If there was any issue with Pontiac's 1988 Grand Prix SE, that Motor Trend awarded Pontiac their vaunted "Car of the Year" golden calipers for, it was its 130-horsepower, 2.8-liter, 60-degree V-6. For an automobile with so much going for it and pretense of performance, while a better appliance than any Grand Prix prior, it was more-or-less all show and little go.
More go and even more show came for model-year 1989 when Pontiac partnered with the American Sunroof Corporation and McClaren and debuted the Grand Prix Turbo. Our literal barn find here is a 1990 I found for sale on Facebook Marketplace recently outside Ford Wayne, Indiana. It's been sitting in this barn since 2002, doesn't run, has four flat tires and has as an asking price of $3,500. I have no idea if that's a good price for this or not. I'd say it's "ambitious".
Making all of 205-horsepower and 220-foot pounds, compared to Grand Prix' with the non-turbo engine these were quick, or quicker, dropping 0-60 times from approximately 10-seconds to approximately 8.0, quarter mile from 17.5- to 15.7-seconds. Pontiac only built these engines in 1989 and 1990 offering them in the 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix STE (four-door sedan) as well. These were the only 60-degree, GM V-6's ever offered with forced induction.
GM's myriad divisions still had some modicum of autonomy in the late 1980's and Pontiac went "turbo" with these cars rather than put GM's 3.8-liter V-6 in them like Buick did starting in 1990 on their Regal. Oldsmobile opted for a 180-horsepower "high output" Quad4 as a performance option for 1990 only. Chevrolet didn't put the LQ1, "Dual Twin Cam V-6" into their Lumina's starting in '91. Pontiac dropped the turbo engine for the Grand Prix after 1990 opting for the LQ1, Oldsmobile as well for 1991 dropping the high-output Quad4.
Pontiac had me with the hood louvers, cladding and lovely wheels on these things but damn, these were expensive. Some $10,000 more all-in compared to what I paid for my brand new 1990 Chevrolet Lumina Euro coupe. You get what you pay for, though. Whereas my Euro's interior had all the charm of a Tupperware bowl, the GP Turbo was the lap of hedonistic luxury.
I mean, look at these seats! To adjust the rake on my car's driver's seat, there was a lever you pulled up on to rock the seat back and forth. It felt as primitive as a Model-T back then, now, it seems quaint and old-timey. Trust me, it seemed out of place thirty years ago too.
As GM streamlined their engines doing away with most of the divisional autonomy, they put the 3800 Series II in the Grand Prix starting in1997. They also offered the supercharged 3800 in the top-drawer GTP models. That made for quite the track star, everything being relative of course.
To us car wonks, "barnfinds" are supposed to be mystical beasts hidden below canvas tarps that were stored years ago for whatever reason and need little more than a good cleaning, a fluid rinse and belt and hose changes. It's never that simple, of course, and this one here looks to need more than a good power washing. The thirty-year-old electronics would have me reaching $3,500 worth of Pepto too.
No comments:
Post a Comment