldsmobile Omega Salon. They offered similarly luxurious interior appointments and improved suspension tuning, but in smaller packages better designed to challenge the imported sedans. Furthermore, the Grand Am's Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS) package that was unique when the Grand Am was introduced in 1973 would become optional equipment on all other Pontiac and GM models in 1974 and made standard equipment throughout most car lines by 1975, (around this time the automotive industry was switching to radial-ply tires) so the Grand Am's lost yet another bit of uniqueness. Still today viewed by many as The Ultimate GTO four door Super Car.  The Grand Am;s numbers have dwindled. Two the extent of more recently two 4 door 1973 South African exported examples were reimported at a large expense and will soon be restored to their former Muscle Car Glory.  With the imminent demise of Pontiac set in stone for 2010 This has been a wise decision for this investor in our Muscle Car History that will pay dividends even now.  An extremely rare and collectable Super Car today.

Engines

• 1973 400 CID (6.5 L) V8 with 2-barrel carburetor and T400 (standard engine, others were optional)
• 1973 400 CID (6.5 L) V8 with 4-barrel carburetor and T400 race shift (a rare Super Car combination)

Notes:

• 1973 engines may have point or unitized ignition.
• A SD-455 equipped engineering prototype Grand Am was built, but was dismantled and destroyed.
• 1974 engines may have point or unitized ignition or starting around May 1, 1974, HEI.
• 1975 engines have HEI.
• 1975 was the first year for the catalytic converter.

1973 Pontiac Grand Am Production

The days when tire-melting, straight-line muscle measured a car's performance were fading fast in the early Seventies. Pontiac, which had prospered with cars of that ilk, had to move just as quickly to protect its image. The new direction it chose led not from Detroit, but from Europe. Find  production for the 1973 Pontiac Grand Am in the following chart.

Total 1973  Pontiac Grand Am  Production Numbers:

The 1973 Pontiac Grand Am started out in the development stages as a GTO. But the muscle era was drawing to a close and, very much aware of that, Pontiac decided to change the car's character. Instead of continuing to make the GTO a stoplight drag star, the next iteration was to be more European -- more along the lines of a luxury sport sedan. With that in mind, Pontiac designers and engineers examined Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Volvo as likely targets.

To backtrack a little, the Grand Am concept originated in the Pontiac styling studio. At that time, all Pontiacs were designed in one studio under the direction of William L. (Bill) Porter. Working with him were his assistant, Wayne Vieira, plus senior designers Ted Schroeder, Charley Gatewood, and Geza Loczi. Dennis Barnes was a young modeler in the studio.

Porter, who retired as chief designer for the Buick LeSabre, Park Avenue, and Riviera, recalls that the notion for the 1973 Grand Am's soft front end evolved from the GTO's "Endura" bumper/grille, GM's revolutionary body-color nose, which Pontiac introduced for 1968. Wanting to take that idea one step further, Porter and his staff did some collective brainstorming, while still thinking in terms of the next GTO. As a result of that session, Porter and Gatewood got together to sketch what ended up being the Grand Am front end, with its peaked prow flanked by "catwalk" grilles, plus quad headlights, an integrated bumper, and sharp fender end caps.

One of the givens in the then-GTO program -- which subsequently spilled over into the Grand Am -- was that the car had to be based on GM's new 1973 A-body, i.e., Pontiac's LeMans. Among other things, the GTO/Grand Am would have to use the new LeMans hood, which was already locked up. Because this had a raised center section, the Grand Am prow-nose seemed a natural.

Gatewood worked out the rest of the graphics and, being a superb artist, made a full-size rendering of the front end. Porter hung it on the wall opposite the studio entrance. The idea was to impress GM design vice president William L. (Bill) Mitchell when he next walked in. After all, Mitchell would be instrumental in selling the design and the soft-nose concept to Pontiac management.

Wayne Vieira, who would become chief designer for GM's Saturn small-car subsidiary, confirms that "Charley Gatewood was the designer who came up with the original front-end sketch. Charley's a very modest person, and he would tend to say something like, 'Oh, actually . . . I remembered an old sketch that Ted Schroeder did years ago. All I did was to do Ted's sketch over again.' But it was Charley who sold the idea."

