Why The 1969-1970 Pontiac Grand Prix Was Both A True Muscle Car And True Luxury Car

[Music] there is no doubt that pontiac's 1960's era cars would not have been as exciting as they were without the vision insights and pure determination that gm's automobile engineer and executive john delorean had he and his team of talented automobile designers and engineers took what would have been ordinary cars and made them exciting one of the best examples of this was the 1969-1970 pontiac grand prix it was a car like no other car on the road at the time the grand prix was first released for the 1962 model year it was a sporty personal luxury two-door car which pontiac produced to compete with the ford thunderbird it had the performance and luxury to make it a popular choice among buyers as the 1960s decade progressed large sporty two-door cars were losing sales to mid-size two-door muscle cars john delorean saw this trend and took a very big gamble for the 1969 model year he moved the grand prix from its full-sized gm b-body platform two gm's mid-size a body platform that was also used by pontiac's two-door muscle car the gto however there was a catch the 1969 grand prix did not use the two-door version of the a-body platform like the gto it would instead use the longer length four-door version of the a-body platform which was a first at the time for any gm two-door car this enabled the grand prix to look considerably bigger than a mid-sized two-door gto with the longer elegant exterior look of a full-size two-door luxury car yet still be smaller than its full-size predecessor the 1968 grand prix 1969 grand prix had a length of 210.2 inches a width of 75 inches and a wheelbase of 118 inches which was smaller than the 1968 grand prix by only 6.1 inches in length 4.8 inches in width and 3 inches in wheelbase length yet the 1969 was 500 pounds lighter than the 1968 with the 1969 having a curb weight of just under 3 800 pounds the grand prix carried over to the 1970 model year with very few changes the overall exterior styling of the 1969 to 1970 grand prix looked more lean refined and sporty than the 1968 the 1969-1970 grand prix design had a very long hood a short deck lid and a semi-fast back roofline which gave the grand prix a very sporty and modern look it even had special unique streamlined door handles it also had a protruding front chrome grille and four headlights along with a rear design that added to its overall modern and sporty look the reason why the styling of the 1969-1970 grand prix was so unique was due to its crazy proportions especially with the protruding front grille and having the longest hood of any new car back then these would most certainly make any car ugly however the brilliance and boldness of the overall exterior design resulted in very attractive exterior styling that appealed to both traditional luxury car buyers and performance car buyers as an added bonus pontiac offered the gto's famous hood tack as a dealer installed grand prix option for 1969 to 1970. the grand prix for 1969 to 1970 was available in two different models the model j was the base model while the model sj was the more upscale model the best pick for the luxury car fan or performance car fan was the grand prix sj it was the perfect combination of true performance and luxury even though the model j had not as much luxury flare especially in the interior than the sj however the j was no slouch when it came to luxury with plenty of standard features and options pontiac went to great lengths to achieve perfection with the 1969-1970 grand prix when developing the interior it was very upscale yet also extremely modern with a dash design that curved around the driver it was one of the best looking interior designs of its era there was even a leather seat option for both the model j and model sj unlike the 1969 to 1970 grand prix model j which was standard with the gto's 350 gross horsepower pontiac 400 cubic inch v8 and available with a 265 gross horsepower version of the pontiac 400 v8 the grand prix sj was standard with pontiac's largest displacement v8s for these two model years for 1969 the sj was standard with pontiac's 370 gross horsepower 428 cubic inch v8 while optional was the super performance high output version of this engine the 428 ho which produced a very mighty 390 gross horsepower the 428 ho equipped 1969 grand prix went 0 to 60 miles per hour in 6.8 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds which was just as fast as the lighter in weight pontiac gto and many other legitimate muscle cars of this era this kind of performance in a luxury car was unheard of at the time even in a sporty two-door luxury car for 1970 the 428 was replaced by pontiac's all-new 455 cubic inch v8 and the 370 gross horsepower high output version of the 455 called the 455 ho was the 1970 grand prix sj standard engine the good news was the 1969 and 1970 grand prix model j could be equipped with any of the 1969 to 1970 sj's engines for extra cost of course the 1969 to 1970 sj could be equipped with either a four-speed manual or a three-speed automatic transmission same was true with the 1969 to 1970 j except a three-speed manual transmission was also available with the j unfortunately there were very few buyers that ordered these two manual transmissions a vast majority of buyers instead opted for the automatic transmission additionally the 1969 to 1970 grand prix was heavy enough to have the ride quality of a larger luxury car which luxury car buyers wanted however it also had the steering braking and handling closer to that of a performance car than a luxury car and on par with some of the best performance cars of this era when equipped with the optional handling package there was a very special low production 1970 grand prix called the hearst ssj which was a joint venture between hearst performance incorporated and pontiac though the ssj had the look of a serious muscle car no extra horsepower or performance was offered under the hood that was not available with the same year grand prix however the ssj added extra performance related options and had two wild exterior paint schemes to choose from the hearst ssj package was also available on the 1971 and 1972 grand prix which had more formal exterior styling than the 1969-1970 grand prix even though the 1969 to 1970 grand prix had a luxury car base price of just under four thousand dollars it was easy with selecting a decent amount of options to approach the five thousand dollar mark this kept the grand prix out of reach for most younger buyers however the grand prix was still extremely popular with many buyers who liked its perfect blend of performance and luxury 1969 grand prix production was an amazing 112 486 units which was almost four times the total production of the 1968 grand prix the really amazing aspect of the 1969 to 1970 grand prix is that it's just about forgotten on today's collector car market which makes it a much better bargain than other cars of its era with similar performance the 1969 to 1970 grand prix was both a true muscle car and a true luxury car thank you so much for your support of this channel please subscribe since your support is the reason this channel is a success and please make sure to click on the bell icon so that you never miss a new video release [Music] you

Channel: OldCarMemories.com

Views: 299,305

Keywords: Grand Prix, Pontiac, GM, A-body, 2+2, Luxury, performance car, muscle car, V8, 400, 455, 428, 428 HO, 455 HO, Model J, Model SJ, SSJ, Hurst, GTO

Id: oF8Ox1pEyJE

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022