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Dave Landrith, one of Jim's friends from Hurst Performance had presented to the Detroit area Pontiac Dealers Association the idea of a dressed up Astre to differentiate the car from being a Vega. The dealer association liked the idea. With that, Landrith approached Jim Wangers for ideas on the car. Jim came up with the name L'il Widetrack and the stripe package. A facility had been setup in Detroit to convert Astres to L'il Widetracks. This was the birth of Motortown. All parts and accessories used to convert Astres were sourced from aftermarket suppliers. Sales were so successful with the L'il Widetrack that other dealers outside of the Detroit area wanted L'il Widetrack Astres to sell as well. One thing Jim Wangers had learned from his L'il Widetrack experience is that the aftermarket wheels made by Appliance Industries used on the car did not meet GM warranty specifications. Pontiac took notice of this. Jim's lesson learned was to never use aftermarket wheels for such future programs conversions.
PO: How many L'il Widetrack Astres were built?
JW: Approximately 3,000.
PO: Were they all Silver color?
JW: Yes.
PO: The brochure for the L'il Widetrack pictures an Astre Safari Lil Widtrack wagon, were there any Astre wagons converted to L'il Widetracks?
JW: No.
JW sidenote: To keep delivery cost down, all Astres were actually driven to Motortown's Detroit facility and after the conversion the L'il Widetracks were driven to the selling dealer.
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