1976 Pontiac Grand Prix - Frozen In Time

Barn tales of Ram Air cars under bales of hay, GTO's buried in the dirt or stored beside a mobile home under a tarp can all be fascinating when the end result is a beautifully restored automobile. Restored vehicles are great, and are often better and safer than when they were new, but an unrestored example carries with it a different sense of character.

The tale of this Grand Prix SJ begins in 1976, when Sally Gould bought a brand new, near identical Pontiac. It was black with a white Landau top, and white Morrokide upholstery brightened the interior. Rare Hurst T-tops and a host of options made this luxury cruiser a dream to drive. And drive Sally did, logging some 150,000 miles on it. Unfortunately for her and the Pontiac, the harsh Detroit winters took their toll on the big Indian, requiring massive amounts of duct tape to hold the lower eight inches of door and quarter panel together.

Sally moved on to other sources of four-wheeled transportation, but never forgot about her Grand Prix and often reflected on how much she liked it. Over 20 years later, Gould's boyfriend Jim Schmidt, while browsing the classifieds of Smoke Signals, a publication by the Pontiac Oakland Club, came across an ad for a '76 Grand Prix, with a claimed original 1,376 miles. Not only was this a great find, but the ad also stated that this Poncho was an SJ model, black with white interior and a white top.

Jim made a call and bought the Pontiac. Its original owner was one Mary Simone of Indiana and as the story goes, her father bought it for her brand new as a graduation gift. Mary was supposedly a small-framed girl and found the enveloping acreage of Pontiac metal to be a bit much. She eventually moved behind the wheel of a Nova, but her father put the GP in the garage and forgot about it-for 20 years-until he sold it. "I purchased it in Ohio from a very small car dealer," said Schmidt. "I think he knew he had something special and that is why he put it up for sale in Smoke Signals."

Obviously, the connection to Sally's past was reason enough to purchase the Pontiac, but there was an ulterior motive as well. Jim is president of National Parts Depot which, as you may or may not know, supplies restoration parts for classic cars. In addition, he began collecting various low-mileage automobiles in 1989 along with his son Rick, with his garage now swelling to an enviable 145 cars.

By all accounts, it seems to be the real deal as far as the mileage is concerned. "I checked the oil filter and it still has the original metallic blue filter from the factory, so I would think that it has the original oil too," said Jim. While he came up short on the window sticker, opening the glove box offered up the build sheet, operation, maintenance and warranty info on the Hurst T-Tops and two state inspection receipts. One at 392 miles and the other at 738.

The Grand Prix was an SJ model purchased at Don Ayres Pontiac in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and it was delivered with a mere 7 miles on the odometer, according to the warranty information Jim found in the glove box. It was optioned with, among other things, AM/FM 8-track tape player, side protection moldings, and Rally II wheels. But the real extra-cost specialties were the Hurst T-Tops, which were to provide the cool breeze, as the GP did not come with air conditioning or power windows. Those two options alone are the only differences between the Pontiac Sally had back in 1976, and the one you see here, which is one of 29,045 SJs for the year, of a total 228,091 GPs made. (Jim Mattison of PHS related that LJ and SJ production numbers appear to be switched. They are listed officially as 88,232 SJ and 29,045 LJ but he believes that they should be the other way around.)

Under the hood everything is, as you might expect, original with the XT-coded 400ci, four-barrel engine pumping out 185 hp exhaling through a catalytic converter and single exhaust. A PX-code Turbo 400 automatic transmission delivers the torque to the 6AA-coded rear axle.

Under the Hurst hatch roof panels, you'll find a winter wonderland of white upholstery covering the SJ's front bucket seats and a mile-wide rear bench. The SJ-spec shifter pops up through the floor console to position itself in the driver's right hand perfectly.

With the Pontiac's absolutely incredible mileage, you can understand why Sally nor Jim have put any more miles on the Pontiac, but it's not for the reason you think. "We drove it to a car show just a few miles down the road, and it gave our kidneys quite a workout," noted Jim. "The tires must have gone flat or something because they have some really bad flat spots. Sally told me she wouldn't drive it until I put some new tires on it." We're thinking Sally might be waiting a long time seeing as how he hasn't even changed the oil yet, but we're willing to cut Jim some slack. After all, he does have 145 cars to maintain.

As luck would have it, Jim and Sally found an echo of their past in a relatively new '76 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ. No it wasn't a hidden-in-a-barn find. It was something better. It was a car frozen in time.