When you mention a "Can Am" most people imagine off road ATVs or
the 3 wheel motorcycle manufacturer. Well in this case it is
referring to a rare and unique 1 year only exclusive midsize muscle
car. It was built by Pontiac and was an option package applied to
the LeMans sport coupe. They were introduced midway through the
production year at the January 1977 North American International
Auto Show in Detroit. It was named for the Can Am racing series
building on the Grand Prix, Lemans, and Trans Am race theme.
Interestingly, Pontiac envisioned producing 2,500 of them but the
public jumped on the release and 5,000 orders rapidly piled up.
During the builds the mold used to create the rear spoiler broke
causing production to cease around 1,377 completed. Pontiac felt
interest in the Can Am was hurting their Grand Prix model so they
ultimately scrapped the project. All of the cars were painted White
with Yellow, Orange, and Red accents which were very 70's. This car
was repainted in August 2022 in Summit White with Red, Orange, and
Yellow pearl in the clear to match those accents. It is entirely
rust free and they also had Black along the lower body lines. They
received the Trans Am shaker hood scoop as standard equipment which
let you know this was a "muscle car." One unique option was the
availability of a steel sunroof of which only 9 were made and this
is 1 of them. That makes this '77 quite the rare piece of
automobile history and it comes with the original broadcast sheet
reflecting that option. The glass is all in good condition and
tinted. The original style chrome bumpers have a nice shine as does
all of the trim. It has a great stance and rides on White Pontiac
Rallye II wheels. The fronts are 15x7 with 235/70 Hankook tires. In
back they are 17x10 and are the only set that is known to be made
and were created in 1973 for suspension testing purposes. Those are
wrapped with 275/50 Nitto tires and all tires have less than 2,000
miles on them.
Pop the factory shaker hood and you will find the 400ci 1974
Pontiac motor. It has been mildly modified and there are 15,000
miles on the engine. It now has a Holley Sniper fuel injection
system and it runs great. The 700R4 automatic shifts smoothly and
the rear end gears are 3:73s. This makes it fairly quick and it
cruises down the highway taching around 2150rpm driving at 70mph.
The car sounds great through the 2 1/2 inch dual exhaust into Dyna
Flow UltraMax mufflers. It has a 23.5 gallon fuel tank so long
distance drives are a breeze. It also has 4 wheel power disc
brakes, power steering, air conditioning and custom all aluminum
lower control arms.
The interior is the optional Red color and the seats/headliner have
all been redone in the original style vinyl. The dash was also
recovered in the same material with stitched seams. It has the
stock style engine turned stainless steel inserts on the dash and
console which are all nicely mounted in place. All of the stock
style gauges and controls are there with factory inset AC vents.
The odometer reflects the original mileage of 63,967. Where the
console meets the dash an aftermarket stereo has been added as well
as the control panel for the Sniper EFI tuning. The high back
bucket seats sit to each side of the original console which houses
the "His and Hers" shifter. The car was ordered with power windows,
power locks, remote control sport mirrors, cruise control, tilt
steering column, and of coarse that electric sunroof.
The car has been featured in multiple magazines, like "High
Performance Pontiac", where it has been both a cover car and been
featured in articles multiple times. It is an extremely unique car
and with such low production numbers you don't see many of
them.
ClassicCars.com has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States, successfully making the Inc. 5000 list in both 2015,
2016, 2017 and 2018. This prestigious accolade represents the continued growth of the company, and ClassicCars.com's dominance as the world's largest online marketplace for
buying and selling classic and collector vehicles.
The Stevie Awards, the world's premier business awards recognized
ClassicCars.com's first-class Customer Support team with a Stevie Bronze Award in 2019, celebrating the team's skills as exemplary customer support specialists.
In 2016 The Journal, brought to you by ClassicCars.com, was celebrated as the SECOND MOST INFLUENTIAL automotive blog in the world by NFC Performance.