John DeLorean started his career working on Packard’s Ultramatic Dual Drive System, but he made his biggest mark in the auto industry during the term 1956-1969 in GM’s Pontiac Room. There, he helped develop First production car engine with quiet timing belt instead of a noisy sequence, out of other engineering feats, but his real fame came from developing two models of money printing that were based more on marketing than on machines: GTO and Grand Prix. When GTO get all the attention now, grand opening setting the standard for selling personal luxury coupes selling like crazy for decades to come. Today’s Junkyard Gem is an example of the most powerful Grand Prix available at the turn of the century, found in a self-service yard in the Denver area during the summer.
Grand Prix got front wheel in 1988 and a sedan version for 1990, but then something very beneficial happened in the 1997 model year: turbochargers!
Various flavors of the venerable 3.8 liter jug Buick V6 engine (itself based on the early 1960s Buick 215 V8 and thus a cousin to the Rover V8) take Eaton Blower, starting with the 1992 model year. The Grand Prix wasn’t introduced to the mandatory touch until the 1997 model year, but it retained the boost option until the last Grand Prix marketed in 2008 (The Last Pontiac followed within a few years).
This one makes 240hp, being the King of Grand Prix engines until the 2005 model year (when GXP and its 303-horsepower V8 shown).
The last year for a Grand Prix with a manual transmission was 1993 (there was a three-pedal Grand Prix drought from 1973 to 1988, just to see things in perspective), so this car starts required a four-speed automatic.
The Grand Prix has existed on GM’s W platform for the past two decades, making it a sibling to the Impala, King, and Conspiracy in 2001.
Until the 2004 model year, every W-Body Grand Prix was built at Fairfax Fair in Kansas City (no, NS is different Kansas City). Production of the last generation of Grand Prix takes place in Ontario.
It seemed fitting that this vehicle’s final front-crusher parking spot would be between two other GM products from the same era: a Monte Carlo and a Viberation.
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