COMPLETE TEST DATA AT THE of this page.
A lot of fuss is being made by three divisions of General Motors
this year about how "European" their intermediate size cars are
in certain ways. Chevrolet inspired by the handling of a Mercedes
their general manager had been driving, gave the Monte Carlo's
steering a lot of caster to capture the German car's
straight-line stability. Pontiac came up with a variation on the
common (among all GM's intermediates) chassis called the Grand
Am, which set out to imitate some of the flavour of European GTs.
Oldsmobile did a Cutlass Salon with much the same flavour as the
Grand Am - tightened-up chassis, and a somewhat European-style
interior. All three of these cars have front disc brakes and
steel-belted radial tires as standard equipment, and the Pontiac
even has a steering-column headlight dimmer switch! All pretty
alien for U.S. cars.
So we just had to try these machines and the Grand Am was the
first to be delivered into our hands. The model is available as
coupe or sedan with 112 or 116 in. wheelbase respectively, ours
was the coupe. It's overall length, considered "intermediate" by
the U.S. car industry, is what we call large at 208.6 in. and it
weighs over two tons. As a variant on the LeMans series, it does
go in the direction of a European sedan, combining a lot luxury
equipment and extensive sound deadening with a firm (for the
U.S.) chassis: it has the stiffest front anti-roll bar in the
series and a rear bar as standard (though not as stiff as the '73
GTO's). Wheels and tires are also proportionally huge 7 in. wide
rims and G70-15 radials. So it's what you might call a serious
road car.
Would that it's body were as serious. There seems to be no letup
in the Detroit design philosophy at least yet, of designing
cars for maximum 'gee whiz" effect and never mind logic or
form-follows-function. The Grand Am suffers. besides its size,
elaborate sculpturing that seems to be straining to recall the "
Glorious Past", imitating hoods of the 1930s, fenders of the
1940s and the general decadence of the 1950s when automobiles
went their merry' way, ignoring any logical or environmental
considerations. It's certainly not that GM Styling is
incompetent; cars like the Vega, Camaro or Firebird show how well
the giant company can do. But the Grand Am is not really in the
same class-it's merely commercial-and in five years it'll look
merely old fashioned.
All right. If we can't take the Grand Am's outer skin seriously,
what about its interior? Here the designers and decorators have
made an attempt at being European. The vinyl upholstery of our
test car was monochromatic, if somewhat over-pleated. and all
instruments and controls are set into a well-arranged panel
overlaid with a thin veneer of mahogany. The gauges are round,
well marked and fully visible and there's color coding on the
heat control just like that on some Europeans. The front seat
have typical U.S. electric adjustments (an option on the test
car) but in addition there are distinctly Continental-style knobs
to adjust seatback angle and lumbar support firmness. On the
latter we couldn't detect much difference, and overall the seats
were seemingly over-contoured and difficult to get comfortable
in. The steering wheel is very nice-simply designed and with a
fairly thick padded rim, but angled awkwardly off to the right.
The interior is not particularly large for such a large car, but
that's normal U.S. practice.
Whether or not the seating is very good, the interior is most
assuredly well climate-controlled and quiet. The big engine loafs
at freeway speed. totally inaudible beneath the subdued level of
wind and road noise.
A large variety of engines is available in the Grand Am, and
they're all big ones, ranging from the 170-bhp. 400-cu-in. V-8 of
our test car (2V carburetor. single exhaust) to what is nearly
the most powerful engine in any domestic car this year, a
310-bhp. 455-cu-in. V-S. The mild engine is typically smooth and
quiet. generates torque of a magnitude capable of spinning the
rear wheels freely on a standing start, and uses fuel the the
tune of 11 mpg in average driving. It drove through the
excellent, smooth Turbo Hydra-matic in our test car.' 3-speed and
4-speed manual gearboxes are to be had with certain of the more
powerful engines. As the Road Test Results show, our car was not
fantastically quick. but its acceleration was brisk enough for
real driving conditions and any hotter engine would offer that
much more. The engine of the test car suffered normal 1973
drivability quirks ~ pronounced lean surge at sub-urban steady
speeds and poor cold starting-plus an unexplained occasional
forward surge as the engine seemed to open its own throttle a few
extra degrees.
The Grand-Am's road behaviour combines ride and handling to a
higher degree than earlier American efforts at "road cars", but
it's still clear that the car's suspension system isn't a
sophisticated one. Over good roads the ride is comfortable
without making passengers seasick-quite satisfactory. But when
the going isn't so good, it turns out that the big Pontiac
develops some pretty standard U.S. car traits: the front end
floats when coming out of gentle undulations at speed and one has
to slow down for a dip to prevent the front and rear suspension
from bottoming.
For cornering on a smooth, steady turn, the Grand Am on its big
radials will work up to a pretty decent lateral loading - nearly
O.7g, just below a BMW Bavaria in standard form. If the corner
isn't a steady-radius or smooth one, however, the Grand Am gets
dicey-simply because its power steering is almost devoid of any
road feel. Thus any corrections needed to keep the car on course
have to be made on an observe-and-try basis rather than on the
basis of direct reactions and counter-reactions at the wheel.
This power steering is what we've been getting from domestic
carmakers for years: power steering fo parking, not for driving.
If the road is wet the problems are compounded since the Uniroyal
radials used have little side grip in the rain. Braking is
somewhat more satisfactory and the Grand Am's stopping distances
on dry pavement are truly short. The extreme forward weight bias
of the car helps insure that it's the front wheels that lock up
and this they do with a vengeance so that it takes a lot of foot
modulation to unlock them. But at least the car doesn't go
slithering about.
In another area of 'handling," city-traffic maneuverability the
size of the Grand Am is somewhat limiting. Thanks to the
stylishly louvered quarter windows, one can see to make simple
lane changes well enough but the angle of these limits which
direction they allow vision, and for instance they may not allow
the driver to see what's coming from the right at an intersection
with a road at an acute angle in that direction. We suppose it's
going to take a government standard on vision (there is one
already proposed) to stop this sort of monkey business in a
critical area of car safety-outward vision.
The Grand Am is a car that was designed for effect, and it
certainly affects different people different ways. It drew
admiring glances and even an occasional question from those who
own cars of comparable size and styling Others simply sneered at
it. But the most remarkable reaction of all was that of the
would-be track star who, upon discovering the Grand Am parked
outside overnight, was inspired to take a running start from the
rear and stride right up over its deck, roof and hood.
Wonder if
the GM stylists had that in mind?
Navigation
Back to Grand Am Literature
Back to A-body Literature
© 2002 AD 
abody1@telusplanet.net
Get your own Free Home Page