By Eric J. Savitz, editor-in-chief, General Motors
By Eric J. Savitz, editor-in-chief, General Motors
Little G.T.O., you’re really lookin’ fine
Three deuces and a four-speed and a three-eighty-nine
Listen to her tachin’ up now, listen to her whine
Come on and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out G.T.O.
--"G.T.O.,” Ronny and the Daytonas, 1964
Lookin’ fine, indeed.
In October 1963, General Motors announced the GTO sport option package for the 1964 model year Pontiac Tempest. This wasn’t just a cosmetic upgrade, although GTO did include upgrades like bucket seats, instrument panel GTO badging, and stylized air intake castings on each side of the hood. What really mattered is that the GTO package turned the mid-sized Tempest into a fire-breathing dragon, designed for speed and power.
One GM sales brochure poetically called GTO “a device for shrinking time and distance.”
With the GTO package, Pontiac’s clear intent was to produce a ferocious speedster, a car which you might occasionally take, well, let’s just say a smidge above the posted limit. GTO was arguably the first and most iconic of American muscle cars, and its enormous appeal remains, six decades after it first hit Pontiac dealerships.
“Designed as a piece of performance machinery, its purpose in life is to permit you to make the most of your driving skill,” the 1964 GTO sales brochure continued. “[I]f you start vibrating when you’re at the controls of a sudden automobile, if you’ve driven enough kinds of performance to know what it’s all about, then you’ve got GTO written right across your forehead.”
Caption: The 1964 Pontiac Tempest GTO Coupe, shown here in Berkley, Michigan. Closed as an auto repair shop in 2010, the Vinsetta Garage is now a restaurant.
Who needs a Ferrari?
If you need further confirmation of what Pontiac had in mind, note that 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 – no longer actively used - 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 original price of the Ferrari 250 GTO was about six times that of the Pontiac GTO – choosing the GTO name was a bold claim by GM for a piece of the performance car market.
Caption: A 1964 print advertisement for the GTO.
Production of the first Pontiac GTOs began in late 1963, with a feature set you can divine from the surf-infused Ronny and the Daytonas tune, written by the late John “Bucky” Wilkin. (A little punctuation trivia: the song title included periods – G.T.O. – but Pontiac used no periods, just GTO.) The song, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in September 1964, notes that the car had “three deuces,” or three two-barrel carburetors, a common feature in muscle cars and street rods. “Four-speed” referred to the transmission that 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.
There are fascinating side elements to the GTO story, many of them laid out in “Glory Days: When horsepower and passion ruled Detroit,” published in 1998 by the late Jim Wangers, a long-time Detroit PR and marketing exec who worked at the time for Pontiac’s ad agency.
Back to the future
Wangers writes that 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. (Occasionally deployed as a time machine.) Wangers asserts it was DeLorean’s idea to drop the hefty 389 engine - producing 325 horsepower - into the prototype ’64 Tempest. DeLorean also chose to use the GTO name.
Caption: Former GM executive John Z. DeLorean, best known for building the DeLorean Motor Company, played a crucial role in the launch of the GTO. He's shown here with a 1968 GTO.
“The 389 cubic inch engine was exactly what this new Tempest needed,” Wangers writes. “It had plenty of low-end torque and lots of mid-range horsepower…DeLorean made it his personal driver. He had a habit of loaning it to some of his close friends, and on many occasions, he had trouble getting it back.”
The Goat
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.” In one bit of PR magic, Wangers convinced Car and Driver in 1964 to write a comparison between the Pontiac GTO and the beloved Ferrari GTO. “The incredible article made the GTO legitimate, even in the eyes of the most critical sports enthusiasts,” Wangers writes.
The GTO had a long, winding history after its iconic launch edition. In 1966, Pontiac turned the GTO into its own model, rather than simply an option package for the Tempest; in 1972, the decision was reversed, and the GTO reverted to being an option package. By 1974, Pontiac discontinued the GTO, as the public appetite for muscle cars faded during the oil embargo and gas rationing. GM relaunched the car in the U.S. a few decades later: in 2004, the Pontiac GTO returned to the U.S. market, this time as a rebadged Holden Monaro, a car assembled by what was then GM’s Australian arm. But the experiment was short-lived, and the GTO disappeared again in 2006. Gone, but hardly forgotten.
Caption: The 1964 Pontiac GTO Flamme Convertible Show Car; the name “Flamme” is apparently a reference to this edition’s fiery red color, inside and out.
