1973 LeMans GT

This was the first brand-new car that I ever bought. Bought it straight off Jim Detzler Pontiac's "Ugly Little Showroom" in downtown Oswego, Illinois. The above picture is a Polaroid which was customarily taken by the dealer. They took two, one of which they provided to the customer, and the other went on a big bulletin board in the showroom. My sister, Esther, co-signed, and is holding the Champagne (another Detzler tradition) because I wasn't yet of legal drinking age.

The car was a beautiful medium blue, with very fine-grained metal flake, and the spiffy side stripe is white. I've only ever seen one other like it, and that one didn't have the louvers in the rear quarter windows. It had a 350 cu. in. 2-barrel engine, and automatic trans. The GT option consisted of the fancy paint and bucket seats (though it had no center console). And that was about it for options; it was actually quite a plain-Jane car.

Though I liked the car, I sold it after about 2 years, wanting something with a little more oomph. It was a fine car; reliable, nice-looking, and it handled well, despite the fact that it didn't have Pontiac's then new Radial Tuned Suspension. I continued to see it on the road for more than a decade after I sold it, then it disappeared.

<next car in series>

<return to auto index>