1967 Pontiac Catalina 'Grand Prix' Fuelie Is Outrageously Awesome, Real, Running, for Sale

Here’s something we don’t see every (Christmas) day, or any day, for that matter. It looks like a perfectly standard 1967 Pontiac Catalina two-door hardtop coupe from the back and the sides, but its nose job calls for a great prize. Or, how they say it in France, a Grand Prix. So, is it sacrilege or stupendous?

When seen head-on, the 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix must be one the most striking automobiles ever. The complete lack of optical elements gave it an eerie look – you know something’s not right, but it’s also too great to call it wrong.

In 1967, Pontiac’s biggest news was the over-bored 421 cubic-inch V8 (the 6.9-liter) to a better-sounding 428 cubic-incher (mathematically speaking, it was a 426.61, rounded to 427. But 428 sounded better than the big guns from across the street, like Chrysler’s 426 HEMI, or Ford’s 427). The big 376-hp motor was optional on the hypnotic Grand Prix and all other full-size Pontiacs, like the Catalina.

240,750 Catalinas were built in 1967 (including the 29,000 station wagons) on seven different body types, with the four-door sedan claiming the first spot on the popularity scale at 80,551 units. The two-door hardtop was hot on its (w)heels at a whisker under 78,000 examples. The car shared its front clip design with the Bonneville and the Executive, with a pair of stacked headlights on each side, horizontally separated by the full-width grille trim.

The Grand Prix was the only member of the Pontiac pack that discarded the vertical styling for the optical elements up front with a sleeker design with dual round lamps at the same height on both sides. It’s easy to tell it apart from other Pontiacs of the same model year unless one of those siblings decided it wanted to go to a masked ball.

This is what the example featured in the gallery has in store for the next Poncho fan willing to shed some $26,000 in exchange for the right of ownership. The big Pontiac still has its original 400 V8 engine (the 6.6-liter). We don’t learn if it was the low-key two-barrel carburetor model (good for 290 hp and 428 lb-ft / 294 PS, 576 Nm) or the beefier variant that shot out 325 hp and 445 lb-ft (329 PS, 603 Nm).

Those were the V8s linked to the automatic transmission, the Turbo Hydra-Matic 400, also present in this example. Since the carburetion is no longer installed atop the big V8, having been replaced by an Atomic electronic fuel injection (EFI) system, we can only enjoy the throaty burble of the V8 – listen to it in the video.

Besides the gasoline injection system, the Catalina has been treated with several other modifications – the air conditioning and the all-too-obviously confusing headlight stripped straight out of a Grand Prix. (I must say, altering the original looks isn’t too bad at all). Otherwise, the car sports power steering and power front disc brakes.

The selling ad on Craigslist mentions manifolds and dual exhausts (the latter was traditionally found on four-barrel engines, but we don’t know if the twin tailpipes are the original setup). The Montreux Blue paint is the genuine shade sprayed on by Pontiac, but it was refreshed under previous ownership.

Currently, the odometer reads 53,293 miles/ 85,749 kilometers. The seller is fairly convinced that’s the car's true mileage but can’t bet his life on it due to the lack of bulletproof documentation. There is Pontiac Historical Service literature accompanying the sale of this one-like-none 1967 Pontiac Catalina Grand Prix lookalike. The car is probably located in Sherman, Texas, but the selling ad is listed in Los Angeles, California. Better call the dealership for details.

In ’67, one standard-looking Pontiac Catalina was retailed at a base price of $2,951 (that would have been the two-door hardtop coupe version like the one in the gallery). The current asking price of $26,500 is pretty much in line with the equivalent 1967-to-2023 purchasing power equivalent of $27,980.82. Given the options on the car, its undeniable uniqueness, and overall excellent condition, I’d say it’s a good value for this unlikely Pontiac crossbreed.