Unrestored 1966 Pontiac GTO - Jay Leno's Garage
 

An original beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8K5TNHnyTU

Amazing! Thanks for posting!

Here's my Dad, and Grandpa, by my his brand new '66 GTO. In St. Louis obviously. :) It was 389, 4-barrel, 4-speed, M.S., M.B, 3.89 gears. Later on, engine built by Matt Johnson (solid lifter cam, Holley 650 double pumper, headers, etc). He also put aluminum slots and G-60 Wide-Ovals on it. He said a G-60 was the widest tire you could buy at the time (IIRC).

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1717501611

Too bad that Jay and the owner don't really know about these cars.
I learned that the 326 in the 'Le Mah' was a small block but the 389 was a big block.

I learned that the tripower was not a factory option but only dealer installed.

I learned that the GTO became it's own series in 1965

I learned that power brakes don't have any vacuum booster

And that $4200 in '66 is equivalent to $100,000 today. (not the actual 41,000)

Still, a very cool original old car, for sure.

Jay also made up some ridiculous price for A/C and said it was 1/3 the cost of the car...

Nice car to feature and always great to see a Pontiac on Jay Leno's Garage. Unfortunate that Jay has so much incorrect information about that GTO and I have to assume many other cars he features. He has so many cars, and such a diverse collection, I have to give him a pass I guess. As someone who knows very little about pre-war cars, some of the exotics and steam cars, you just can't know it all. Someone probably throws him a bullet point list with lots of mistakes they pulled from AI on the internet, and he just repeats it. Still enjoy his shows and collection.

Sad commentary, you’d figure that Jay and his show producers would have done at least a little research.

Here’s the reproduction window sticker I had made using the PHS documentation I received for my ‘64 Le Mans convertible.

$345.60 for the air conditioning option on a base price $2796.00 Le Mans convertible, that’s almost 12.5% of the base price which made it a costly option but hardly 1/3 of the cost of the car. :rolleyes:

That was a very nice 66 GTO, had to laugh at all the mistakes with that interview. I can't believe how bad Jay Leno is starting to look, he sounded like a very old man when talking and he has dropped a lot of weight. I imagine a lot has to do with his wife's declining health.

Yes, lots of wrong information and Jays driving is getting atrocious (all over the road) but that's how it goes in older age.

He will soon have to permanently hang up his 5000 keys pretty soon.

Jay is getting old, He repeats many things over and over.
Yes, there were clearly some A-typical Pontiac misinformation flubs but that goes on with almost all the online BS.
I guess we expect more from Jay but he's human too.

It was a Great GTO and I enjoyed the coverage regardless.


I liked the mention of the new '66 grills being "Plastic" with the special name, not many ever talk about and/or know this.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a04b6290_b.jpg

Beautiful car. I can’t believe the 389 weighs 90 more pounds than the 326.😂

I've only watched the very first part so far. I did catch the tri-power dealer install thing. Bad... I was more concentrating on the car and story about it. Technical accuracy gets slaughtered all the time on TV. Even Roadkill lays a few stinkers now and then.

I guess my car had the Super Duty optional radiator.

Tiger interior? Factory would add vinyl roofs whenever their paint guy was having a bad day? PMD = Pontiac Motor... Company. Actual original miles? Speedo disconnected. Daughters even said mom got a speeding ticket because she had no idea how fast she was going. Tripower was only available as a dealer install in 64-65? WS code tells you which transmission was used? Dearborn, M20, M21. Super Duty radiator? Tropical package? 50 year old differentials will fall apart if you burn rubber. Jay noted that the original MC had been tossed in favor of something more modern and then assumed, twice, that it has power brakes. Car "probably would have blown up" if it had been driven, so engine rebuild.

New owner looked nervous when they were about to head out and then, for no reason whatsoever, Jay decided to back up. Panic. "Klastic"? Repeated it several times. 35% lighter? No, the grilles were 35 *pounds* lighter, that's huge. The hood is the same as 65, but not the quarter panels. They stopped making the 426 Hemi because... ten million cars. The 200 or so Ram Air 66s had a 380 horse rating. Simulated wood wheel? "Hurr, no trees gave their life in the making of this car". Except there's real wood on the dash, directly in their line of sight and it has the optional shifter knob as well. Deluxe seat belts because... daughters in the back? No, it's just nicer stainless trim. This episode of Musclecar Memories was terrible.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1717552127

Somewhat of a neat car, but not sure what to believe from the new owner as he doesn’t have all his facts straight on the ‘66 GTO.

