An unusual and rare collaboration result

Rare ONES We could only shake our heads when we saw this car for the first time on the monitor screen while surfing the internet. How come? To be honest, it could be said that's a kind of an unusual and rare car under the name of McLaren we've ever seen. As usually a McLaren emblemed car always have the connotation of a luxurious and glamorous supercar, that can only be owned or driven by those few can afford such extravagance.

1990 Pontiac Turbo Grand-Prix ASC-McLaren variant that featured tuning and updates from the iconic British automaker. (Picture from: Autoblog)

Uniquely, in the past the existence of this car allowed you to get behind the wheel of a legitimate McLaren without having to drain your bank account. Well, in the 1989 and 1990, there's the Pontiac Grand Prix was offered in a limited edition ASC-McLaren variant that featured tuning and updates from the iconic British automaker.

1990 Pontiac Turbo Grand-Prix ASC-McLaren is powered by a 3.1-liter V6 engine plus a turbocharger that gives such injection of 65 horsepower for a total of 205 ponies and 225 lbs-ft of torque, coupled with four-speed automatic transmission. (Picture from: Autoblog)

As its name suggested, the car is the result of a partnership between American Specialty Cars-McLaren (ASC-McLaren) and Pontiac. It should be noted that the McLaren name here is not associated with the McLaren Formula 1 team or even the iconic McLaren road cars, instead the McLaren connection that stems from the arm of the automaker's powertrain engineering department.

1990 Pontiac Turbo Grand-Prix ASC-McLaren package was priced at $5,000 which brought a series of cool 1980s technology into the Grand Prix's interior, some of which could be said to be very advanced for the time. (Picture from: Autoblog)

The standard Pontiac Grand Prix is powered by a 3.1-liter V6 engine plus a turbocharger that gives such injection of 65 horsepower for a total of 205 ponies and 225 lbs-ft of torque, coupled with four-speed automatic transmission system for channeling the engine powers to the front wheels. The power output numbers is modest by today's standards, and even that's not outrageous by 1990's standards either, but the car has a good enough acceleration capability from still to 60 mph of around 7 seconds.

At that time the ASC-McLaren package was priced at $5,000 which brought a series of cool 1980s technology into the Grand Prix's interior, some of which could be said to be very advanced for the time. The car gets a heads-up display and a digital display on the dashboard.

1990 Pontiac Turbo Grand-Prix ASC-McLaren has soft bucket seats at the front and rear with a distinctive pear shape. (Picture from: Autoblog)

The steering wheel must be familiar to anyone who remembers the high-end Pontiacs of those days, with the entire center of the wheel filled with buttons instead of the airbags we see today. The car has soft bucket seats at the front and rear with a distinctive pear shape. Many sources peg production numbers between 2,500 and 3,500 units, so the car is relatively rare compared to its mass-produced Pontiac counterparts.

As quoted of Autoblog, examples of this rare coupe rarely surface for sale, so it’s surprising to see this low-mile 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix ASC-McLaren on eBay at the priced of $19,351 and this one’s got just 17,746 miles on the clock too, and appears to be in excellent condition. It’s had just two owners and no reported accidents.

The seller notes a little surface rust from the car being in storage so long. As if you compared to the GM cars of this era tended to deteriorate quickly, so a bit of surface rust shouldn’t be a huge issue. The latest info, the listing has ended on June 24, 2022 and the car has been sold.😅 *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | AUTOBLOG | EBAY ]

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