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

There is no doubt that the Pontiac cars of the 1960s would not have been as exciting as they were without the vision and sheer determination that GM engineer and automobile executive John Delorean had, if he and his team of talented designers and automobile engineers would have taken what would have been normal. 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 on the road at the time the Grand Prix was first launched for the 1962 model year. It was a personal sports car.

Two-door

luxury

car that Pontiac produced to compete with the Ford Thunderbird. It had the performance and

luxury

to make it a popular choice with buyers as the 1960s progressed. Large two-door sports cars were losing sales to mid-size two-doors. John Delorean Cars saw this trend and took a big risk for the

1969

model year. He moved the Grand Prix from its full-size GM b-body platform to the mid-size GM two-body platform that was also used by the

muscle

Pontiac two-door. car, the gto, however, there was a problem: the 1969

grand

prix

did not use the two-door version of the A-body platform like the gto, but would instead use the longer four-door version of the body platform A, which was the first.

At the time, for any two-door GM car, this allowed the Grand Prix to appear considerably larger than a mid-size two-door GTO, with the longer, sleeker exterior appearance of a mid-size two-door luxury car. complete, but was still smaller than its full-size predecessor, the 1968 Grand Prix, the 1969 Grand Prix had a length of 210.2 inches, a width of 75 inches, and a wheelbase of 118 inches, which It was smaller than the 1968 Grand Prix at just 6.1 inches long, 4.8 inches wide and 3 inches wide. wheelbase length, but the 1969 was 500 pounds lighter than the 1968 and the 1969 had a curb weight of just under 3,800 pounds. The Grand Prix was carried over to the

1970

model year with very few changes to the overall exterior styling of the 1969-1970 Grand Prix.

It appeared sleeker, more refined and sportier than the 1968 one. The 1969-1970 Grand Prix design had a hood very long, a short trunk lid and a semi-fast rear roofline that gave the Grand Prix a very sporty and modern look. It even had a special and unique aerodynamic door. handles, it also had a prominent chrome front grille and four headlights along with a rear design that added to its overall modern and sporty appearance. The reason the 1969-1970 Grand Prix styling was so unique was due to its crazy proportions, especially with the protruding front grille and longest hood of any new car back then would surely make any car ugly. ;

However, the shine and boldness of the overall exterior design resulted in a very attractive exterior styling that appealed to

both

traditional luxury car buyers and high-performance car buyers. As an added bonus, Pontiac offered the famous GTO hood as a dealer-installed Grand Prix option for the 1969 to 1970 years. The 1969 to 1970 Grand Prix was available in two different models: the J model was the base model, while that the model sj was the most luxury model the best choice for luxury car fans or high performance car fans was the

grand

prix

sj, it was the perfect combination of

true

performance and luxury, although the model j It wasn't as luxurious, especially on the interior, as the SJ, however, the J was no slouch when it came to luxury, with plenty of standard features and options.

Pontiac did everything possible to achieve perfection in the 1969-1970 Grand Prix. When developing the interior it was very exclusive but also extremely modern, with a dashboard design that curved around the driver, it was one of the most attractive interior designs of its time, there was even a leather seat option for

both

the j model As for the SJ model, as opposed to the 1969 to 1970 Model J Grand Prix, which was standard with the GTO's 350 gross horsepower 400 cubic inch Pontiac. v8 and available with a 265 gross horsepower version of the Pontiac 400 V8, the Grand Prix SJ was standard with Pontiac's larger displacement V8s for these two model years.

For 1969, the SJ was standard with the 428 cubic inch V8 and 370 gross horsepower from

pontiac

, while optional was the super high-performance version of this engine, the 428 ho, which produced a powerful 390 gross horsepower, the 1969 grand prix equipped with the 428 ho was 0 to 60 miles per hour in 6.8 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds, which was as quick as the lightest. in weight Pontiac GTO and many other legitimate

muscle

cars of this era, this type of performance in a luxury car was unheard of at the time, even in a two-door sports luxury car from 1970, the 428 was replaced by the all-new 455 cubic inch

pontiac

. v8 and the 370 gross horsepower high performance version of the 455 called the 455 ho was the standard 1970 grand prix sj engine, the good news was that the 1969 and 1970 grand prix j model could be equipped with either sj engine from 1969 to 1970 for higher Of course, the cost of the 1969 to 1970 sj could be equipped with a four-speed manual transmission or a three-speed automatic transmission.

The same was

true

for the 1969 to 1970 j, except a three-speed manual transmission was also available with the j. very few buyers ordered these two manual transmissions, a large majority of buyers opted for the automatic transmission, plus the 1969 to 1970 Grand Prix was heavy enough to have the ride quality of a larger luxury car that they wanted luxury car buyers, however, also had Braking and steering closer to that of a performance car than a luxury car and on par with some of the best luxury cars. High performance cars of this era, when equipped with the optional handling package, there was a very special low-production Grand Prix in 1970 called the Hearst Ssj, which was a joint venture between Hearst Performance Incorporated and Pontiac, although the SSJ had the look of A serious muscle car, there was no additional horsepower or performance offered under the hood that was not available in the Grand Prix of the same year, however, the SSJ added additional performance-related options and had two extravagant exterior paint schemes to choose.

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, although the 1969-1970 Grand Prix had a luxury car base price. At just under four thousand dollars, it was easy to select a decent number of options to get close to the five thousand dollar mark, this kept the grand prize out of reach for most younger buyers, however, the grand prize It remained extremely popular with many buyers who liked its perfect combination of performance and luxury. Production of the 1969 Grand Prix was 112,486 units, which was almost four times the total production of the 1968 Grand Prix.

The truly striking appearance of the 1969 to 1970 Grand Prix is ​​that it is almost forgotten in today's collector car market. making 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 very much for your support of this channel. Please subscribe as your support is the Reason this channel is a success and be sure to click the bell icon so you never miss a new video release.