Start with what the Pontiac Can Am is: a car with 400 cuin Pontiac V8 engine, built from 1977, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer.
The story
The Pontiac Can Am is a midsize muscle car built by Pontiac and based on the Pontiac LeMans and the Pontiac Grand Am. The Can Am was a special edition option package and was only available in 1977. It was named for the Can Am racing series, continuing the race theme used for the Pontiac Grand Prix, LeMans and Trans Am.
What is underneath
The engine is 400 cuin Pontiac V8 engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a TH400 3-speed automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 112.0 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Pontiac line-up the Pontiac Can Am has a clear place: the factory was Pontiac, Michigan, United States. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the BMW 7 Series, the Lotus Esprit, the Ford Fiesta. Nearby in the Pontiac catalogue sit the Pontiac 2+2 and the Pontiac 6.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Pontiac Can Am has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.