Another 60th Birthday But . . .
How Come There’s No Love for the GTO?

A compendium of the 1964 GTO introductory advertisements. Pontiac went all in on performance and hit the market spot on!

60 Years of Mustang Celebrated – But . . . How Come There is No Love for the GTO?

Why is there no love for the GTO . . . a car that revolutionized the image of performance autos in the U.S.

I’m a Ford guy, and I’ve been drinking champagne with all the other Mustang lovers over the big bad birthday of my favorite steed. But I’m also a car guy, and an auto historian who spent 12 years helping to build the Auto History Preservation Society. In that capacity, I had plenty of experience with iconic cars that established either a niche market or changed how we look at automobiles.

Many of those brands are gone – but some live in the hearts of car lovers as if they were just introduced yesterday. We could make a long list – which of course the Mustang would be included, but what about a car that was introduced that very same year and gave birth to what we call the “Muscle Car Era” – the Pontiac GTO.

OK, so Mustang is still around, so the Factory gets to lay on some heavy hype for the “60 Anniversary Mustang”, but I know darn well that Mustang fans would and did get on the bandwagon touting and hyping the birthday regardless of anything the Factory did.

On the GTO, though, there was the dull thud of silence. OK, so GM doesn’t give a hoot about a brand that they feel stole sales from Chevrolet (I’m fond of calling the “new” GM Chevrolet Motors Corporation), but what happened to the Pontiac nuts screaming from the rooftop “60 years ago we changed the automotive world!”?

If we’re gonna hype the Mustang for its impact on the enthusiast, come on, let’s get a birthday cake with the big Goat on it and add 60 candles! How about it? Who wants to start a celebration with me?

Comment on this post – let’s get some love for the GTO!

GTO Through the Years – Click Year Image to See Over-Drive Magazine’s Packed with Facts pages!

1964 – GTO is introduced and stuns the world. Pontiac invents the formula (we are told) of putting a big engine in a mid-size chassis and away we go! NOTE: Pontiac GTO production began September 3, 1963.

1965 – Ram Air introduced late in year as dealer install.

1966 – New body and three engines, with Ram Air as a factory option.

1967 – The 400 CID block arrives with many small performance improvements as well.

1968 –  An entirely new new chassis and body style arrives – including hidden headlights!

1969 – The Judge arrives – along with more performance options.

1970 – The 455 CID V-8 becomes available in the mid-size line.

1971 – The 455 become the performance engine due to lower compression ratios.

1974 – Mid-size GTO is replaced by X platform (Ventura). The 350 CID V-8 is the performance engine?

2004 – GTO returns, based on the Australian Holden Monaro. That means Chevrolet power.

2005 – GTO gets more aggressive hood an hotter engine. BTW, you can also access the 2006 GTO Fact Sheet HERE.

2009 – Pontiac RIP (Proposed 2009 GTO Shown)