Maybe I messed it, but did anyone take photos of the build sheet that was supposedly on top of the gas tank to verify those special order red pinstripes?

It would be great to have the PHS for this car.

Ehhh, before my grandpa passed in 2001, I was asking him questions about the 59 Safari (he was the one and only original owner). One question was if he changed the oil in the differential. He responded with "You're supposed to change the oil in that?" When I got it running in 2004, I checked the oil in the diff, pulled the plug, oil came running out. Popped the plug in and called it good enough at that point. Was burning in rubber in 2004 with original oil, zero problems. Still burning out in 2009 with original oil at 50 years old and the limited slip rear end still miraculously worked. Diffs are not THAT delicate but the '59 has the ultra beefy 9.3" in it though.

Really great car and history. Thanks for sharing the link with us.
I kept watching and waiting to hear the tiger horn , disappointed at the noise it made.
No wonder they didn't become a hit item.

I think the new owner was nervous about correcting Jay so much on so many things and just tried to patronize as much as possible.
Most of the statements he originated himself were accurate , but he sugar coated most of Jays mistakes with ad-lib.

The original owner posted this on the Facebook gto group. I have check now to see if everyone their trashed Jay too. He’s getting for sure


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Very nice looking GTO. I really like the custom red Pontiac letters on the rear panel.

The Original owner posted his ‘66 on FB before he died ??
What date did he post this?

Did he post photos of the engine bay before the now current owner rebuilt this low mileage engine ??

Yeah.. I hope Jay is OK. You get over 40 and lose a significant amount of weight and you look, unwell...sometimes.
Jay did need to lose some weight, he was fairy fluffy. His wife is several years younger than he is.
Then I wonder why Jay had to go public with his wife's conservatorship???
I sure hope Jay has a plan for when he is unable to watch over his herd of cars, or when he passes. I hope the place sticks around as a museum. I didn't understand why Smokey Yunick thought he had to sell off his shop and land. He didn't want shrine to himself. Who knows
Folks don't like to talk about health problems. It's kinda like a mental wall. If you admit that you have problems, it's like admitting that you're a failure...in health, and no one likes admitting that kind of thing...:confused2

I have the utmost respect for Jay and it’s sad to see it looks and sounds like he’s aged 10 plus years within the past year. :(

Yeah he’s far from a Pontiac expert but all things considered he did pretty well and I did enjoy seeing the car although the episode was about twice as long as it needed to be.

x2

I've seen shows where Jay has rattled off a lot of automotive history. He may be slipping and was off on this one. I'd bet that he's forgotten 10x more than most have ever known about cars. I'm gonna give him a pass. The other guy is the one that should be getting 90% of the criticism for this hatchet job. Kinda like watching a movie. If you start checking the details, you're not gonna enjoy the movie.

God bless Jay. With his wife's condition, the fire/burning he went through, no wonder he looks 15 years older in just the past couple years.

wow... Jay's age is catching up to him;
Granted he had a bike accident, and then a bad burn not too long beforehand - but he looks to have last a fair share of weight, and is looking aged.
His voice also seems a bit more hoarse than I seem to recall it being in the recent past.

I missed these before posting:

I agree with both comments.

And it says it right on the GTO wheel covers....

Tiger Horn had me mildly intrigued- but turned out to be a huge disappointment...
That could have been pretty cool

NOS Deluxe Wheel Disc - 65, 66.

1965 Pontiac Motor Division.

1966 Smooth.

This featured ‘66 GTO does have the correct Deluxe Wheel Disc.

Cool old photo of the Original owner with his daughters and his GTO showing the Cadillac emblem on the Cordova top.

That was my take. Issues with his wife and his own physical injuries, etc. I give him a total pass on not knowing every detail like some of us, he has a ton of cars and is mainly focused on pre-war stuff. He has gone from a robust and strapping guy to a frail old man in the past year. We'll all get there soon enough. More power to Jay, and he has all of my respect as a car guy. A good friend of mine knows him personally, and Jay is as real as it gets.

and he's still rowing the gears on that muncie

I always enjoy watching Leno and it was a special treat seeing him with that '66.
A little surprised when he credited Delorean for Pontiacs turn around. Credit should have spread back to the man who assembled that crew in '56.