Pontiac GTO History

The Pontiac GTO (sometimes referred to as “the goat”) is arguably one of the two most important history making cars of its generation, the 1960’s (The other is the Ford Mustang). The baby boomers were craving more power in their automobiles, but GM mandates clearly stated that engines larger than 330 V8 could not go in an intermediate sized car. Previous PR problems with past designs, lawsuits, and a book by Ralph Nader really made the automakers “nervous” of making any more negative PR noise.

Lower Pontiac managers found a way around this mandate in 1964. They were able to put in a 389 V8 into the Tempest by creating an “option package”. Upper management did not see the “option packages” on the final reports of each model line; this was decided by lower management. Upper management obviously let this go through once they found out, because the GTO option was selling like mad. Lower management estimated 5,000 to be sold. 32,450 GTO’s were produced that first year, and the rest of Detroit jumped on board building their own muscle cars and pony cars.

The first true performance car for a decent price was finally available to the public. Before this, people had to spend a lot of money and time “hot rodding” their own cars. Now you could drive something off the showroom floor and be racing it in 5 mn’s, probably smoking most other racers.

The GTO became its’ own model line in 1966, and sold nearly 100,000 units, a record for all true muscle cars. (Exact definition of a muscle car is an intermediate sized body with a large V8 engine). Pontiac put the new limit at 400 ci for engine choices in muscle cars, and that lasted through 1971 when GM lifted the ban and Pontiac squeezed in a 455 ci V8 engine. It was too late for the model, which had declining sales every year since it’s height in 1966. Less than 10,000 GTO’s sold in 1971, even with the 455 V8 engine being standard. That is a far cry from the nearly 1000,000 sold in 1966. The GTO once again became an option package on the 1972 and 1973 Lemans, and the 1974 Ventura before it was revived in 2004 through 2006.

GTO Judge
Between 1969 and 1971, Pontiac had a new package for the GTO labeled the “Judge”. This included some cosmetic changes like a big “Judge” logo on the sides, larger rear wings, and the ultimate Ram Air III setup on the 400 V8 engine. This increased power to a “documented” 10 to 20 more horsepower. I use the tem “documented” because it was probably a lot more. The 1971 Judge was based on the 455 V8 engine for some true power, but only a few hundred Judge’s sold in 1971, before the GTO line ended.