Vieira continues, "And to help sell the design to Bill Mitchell, Charley did this full-size air-brush rendering . . . a white rendering with black grille slots. It really stood out from across the room. In fact, when Bill Mitchell walked in, all he said was, 'Jeeeeeeezus Christ!' And we were off and running. He brought people in to see it, and it was really quite exciting. The graphics on the front were so strong and unique compared to what was on the road at the time," Vieira recalls. "In fact, we all felt that when the car came out for 1973, it had by far the best front end of anything in the industry."

The technology needed to engineer the Grand Am's soft front end wasn't fully developed when the initial soft-nose designs were proposed. But a 174-day strike during 1972 gave GM extra time to make the soft front end feasible. "This was one of our first attempts to do a full plastic front," Vieira told us. "The technology hadn't yet caught up, and the car would have been very complicated and expensive to build [with the technology at the concept's beginning]. The division at first felt that they wouldn't have a competitive, quality car for the price. But now that we had more time to work on it -- due to the strike -- they told us to take another crack at it, and this started the process of a new design."

1973 Pontiac Grand Am Chassis

The 1973 Pontiac Grand Am began as a GTO, was called Europa for a short period, and finally ended up with the name Grand Am. "[Product planner] Bill Collins had a thing about the word Grand," explains Vieira. "Everything [we had then] was Grand: Grand Ville, Grand Prix, Grand LeMans, Grand Am."

The soft fascia wasn't easy to model, but Pontiac design studio chief Bill Porter declares that Dennis Barnes did a marvelous job. "The Grand Am's front-end forms coming out and intersecting are quite complicated," Porter points out, "particularly the filets in the catwalk and how they intersect the nose form. Some of the surfaces had to be twisted and rotated to make the filets catch the light just right. It was quite a tricky modeling job."

The studio staff was still working on spec, because GM materials people weren't yet familiar with all the techniques of mass producing pliable urethane, forming it, and, especially, coloring it to match the hues, fade resistance, and texture of paint. Designers called polyurethane "Polly Softstuff," but also "Baby Doll." Just before the 1973 tooling decisions had to be made, materials engineers did manage to work out the cost, color, and formability details of the soft fascia. Only then did it become producible -- a last-minute rescue.

So the Grand Am offered a new opportunity. This was a car that Pontiac saw as the division's entree into the European sport-luxury-sedan field. Pontiac chassis engineers, under John Seaton, would de-emphasize straight-line performance in favor of crisp handling and overall responsiveness. Seaton based the Grand Am's readability on the division's trade-marked Radial Tuned Suspension, which in turn was based on new GM-spec steel-belted radial tires. Ten-inch front disc brakes gave the car wonderful stopability, and Saginaw Division set up the power steering with a quicker ratio and plenty of positive feedback.

"It was really the radial tires that gave us a clue that we could actually do something like that," says Tom Goad, an engineer and Pontiac product planner at the time. "They rode so much better, and yet we could have the handling with the bigger stabilizer bars and control the vehicle's motion with softer springs and good shocks. This became our Radial Tuned Suspension that we began promoting across all our car lines. It was standard on the Grand Am."

Inside, the Grand Am driver and the front passenger settled into supportive bucket seats equipped with recliners and lumbar adjustments. All doors had pull straps, not molded-in plastic grab handles, while the fully instrumented gauge panel and console presented touches of real African crossfire mahogany laminated onto a plastic substrate.

Yet the Grand Am couldn't be too European. It still had to be as American as any Pontiac. And indeed, it used not only the LeMans hood but the all same inner sheetmetal and most outer panels, as well as the two- and four-door "Colonnade" rooflines of the new corporate A-body. The big visual differences lay in Charley Gatewood's soft front end, the taillamps, standard pinstriping, and, for the coupe, distinctive louvers over the fixed rear-quarter windows.

According to Porter, that sail-panel treatment took some doing to make it practical. His staff tried all sorts of different configurations so the louvers wouldn't block the driver's over-the-shoulder view. "I remember there was quite a bit of fiddling around with those louvers to angle them so you could see out from the driver's side," Porter recalls. "Otherwise the sail would have been huge and very blind."

