Big Green in Fort Green
On a recent beautiful morning I was passing dozens of police cruisers parked sideways across the bike lane in front of the station when I happened upon this:
The 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix in original Berkshire Green Poly! A massive testament to the bygone malaise era tastes of the day.
The surefire way to pick a '77 out of the crowd is the front headlight arrangement; only the '77 had the turn signal placed between the two mammoth square headlights on each side.
Looking down at the front of the car it looks like an entire speedboat is trapped inside the hood! You've gotta love the overabundance of jewelry this thing is wearing too; a stand-up hood ornament, the Pontiac symbol on that schnoz, and Grand Prix by Pontiac written above the far right headlight. Fuzzy dice too? Why not at this point.
The LJ designation means top-shelf, and in 1977 that meant gaudy trappings such as velour interior and pinstripes were included. The model SJ was the sportier version with the slightly higher horsepower engine, but in this era of woeful performance it didn't impress anybody.
Let's take another gander at this long hood/short deck style. This car shares much of the body and underpinnings with it's cousin the Monte Carlo from the same year. You can barely see it in the pics but this does have the massive sunroof option. T-tops were available in '77 too!
The back window wasn't left out of the design process either, gaining a crease right down the middle. Replacing that piece of glass would be a bummer!
Here we get a good sense of just how gargantuan those federally-mandated bumpers are. The car is already huge, and the bumper is just this angular chrome slab basically wrapping around the furthest edges. It looks like the piece of protective styrofoam you immediately discard when unpacking new electronics.
"GP" tangled in a nest of Celtic filigree within a Stop Sign octagon. They just couldn't stop with the faux luxury details once they got going on these beasts.
One more time y'all' this time on the opera windows nestled within the Landau top. No matter how much I might be bagging on this car I bet it's amazingly comfortable to cruise around in, and it is in immaculate condition to boot. Hats off GP! See you at the gas station soon.
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