The car that started the "Muscle" era off!!!

[Tripper]

Yep... the car that started the "Muscle Car" era off! My buddy had the 1st '64 GTO that came into Houston. Triple black/3x2/4-speed with a reverb radio! That sucker would take care of biddnezzz!!! Back then they had a TV commercial that said you could put a $100 bill on the dash & go through all 4 gears & the passenger could not reach up & grab it. I'm here to testify... that was the truth. My bud's Goat would lay big time rubber in ALL 4 gears on concrete! [ddd[ddd

BoB

 

[donsrods]

Don't you wish you had that one back ?? I had two Goats, both 66's. One was a brand new coupe, tripower, white with red interior, 4 speed, and extremely plain looking. I almost didn't buy it because I wanted a gold one, but I took it for a test drive and after going sideways in the first 3 gears I did.

My second one was a green convertible, also 4 speed, but single 4 barrel. I bought it from a buddy who dropped a nut down the carb while it was running. Punched a neat little square hole in the top of the piston. I paid him $800 for it, and about $20 later I had a new piston and rings back in that hole and it ran like a clock.

The first one got impounded by the cops one night when I was caught drag racing. They found the abandoned car after I parked it in an alley and fled on foot. I had to leave the State for a while while things cooled off, and my Mom sold the GTO from under me. I think the statute of limitations has run out as that was about 45 years ago.

Love them GTOs.

Don

 

[Willowbilly3]

My 66 442 came stock with 7.75x14 tires about 3 inches wide. I can imagine getting sideways in all 4 gears!!!
GTOs were king of the hill for a year or so until all the other carmakers got on board. By 66 it was a free-for-all.

 

[Tripper]

I had to leave the State for a while while things cooled off, and my Mom sold the GTO from under me. I think the statute of limitations has run out as that was about 45 years ago.

Don

Always wondered how you wound up in Fla! [ddd[ddd[ddd

BoB

 

[donsrods]

Always wondered how you wound up in Fla! [ddd[ddd[ddd

BoB

Witness protection program.

When I had my GTO the one car I didn't like coming up against were 442's, especially the W30 tripowers. They were beasts.

Don

 

[Willowbilly3]

Never lost a race with my 66 442. It was a 4 speed coupe with bench seat and factory 4.33 posi. Only 2 cars I've owned that I wish I had back, The 442 and a 64 Cutlass hardtop with a 4 speed.

 

[21willys]

My dad had a 67 gto, sold it a couple months before I got my liscence for $700!!!!

 

[Snake Farm]

My dad had a 67 gto, sold it a couple months before I got my liscence for $700!!!! ..........................and that's why I'm alive today!

And now you know the rest of the story.

 

[Old Iron]

The 64's did start the big movement and were fast N kool but, a little too boxy for me.
My favorite Goat of all time is the 65.

 

[R Pope]

Ah, the old hundred dollar bill story, that took me back. A clown in town had a GTO and was beaking off about that ad. I took him up on it, and took his bill about halfway through Second gear. I don't know what kind of wimps lived near the Pontiac proving grounds back then, but they weren't farm boys!
Maybe the fact that it was a Canadian twenty and not a Yankee hundred made the diff........
I told him, if the car took off that quick, I would just have to catch the bill as it came flying back off the dash as the car drove out from under it!

 

[DougnDog]

I too had one 65. my first hand a a full radius with a flair on the rear wheel wells[...turned out nice. it was lowered in the front quite a bit. I tagged the drain plug on a driveway and put a crack in \. to get the oil pan off I found you had to raise the engine at least 16".....so I fixed it in place.....found out with a little practice I could Braze upside down.....

 

[donsrods]

I've told this story before, but when I was growing up a friend of mine's Dad owned a Pontiac/ Cadillac dealership, so my buddy got a brand new car every other year. In 63 he got a 421 Tripower Gran Prix and in 65 he drove up my driveway with a brand new 65 GTO convertible.

The car was beautiful, black with white top and white interior, and every option you could get on a GTO. It was a tripower, four speed, and had 4.33 gears. At the track he was turning low 12's on cheater slicks, when most Goats were running in the low 13's. It was a monster, and he made a lot of money with it on the street.

