In the April 2008 issue of Hemmings Classic Car, I mentioned the mystery Pontiac Grand Am/El Camino hybrid that I spotted in the GM Heritage Center and stated that nobody seemed to know much about the car’s creation or reason for existence.
However, I just came across the following photo and mention of the sedan pickup in Thomas E. Bonsall’s “Pontiac: A Complete History, 1926-1986.”
Pontiac had tried for a piece of the El Camino program in 1959 and at least one Pontiac-style El Camino was built (and, in fact, still exists in the hands of a collector). In 1978, Pontiac tried again and the great-looking Grand Am pickup illustrated in this chapter was the result. G.M.C. was to get a piece of this program, using the LeMans trim for a truck that would have been badge-engineered as a G.M.C. (G.M.C. had been selling badge-engineered El Caminos since 1971, but wanted something more distinctive.) The Pontiac-G.M.C. plan was axed at the corporate level, but the Grand Am prototype still exists at the factory. It was recently restored, although with the 1980 grille it picked up along the way.
So there ya go. Who championed it, we don’t know. We do know that John Sawruk directed the restoration of the sedan pickup, though, and I do have his number rattling around here.
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