My father used to have a 1976 Bonneville, and he'* been saying forever that he can't believe he sold it. Just yesterday he remedied his mistake and purchased a 1974 Bonneville via Ebay.

He'* mechanically minded, but he'* currently driving it from St. Louis to Maine. So I'm trying to find out some info...

VIN: 2N57R4X101262

Here aresome pictures, including ID plates and engine shots.

What sort of of carb is hidden under there? The side of the car indicates that it is the 400, not the 455. What were the options for that year?

Also looking for some old spec info. HP/Torque? I found some figures for the 455 engine, but not the 400. (I've searched this forum as well.)

Crazy looking old AC system. Since it still works, I have to assume it'* full of old R12. Wow.

Thanks for any help!
Cheers,
Anders

Beautiful beautiful car. Those old pontiac engines made loads of power and, like today'* pontiacs IMHO spanked their chevrolet siblings everywhere they went. For all my classic poncho info i go to www.performanceyears.com its a great forum with great people. Lot of it,l ike a lot of the old pontiac lovers, is GTO / Tempest based, but there is certainly a strong Full size poncho following there. I have yet to see too many '70s bonnevilles as I meddle in the 'late 60s bonnies more often (mainly cuz i have a '65) but they were just as unique as their' 60s forefathers. Look at the burly hood on that thing in the pics on the auction page. Great great stuff.

Anyways I dont have any #* on me for hte power and torque, and since it was post-emissions, the numbers wont be as phenomenal as the 60s / early 70s, but rest assured Pontiac was the forerunner in utilizing innovative engineering to beat the emissions regulations in the struggle for horsepower and torque. Hahah I sound like a commercial or a historian. In any event thats a hell of a car and I'm sure you're father will have no regrets. It should make his old misdoing right

Did he get it at the 3,800 or so that the auction ended at? even tho it was below reserve? (if u dont mind me asking).

Anyways the ppl at perf. years will definitely hit you up with the info you're looking for. Gosh those cars are great. If its anything like my '65 i bet the whole body QUAKES when you rev that engine when its parked, if its not parked, i'm sure throttling the pedal makes those rear tires screeam!! .........cant wait to drive my car again next week.

Have fun!

You / your dad should try ordering the phs (pontiac historic services) documents for it. Or you guys maybe already did? The information you get in the package varies year-by-year but you get lots of great information. For my car they gave me an order sheet listing all the options available that year for the model and what your particular car was ordered with. Also has other extras and an available Window sticker just like you'd get from on a brand new car! It'* really Neat stuff. heres the link:
http://www.phs-online.com/

They dont list specifically what comes iwth what car-year'* package but you can call, at $35.00 it'* well worth it. If you chose the fax-back extra $10 option they send fax you the basics (options sheet for your particular car) within a day or so. But that'* usually for people trying to jump on a sale to be sure the car is authentic and what not. not really important here since you guys bought it already.

Pontiac tidbit: Did u know that although Chevy had their 'small block' and 'big block' engines, pontiac just had one type of block which they used (with minor modifications through the years) to make (i believe) ALL of their V8 engines? Every one from their low cubed v8s to their ultimate 455 came from the same block. Of course some ended up with 4-bolt mains and what not whlie smaller ones got 2-bolt mains but the point is that pontiac'* engineers made a much more versatile product than chevy did. I won't get into how much more distinc pontiac'* styling was or the Chevy conspiracy against pontiac in the 60s and 70s that may have ultimitely led the to demise of the pontiac v8 in 1979/80...

In short: have fun!

Cool, I'll stop in there too.
Ahhh, interesting. What sort of emissions were around then? My 1971 MGB has a carbon canister and an air pump and that'* it.

So far he'* just told me on the phone that it drives like a dream, idles just fine, and is getting around 20 mpg. So it sounds like there _won't_ be a carb rebuild when I go home for Christmas.

The reserve was much higher than that, but seeing as I didn't purchase it, I don't feel that it'* my place to say what kind of money changed hands. I'm sure you understand.

Ahhh, I didn't know about that place. Fantastic! I'll do that. I wonder if there were multiple trans options or final drives...


Holy cow. There must have been a lot of sitting around and "Ok, seriously guys... can we really drill some more metal out of this thing?" *grin*

Cheers,
Anders

Welp emissions were instated in '73 in the U.*. so thats when it officially creeped up on cars here but i believe within a few years before that they were doing emissions stuff in preparation. Furthermore, some 'emissions' related stuff were in long before emissions laws just because it did the engine well anyways (such as the PCV system).

I totally understand on the not sharing the price thing

In the 60s (and I'm sure early 70s), you could order most Pontiacs ANY WAY you wanted them! Asside from the multitude of final drives / engines available for cars, you could almost always Special order things your way (although thats rarer to find). in '65 you could get different engine sizes and either tri-carb or single carb setups on them. Some cars didnt' come standard with 4bbl carbs in '65 so that would be an option for Catalinas of the day (bonnevilles came with standard 4bbl in '65

20 MPG?!! Wow, beautiful. My '87 bonnevile just showed me likie 14mpg !! Its winter so I warm it up a lot
My '65 shows just over 10 or 11 mpg in summer, 20 sounds great!

Does it have a quadrajet carb or an AFB?? I'm not sure when pontiac changed to quadrajets but I'm almost sure it was before that year.

Not sure on the specifics of that year'* emissions either unfortunately. But I also believe that some year in that period (early 70s) they switched the horsepower rating system.. I think they used to test the engine with no accessories or something and then changed it to a more accurate net hp after certain standard loads are on the car. Not totally sure on that but i know that helps explain some of the drastic hp drops over the years.

Enjoy!