One time he confided in me and showed me the window buiild sheet. On the build sheet that came with my GTO is said something like " Tripower 389, etc etc", but in that area on his build sheet was a big X across that whole area. He then told me he had ordered it with a 421 HO tripower engine. Outwardly it looked no different from a 389.

I've often wondered where that car ended up, because Pontiac swears they never built a GTO with a 421, but I rode in one lots of times.

Don

 

[21willys]

And now you know the rest of the story.

I ended up with a big block 79 TA instead. I should of died in that car, but I didn't. It had a 2:73 diff gear, I never did find the top end lol

 

[Willowbilly3]

I've told this story before, but when I was growing up a friend of mine's Dad owned a Pontiac/ Cadillac dealership, so my buddy got a brand new car every other year. In 63 he got a 421 Tripower Gran Prix and in 65 he drove up my driveway with a brand new 65 GTO convertible.

The car was beautiful, black with white top and white interior, and every option you could get on a GTO. It was a tripower, four speed, and had 4.33 gears. At the track he was turning low 12's on cheater slicks, when most Goats were running in the low 13's. It was a monster, and he made a lot of money with it on the street.

One time he confided in me and showed me the window buiild sheet. On the build sheet that came with my GTO is said something like " Tripower 389, etc etc", but in that area on his build sheet was a big X across that whole area. He then told me he had ordered it with a 421 HO tripower engine. Outwardly it looked no different from a 389.

I've often wondered where that car ended up, because Pontiac swears they never built a GTO with a 421, but I rode in one lots of times.

Don

I love those stories. Some of those pontiac dealers were pretty artful at stuffing big engines into Tempests and hotrodding the bigger boats. Like the Royal Bobcat cars.

 

[donsrods]

When the first GTO's and other muscle cars started to show up they really killed tradtional hot rodding for a while. You could go down to your local dealer and for about $99 a month buy a car that was nicer and faster than anything you could build in your home garage. Best of all, girls would actually go out with you if you had one of these vs a noisy, smelly, old hot rod.

I really didn't get back into building a hot rod until 1969, when I built my first 32 rpu. The nice thing was that nobody else was fooling around with old cars and "obsolete" motors and speed parts, so I was able to buy stuff no one wanted for cheap money. Sometimes guys would even give me old car parts free, just to get them out of their way.

Don

 

[R Pope]

Lots of dealer-built specials back then. The Plymouth dealer in Calgary ordered a batch of 383-spec Fury converts without engines, and the appropriate number of Hemi engines. My brother almost bought one of them, but he was not real enthused about a ragtop that was really fast!

 

[donsrods]

We had a cop in our local burg who was allowed to special order his pursuit vehicle, so he ordered a 65 Dodge with a 426 wedge, two fours, and a four speed with the tallest Hurst shifter I have ever seen. He chased me one night when I was racing another GTO and I had my speedometer well down below the 120 mark and the cop was still gaining on me. The only way I lost him was to get off the four lane and onto some winding country roads.

All the factories were cranking out some weird cars back then. You could almost order anything you wanted if you knew the right boxes to check on the order form.

Don

 

[JIML82]

When I was a student in college, a buddy bought a brand new 1964 GTO. It was a 4-speed, 4-barrel. Don't know about the rear end ratio. He had a plastic Jesus with a magnetic base on the dash. I can still remember, with 4 passengers in the car, he would launch and the plastic Jesus would end up on my lap in the back seat!

Since I was a co-op engineering student, I was able to order and purchase a 396 Impala the next year. It never would launch like that.

Jim

 

[Neverdone]

I thought sure when I looked at this there was going to be a Gremlin!!!

 

[440shorty]

Muscle

Good Goat stories.

My Grandfather owned the GTO's daddy: 1951 Oldsmobile 88. First lightweight car with big for the time 303 ci modern OHV V8. It was fast, faster than the straight-8 Buicks he also had. My dad got to drive it, and his father's '40 Ford, too, in the mid 50s. Those were the days!

440shorty