Junkyard Find: 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
The General produced quite a few not-so-quick front-drive cars with sporty-looking graphics and spoilers during the 1990s (e.g., the Beretta Z26), but the addition of an Eaton supercharger to the good old Buick V6 engine resulted in some fairly fast 90s machinery. Here’s a Grand Prix that had 240 horsepower at the front wheels during happier times.
These things managed to get into the 14s in the quarter-mile, which is quite hairy for a front-drive street car of the 1990s. Rapid depreciation and the resulting nothing-to-lose leadfoot drivers tended to kill them off in a hurry.
ABS was still special enough in 1998 to warrant badges on the wheels.
By the late 1990s, GM had finally figured out that the squiggly pink-and-green decals of the previous decade were considered passé by even the most out-of-touch car buyers. These more restrained GTP badges look much more dignified.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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For GM these cars were ahead of their time Supercharged V6 w/240 hp abs and 4wheel discs. Especially compared to previous gen W-Body with poorer quality and the awful door mount seat belts. Quality was much better and the interiors were more refined than the Roger Smith era plastics. I once considered the 2dr GP but figured I'd stick with another V8 RWD T-Bird. An aftermarket company was tweeking these to 280-300 hp w/Ram Air. The torque steer must be severe since anything FWD w/over 250 hp can be a bit much to handle. It's a shame GM did not offer the 3800 SC in their higher end halo cars such as the Reatta and Toronado, though it was offered in the Buick Park Ave and Riviera.
These were nice cars when new and I am no fan of GM products. The problem with the GM products of this era were they were built to fall a part just around the time the last payment was made. Those x, j, a, g, and n bodied products were all worthless after about three years unless you were all over them maintaining them - poorly engineered. I lament that GM would still be a viable entity if the company had simply spent an extra $200 per car to build in quality. Sadly GM does not exist anymore - replaced by the imposter with no legs and no arms having lost decent brands to cancer and the company was amputated. I had driven a red coupe version of this and it was really nice in its day.