HPP: Was this the real reason the Can Am was cancelled?
JW: There was another reason why the decision was made so quickly to stop the Can Am. The year 1977 was the last for the Grand Prix in its full-size configuration and Pontiac knew there was going to be tremendous enthusiasm for it. It put together a marketing plan, which combined the popular options that were included on this car into a package, and that showed the customer he was buying a car with the equipment he wanted at a significantly lower price than he would have paid for it in 1976.
The Grand Prix, consequently, became an absolute sales monster in '77. One of the key components to the Can Am package was the instrument panel from the Grand Prix. As the Grand Prix became successful (more than 285,000 were sold in 1977), the idea of robbing parts was not popular with the people who ran the Grand Prix program. When the opportunity to regain many of these instrument panels reserved for the Can Am became a possibility, Pontiac moved very quickly and said in effect, "We will not build any more Can Ams. Let's grab these instrument panels and build more Grand Prixs." That's one of the real reasons why the Can Am program was stopped so abruptly. That story never got out.
HPP: What is your favorite feature of the Can Am?
JW: I liked the rear deck spoiler and the shaker hood. The spoiler was just beautiful. It looked like it was absolutely designed for the LeMans right from the beginning. I think the shaker hood package on the Can Am made the car a Trans Am with some room in it; that's what the dealers really liked about it. If a Trans Am was too small, now you could get a Trans Am with some real room in it called the Can Am that had the same powertrain.
HPP: What was your least favorite feature of the Can Am?
JW: The front ends on all mid-'70s LeMans were just downright ugly, in my opinion.
HPP: In retrospect, should the Can Am have been named GTO or the Judge?
JW: I don't think it would have been appropriate. The GTO nameplate deserved a much more sophisticated package. I was very much against the idea of calling it a GTO. The original concept of the Judge, which I was heavily involved in, too, was kind of a spoof. We were laughing at ourselves a little bit, laughing at the whole concept of the the so-called musclecar by installing, what in 1969, was an absolutely ludicrous stand-up rear deck spoiler. You look at it today and you say, "So what."
But in 1969, that stand-up rear deck spoiler was outrageous. I'm on record and it's pertinent enough to bring it up here. I didn't want to see a '70 Judge, or a '71 Judge. I felt that the '69 Judge was a "hype" car. It was what I called a one-year wonder that should have been dropped after '69 because it was a "promotion." The Can Am was a "hype" car, too. My idea in presenting this thing in the first place, which is why I was enthusiastic about bringing it back as a Judge, was that it was a "hype" car just like the '69 Judge.
HPP: Did Pontiac ever consider a '78 Can Am?
JW: Yes. Pontiac was excited enough about the Can Am when it first went into production that it decided it would like to see what the Can Am would look like on a '78 car. They sent a prototype of the new downsized '78 car to Motortown, and the company created a Can Am package. However, there was no engine package available for it. Pontiac had embarrassed itself with its 301 engine, and it was nowhere near anything that could be called a performance package. It was very close to approving the '78 Can Am without a shaker hood in it, or any real performance overtones, but it was a very cute-looking little car. When Pontiac abruptly stopped production on the '77 Can Am, though, it killed any idea of doing it again in 1978.
HPP: How was your personal Can Am optioned?
JW: I had a white one with red interior, and a T/A 6.6L engine. Needless to say, we did a little Royal Bobcatting on it. Of course, Royal was no longer around, but we still knew what to do to make those 400s run. I had a reasonably quick one, and, quite honestly, bypassing some of the emissions controls helped make that into a reasonably competitive car. I had one out on Woodward Avenue and had a ton of fun with it.
HPP: Did you ever get a timeslip on your personal Can Am?
JW: We were lucky enough to get it into the high 14s and that was about as good as it got. Of course, it was not really modified for the strip; it was a 100 percent street car. The average one would run high into the 15s. I'd say we knocked about a second off.
HPP: If you had to do it today, would there be a Can Am?
JW: That's a very difficult question to answer because you have to understand Pontiac's marketing philosophy today. If I was involved, I would have all of those great Pontiac names back in production. As you know, the way it's thinking over there now, it doesn't want anything to do with the heritage of the Wide Track era of the '60s. There's no Bonneville, no Grand Prix, no LeMans, no GTO, no Firebird, no Trans Am. It wants to distance themselves from those wonderful "Glory Days."