1977 Pontiac Can Am - The All American

The 1977 Pontiac Can Am, not be confused with the Grand Am or, Trans Am was a one year only model that was introduced mid year and was built off a platform that was slated for replacement the very next model year. What was the point you're asking? I've been asking that for almost forty years. Still, I'm glad they did this car; I've always thought them out of this world gorgeous. Let's take a closer look. 

The 1977 Pontiac Can Am was an option package on the LeMans Sport Coupe. Powered by one of two engines that were available in Trans Am's that year, either a Pontiac 400 or Oldsmobile 403 (California only), complete with shaker hood no less, Can Am's also featured more bits and pieces from the more upscale Grand Prix' interior than your typical LeMans was available with. There was also a killer stripe package and a duck tail spoiler that brought the whole look together. Personally, I could live without the shaker, I find them silly and distracting but oh! That duck tail rear spoiler.

If you're wondering, the way you can tell which engine a Can Am had, aside from opening up the hood, is by what decal is on the shaker. Same goes for 1977-1979 Trans Am's. "6.6 LITRE", like our subject has, denotes the Oldsmobile 403 while "T/A 6.6" means the car has the Pontiac 400.

So, why did Pontiac build a limited run of very unique automobiles at the end of a vehicle platform's production run? Who knows. Perhaps it was to appease Jim Wanger. Who? Read on. Can Am's began their very short lives in 1975 as a bicentennial themed automobile called, "All American". Pontiac executives rejected the idea seeing that the market was flooded with bicentennial themed cars and the similar looking Grand Am of 1973-1975  was not exactly a high volume automobile either. So, the prototype for the All American sat behind Pontiac engineering headquarters for upwards of a year until Jim Wanger, Pontiac's legendary, former P. R. whiz, working as a consultant for Pontiac by then, saw the car and came up with an idea for a GTO like automobile that could inject some much needed pizzaz into Pontiac's lineup. Take note of that handsome spoiler.



 

Wanger called his concept "The Judge", after his 1969 GTO but it was a tough putt. Muscle cars were verboten in the late '70's and Pontiac executives rejected it. Keeping the 1969 Judge's black and orange striping, they did approve this car that was named after the Can American sports car racing series that was run between 1966 and 1987. Is this car a sports car? No. Was the Pontiac Trans Am ever a "Trans Am" car". Umm, no...the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 was, though. Gosh how I love General Motors.

 

Seeing that all of the conversion work would be done at Wanger's own shop, "Motorworks", we can hypothesize that GM probably acquienced and green lighted a maximum of 5,000 Can Am's. What did they have to lose? At Wanger's shop,  the LeMans' received it's Can Am stripes, shaker, special hood and it's infamous spoiler. Legend has that after only 1,377 Can Am's were built, the tooling broke that made the spoiler. With the cost to repair it at the time prohibitive and the model year running out, time also ran out on the Can Am. Shame too. Really nice car.