'73 Gwynn Prix

[Allan Ayling]

Hi all and thank you for allowing me to join!

I have a newly acquired 1 off special Pontiac, In 1973 Robert D Gwynn, an American Fashion designer and tailor (he made all of John De Lorean's suits) decided he would try and enter the luxury car market by creating his own style of car, this is what he came up with, based on a stock 1973 Grand Prix and heavily customised.

It has Solid Walnut fender ends, nose cone and mouldings, Walnut license plate frames, solid walnut door handles and trim, hand rubbed lacquer paint finish, completely restyled roofline, restyled front and rear ends, redesigned tail lights, moulded rear view mirror, landau roof and courtesy lights, totally redesigned instrument panel, glovebox and centre console finished in solid walnut, solid walnut and real leather door panels and armrests, hand tufted fine leather seats, front seat backrest of wool fabric featuring needlepoint design of buyers coat of arms (this one has the Gwynn family COA), cashmere and mink headlining, electrically operated sunroof,  clear gearshift knob featuring coat of arms, special steering wheel made of leather solid walnut and chrome, new delux caprpeting, custom exhaust.

He tried to market and sell these cars for $50,000, needless to say this was the only one built. This car has only done 40,000 miles from new, it needs a few small jobs doing but is on the road and in very good condition, it has always been garaged and look superb, not to everyones taste but I love it, and I know I will never see another driving the other way. the photos are not the best so I will try and take some better ones and will post them if anyone is interested

 

 

 

dfpa95367.webp

Another photo of the car with Robert d Gwynn when it was new in 1973dfpa95367.webp

[Allan Ayling]

If anyone knows anything about the car or the Gwynn family I would be grateful for any information, I know it went to a few shows in the Florida area as I have some of the trophys that it won, I think the car was built in Birmingham Alabama but I could be wrong and spent a lot of its life in Florida, Robert Gwynn lived in Beverly Hills and then Pompano Beach FL, another owner lived in Sarasota FL who then imported it to the UK in 1995ish and has owned the car since then, I have now bought it from that owner. 

[Wrongway]

Hey welcome! That is one wild looking car. I love the front end!

[Ringo64]

Wow, that is definitely one unique Poncho! I would love to hear more information about it as well.

[Frosty]

IT would appear that he was awarded some sort of U.S. Patent for making clothes in 1966.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3366974A/en

 

[38Capriman]

Hi Allan, have you seen this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pontiac-Gwynn-Prix-1-Off-Concept-car-Unique-piece-of-American-History-swap-px-/284159532520?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

[Frosty]

3 hours ago, 38Capriman said:

Hi Allan, have you seen this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pontiac-Gwynn-Prix-1-Off-Concept-car-Unique-piece-of-American-History-swap-px-/284159532520?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

It would appear that Allan is the one selling it on eBay.

[LupyLisa]

Hello,

My name is Lisa. Robert Gwynn was my step-father. I was a witness to the making of the Gwynn Prix. It was built at our house, in the garage,  in Birmingham, Michigan USA

I will do my best to answer any questions you may have. My mom and my  step-father Bob Gwynn Sr. Passed away a several years ago. I'm the only one left who actually witnessed the making of the car first hand. I even helped at times!!!

 

There was another Gwynn Prix built with less  customization than the original. It was a burgundy color. I guess you could say it was more of a production model.  My step-dad drove the second one quite often. I am not sure what happened to that one. I knew the original was in the UK somewhere.

Edited February 24, 2021 by LupyLisa

[Ringo64]

30 minutes ago, LupyLisa said:

Hello,

My name is Lisa. Robert Gwynn was my step-father. I was a witness to the making of the Gwynn Prix. It was built at our house, in the garage,  in Birmingham, Michigan USA

I will do my best to answer any questions you may have. My mom and my  step-father Bob Gwynn Sr. Passed away a several years ago. I'm the only one left who actually witnessed the making of the car first hand. I even helped at times!!!

 

There was another Gwynn Prix built with less  customization than the original. It was a burgundy color. I guess you could say it was more of a production model.  My step-dad drove the second one quite often. I am not sure what happened to that one. I knew the original was in the UK somewhere.

Great to have you aboard, Lisa. I don't have any questions for you but fantastic to hear you found us and willing to answer questions. Welcome!

[Frosty]

Hi Lisa.

The current owner in the UK started this thread. He recently put it up for sale as well. I'm not sure if he successfully sold it or not. I didn't follow the sale.