Initially, the Grand Am program called for not two but three body styles: coupe, sedan, and wagon. GM's Framingham, Massachusetts, assembly plant, which built Pontiac's A-body wagons, didn't want the hassle of yet another model variation, so the Grand Am wagon never made production. One engineering prototype did get built, however, and Tom Goad still owns it today. Like all of GM's "Colonnade" intermediates, the production coupe rode a 112-inch wheelbase, the sedan a 116-inch wheelbase. Both models were billed as "hardtops" despite having fixed B-pillars.

Goad mentions that when he went from Chevrolet to Pontiac in the mid-1960s, he was shocked by how primitive Pontiac's suspension systems were. "I couldn't believe it," he says. "Pontiac's systems were archaic compared to what we'd been doing at Chevrolet, with roll-couple distribution and tire sizes and all. Pontiac could make cars go in a straight line but not around corners." He notes that it wasn't until 1970 that the GTO got a rear stabilizer bar.

1973 Pontiac Grand Am Engineering

For the new 1973 Pontiac Grand Am, chassis engineers upped the suspension bushings from 60- to 90-durometer rubber and installed heavier grommets for the 1.12-inch front stabilizer. To counteract any tendency to oversteer, engineer Tom Seaton added a 0.94-inch rear antiroll bar. He also specified nonaerating Pliacell shock absorbers, with plastic inner bags that kept the air separate from the hydraulic fluid. This gave consistent damping even when hot, unlike conventional shocks, which, under severe conditions, tend to become mushy with aeration and heat.

Entrusted with engine duties was Herb Adams' Special Projects group. Engineer and race driver Adams did his darnedest to match Pontiac's big-block V-8s to the Grand Am mission. Initially, he wanted to drop the Super Duty 455 into this car, and one Grand Am prototype did get built with it, but only that one, because GM decided not to use the 310-horse stormer in anything except the '73 Trans Am and Formula Firebirds.

The SD-455 was a good idea, though, one that would have effectively passed the performance torch from GTO to Grand Am. This engine added a mere $521 to the price of a '73 Trans Am and probably wouldn't have cost any more as a Grand Am option. Its initial 1973 horsepower and torque ratings were 310 and 390, but Pontiac rerated the engine at midyear to 290 and 395.

This was essentially a race-ready V-8 in street form: four-bolt mains, reinforced bulkheads, more meat around cam bearings and lifters, forged and lightened rods and pistons, nitrided cast crank, 80-psi oil pump, baffled pan, and built-in provisions for dry-sump lubrication. Heads were patterned after Pontiac's 1969 Ram Air IV engine, as were the cam and rockers. In all, only 1195 Super Duty 455s were ever sold, and more parts were stolen out of the plant than made it into production.

But while the SD-455 didn't show up in the Grand Am, some very good Pontiac V-8s did, starting with the L75, a "regular" four-barrel, dual-exhaust 455 rated at 250 bhp and 370 lb-ft of torque. Then came a pair of 400 V-8s, one with four-barrel carburetor, the other with two-barrel, respectively rated at 200 and 170 horses. (Optional dual exhausts boosted engine output.) Buyers could order either self-shift Turbo Hydra-Matic or Muncie M21 four-speed manual with floor shift, the latter teaming with a 3.23:1 rear axle.

Soon after the Grand Am's introduction, Herb Adams & Team Associates put together what Motor Trend described as "the most beautiful Pontiac stock car ever built." Team Associates was a wild group of Pontiac engineers who liked to go racing. GM had officially disavowed track competition nine years earlier, so Adams & Team Associates built and ran a Grand Am racer out of their own pockets. They had campaigned a GTO and a Firebird in the SCCA Trans-Am series and had done moderately well.

Now, with the Grand Am, they had their sights on the big time, notably NASCAR. They qualified and ran at Riverside in January 1973, starting and finishing 14th with no brakes at the end of that race. They then tried Daytona after jumping through an inordinate number of NASCAR inspection and qualification hoops, only to have their car blow a head gasket after qualifying at 169 mph; its 366-cid V-8 had too much compression. With that, and no major sponsors in sight, the team retired its gloss-black Grand Am #69

The 1973 Grand Am was, without a doubt, one of the most focused and well-executed cars Pontiac ever brought to market. It did precisely what its designers intended: provided handling, comfort, and performance in keeping with anything Europe could offer Indeed, the Grand Am was a lot more capable than Mercedes or BMW liked to admit.