Rarer Than GTO, 1971 Pontiac Lemans Sport, Manual Trans For Sale
Found this third generation of the Pontiac Lemans offered for sale on craigslist for $39,900 in Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts. Originally Lemans is a trim upgrade based on the Tempest then Pontiac dropped the Tempest name altogether in 1971 and introduced its intermediate lineup as Lemans and GTO as a separate line. As we know, the GTO is one most popular of the muscle cars, spawned from the Lemans lineup.As shown here is a nice example of the 1971 Lemans Sport edition, which is a camouflage product between GTO and Lemans, to react to what insurers do at that time. It's something of a GTO in LeMans clothing.
In the early 70s, muscle cars were at the top of the success, then insurers send a punch at them with insurance premium surcharges, (to avoid surcharges) Pontiac responded by putting the GTO’s endura nose and hood on a LeMans Sport where its standard power was a six-cylinder engine, which is not on the muscle car list.
However, Pontiac allowed the customer to order the LeMans Sport with some of the same performance equipment as the GTO, such as 350, 400, or 455 cubic inch models, including the 455 High Output (HO) engine. Today’s find is of that special character, offered by the seller is a 400 model with an unusual 3-speed manual transmission, and it's more sensational when you shift the gears and rarest than the automatic model, even with GTO at once.
Under the hood is the 400/4V cubic inch V8 engine, about 55,000 miles shown on the odometer. The seller says it runs great, and the sounds are amazing. For the 1971 engines, all had detuned with lower compression ratios to run on lower-octane regular lead, low-lead, or unleaded gasoline.
Not a perfect angle and light, but the interior photos show a lot of good stuff inside. Seem has been touched by renovations, slightly mismatched but it's close to the original, the seller claim. While the dash pad looks perfect, we hope all the instruments and gauges on the dash work properly, and also AC and radio would be very nice.
From 40K to 10K units, a significant drop from the GTO sales in 70-71. It could be, a lesser creature like the LeMans Sport that the reason GTO sales plummeted and want to end it.
Detail by owner
1971 Pontiac Lemans Sport - want a GTO? Then you can spend more money and buy one, OR you can buy this Lemans which looks like a goat but is much rarer and she's effing GORGEOUS!! Showing 55,000 miles.
Nice ordered with a 400/4v, 3spd MANUAL trans (to beat the insurance companies), floor shifted, cloth interior (the seats are slightly mis-matched, but very close), tach dash, power steering and power brakes. The body and shiny black paint are incredible, the car runs and drives great, and she sounds amazing! Check out the redline tires with those damn Cragars, it looks like a huge Hot Wheels car!!
No rust anywhere, all systems are go, windows roll up nice, brakes and steering are spot on, and there is an upgraded stereo system hiding in the glove compartment. This car is ready to be yours... must be seen.
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