What year would you classify this GTO?
Is it a 68 or 69?

Huh, that's interesting. The body is clearly a '68 but from what I can see of the dashboard, it's '69. It's also lacking vent windows which is a '69 thing. I wonder what the front end looks like?

This photo is that of a stock 68 GTO convert
that has had the vent windows airbrushed out.
GM's ad department was always airbrushing their photos back then. If you look carefully, you will see the shadow of the vent window assy on
the top of the door that they failed to airbrush out. The radio antenna was air brushed out also. As a matter of fact, the green in the grass of the background is as phony as a three dollar bill.

I think that shadow is from the windshield pillar, not from the missing vent windows. IMO, the '69-style dash would be pretty difficult to airbrush in. I'm not sure why anyone would go through the effort of doing so particularly when you hardly see it. There's also a square '69-style mirror on the driver's side door. The description for the photo reads "This pre-production model differs from the production model." My guess is that this car was a mule.

I am not buying your explanation....the photo
is bogus! There are no shadows under that tree
and the radio antenna has been left off when the grass was airbrushed in. The shadow of the woman in the decklid is bogus as well...it is too far away from her to even be there. I would n't be surprised if that tree didn't even exist when the photo was taken. A picture of a stock 68 GTO was taken and doctored by airbrush artists to halfway represent what a 69 might look like.

I never said it wasn't possible, I just don't think it's airbrushed to the extent you are implying. The compression in the sample pic is pretty extreme and we're looking at a 72ppi image so that only makes it harder to determine what's real and what isn't. The only way to tell for sure is to order a print. The airbrushing is pretty obvious in all of the factory brochures I've ever seen.

Could be a 69 Lemans conv. It would have a 69 dash and 68 marker lights on the rear. The only thing I can't explain is the 68 rear bumper.

The shadow on the decklid is not of the model, it is of the trees behind the car.
There is a shadow under the tree, can't you see it directly beneath the tree?
Interesting that there is no antenna, though.
And the grass is an interesting color.

Hi,
The Rally II wheels are missing the trim rings.
There are no GTO decals on the rear fenders near the side marker lights.
My eyes aren't good enough to detect the shadows or grass color shifts.
Mike

I think some of you are scrutinizing this pic too intently. That pic has been around for years. There's also a front view pic with the same license plate. I don't know why they'd do something like that because I'm sure the '69's facelift was more than in the can by the time they were prepping for '69 model-year press pics.

No antenna could indicate radio-delete. Seen that on 68 and 69 before. Whatever the car is - it's funky. Maybe both you guys are right, it's an airbrushed mule. The girl wasn't a natural blonde either :rolleyes:

i don;t know about all the airbrush stuff, i have seen the front shot if this as well, and it's all 68 except for the doors and interior, who knows?

All pictures from literature back then were airbrushed.

Its totally possible that this is a mock up car with no functioning drive train. This was a real common practice for pre-production models prior to final approval of sheetmetal and styling.