Do you still live in SE Michigan? I am a member of the local Pontiac club called the Michigan WIdetrackers. I'd love to write a story about the car now that I know the car exists. If you don't mind me contacting, either through this forum or email.

[Allan Ayling]

Hi Lisa, It amazing that you replied on this thread, I absolutely loved that car, I did sell it and have regretted it ever since, I have let the new owner know that you have replied on this forum. The quality of the workmanship was incredible, the car was a credit to him. Its still in amazing condition after all these years! Hopefully the new owner will check out this forum now I have made him aware 

[Allan Ayling]

9 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Hi Lisa.

The current owner in the UK started this thread. He recently put it up for sale as well. I'm not sure if he successfully sold it or not. I didn't follow the sale.

Do you still live in SE Michigan? I am a member of the local Pontiac club called the Michigan WIdetrackers. I'd love to write a story about the car now that I know the car exists. If you don't mind me contacting, either through this forum or email.

If there is any info that I could contribute just let me know, the current owner is a huge enthusiast of the car so he possibly may help too!

[Frosty]

Thank you Allan - that is most gracious of you.

Was the motor or drivetrain modified in any way that you could determine or that you are aware of? Or was it left stock and the modifications were solely to the exterior and interior of the car?

[Allan Ayling]

5 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Thank you Allan - that is most gracious of you.

Was the motor or drivetrain modified in any way that you could determine or that you are aware of? Or was it left stock and the modifications were solely to the exterior and interior of the car?

There were no mechanical mods that I could see, its a matching numbers car so still has the original motor. It had stock carbs and air filter. The only thing not as built was the mink headlining had been retrimmed. The quality of the workmanship was superb! 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Allan Ayling

[LupyLisa]

On the spec sheet/brochure for the car it says (attached)

New brakes & exhaust system

New steel belted radial tires

Completely rebuilt engine and drive train.

 

It also mentions a "model B" which was the second one that was made. It had less customization than the first. Bob Gwynn drove the model B to work every day for a while.

[LupyLisa]

Hi Allan

Happy to hear from you! The subject of the Gwynn Prix was brought up on an online Facebook group called "You Know You're from Birmingham,  Michigan..."

I had started a discussion about a restaurant that my step-dad, Bob Gwynn, owned called The Beef & Bun. The restaurant was before my time and I was curious if anyone remembered it.

I Googled the car and was surprised to find this forum. I had done a few searches in the past, but did not come up with much information. The only thing I knew was that the car was somewhere in England.

I no longer live in the Detroit area. I currently live in Longmont, Colorado.  I would be happy to talk with you about the car. My memory is pretty good, but I don't remember all the minute details. I helped hand rub the paint finish. That, plus the many, many errands I ran for supplies was the extent of my contribution to building the car.

The timeline on the build out was not done in 1973. The car itself was a 1973 pontiac grand prix model. There were many designs and molds created before they arrived at the final design for the front end and bumpers. The actual building of the car started later in 1978 or '79. I turned 16 in 1979. Which  is when I got my driver license. All the errand I ran were after I turned 16 and could drive.

You can contact me on my cell number. We are on Mountain time here which is 2 hours behind Detroit. I should also mention that I don't do mornings! I have an autoimmune disease called Systemic Lupus Erythmatosis which causes a lot of aches and pains among other things. It makes mornings very difficult for me. It takes me a while to get all the kinks worked out of my body! Hence the  nickname Lupylisa. 

The best time to reach me is in the afternoon or early evening. 

I look forward to hearing from you! 

Take care,

Lisa Scallen

[Ringo64]

@LupyLisa I edited out your phone numbers just for your privacy, as we are a public viewable forum. I would recommend anyone who wants it to message Lisa here and she can provide it that way. This way you don’t get any unexpected calls from malicious bots and such.

Sorry to hear you too have this burden of an autoimmune disease. They suck.

[64 kiwi boni]

2 hours ago, LupyLisa said:

Hi Allan

Happy to hear from you! The subject of the Gwynn Prix was brought up on an online Facebook group called "You Know You're from Birmingham,  Michigan..."

I had started a discussion about a restaurant that my step-dad, Bob Gwynn, owned called The Beef & Bun. The restaurant was before my time and I was curious if anyone remembered it.

I Googled the car and was surprised to find this forum. I had done a few searches in the past, but did not come up with much information. The only thing I knew was that the car was somewhere in England.

