What Engine Got here In The 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix & How A lot Is One Value At this time?

The Pontiac Grand Prix made its first look within the American automaker’s lineup within the early Sixties. In its earliest years of manufacturing, it was thought of certainly one of the producer’s extra underrated muscle automobile builds, boasting smooth traces and correct V8 Pontiac energy underneath the hood. The Grand Prix continued to rank amongst Pontiac’s extra under-the-radar muscled-up builds for many of the decade, and even into the Seventies. All through the ’70s, nonetheless, the Grand Prix started a wild transition from smooth coupe to the boat-sized behemoths that have been hitting the highway within the latter a part of the last decade.

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Although nearly absurdly massive, the inventory V8 engines ensured these early-to-mid-’70s beasts have been nonetheless pushing correct muscle automobile energy. Nonetheless, the Grand Prix obtained a dramatic facelift in 1978, with Pontiac lastly reigning within the comically outsized method to the automobile, trimming greater than a foot from its size and over 600 lbs. from its total weight. Maybe not surprisingly, the downsizing of the Grand Prix didn’t cease with the construct’s physique dimension, with Pontiac additionally making an under-the-hood change by nixing the V8 engine as a regular possibility.

Pontiac’s engineering staff as a substitute opted to make its 231ci (3.8 L) V6 engine normal in base fashions of the Grand Prix construct. Drivers may nonetheless improve to Pontiac’s 301ci V8 engine for an extra value, with the automobile’s base V6 reportedly able to delivering round 105 hp and the V8 improve pushing the ponies to between 140 hp and 150 hp.  

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Regardless of the foremost downgrade in muscle, the 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix was nonetheless fairly highly effective for a coupe in its class. In fact, these horsepower numbers are a far cry from the 300 to 400 hp that among the early Sixties Grand Prix builds have been pushing, and even shy of the 185 hp of the large mid-70s fashions. One can, in fact, posit that Pontiac’s palms have been just a little tied within the mid-to-late ’70s as a result of decade’s devastating power disaster, and you’ll probably chart the Grand Prix’s normal decline in energy to the onset of upper gasoline costs and gas shortages.

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Regardless of the case, the boxier, powered-down variations of the Grand Prix builds that confirmed up in ’78 are arguably much less revered than many fashions that got here earlier than and after. It ought to come as no shock then that the automobiles aren’t fairly as wanted on the resale market as a few of their predecessors.

For level of reference, Hagerty claims {that a} base mannequin 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix in good situation may web you round $37,000, with Basic.com noting the common worth at simply over $30,000. Per Basic.com, the resale numbers for the ’78 Grand Prix are considerably decrease, with the positioning noting the common worth at simply over $13,000. Basic.com claims $22,000 as the highest resale quantity for a ’78 prior to now few years, although it is value stating that the $22,000 sale was a Grand Prix with the extra fascinating 301ci V8 engine. Nonetheless, these resale values are adequate rank the ’78 period automobiles nicely above a number of different generations of the Pontiac Grand Prix. 

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