With the ’77 LeMans Can Am, marketing guru Jim Wangers tried to recapture the magic of the original Pontiac GTO. It was a noble effort.
“Remember the Goat!” In a nutshell, that tagline in a single-page ad in the March 1977 issue of Hot Rod magazine tells the story of the LeMans Can Am. Legendary Detroit ad man Jim Wangers was a key player in the promotion of the original GTO back in 1964. And though the muscle car era was now over, Wangers decided that the time was right for a GTO revival. His first pitch to the Pontiac brass was an A-body Le Mans Colonnade coupe boldly done up like a ’69 GTO Judge, complete with Carousel Red (bright orange) paint and Judge graphics.
When that proposal failed to win any hearts with management, Wangers toned down his approach. With the help of Pontiac product man Ben Harrison, a theme was borrowed from a bicentennial-themed Le Mans show car in Cameo White, the All American. Pontiac general manager Alex Mair liked the more subtle look and an order was placed for 5,000 cars.
Cameo White Le Mans Sport Coupes were shipped from the Pontiac assembly plant to Wangers’ facility, the Motortown Corporation, which specialized in low-production, special-edition conversions for the automakers. (Motortown productions included the Mustang Cobra II and GMC Sarge pickup.) But they weren’t standard LeMans coupes.
These were special builds, each one sporting a Grand Prix instrument panel and gauges and a W72 400 cubic-inch V8 with 200 net hp from the Firebird Trans Am—considerably more potent than the standard LeMans V8. (California and high-altitude cars got L80 403 CID Olds V8s.) Every Can-Am also received a Turbo 400 transmission, heavy-duty suspension, body-color sport mirrors, and Cameo White Rally II wheels.
At Motortown, the modified hood and Trans Am shaker assembly were installed, along with a three-piece fiberglass rear spoiler and the tri-color stripe kit and badging. Completed cars were then shipped back to the factory for distribution through the regular Pontiac dealer network, with Wangers watching over the advertising and promotion. With quarter-mile times in the 17-second range, the Can Am was no GTO. But for the late ’70s, as the automakers struggled with emissions compliance, it was a noble effort. And for its time, the Can Am was a well-equipped, nicely balanced machine.
As the story goes, dealers ordered 10,000 Can Ams, but trouble struck as production reached 1,377 vehicles, when the the low-volume tooling for the fiberglass rear spoiler gave out. (As Wangers recalled it, the production total was 1,133.) The Motortown operation ground to a halt, and at that point Pontiac management chose not to continue and simply cancelled the program. And that was the end of the LeMans Can Am.
The story behind the story:
The knives were out at One Pontiac Plaza for Can Am. Marketing had moved on from Wangers years before, and plainly resented the intrusion. Planning had worked out a de-contenting of ’77 Grand Prix that made it far more competitive with Monte Carlo and Cutlass Supreme, with a corresponding sales burst. The thought of donating production to a gimmicky “hot rod ” of lower profit potential was a sore point. And Trans Am was vacuuming every 400 the engine plant could produce – a trend that would accelerate with the black and gold special edition starring in “Smokey and the Bandit.”
At the time, ship-thru arrangements at GM were primarily done for fleet orders, a hassle, but the price of doing business. They were a lot of footwork for the factory, which had its hands full with a strong economic recovery, after the sickening downward lurch of ’74-75.
When the tool broke for the spoiler, the decision to bail out was inevitable. This left Pontiac with a surfeit of white LeMans coupes with red interiors to distribute to the dealers, requiring the wholesale field reps to pull all the stops to empty the lot. For several weeks, the storage area near Plant 8 was filled with these units; the actual number is unknown. Some dealers ended up repainting cars and adding their own decorative touches… but a documented “bride left at altar” has yet to surface.
Can-Am left a bad taste, unfortunately, and it would be decades before any more special projects of that nature would be approved again.
Thanks. I know some Pontiac people didn’t like him. Like you say, they moved on.
a guy in the neighborhood had one of these when I was a kid, I walked past it every weekday morning on my way to the bus stop. It was an impressive looking car with a lot of presence.
I came this close to buying one of those new. Our local Pontiac dealer got one in, I went as far as the paperwork on it. Just out of high school, my income sadly wasn’t enough to get it financed. It got sold, and I never saw it again. Can’t remember seeing one since, either.
I’ve only seen them at Pontiac meets. I never saw one when they were new.
I came this close to buying one of those new. I got as far as doing the paperwork, sadly my just out of high school income wasn’t enough to finance it. It soon sold, and I never saw it again. Haven’t seen another one, either.
Knew a guy that got one ,never had it titled to his name,his wife and daughter would get it out every once in a while , he passed away in 2010 maybe and it was still sitting in his garage