’64 PONTIAC GTO & THE SUPERCAR REVOLUTION

Posted on October 22, 2024October 22, 2024 by MartynL

An option turns a midsize Tempest into the ’64 PONTIAC GTO & THE SUPERCAR REVOLUTION, and a decade of GTO-badged high-performance Pontiacs. Pontiac called it “A Device For Shrinking Time & Distance.” Magazine editors called it a “Supercar”. And, from coast to coast, enthusiasts flocked to Pontiac dealers see the new GTO, an option that breathed life into a Tempest. Pontiac - not Ford, Chevy or Plymouth - essentially created the option that ignited the Supercar Revolution and an ...

’64 PONTIAC GTO IGNITES THE SUPERCAR REVOLUTION

Posted on March 12, 2023 by MartynL

1964 was all about the birth of big-engined, muscular midsize models, and the ’64 PONTIAC GTO IGNITES THE SUPERCAR REVOLUTION! Pontiac called it “A Device For Shrinking Time & Distance.” Magazine editors called it a “Supercar”. And enthusiasts flocked to Pontiac dealers from coast to coast to see the new GTO, an option that breathed life into a Tempest. Pontiac, not Ford, Chevy or Plymouth, essentially created an option that ignited the Supercar Revolution and an almost cult-like m...

ROYAL PONTIAC’S LIGHTWEIGHT GTO.

Posted on March 7, 2023March 9, 2023 by MartynL

Back in the day, Motown’s Van Seymour, a GM employee, was a “sleeper” driver of ROYAL PONTIAC’S LIGHTWEIGHT GTO. Few people even knew that Pontiac built lightweight GTOs for racers across the country. It’s a missing link in Pontiac history. Ace Wilson’s Royal Pontiac was one of the brand’s “connected” dealers and sponsored under-the-radar “sleeper” drivers to promote the dealership and brand on the street and at drag strips. Van Seymour raced his GTO in B/Stock in 1965 and B/MP from 1967 throug...

PONTIAC GTO: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL MUSCLE CAR

Posted on August 1, 2021 by MartynL

Musclecar Maven and Hagerty contributor Scott Oldham blogs about 15 facts you might not know about PONTIAC GTO: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL MUSCLE CAR. In the early spring of 1963, during a “what if” session at GM’s Milford, Michigan, Proving Grounds, a small team of Pontiac engineers led by John Z. DeLorean realized the 389-cubic-inch V-8 from the full-size Bonneville would fit easily in the new midsize Tempest. A week later, they were doing burnouts in the first prototype, and the car widely acc...

RAM AIR V GTO – THE MYTH & THE MAGIC!

Posted on February 21, 2019 by MartynL

Like Chevrolet’s ZL1 Corvette and Buick’s Stage II Gran Sports, Pontiac’s Tunnel Port Ram Air V has been the subject of urban legends for decades. It’s all about myth & magic. According to Tom Nell, a Special Projects Engineer at Pontiac in 1971, “Pontiac’s Ram Air V or Mark V was the first Pontiac engine since the 1963 Super-Duty 421 to be developed around the concept of performance and durability, outside the realm of normal usage.” Many of the same high-performance engineers responsib...

ONE OF NONE: PONTIAC RAM AIR V GTO!

Posted on May 13, 2018 by MartynL

Like Chevrolet’s ZL1 Corvette and Buick’s Stage II Gran Sport, Pontiac’s Tunnel Port Ram Air V is part myth, part magic, and has been the subject of urban legends for decades. According to Tom Nell, a Special Projects Engineer at Pontiac in 1971, “Pontiac’s Ram Air V or Mark V was the first Pontiac engine since the 1963 Super-Duty 421 to be developed around the concept of performance and durability, outside the realm of normal usage.” Many of the same high-performance engineers responsible f...

’63 PONTIAC SD-421: SWISS CHEESE LITE!

Posted on June 27, 2017 by MartynL

Production of lightweight ’63 Super-Duty Pontiacs was extremely limited, but high-profile racer Mickey Thompson got the first two. One of those featured here is in the Factory Lightweight Collection. Roger Huntington writing in Hi-Performance CARS is often credited with first using “Swiss Cheese” to describe lightened Super-Duty Pontiacs. It came to him after he counted 120 holes drilled in the perimeter frame of Royal Pontiac’s Catalina, driven by Jim Wangers. A total of 18 aluminum body parts...