A rare 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix Turbo by ASC/McLaren has popped up for sale on online auction site Bring-A-Trailer, presenting a rare opportunity for a lucky General Motors enthusiast to own the seldom-seen piece of Pontiac history.
Before we get into the auction car, let’s explain what it is we’re looking at for those who aren’t familiar with the Grand Prix Turbo ASC/McLaren. This rather rare Grand Prix model variant was essentially a specialized, more powerful version of the compact car and featured a turbocharged 3.1L V6 engine developed by American Sunroof Company, or ASC. The ‘McLaren’ part of the name, meanwhile, is a bit misleading. While this engineering firm was started by McLaren founder Bruce McLaren to build engines for his Can-Am cars, the division eventually became a separate entity from McLaren Racing in Britain, known for its Formula 1 endeavors, so this isn’t a real McLaren-developed car.
The Pontiac Grand Prix Turbo by ASC/McLaren’s turbocharged 3.1L V6 engine, which sent power to the front wheels through a four-speed automatic transmission, was good for a respectable 205 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque. Other factory features that set it apart from a standard Grand Prix included a body kit, hood vents, 16-inch alloy wheels, power-adjustable seats, a head-up display and a fancy electronic compass with a digital screen.
According to the Bring-A-Trailer listing, this car has just 5,500 miles on the odometer. It was purchased new at Culiver Pontiac-GMC in Phoenix, Arizona before being exported to Canada. The current seller bought it from the former Canadian owner and imported it back into Arizona. Finished in Bright Red and featuring a tan leather interior, this is a wonderful example of the breed and is one of just 750 Grand Prix Turbo ASC/McLarens to have been built for the 1989 model year.
Check out the video below for a more in-depth overview of the car by the owner, along with some driving impressions. As of this writing, the BaT auction has attracted $8,500 in bids and will end on April 13th.
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Comments
Pontiac Widebody….from back in the day.
The car was a midsize not a compact.
I owned one..great car but unfortunately, not very quick especially in comparison to my ’87 Grand National
The turbo 3.1 was to be offered in the W Regal as a Grand National continuation, plan never materialize. Also why the turbo Buick 3.8 wasn’t continued in the Firebird is a tragedy..
If someone had incread the turbo size and put a front mount, bigger injestors and a 255 lph pump and adj. regulator they could have been nasty!
These were cool looking cars but not anything fast compared to today’s cars.
The turbo TA was short lived as the RWD version of the Buick was killed when the G bodies died. The TA was kind of the send off. Pontiac had to fight to even do them.
that steering wheel looks like a calculator. all of those buttons and swithches everywhere look kind of cool.
Exactly. GM ruined many vehicles with the switch to fwd. Impala/Caprice and G-bodies. Nova and Malibu were turned into jokes even before that.
Look at the listing on BAT and get a good look at those seats. They were a $450 option on the car at the time. If you ask me they look far better than any seats currently available in any GM car or truck.
IMO, This is part of the beginning of the complete undoing of GM. The transition of EVERYTHING from RWD to FWD and previously best selling GM A-Body Coupes/Colonnade’s really destroyed the genre…. today no one makes a proper midsized coupe or full sized for that matter. Some say there is no market but we’ll never know will we….?
Challenger is the only affordable rwd coupe left you can bring 4 adults and luggage in.
IMO the coupe is history but a decent rwd sedan needs to be offered by Chevy, not saying the Camaro shouldn’t offer more interior space in the next gen model but for leftover non-CUV/truck buyers that want a sporty car with practically.
I agree.
GM made a big mistake in the 80’s with going to all FWD and doing a poor job on cooperate platforms.
The death of the G bodies was devastating . The one thing worse was they had intended to kill the V8 at one point but it not a reprieve.
But even with that said I don’t think anything would have saved the coupes. People today with the high cost want vehicles that van do kore than carry 4 people and limited trunks. None of the coupes are safe and all are at tusk of cancelation.
If the auto industry has major losses with thus virus deal the end may come sooner than we think.
You can’t even hardly sell a sedan anymore either.
This is a demonstration of how far automotive engineering technology has improved as this Pontiac Grand Prix powered by a turbocharged V6 is only capable of 205 horsepower; but GM now has small 1.6L 4-cyl turbo engines capable of 210 hp.
Just watched the video. What a time travel back in time! Funniest thing of all? I immediately noticed the combination lock above the glove box. Totally forgot about those. This car is an ’89 and I had just gotten into auto sales for the first time in 1988. So I was selling GM (Buick, GMC and Cadillac as well as Honda) back then. Buick had a lot less buttons and they didn’t use the combination lock for the glove box, but this video still brought back a lot of good memories. Also like the sound the engine made when he was accelerating and keep in mind that was pretty good HP for that day. But the sound is so much better than all the 4 bangers of today.
Now that’s a really cool car! So many cool cars over that brands history that lead were ahead of the times. If the Pontiac Aztek were on sale today it would sell like crazy and GM would still have a cool brand.
I HAD A 1987 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX TURBO. THE CAR GOT REPOSSESSED YEARS AGO.TRYING TO FIND ONE LIKE I HAD IF POSSIBLE.ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
Sh1t I got one that’s not mine But I wish it was we just finished touching up rear bumper on it at shop it even says GM authority prototype on driver door real clean man all red looks nice
Wish I could post a picture of it the brown leather inside is mint condition too the owner is all happy about his car I didn’t realize what he had lol lucky man to have a prototype in mint condition