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Pontiac Grand Prix revamps legend with new wide track stance
Bob Plunkett
Date Posted: 5/10/2005
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Wide Track -- it's back with the redesign of a sport-tinged coupe and sedan which wear the legendary Pontiac name of Grand Prix.
Wide Track refers to the wide stance of Grand Prix's wheels, which stretch to outer limits of a rectangular plan.
A head-on glance of the new aggressive prow reveals a profile with walls of tires extending clear out to curvy sides of the car body.
Wide Track signifies a stable attitude which, when combined with a suspension that's independent at all corners and steering system that's lively and quick to the touch, indicates that Grand Prix in this latest incarnation can perform extraordinary linear feats on pavement.
Then add a supercharged V6 engine and you end up with one slick, sweet sportster.
My first encounter, occurring with throttle-up on a freeway on-ramp, portrayed an exciting character that's as assertive in thrust as sheetmetal seems in daring design.
Driving a pre-production Grand Prix GT sedan which looked more like a rakish coupe, I spent only spare minutes on Rhode Island's I-95 in a rush down western reaches of Narragansett Bay en route to Newport. In the freeway's fast lane, the new Pontiac performed eagerly, displaying more than enough muscle to peg legal speed limits.
More importantly, this car exhibited a solid sensation when lipping over pavement irregularities, and it reacted quickly and with a certain athletic agility when asked to steer clear of lane obstacles like slower traffic.
That broad stance, with wheels spread wide and thick tires canted to a slightly negative camber, created a sensation of stability in motion which felt secure and entirely agreeable.
It was not at all what I had expected from Grand Prix.
The previous generational design, riding on a General Motors platform shared by several tame mid-size companions, had been entirely unremarkable -- and far removed from the original concept for Pontiac's vision of a sporty image statement when the original Grand Prix emerged in 1962.
This latest evolution, new in design from platform to performance hardware, renders an action-oriented Grand Prix that lives up to its racy name.
And it's drop-dead gorgeous.
According to John Manoogian, who led Grand Prix's stylists, "It's a visually complex and in-your-face design."
Swoopy lines of the muscular front include bulging shoulders of wheelwells and low front fascias with foglamps shoved to outer edges of the low horizontal strip. A rakish windshield sets up a low arch roofline that's essentially the same for sedan or coupe.
While designers who fashion both a sedan and coupe typically first develop a more conservative sedan shape to carve out enough room for extra doors, Manoogian noted that his team reversed that process and started with a daring scheme for the coupe.
"We wanted the sedan to look like a sporty coupe, only with a couple of doors added," he confided.
Even bold side mirrors look racy: They're big but aerodynamically sculpted and pinned to body by dual stalks.
Grand Prix's new slick skin conceals the important ingredients which make it behave so lively, beginning with a new safety cage whose underbody has extra longitudinal and cross-car bracing which develop extra rigidity and torsional stiffness when the vehicle moves down the road.
The unibody structure encases a passenger compartment with steel beams designed to absorb and deflect forces of impact, should the car connect with another in a crash.
Special engineering measures merge to create a cabin where road and engine noises are locked out, with road bumps and resultant vehicle vibrations dampened.
The concept extends even to Grand Prix's sport-sized steering wheel, due to the flexible coupling of a steering column which isolates harsh vibrations from the road so the driver won't absorb such shocks in hands and arms.
Still, the rack and pinion setup for steering feels assertive and firm to handle.
To prevent a mushy steering reaction, designers added variable-effort power assistance through a device called Magnasteer, which uses magnetic torsion to raise or lower the degree of effort required to turn the steering wheel.
At lower speed, as when parking, Magnasteer slackens pressure so the wheel turns easily, while at higher speed on a highway, pressure increases so only a slight movement of hands on steering wheel turns the car quickly.
For power, Grand Prix brings choices.
The neck-kicker Grand Prix GT sedan and coupe pack a supercharged version of a 3.8-liter V6 which delivers up to 240 hp.
This engine without supercharger attached, spiked at 195 hp, installs as standard plant in GT sedan or coupe.
Then, as an economical alternative available early in 1997, Grand Prix's base SE sedan will stock a 3.1-liter V6 rated at 160 hp.
An automatic 4-speed transmission links to each of these V6 engines.
Grand Prix's interior design orients toward an active driver, with new firm and sporty front bucket seats, a revised cockpit design with easy-view instrument panel, and new concealed safety systems like dual airbags.
The instrument panel brings large analog gauges, plus a standard graphic module displaying information such as door-ajar, low tire pressure and low oil pressure.
Consoles on floor and ceiling add controls, including handy dual map lights overhead.
Pontiac's head-up display, optional on all models, projects the car's speed, expressed digitally, on the windshield in front of the driver's field of view. Other data also appear when desired -- directional signal, high beam headlamp, low fuel condition, radio tuning, even information about operation of a CD player.
Prices for the new Grand Prix start below $19,600 for SE sedan, with the GT sedan beginning at $20,359.
1997 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
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| Vehicle Specifications: |
| 1997 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX Specs |
| Description: |
Mid-size sports coupe, sedan |
| Model Options: |
Mid-size sports coupe, sedan |
| Wheelbase: |
110.5 inches |
| Overall Length: |
196.5 inches
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| Engine Size: |
OHV 3.1-L V6
OHV 3.8-L V6
OHV 3.8-L V6 SC
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| Transmission: |
Auto/4 |
| Drive: |
Front |
| Braking: |
Power 4-disc/ABS |
| Airbags: |
2 |
| Gas Mileage: |
3.8: 19/30 mpg |
| Price: |
$ 18,580 to $ 26,000 |
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