A device for shrinking time and space

September 19, 2025Newsletter Archives

In October 1963, General Motors made automotive history with the rollout of the GTO sport option for the 1964 Pontiac Tempest. No minor upgrade, the GTO package turned the Tempest into a fire-breathing speed demon, a car designed to go fast. Really, really fast. And to look cool. Really, really cool.

GM’s promotional material for the car poetically described GTO as “a device for shrinking time and space.” And that it was.

The Tempest GTO was arguably the first and most iconic of American muscle cars. The car event got its own hit song, just months after hitting dealer showrooms. 

“G.T.O.,” written by John “Bucky” Wilkin, first recorded by Ronny and the Daytonas, and later covered by the Beach Boys, surfed up to #4 on the Billboard 100 Hot 100 list in September 1964. The song (which unlike the car uses periods after G, T and O) nicely lays out the car’s specs. 

Little G.T.O., you’re really lookin’ fine
Three deuces and a four-speed and a three-eighty-nine

“Three deuces,” is short-hand for the car’s three two-barrel carburetors, a common feature in muscle cars and street rods. “Four-speed” referred to the transmission, which came with a Hurst® floor shifter, another muscle-car staple. And, of course, “389” is a reference to GTO’s iconic 389 cubic-inch V-8 engine, which was borrowed from the full-sized Pontiac Grand Prix, replacing the Tempest’s standard 326 cubic-inch V-8.

The designation GTO is an acronym for Grand Turissimo Omolongato. The Italian phrase refers to production cars certified for the track by the FIA, the global auto racing governing body. Adopting the GTO designation was a blunt call out to the Ferrari 250 GTO, a limited-edition stunner which you now couldn’t afford to buy, even if you found one, with some recent sales reported as high as $70 million.

The person most responsible for the GTO was John DeLorean, then Pontiac’s chief engineer. DeLorean, of course, is best known for later building his own short-lived eponymous car brand, with its distinctive rear-engine, gull-winged, two-seat sports car. Long before he built his sometimes-time machine, DeLorean proposed building – and named – the GTO.

Pontiac often used tiger imagery in its advertising for the GTO, but fans often called it “the Goat,” well before the current usage of GOAT as an acronym for “greatest of all time.” If ever a car deserved to be called the GOAT, this is it.

-- Eric J. Savitz, Editor-in-Chief, GM News