GTO History
Pontiac GTO is a very well known a respected car. The history behind it is also very interesting. It has only been on production lines for a total of thirteen years, all of which were spread out over the years of 1964 to 2006. This classic muscle car deserves the right to have its story told. Still today, the Pontiac GTO is legendary to all V-8 powered car enthusiasts.
John DeLorean was good at finding loopholes, for which Pontiac should be forever grateful. Unwittingly launching the muscle-car era back in 1964, the GTO came into being despite a mandate from General Motors brass that it was dispensing with race-car production and putting restrictions on engine sizes. In an attempt to boost Pontiac's performance branding, DeLorean experimented with putting the big-block 389 V8 engine that sat in the full-size Bonneville into the midsize Tempest. He got around GM's restrictions by offering this engine as an option, which caused the birth of the GTO (Oldham). The GTO name, stolen from Ferrari (Gran Turismo Omologato) has become popular with Pontiac and with street-racing performance (Edumnds.com).
In 1964, the legend would start a new kind of car that would dominate the automotive industry. That is until safety, insurance and emissions control became a factor. Original production plans would produce five thousand cars just to test the market. By January, ten thousand had been sold. At the end of the model year a stunning 32,450 GTOs were manufactured (Oldham). The 1964 GTO had two choices for an engine: the standard Bonneville 389 cube, 325 horsepower with a single 4-barrel Carter AFB, or the same engine with three 2-barrel Rochester Carburetors (Oldham). This car came with enough punch to really start off a new model.
Pontiac then increased the rating of the standard 4-barrel engine to 335 horsepower and introduced a new camshaft that had 292 degrees intake duration and 302 degrees exhaust duration (Oldham). 75,352 GTOs were sold during the...