1973 Pontiac GTO: an option on the new Colonnade LeMans

For 1973 the GTO remained an option on the LeMans, now riding GM's new Colonnade body, offered as a coupe and a sport coupe. This record's own overview states plainly that no factory or compiled production table was found for the year, so the 4,806-car total, split as 494 coupes and 4,312 sport coupes, rests entirely on secondary automotive histories rather than on a Pontiac production document. The sport coupe accounts for roughly nine cars in ten of that total, 4,312 of 4,806, leaving the plainer coupe body as a distinctly smaller share of the year's output.^1,2

This record's own production notes describe both of its secondary sources, MuscleCarClub.com and Old Car Memories, as following the same Standard Catalog lineage rather than independently confirming one another, and state that no factory table, and no engine, transmission, paint or trim count of any kind, was found for 1973 beyond the bare 4,806 total and its two-way body split. That gap carries through the record: the two Pontiac brochures read for this year print no production figure, no price and no option code, so every price in this record is null, meaning unpublished in the sources read and never free, and no option, paint or interior carries an install count. The prices and performance sections stay empty for the same reason.¹

Two engines are documented, both rated on the SAE net standard with no accompanying gross figure: a standard 400 four-barrel at 230 hp and 325 lb-ft, and an optional 455 four-barrel at 250 hp and 370 lb-ft. Neither engine carries a production count of its own in this record, leaving the split between 400- and 455-equipped 1973 GTOs entirely undocumented within the sourced material this record draws on.^1,2

Two unpublished leads bear on that missing 455 count specifically: a commercial blog claims 544 of the 4,806 GTOs carried the 455, though this record's own note states that the page itself, once fetched, did not actually contain that 544 figure despite the claim being attributed to it, and a separate autoevolution news feature repeats the same 544-car figure paired with Turbo Hydra-Matic transmissions specifically, sourced to a single auction-listing story rather than to a cited factory or Pontiac Historic Services record. This record adopts neither figure, keeping both as leads pending confirmation from Pontiac Historic Services or the Standard Catalog directly.¹

Two Pontiac brochures, both marketing material, describe how a buyer got a GTO in 1973, and both present it as an extra on the two-door LeMans rather than as a separate model. The LeMans brochure tells the reader that ordering the GTO package turns a LeMans into the legendary GTO, with a scooped hood, blacked-out grille, firm suspension and wide tires, and it pictures a two-door Colonnade hardtop with the available GTO package in Ascot Silver. Its facts page lists the GTO Option as two-door only and as including a heavy-duty 3-speed floor shift, the 400 4-bbl. V-8, G60-15 blackwall tires, dual exhausts with chrome extensions, a blacked-out grille, hood scoops, firm shocks, large front and rear stabilizer bars, 15 x 7 in wheels, moon-style hubcaps and GTO identification. The Sport Coupe brochure lists the same package in nearly the same words. Neither prints a price or an option code, so this record leaves both blank.

Around the GTO Option the brochures list the rest of the LeMans line's equipment, and this record scopes each item to the line rather than to the GTO unless the brochure ties it to the package. The Handling Package (G60-15 tires, power steering, firm shocks, 15 x 7 in wheels and large stabilizer bars) and the Firm Ride Package (firm shocks and high rate springs) appear in both; the Decor Group appears only in the LeMans brochure and the Protection Group and Morrokide bucket seats only in the Sport Coupe brochure; a manual or power sunroof is offered on two-door cars. Available engines are the 350 2-bbl., the 400 2-bbl. and 4-bbl., the 455 4-bbl. and, on two-door cars, the SD 455, over a standard 250-cu.-in. six. A brochure lists what was advertised as available, not what was built, and neither brochure says which of these engines could be combined with the GTO Option beyond the 400 4-bbl. it includes.

Both brochures print the same sixteen exterior colors: Starlight Black, Cameo White, Porcelain Blue, Admiralty Blue, Regatta Blue, Mesa Tan, Desert Sand, Golden Olive, Verdant Green, Slate Green, Brewster Green, Florentine Red, Ascot Silver, Burnished Umber, Valencia Gold and Burma Brown. The Poorman's Off Chassis Restoration body-plate page supplies Pontiac's numeric paint code for each, and lists three further 1973 codes, Buccaneer Red, Navajo Orange and Sunlight Yellow, that neither brochure names, so this record marks them as body-plate entries only. Interior colors are printed per exterior color, and the two brochures give different lists: the LeMans brochure offers white, beige, black, blue, green and saddle, while the Sport Coupe brochure offers white, black, blue, chamois, saddle and burgundy. This record keeps them as separate rows because they describe different pages of the line, and it is not a conflict between the sources.³

The brochures' two-door dimension figures agree with each other: a 112.0 in wheelbase, 207.4 in overall length, 77.7 in width, 52.9 in height, a 61.5 in front and 60.7 in rear track, and a 15.1 cu ft trunk, with a 21.5 gal fuel tank, a 13.3 qt cooling system and a 4.0 qt oil refill. Standard equipment on the LeMans line includes F78-14 blackwall tires, front disc brakes, a coil-spring suspension and a heavy-duty perimeter-type frame, while the GTO Option swaps in G60-15 tires on 15 x 7 in wheels. The brochures print no curb weight, no horsepower or torque for any engine and no performance figure, so the specifications section holds only what they state and does not borrow weights or ratings from another year or another model.

This record's identification section documents the body-plate coding scheme in detail: a plate riveted to the top left cowl under the hood carries the build date, a style number identifying year, series and body style, an assembly-plant prefix and production sequence, the trim code, and both a lower and an upper paint code. This record's own example plate for the year reads Build Date 07A, Style 73-2XY17, Body L 277XXX, Trim 216 A52, Paint 29 29, decoding to a car built in the first week of July at the Van Nuys, California plant. Eleven assembly-plant codes are documented in total, running from Atlanta and Baltimore through Lordstown, Southgate, Kansas City, Linden, Fremont, Framingham, Oshawa and Van Nuys, alongside Pontiac, Michigan itself. The example plate's paint code, 29, is Admiralty Blue on the same page's paint table. No conflict is logged for 1973, because the two brochures agree on dimensions, paint names and the substance of the GTO Option, and their different interior color lists describe different lines. No dealer price sheet, owner's manual or period road test was located, which is why prices, install counts, weights and performance figures remain empty.³