Just Bought a 70 Lemans Sport...Have a Few Questions!

[Jays70Lemans]

Hello,

I just became an owner of a 1970 Lemans Sport Coupe with a 350 motor, only 48k original miles, a/c, power steering, purchased from a lil ole lady. The body & interior are super clean for a 40 year old ride. It's white with a black vinyl top, black interior with bucket seats. It's going to be my new daily driver.

I've got a few questions like to decode the car? The trim tag, engine, rear end, etc. I searched online a couldn't find anything so far.

Also, what makes a car a coupe vs. a hard top?

Thanks for the info in advance. I'm looking forward to many miles of smiles in my Lemans. I'll get some pics once I can.

[Larry]

Lucky you! You have the rarest of all the 1970 Tempests and Lemans cars... rarer than the convertibes, even the GTOs, with only 1,673 Sport Coupes built. It sounds like a great car too.

To decode the car, your firewall tag should show a model #23727, and the rest paint and trim codes, etc. If you send us the VIN we wil lbe able to give yo plant built at, plus sequence number in the run.... maybe you have the first or the last one built!!

As for the coupe vs. hardtop, the word "coupe" harkens back to the good old days when it refered to a two-door car with a pillar between the windows, but not a sedan body style.

When the hardtops came out, that pretty well messed up that sort of designation. Hardtops were just that... they had no pillar, so the tops had to be "hard" to support themselves (makes sense).

But from that point on, just about every car was designated as hardtop (no pillar) or sedan (having a pillar). That applied to 2-door as well as 4-door (even some station wagons).

Then came the marketing boys! Every once in a while there would be a sedan-type body that they wanted to spiff up the name a bit for styling and sales purposes. Out came the moniker "Sport Coupe."

It was usually a sportier car, and (like in the old days) wasn't a sedan, but had a pillar. Oddly, the Lemans series called all their pillared 2-door models "coupes" instead of sedans. The 4-door models were called sedans.

Hope that helps. Look forward to seeing some photos.

Remember, you can set up your own Photo Album here and add as much as you like to it whenever you wish. You can also share it with all your family and friends for viewing (they do not have to be members to view).