I no longer live in the Detroit area. I currently live in Longmont, Colorado.  I would be happy to talk with you about the car. My memory is pretty good, but I don't remember all the minute details. I helped hand rub the paint finish. That, plus the many, many errands I ran for supplies was the extent of my contribution to building the car.

The timeline on the build out was not done in 1973. The car itself was a 1973 pontiac grand prix model. There were many designs and molds created before they arrived at the final design for the front end and bumpers. The actual building of the car started later in 1978 or '79. I turned 16 in 1979. Which  is when I got my driver license. All the errand I ran were after I turned 16 and could drive.

You can contact me on my cell number. We are on Mountain time here which is 2 hours behind Detroit. I should also mention that I don't do mornings! I have an autoimmune disease called Systemic Lupus Erythmatosis which causes a lot of aches and pains among other things. It makes mornings very difficult for me. It takes me a while to get all the kinks worked out of my body! Hence the  nickname Lupylisa. 

The best time to reach me is in the afternoon or early evening. 

I look forward to hearing from you! 

Take care,

Lisa Scallen

Lisa, this is such fantastic information for us Pontiac nuts, thank you soo much for sharing the history with us. regards Chris from New Zealand 

[LupyLisa]

On 2/24/2021 at 8:19 PM, Ringo64 said:

@LupyLisa I edited out your phone numbers just for your privacy, as we are a public viewable forum. I would recommend anyone who wants it to message Lisa here and she can provide it that way. This way you don’t get any unexpected calls from malicious bots and such.

Sorry to hear you too have this burden of an autoimmune disease. They suck.

 

 

 

On 2/24/2021 at 8:19 PM, Ringo64 said:

@LupyLisa I edited out your phone numbers just for your privacy, as we are a public viewable forum. I would recommend anyone who wants it to message Lisa here and she can provide it that way. This way you don’t get any unexpected calls from malicious bots and such.

Sorry to hear you too have this burden of an autoimmune disease. They suck.

 

Thank you for editing my phone number out of my post! If anyone wants to contact me, they can do so through my email:

[email protected] 

[LupyLisa]

  Re: Gwynn Prix

 

I can't figure out how to reply to all the posts about my step dad's custom car, The Gwynn Prix!  I keep remembering tid bits of information here and there. This is what I remember thus far.

The Gwynn Prix was entered into AUTORAMA car show/competition in Detroit.  It won first place in its category. But I cannot remember the year or the category.

Re:  Bob's patent for clothing design. The patent was for Template Tailoring. It was a new way to make custom clothing like men's suits, sport coats, pants etc. He would take a man's measurements then cut out a template for each piece in cardboard. Then he took the template to trace on the fabric to cut and make a suit out of each piece of fabric.

He would also make custom clothing for women as well.  Everyone in our family had at least one custom piece! 

There are pictures of the car build in progress. I'm just not sure if I have them or he got them back after he and my mom divorced. What I can tell you is that our garage, where the car was being built, had all sorts of crazy sounds, smells, lots of dust, paint and clay!

The design for the custom bumpers were first modeled in clay. After that, there were molds made out of fiberglass. There were many different incarnations before they found the right one!!

Bob did all the woodwork on the car by hand.  There were all sorts of workers coming in and out of our house all the time! Each of them had their own expertise in different parts and stages of the car.

There is no doubt that Bob Gwynn was a talented guy! In addition to his high end men's store and custom tailoring, he also owned a fabric store. There was a barbershop in the upper level of the men's store bulding!  

He was a really good woodworker. There were many different types of furniture that he made for our home. One particular table he made for my mother contained slate from the mines in Keswick, England located in the Lakeland, Cumberland region.  That area is known for their high quality slate.  My grandfather (Bob's father in law) was born in Keswick in 1907. He was brought to the States when he was a little boy in 1912.

Bob also made custom lamps at one point and other items or home accessories .There is no doubt that From men's clothing, home furnishing, a restaurant, a fabric store and a women's clothing store which was actually my mother's store.  He was always working on or tinkering with something.  He had a great workshop at our home.

The car design was something he always wanted to do. He tapped into some of his contacts in the auto industry for advice and took on the huge project of redesigning  a car!

You should have seen the car he drove before  the Gwynn Prix!  It was also a Pontiac Grand Prix. I'm not sure what year it was,  but it by looking at pictures it was a 1969 or 1970 white grand prix.  All he seats in that car were all covered in  needlepoint. The guys at the local car wash always knew his pimped out car was coming down the line! I dont think they'd ever seen anything like it before! It wasn't just the inner part of the seat, like in the Gwynn Prix.  It was the entire back bench seat and both of the front seats!!!

