1973-1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo's aren't for everyone, but they most certainly are for me. And this 1977 I found for sale on Facebook Marketplace with an eye-watering asking price of $25,000 is the best looking one I've seen in years.
This one is just the way I'd order mine back in 1977 with Chevrolet "Rally rims", no moronic landau vinyl top, "Special Custom Interior" and a god's-green-earth, 170-horsepower Chevrolet 350 cubic-inch V-8 under hood. Shout out to fans of Rochester Quadra-Jets too. The 145-horse, Chevy 305 was the base engine and most '77 Monte's I've seen have that engine, not the 350.
About the only thing I do to this delicate flower is swap out the whitewalls for BF Goodrich Radial T\A's with raised white letters. Ahem, you can take the 1970's and 1980's away from the boy, but you can't take the boy away from them.
I was too young when these came out to have remember if I had any opinion on their crazy styling, but since these were everywhere in the 1970's and into the '80's when I came of driving age, I remember not being enamored by them; my now appreciation for them being a long, slow boil. When I was a kid, I thought their overt, swoopy fenders overbearing and I much preferred the cleaner, simpler lines on the oh-so-similar Malibu Classic. Now I see a Malibu of this vintage and I can't help but wonder what it was I once saw in them. Funny how my taste in cars has become more juvenile the older I get.
1977 was a literal big year for Monte Carlo sales with Chevrolet moving more than 400,000 of them. Think about that - 400,000+ grossly impractical, big on the outside, tiny on the inside personal luxury coupes sold. Makes no sense now, of course, but in the salad days of disco, for a Corvette, one of these was what you wanted to be seen in. These were the perfect second cars for upwardly mobile families too; a station wagon or sedan for him and one of these for her. And he would be perfectly at home driving this too. A perfect, "non-gender specific" ride if you will.
Driving wise, they were run-of-the-mill GM fare for the day. A reasonably compliant ride, adequate but hardly sporting thrust (especially with the 350), good brakes and benign if comfortable enough front seats that were fine for the non-aggressive driving. Cornering? Please. That wasn't what these were designed for. The back seat was fine for adults on shortish jaunts, I wouldn't want to be stuck back there on long trips. You can see in the above photo just how much leg room there wasn't in one of these.
Which is crazy considering the overall size of these cars. Chevrolet Monte Carlo's and Pontiac Grand Prix' rode on the four-sedan version of General Motors 1973 vintage intermediate chassis. And all the extra girth was in front of the firewall where it made absolutely no sense other than designers were able to draw up the largest hoods of any car on the road at the time. Come to think of it, probably of all time too. While it makes no sense, it makes total sense to me. I believe it was Winston Churchill who was quoted as saying there's nothing more necessary than the unnecessary.
The styling was an exaggeration of the 1970-1972 Monte Carlo's "suitcase fender" motif that it and of itself was a tip of the fedora to the "classic cars" of the 1930's. If that's not readily apparent, it is when it's pointed out on the 1973-1977's models. The best was these cars became fashion statements above and beyond what they portended to be. That's what I call hitting the bullseye of a niche target and enjoying wide, mainstream appeal.
GM rode the tailpipes of these cars to the bank. Shame what they replaced these with come 1978 were so damn cartoony looking. Those homely little cars I swear I will never warm up to. Meanwhile, I'm saving space for one or more of these in my "Jay Leno Fantasy Garage".
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