Powerful and Practical

Written and photography by Scott van Tamelen

“It didn’t take us long to discover that with the GTX Ram Air, SLP proves not only can powerful and practical go hand-in-hand, it can even be fun when you throw in a little foot in the floor.”

That’s how Motorweek’s, John H. Davis, described the Pontiac Grand Prix GTX in their weekly broadcast back in 1998.

Introduced in late 1997 the Grand Prix GTX was a product by SLP (Street Legal Performance). SLP is famously known for converting Firebirds into Firehawks or Chevrolet Camaros into their SS trim, but what few people realize is SLP also created some other interesting cars along the way. The Grand Prix GTX is one of those cars. Due to the success of the Firehawk program, SLP came up with the idea of converting another popular selling Pontiac of the time, the Grand Prix. SLP’s Grand Prix GTX has roots that derive from a GM concept car that debuted in 1995 named the Grand Prix 300 XP. This concept car had a very muscular and intimidating look with a "wide-body" treatment applied to its wheel wells, a scooped hood, and enlarged wheels.

Grand Prix 300 XP Concept Car

Fast forward two years to 1997 and the release of the 7th Generation Grand Prix. The all-new Grand Prix with its “Wide Track” design had a very similar look to the 300 XP concept car, and when combined with the world renowned supercharged 3800 V6, it’s not a surprise that the car was an instant sales success. It’s also not a surprise that SLP saw an opportunity to capitalize on that sales success.

Using some of the same principles that made the Firebird Firehawk program successful, SLP created a special package for the Grand Prix, naming it the GTX Ram Air. The package was available on all trim levels of the new Grand Prix, meaning the SE, GT, or GTP models. The main package consisted of a composite hood sporting the same NASA style air ducts as the 300 XP concept car, an air cleaner box that allowed those ducts to have a true ram air affect, and three GTX badges; two of which were placed on the forward section of each front door and another strategically placed on the rear of the car. You also received special GTX key fobs.

If you really wanted to set your GTX Ram Air apart, SLP also offered several stand-alone options which included 17” chrome wheels, GTX embroidered floor mats, upgraded high-performance mufflers with twin exhaust tips, and an improved engine valvetrain including rocker arms. The GTX was available from late 1997 thru 2003. Throughout the model years SLP expanded their stand-alone options to include things like a visor mounted Homelink system, two different style high-rise rear spoilers, racing stripes, 16” chrome-like wheels, sunroof, turn signal mirrors, and trapezoid exhaust tips.

Author's 2001 Grand Prix GTX with optional 17” wheels.

I was a new car sales associate at our local Pontiac dealership when these cars came out. Our dealership did three GTX Grand Prixs during that time, which was rare because most local Pontiac dealers never stocked a GTX, some didn't even know the car existed. Two of the cars our dealership had converted were done for our New Car Sales Manager to use as his demo vehicle each of the years, the third car was a customer order. All three cars were converted using the GTP model as the basis. I still remember driving the cars to the conversion company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, then returning a couple weeks later to pick them up as completed GTXs. I loved the transformation the GTX package provided the cars. Occasionally I would see the car that was ordered by our customer around town, but the other two demo cars (one black, one red) never resurfaced after they left our lot.

Author's 2001 Grand Prix GTX

In early 2023, I was looking for something more comfortable to drive than the Firebirds I own. I started searching for a Grand Prix GTP coupe. I fondly remembered the GTX cars we had at the dealership, and thought a GTP would make a nice practical, alternative to the Firebirds. That's when I came across the white GTX pictured here. This GTX is a 2001 model with 76,000 miles that I bought from the Original Owner; contacting the seller, and purchasing the car was no easy task though. The car was listed on Facebook Marketplace but the person representing it was not the actual owner, he was simply listing it for a friend. The ad did not include any contact information for the actual seller, and in true FB Marketplace fashion, when I reached out to the listing person I never received a reply. After spending several days looking at the pictures and wishing the guy would contact me, I realized that if I zoomed-in on one of the interior photos I could see a for sale sign on the floor, the sign had a partial phone number on it. With a little cyber-research, I was able to figure out the missing numbers and made contact the actual owner. Shocked to receive a phone call from someone out-of-state, he explained to me that he had been trying to sell the car locally but was not having much success, that's when his friend offered to create the Marketplace listing for him. We laughed when I told him his friend wasn’t real good at replying to inquiries, and that I only got his number from the for sale sign that was laying on the floor. We had an enjoyable conversation and a couple of days later we drove down to Kankakee, Illinois to look the car over. It wasn’t quite as described (they seldom ever are), but we negotiated a deal and I drove the car back home. It performed flawlessly on the 3-hour return drive.

Once home the work of making it “better” began right away. I had a vison in my head of what I wanted the car to be when I was finished; it needed it to be like the GTXs I drooled over while at the dealership. It needed to be the kind of GTX I would have requested for my demo had I been the Manager.

It took several months to get the car the way I wanted it. Initially I just gave the car a much-needed bath and a complete interior deep clean and then drove it for a while. Eventually though, I decided that the only way I was going to get it to my standards (not to mention remove all the dog hair out of it) was to pull the seats, console, and even the carpet out of the car. While I had everything out, I decided to lay some Dynomat sound deadening (one of my pet-peeves with this generation GP has always been the excessive amount of interior road noise). At the same time I took much of the dash apart so I could chase down some of the annoying squeaks and rattles these cars develop over time. I removed and dropped off the GTX hood to my local body shop to be repainted while I worked on correcting the body paint, interior, and some of the mechanicals. This car originally came with the standard 16" GP wheels, I was fortunate enough to source a set of the hard-to-find, optional 17” GTX wheels, although the chrome was peeling in many places that did not matter because I shipped them off for powder-coating right away. I was also able to source several other rare GTX items to help bring the car back to its former glory. The last thing to go on the car were the freshly powder-coated white wheels, what a transformation and the perfect finishing touch!! The first official outing with the car completed was when we drove it to the 2023 Murfreesboro Convention, there it won “best in class” in our category of the popular vote.

Since then, I located a true SLP high-rise rear spoiler for the car, and a set of SLP split exhaust tips that I plan to install this winter. I have also now added two other Grand Prix to the collection; a white 1999 GTX and a red 2001 GTX tribute-car that I built using extra parts I had accumulated.

I enjoy driving the GTXs on many of our West Michigan Chapter events, with only 260hp and a 15.0 quarter mile time the GTX is not fast by today’s standard, but it still puts a smile on my face when I “throw in a little foot in the floor” as Mr. Davis says. Thank you SLP!

Left to right: Author’s 1999 Grand Prix GTX, 2001 Grand Prix GTX, and 2001 Grand Prix GTX tribute car.