Eric J. Savitz, a former reporter and columnist with Barron’s, Forbes and other publications, is editor-in-chief at GM News.
Editor’s note: Retro Rides highlights noteworthy vehicles from the long history of General Motors. Catch up with all of our Retro Rides stories on GM News. If there’s a GM vehicle you think we should revisit, reach out to news@gm.com.
Little G.T.O., you’re really lookin’ fine
Three deuces and a four-speed and a three-eighty-nine
Listen to her tachin’ up now, listen to her whine
Come on and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out G.T.O.
--"G.T.O.,” Ronny and the Daytonas, 1964
Lookin’ fine, indeed.
In October 1963, General Motors announced the GTO sport option package for the 1964 model year Pontiac Tempest. This wasn’t just a cosmetic upgrade, although GTO did include upgrades like bucket seats, instrument panel GTO badging, and stylized air intake castings on each side of the hood. What really mattered is that the GTO package turned the mid-sized Tempest into a fire-breathing dragon, designed for speed and power.
One GM sales brochure poetically called GTO “a device for shrinking time and distance.”
With the GTO package, Pontiac’s clear intent was to produce a ferocious speedster, a car which you might occasionally take, well, let’s just say a smidge above the posted limit. GTO was arguably the first and most iconic of American muscle cars, and its enormous appeal remains, six decades after it first hit Pontiac dealerships.
“Designed as a piece of performance machinery, its purpose in life is to permit you to make the most of your driving skill,” the 1964 GTO sales brochure continued. “[I]f you start vibrating when you’re at the controls of a sudden automobile, if you’ve driven enough kinds of performance to know what it’s all about, then you’ve got GTO written right across your forehead.”
Who needs a Ferrari?
If you need further confirmation of what Pontiac had in mind, note that 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 – no longer actively used - 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 original price of the Ferrari 250 GTO was about six times that of the Pontiac GTO – choosing the GTO name was a bold claim by GM for a piece of the performance car market.
Production of the first Pontiac GTOs began in late 1963, with a feature set you can divine from the surf-infused Ronny and the Daytonas tune, written by the late John “Bucky” Wilkin. (A little punctuation trivia: the song title included periods – G.T.O. – but Pontiac used no periods, just GTO.) The song, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in September 1964, notes that the car had “three deuces,” or three two-barrel carburetors, a common feature in muscle cars and street rods. “Four-speed” referred to the transmission that 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.
There are fascinating side elements to the GTO story, many of them laid out in “Glory Days: When horsepower and passion ruled Detroit,” published in 1998 by the late Jim Wangers, a long-time Detroit PR and marketing exec who worked at the time for Pontiac’s ad agency.
Back to the future
Wangers writes that 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. (Occasionally deployed as a time machine.) Wangers asserts it was DeLorean’s idea to drop the hefty 389 engine - producing 325 horsepower - into the prototype ’64 Tempest. DeLorean also chose to use the GTO name.
“The 389 cubic inch engine was exactly what this new Tempest needed,” Wangers writes. “It had plenty of low-end torque and lots of mid-range horsepower…DeLorean made it his personal driver. He had a habit of loaning it to some of his close friends, and on many occasions, he had trouble getting it back.”
The Goat
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.” In one bit of PR magic, Wangers convinced Car and Driver in 1964 to write a comparison between the Pontiac GTO and the beloved Ferrari GTO. “The incredible article made the GTO legitimate, even in the eyes of the most critical sports enthusiasts,” Wangers writes.
The GTO had a long, winding history after its iconic launch edition. In 1966, Pontiac turned the GTO into its own model, rather than simply an option package for the Tempest; in 1972, the decision was reversed, and the GTO reverted to being an option package. By 1974, Pontiac discontinued the GTO, as the public appetite for muscle cars faded during the oil embargo and gas rationing. GM relaunched the car in the U.S. a few decades later: in 2004, the Pontiac GTO returned to the U.S. market, this time as a rebadged Holden Monaro, a car assembled by what was then GM’s Australian arm. But the experiment was short-lived, and the GTO disappeared again in 2006. Gone, but hardly forgotten.
Eric J. Savitz, a former reporter and columnist with Barron’s, Forbes and other publications, is editor-in-chief at GM News.
Editor’s note: Retro Rides highlights noteworthy vehicles from the long history of General Motors. Catch up with all of our Retro Rides stories on GM News. If there’s a GM vehicle you think we should revisit, reach out to news@gm.com.