Rare Rides: Kneel Before a Richard Petty Pontiac Grand Prix From 1992

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis
rare rides kneel before a richard petty pontiac grand prix from 1992

There’s a bit of a history with Rare Rides entries featuring Pontiac models. First was the awesome all-wheel drive 6000, with a Pepsi Edition Grand Prix following on its heels just three days afterward. Now, three months have elapsed since we last saw a Pontiac on these pages — far too long!

Bend the knee, for the Richard Petty Pontiac Grand Prix SE has arrived.

The NASCAR-inclined among you are already aware of Mr. Petty’s successful NASCAR career. Coinciding with his retirement after the 1991 NASCAR season, General Motors decided to do a very special limited run of Pontiac Grand Prix models in his namesake.

Limited to the 1992 model year only and a 1,000-unit run, each Richard Petty SE featured some special cues and badging, like rare Pontiacs are wont to do. Buyers chose from red, white, or blue paint ( and all examples were powered by the 3.4-liter DOHC V6 engine.

Unique trim surrounded the exterior, where you’d find a special spoiler on the trunk. Also on the trunk, Petty’s signature.

Some color-keyed lace alloys prove once more how awesome Pontiac wheel designs could be.

The Grand Prix’s interior didn’t receive as much attention as the exterior. Never fear, all examples got the ever-useful combination glove box lock. Perhaps making this particular example more unusual, there’s a manual transmission putting all horses to the front wheels.

Over on the passenger’s side of the dash, special “appreciation tour” badging is found. Richard Petty himself signed this one, which (after some research) we can conclude was not a standard feature.

Petty is presently owner of a NASCAR team, and his name has been in the news recently due to some inflammatory comments he made surrounding NFL anthem protests. In fairness to the seller, the car was listed before Petty made said comments. Current ask is $10,000, but surely there’s some flexibility there.

Maybe we’ll contact the seller later to offer some photography tips.

[Images via seller]

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  • Jpolicke Jpolicke on Sep 29, 2017

    If I throw in an extra quarter will the owner take it to the gas station and vacuum the interior? It drives me crazy to see cars for sale where the owner was too damn lazy to clean the car decently for sale. Makes me wonder how much attention he paid to mechanical maintenance.

  • Pig Hater Pig Hater on Sep 30, 2017

    Looks like all it had was 210 horsepower, which was good for the early 90's but piss poor for a 3.4 liter V6 today

  • Tassos There is nothing 'weird' about Finland's fine system. A few other nations have it too. Switzerland maybe, I am not sure.But you do not specify WHAT was that clown's income that required him to pay $120k for a speeding ticket?I am sure that for somebody like ELon Musk, $100k will barely operate his megayacht ONE LOUSY Day.
  • Bkojote On paper, GMC is supposed to be the understated, more sophisticated member of the GM truck family.In actuality, GMC is total garbage in the truck world - by the time they're on their second owner they're decked out with amazon wheel spacers, pizza dish wheels, punisher stickers, and really angry opinions about any president who's won the popular vote in the past two decades. And man, these things are ugly as sin too.That's because GM trucks as a whole are kinda the also-rans in the truck category. Yeah, they do sales, but they aren't anyone's first choice. Not as extreme as the Ram, not as category defining as the Raptor, not as well engineered as a Toyota, so you end up with owners who compensate big time to distract others from the endless repair bills. The only owners I know who are worse are the rollin' coal lifted Super Duty drivers. Like you bought a GMC because the guy who sold you your wife's acadia is less scary than having to grovel for a Raptor and you take the Ford guys making fun of you personally.
  • Tassos The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I have mentioned this before, and it applies here again.Go to the U of Michigan College of Engineering parking lot. How can you say what car the $300,000 a year (ACADEMIC year of 9 months, mind you, summer pay is extra, and consulting a whole lot on top of that) and what does the $50,000 a year secretary drive?Hint: Teresa was out chair's secretary, started a year ago. She had to resign in just a few months because her 75 mile EACH WAY from her home in Lapeer MI to ANn Arbor MI just KILLED HER when gas prices rose.What car did Teresa drive? Take a wild guess. An F150? A Ram pickup? A Silverado? One of these. In a fee months she had to resign and find a lesser job in the whole lot lesser U of M Flint (but why would she care? she's just a secretary), which halved her commuting distance to a still significant 75 mile round trip every damned day.So the poor keep buying pickups and get poorer, and the rich keep NOT buying them and get richer.
  • Cprescott It is ugly enough. But why? You refuse to build enough of your products for your consumers.
  • Cprescott Only if your income also gives you more votes.
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