1973 Pontiac LeMans Safari

Turned into a GTO wagon. Not a bad effort if you like such things.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-Pontiac-GTO-/162964520507?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

 

Very cool car. Although I’m surprised it’s already up to $12,500 what with the scratches, bubbly paint, and torn headliner. Hope they get more!!

 

It's a nice enough car, but I am a little surprised it already received a bid with a starting bid of $12.5k. I'm sure he has a ton of money into this, but these aren't the most sought out of 70's wagons from what I have seen.

 

I like it

 

I know the guy the seller bought this car from back in 2011. It was a very nice car when I saw it in CT back then, but it did not have the GTO side stripes when I saw it. Almost bought it but I already had one 73 Lemans Safari.

 

I now know who Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick is.

 

Jim your not a Pontiac guy, so I won't hold that against you. He is one of the 3 famous Pontiac Drag racers of the 1960's that continued to run Pontiac V8's after the GM Racing ban of 1963.

He was very competitive in his class well after he should have been with his unfactory supported team. I had the pleasure of announcing his 1st few passes back after a terrible fiery Crash in 2003, at Michigans Lapeer Dragway in 2005. Can't say enough good things about the man.

Here is a link to a Hot Rod article of the crash. I don't think at his age I would have been back racing! Tougher Man than I am!

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0308pon-beswick/

 

not my favourite body style but this one looks like it came from the factory

 

He’s up to $12,800! At this rate they’ll get $13,000. Someone out there has some sentiment towards this car

 

This is the ONLY GTO conversion I've seen on the '73 - '77 mid-sized wagons. Tecnically, you wouldn't be able to do this for the most part, on a LeMans AFTER 1974, because in 1974, the 'GTO' was a Pontiac Ventura II (think Pontiac Chevy Nova) - based vehicle, and no wagon version of those.

 

I think my 73 Lemans Safari 4-speed car is as close as you could get, same 400 4bbl that was the base engine in the GTO of the year, my car also has the factory hood scoops (optional on all Lemans & G/A Body styles, only standard on a GTO) rally Gauges, and a 3.23 Posi Axle. But no GTO emblems, grills, or bucket seat interior.
Krash you are correct for 74 & later. But I have seen some 74/74 Grand Am wagon converions, and one 1977 Can Am wagon conversion.
Here is a picture of the 73 Grand Am Wagon Prototype. Pontiac was very close to offering it for sale.

 

^^ Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that Grand Am conversion, but I was sticking to the 'GTO' theme. Story I heard on the Grand Am wagon is that it was put together by a Pontiac engineer on his own time, using off-the- shelf parts. Wasn't an 'official' Pontiac project, but seems he might have received some division support after it was done.

 

If he would have gone all the way with the conversion, it wouldn't have the bench seat, to start with. He isn't showing us the instrument panel. So, we're left further in the dark. Thanks to possibly intended poor photography, we can't even tell exactly what's under the hood. Well, if he's getting those high bids, it really doesen't matter anyway

 

The car was actually a engineering prototype built as a possible production model. Pontiac Engineer Tom Goad loved the car and was disappointed when it was not approved for production. The car was used by the engineering department as a "parts hauler" for over a year. Tom had expressed interest in buying the car when the company was done using.
Short story is he went on a 2 week vacation in the summer of 1974 and the car was gone when he returned, only the front clip was left in the engineering department. He found out the car had been "reconverted" back to a 73 Lemans Safari, and sold as a used car. A few months later he saw a Silver with red interior Lemans Safari on a local used car lot. He checked it out and it was the car and he bought it. And reunited it with the G/A front clip, including one of about 5 Functional ram air systems designed as an option for the 73 GTO's & G/A's but never released due to noise regulations. The parts were available for a few weeks over the parts counters at the dealers and a few sets were sold, around 3 or 4.
He knew it was the same car before checking the VIN as they did not swap out the Grand Prix/Grand Am style Dash or the G/A Door panels out.

I knew Tom and his family is taking very good care of the 1 of 1 G/A Wagon Production Prototype.

 

That is a pretty cool story. As for the auction car in this thread I think the current bidding is well above what I would consider the ceiling for these cars, but the reserve is not met. I don't know what this guy has in this thing, but I would take that high bid assuming nobody else bids on it.