There are a good deal of stories about the 1964 Pontiac GTO , most of them well - known and institutionalise to retentiveness by fans of the groundbreaker that blazed the trail for midsize brawniness cars .
Among them is the one about how first - year monastic order come up to about six time the act Pontiac management expected when it rick the seriously amped - up LeMans loose . It make you wonder if any of those 32,450 buyers had bothered to read the GTO sales catalog first .
Said Pontiac , " To be perfectly honest , the GTO is not everyone ’s cup of tea . … Its suspension is steady , tune up more to the open road than to wafting gently over bumpy metropolis streets . Its dual fumes wo n’t win any prizes for whispering . And , unless you order it with our slothful 3.08 down - proportion rear axle , its gas economy wo n’t be anything to write home about . " plain , one man ’s warning is another ’s ringing indorsement .
The 1964 GTO came three ways . There were the expected clean - gondola styles of the solar day , aconvertibleand a two - door hardtop , but there was also a coupe with a fixed B - column , which Pontiac called the Sports Coupe .
For a car create on the GTO ’s premiss – poppycock the largest availableengineinto the easy possible consistency – the Sports Coupe come stuffy to the mug . At 3,000 pound , it was 20 pounds promiscuous than the hardtop and 150 light than the sofa bed . Plus , with the downcast start price of the three ( $ 3,200 ) , there was a little more left over for the buyer to start equipping a " Goat " the means he wanted .
The original proprietor of our the above car pass in big for operation options and easy on the sumptuosity . The 389 - Criminal Investigation Command V-8 engine is the triple two - gun barrel - carburettor version , good for 348 bhp at 4900 rpm . The transmission is the close - ratio M-21 four - speed stickshift . The final drive is a 3.90:1 ratio with the Safe - T - Track limited - slip differential . Meanwhile , everything is manually operated : seat , windows , even direct and brakes .
The GTO coupe shown here , one of 7,384 made for ' 64 , is now in the hands of its third proprietor , Brian Thomason , of Aurora , Colorado . He bought the Gulfstream Aqua car in 1988 , but it ’s been in its present circumstance since 2002 , when a full renovation was completed . A document matching - numbers car , it has won several top award for Brian at GTO and Pontiac - Oakland lodge meets .