So I guess that was his initial foray into  the customization of a car prior to the Gwynn Prix.

After the second Gwynn prix was made, there was a problem with the front grill vents. At one point, they were not allowing enough air into the engine. So, after trying to work out the problem, he made me drive it  all around town while he followed in my '78 Buick Regal. 

I was so embarrassed to be seen driving that car!  I was a teenager and everyone in my school referred to the car as a Bat Mobile!   He then had me take it out on the expressway and told me to really punch it, gun it and to drive it really hard. ( they didn't call me LEAD FOOT LISA for nothing!!!😉😛😁)

The whole purpose was to see if I could overheat the engine and to see if the problem had been fixed or not.  Thank God it didn't overheat or breakdown on me!!!  I guess they had found a solution to the problem.  I never wanted to be seen driving that car ever again! It was hard enough to live my first drive in it down!! So many people made fun of me! It was mortifying. I went to pick up my friend, Lia Iacocca, up for a concert at Pine Knob. My step dad, wanted me to take the Gwynn Prix 2.0 to pick her up so her dad, Lee Iacocca, would see it. I had to draw the line right then and there!  I told him that Mr. Iacocca was out of town.  Then I refused to ever drive it again!

 Honestly, it was way too much car for me! I could barely see over the steering wheel! I was a tiny little thing back then. Heck I am still tiny as an adult! 56 years old who is       5' 3'' in tall and all of 91 lbs!

 

The second Gwynn Prix was a burgundy/red color with black trim.  I am not sure what happened to that one.

Anyone who would like more information can reach me at my email: [email protected] 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by LupyLisa

[LupyLisa]

 

http://m.lynchandsonsclawson.com/obituaries/events?obituaryId=605138

In case anyone is interested. Here is my step dad, Bob Gwynn's obituary. Some of the dates are incorrect. His kids who wrote it were already grown up and gone when I came into the picture in 1972. They missed a lot of firsthand information that I have.

 It's unfortunate that his family completely edited my mother, Janet Gwynn, out of his obituary.  Which I think is a pretty crappy thing to do!  She was a good and dutiful wife. Who supported all of his endeavors. And she deserves to be acknowledged in his obituary!  Without my mom, many of these projects would never have gotten off the ground! She was married to Bob for over 25 years!  She was the one who had to put up with him building the car in our house. She made all the workers lunches and dinners. All while there was another crew working on putting a red clay tennis court in our backyard! She also worked in the men's store. She did the books. Which was a full time job she did for years without  pay!

They did mention their mother Irene who was his first wife and mother to his kids. She passed away at a young age.. I am sure she sacrificed as much or more than my mom in service to Bob and his creative and sometimes cockamamy ideas.

Some corrections to the obituary: 

The solid mahogany suit of armor mentioned was not created until the early 90's.  He was legally blind  by the time the actual carving was done. He did carve it, but once it was carved, he hired a guy to finish the wood  burning designs on the outside of it, under his direct supervision.

The cookbook he  supposedly Co-authored was written and researched in full by my mother. I have the original manuscript in my possesion. She tested all the recipes on us for a full year!  It was a peanut butter cookbook. After that year of testing, I never wanted to see, eat or smell peanut butter ever again!🤢 now with the internet, writing a cookbook isn't not a very lucrative idea. If I want a peanut butter recipe,, I'll ask Google for one. 

The gentleman's school of design in New York is now known as Parsons school of design.

The woman who was referenced in the obituary named  Elsa Kosken was actually Elsa Koskenin.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound bitter. I just think credit should be given where credit is due . She deserves credit for her contribution and support of all of his projects. 

 

 

 

 

[Frosty]

Lisa

Thank you so much for the additional detail. I am sure I will be reaching out to you soon.

[indymanjoe]

This whole thread is full of awesomness! So cool Lisa found us! Keep the memory's coming! I love to hear these kind of story's.

Never heard of this car until today. The craftsmanship is stunning! Reminds me of another artist on this site..

ps i would love that cookbook! Peanut butter is my Favorite

[LupyLisa]

The cookbook is still in manuscript form and buried somewhere in my basement! 

[72grandprixssj455hurstman]

This  is  one sweeeeet  ride 400 or 455   i like   custom touches on  it  .