In the comments on my ’69 Grand Prix post yesterday, one of our commenters, dejal, mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he ever saw one of these sans vinyl top. I had a dim memory of spying one, and after work today dived into ‘The Vault’, to check.
Sure enough, there was one, this 1970 model, which I saw at the Maple City Cruise Night in Monmouth, IL back in August 2013. As a matter of fact, these were the last four pictures I took that day, as it was rapidly getting dark.
Of course, many, many of these GPs, being personal-lux coupes, had the then-ubiquitous vinyl roof. But it was optional. A slick top version was even shown in the 1970 Grand Prix brochure. But as was the custom in the late ’60s and early ’70s, probably ninety percent had the vinyl chapeau.
The 1970 was almost identical to the all-new 1969, but the grille pattern went from horizontal to vertical, and the taillights had a slight facelift. 65,750 were built for the year, much better than the old-style ’68’s 31,711, but way down from ’69’s 112,486.
It was much darker than it appears in the photos, and I finally gave up. But at least I got this car captured! I only wish I’d spied it earlier that day, to get the usual 10-12 shots I accrue when I see a car I really like.
Anyway, here ’tis. Happy Friday. Now time for me to get back to my weekend routine. *BARTENDER*