Oh, Yes
1967 Pontiac GTO, aka “Goat”. I can buy one today for something in the neighborhood of $95,000. The base model sold for $2,700 in 1967; the high performance version sold for about $3,000. A Royal Oak (suburb of Detroit) dealer sold a performance package for another $650. Minimum wage was $1.25.
400ci, 4 bbl carb, 335hp 0-60 in 4.9sec, ¼ mi in 14sec at over 100mph. One of the most collectible of the 60s muscle cars.
John DeLorean was Pontiac’s chief engineer and one of the original designers of the GTO.
The Pontiac Tempest was the mother to the GTO; the GTO was originally an option package of the Tempest.
Pontiac was close to where I grew up; it was not uncommon to see pre-production models out on the roads for “real-life” testing. (The guy across the street from my home was a Corvette designer and often had “test” models in his driveway … and sometimes, under my butt).
Woodward Ave was not far away:
“In the 1960s, Woodward Avenue became a famous spot for street racing and cruising, attracting young drivers and car enthusiasts. The wide boulevard, lined with drive-ins and car dealerships, was a hub for automotive culture and the muscle car era, making it a vibrant social scene.“
Now the “Dream Cruise” on Woodward is an “event” and what was in the 60s is – like so many other things – highly commercialized as a sad resemblance of what once was.
But to be a teenage boy in the muscle car era could only be beat by being old enough to buy and drive one of these at the time.
I want mine in deep purple flake …
GAS – TIRES – OIL
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I wrote about a GTO on Gerard’s site long ago.
In 1970 I was 15 and working at McDonald’s for $1.25 an hour.
A night manager named George O’Dell was in his early 20’s and he had a blue 67 goat. 389 tri-power with a 3/4 race cam, 4 sp. It had a license plate on the front with the number 3 on it. George and 2 friends went into Al Galman Pontiac, 2 doors down from McDonald’s and each bought brand new goats with identical specs and color. Each had a numbered tag on the front, 1, 2 and 3. On the other side of the Pontiac dealer was a restaurant named Jerry’s and it had a HUGE drive-in area.
1970 was the pinnacle of the muscle car era and in Lee County, Fort Myers, FL area Jerry’s was the place to be on Sat nights. EVERYBODY was there. The doods, their rides, and the gurlz, gurlz, gurlz. Holy KOW!
The cars would parade around the whole drive in then ease out onto Cleveland Av (Highway 41) and slide down to McDonalds and cruise that circuit too. Back n forth, over and over. Loud pipes, loud rock music from 8track tapes. Jaziss. I would have worked at McD’s for free just be amongst all them older kids.
Check it out. Because of the mass of kids the law enforcement had a street cop on duty in the parking lot at McD’s, but he was easy going, and there was rarely any evil doings by anyone, and the cop looked like Barney Fife. Get this, the cops name was…wait for it…..BARNEY! Can you believe that?
That sort of thing is almost unheard of today.
And those of us that were there know why.
I grew up in SO. California during the 1950’s us kids–we knew cars!!
I worked in a Van De Kamps restaurant for minimal wage and tips. My senior year in high school I bought a used 1957 Chevy Convertible. No help from anyone in saving the money, or picking out the car.
HOWEVER, 1977 I bought a brand new Pantiac Sunbird. The junior version of the “Firebird”. Picked up my brand new from the factory car and while I was driving it off the lot the handle for the roll down window came off in my hand. I got two miles down the street and the muffler was laying the middle of the street. That was just as I picked up my brand new car!
For the next year and a half it was nothing but a disaster. The sunroof leaked like a sieve. The air conditioning fluid dripped all over my leg. Finally on Easter Sunday of 1978 I was driving on a California freeway. Had my little daughter and her two friends in the car with me–it was pouring rain. That big rubber band thing on my engine slipped off of it’s track and I skidded to a stop in the fast lane!
That was the first year of a new law in California. It was called the lemon law. I called the dealer and he told me to go to hell–stop my complaining! I called the manufacturer and they sent out a new guy. The first ever they had hired to look into “lemon cars”. He came looked it over and the repair records and determined that I had a legitimate “lemon car”. He went to the dealer to try to work out a deal–the dealer told him to go to hell. I finally parked the car in front of the dealer and walked away–got sued for the balance owing. I have never bought another American car! If anybody wants to know what happened to American car manufacturing–how the Japanese, etc. got to be more popular than American cars–that’s how it happened!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Sunbird
Scroll down–the red one was mine!
I worked for Chevy in 77 – on the 78 model year vehicles. Quality standards sucked; quantity numbers were the game. The joke was don’t buy a car made on Monday or Friday – tell you what, it didn’t matter. The unions (mine was UAW) were as bad or maybe worse than the companies. Michigan at the time was a closed-shop state so no help there.
Dealers however don’t work the way most people think they do – they actually have (had) more control over the manufacturers than the other way round from deals made back in the 1920s. The friendlier a car dealer, the less trustworthy.
CRISCO
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Scheduled for Mar 3
1973 Pontiac Trans Am. 455cu. Brand new, sitting by heerself under a tree. At the back of the dealer’s lot. During the great 1973 gas embargo. Brewster Green. 455 cubic inches.
Maryland. US Air Force. Cash.
More than 50 years later. She is, for all practical purposes, my son’s car. 140,000 miles. Last time I drove her, more than 10 years ago, She went to 130 miles per hour With no Hiccup, from a thought. Glorious! She makes her own music! Detroit Iron! Fuck yeah!
I had a 1972 GTO in high school. That car was probably turned into soup cans.
I have one. 1965 dark blue, tri-power. Bought it for $799 when I was 16 with money earned moving irrigation pipe and stacking hay bales.
You still have it?
Yes it runs, but not quite road wothy.