What is that? The greasy kid passing out directions from his command post next to the gas pump hadn't spoken, but you could read his thoughts as clearly as if they had been printed on the lenses of his plastic sunglasses. Pon-ti-ac Can-Am. What's a CanAm? Does the hood scoop work? Look at that paint job, willya? Far out! Man, oh man, I bet that guy can pick up the chicks in that thing. I sure could, bet your ass on that. CanAm, huh? Does that mean Pontiac is back to buildin' hot cars? Hot Damn, would I love to have that thing. Hot Damn!
No doubt about it. If you want to make a big hit on the strip it would be tough to find anything better than the newest Pontiac roadburner, the CanAm. Being stared at for driving around in strange cars is nothing new. But sometimes being seen in a weird car is not unlike walking around with your pants unzipped; you aren't sure whether the people are staring because they're idly curious, amused, or would like to have one like it. When it came around to the CanAm, it was obvious the majority of the streetwise wanted one just like it.
Why not? Especially since it's from Pontiac, and based on a Le Mans, the big intermediate that has roots in the Tempest, a line that also spawned the GTO and the Grand Am. Ghost of the Goat? Not quite, but enough of a goodie machine to warm the hearts of those who have been disappointed in their annual treks to the showroom floor, searching in vain for something to light their fires.
Outside it's all big, swoopy muscle car. You can get it only in white with the YELLOW-ORANGE-RED stripe treatment along the sides, across the back and in the lettering. But even though it definitely has dy-no-mite looks, it isn't really gaudy; in fact, in a market where the gaucheness factor is often proportional to the sales chart, the CanAm is damned clean. The body changes from the stock Le Mans are even-well, restrained. A TransAm hood scoop sticks up in front of you, louvered quarter-windows hide what you're doing in the back seat and a fiberglass spoiler across the rear deck provides a handy billboard spot for one of the four "CanAm" logos, the other three going one each on the hood and the front fenders. Besides the CanAm identification the hood scoop will say TIA 6.6 if you live in the EPA-controlled 49 states and just 6.6 if you live in California or high altitude counties, and no matter where you live the hood, sides and spoiler will be accented by the hot stripes, stripes repeated in miniature on the sport mirrors and the scoop. Chrome trim around the windows is blacked out, and the whole enchilada Sits on big, raised-white-letter tires with mag-look-alike wheels. It hardly needs a showroom. And the guys who run the showrooms, the dealers, know it, having ordered many more than Pontiac ever planned to build. For years those dealers have been left with giving pitiable excuses to prospective customers who were looking for wheels with some snap, but now they've got some iron that is right on, brother!
Right on!? Yes indeed, because not only is the CanAm this week's hot setup on the street, it has also got some muscle to back it up. Now, mind you, the days of cars that screamed and stomped the earth are over, but if you live in the greater 49 states your CanAm will be fresh in your driveway with the T/A 400 engine, the strongest thing to come from Motown in years. Having 200 horsepower may not seem like much; it was just a few years ago when that number was a little anemic for even family station wagons. Real muscle cars had at least twice that. But a 1977 car that runs the quarter-mile near 17 seconds flat atjust a shade over 80mph is a real rarity. The CanAm does that. It also is one of the few cars you can buy that will still break the once-easily shattered 10 second mark to 60. It hardly pillages the asphalt, but at least you won't be embarrassed, and if you pick your opponents from among those less than two or three years old you will have no trouble at all. Rave heart men, performance is coming back, and it seems only natural it should be Pontiac that gets things going again.
Another thing you sort of expect from Pontiac is that it will go around a corner better than the rest. No disappointment here either, at least when you consider the heft of the basic Le Mans. At well over two tons the big honker still managed to circulate our skidpad at a far-more-than-just-respectable 0.75g average. It understeers-so what else is new, there's almost 24OOpounds on the front tires!-but it's certainly not the gushing, uncontrollable plowing we have all come to know and hate in our two-ton-plus domestic cars. Considering the origins, everything about the handling is pretty good.
The basis for the performance and handling involves some subtle little massage techniques from the boys in Pontiac engineering's back room. Performance is helped by an automatic transmission-the GM 400 unit; the CanAm is the only A-body to get it-that shifts for itself at 4500 rpm, a real shocker in these days of 3800 rpm shifting, and it makes those shifts hard and clean. The Can-Am also gets a 3.23 axle, again, no real stormer in view of what has been, but among the lowest final drives you can find anywhere in the days of 2.50: 1 rear axles. The correctness of the shift points and the more favorable axle ratio are a big part of the performance boost; the car shifts itself into top gear after it has finished the quarter-mile. Handling is helped by Pontiac's RTS (radial-tuned suspension) package, which includes the usual tweaking of the suspension parts, and the Ca-am also has front and rear anti-roll bars; not as big as on the TransAm and biased a little too strongly towards the front, but at least big enough to keep the door handles off the pavement.
So what if the fuel economy is lousy? Trunk space marginal? It's ponderous in a parking lot? Who cares? Not those dealers who know they can sell every one they can get. And not that kid giving out directions from his gas pump command post.
You see, he's already out there. His reverie has him sittin' square and pretty in that seat, the FM radio is screeching out the hard rock of whoever the current superstar is, and as the noise pounds out of the speaker he's just sittin' there bein' cool, man, so cool. Kinda slouched, with one hand light on the wheel, eyes on the look, but cool, man, for a nice set of soft places and long tan thighs to sort of slip in beside him. If not that, maybe he'll just find some funny little sporty car and blow it off the road. His eyes follow us all the way, until we're gone. And you can tell, if he had something like a Can Am, things would be OK, friend, OK.
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