[GTO JOHN]

Fast forward 11-12 years from my post #1...

My father was never really into cars when I was growing up so I have no idea how or why I became so interested in muscle cars. Perhaps my uncle Johnny’s 70 Orbit Orange GTO Judge made a lasting impression the only time I got to see it when I was eight years old. Growing up, I remember riding in the back seat of our Ford Country Squire wagon and identifying the cars by year and make as they drove by. During the late 70’s the gas crunch was still in full force and many muscle cars had already been parked by their owners for a variety of reasons. Seeing a muscle car cruising the streets was a rare sight even then and those hood scoops and loud exhaust set them apart from all the other cars.

I was really into athletics and I played three sports all through school so I never had much time to think about cars – until I got my license. By 1984 high performance cars were few and far between when I went looking for my first car. My father encouraged me to buy a sensible car much like the ones he drove. I wanted to find something with at least a V8 and 4bbl and settled on a 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass coupe 350-4 with only 21,000 miles on the odometer. A little old lady had traded it in at Wally McCarthy’s Oldsmobile in Richfield, MN. I had my first car and proceeded to start modifying it to my liking.

I got a job at Montgomery Wards working in the automotive department nights and weekends while I finished high school. Some of the guys there were into cars but none had a bona-fide muscle car. One of the service writers was a paint and body man on the side so the Cutlass went in for a makeover. While the Cutlass was out of service I needed a second car so I bought the first thing I found that was cheap, and drove. My first Pontiac was a 1972 Firebird 350-2bbl automatic I bought for $50. Red with white interior and white cordova top. The Bird was a fast car with good looks but the rear trunk was so rusty that the leaf springs popped through after a rough night of driving. I ended up trading the Firebird to the guy for the paint job on my Cutlass so that was a good deal for me.

When I graduated high school I decided to work full time for a year or so before going to college. I got a job at the local auto parts chain Big Wheel where I quickly advanced to assistant manager and got transferred across town to a little strip mall in Robbinsdale, MN called Robin Center. There I worked under a colorful manager named Scott who liked to talk about his escapades in the old days with his muscle cars. He employed two part timers John, and Dan, who were local high school kids that liked the old muscle cars too. John’s dad supposedly had an old GTO but he rarely drove it. Dan and I kept asking John to bring the car down to the store but his dad would not let him drive it. We had a regular customer who was an older man- probably in his 50s, who would drive his 69 Camaro RS/SS 396 convertible down to the store and show us kids some cool American muscle. That was an awesome car that was heavily modified with a huge cam that would rattle the store windows when it rolled by.

Things were quiet at the store one evening as Dan and I chatted about the movie Hollywood Knights that had been on TV the night before. One car that was featured in the movie was a red 65 GTO that was a real head turner. I was standing behind the counter with my back to the front window, and Dan was standing where a customer would be facing me. As we talked I heard a car approaching the store. I could tell it was a muscle car by the thumpety-thump of a souped-up engine. In my subconscious I thought it was the big block Camaro that we had seen many times before as the store windows began to rattle once more. I was still facing Dan when all of a sudden his eyes got really wide and he said “Oh my God!” as he looked out the store window over my shoulder. I turned around and there was a stunningly beautiful Montero Red 65 GTO with black cordova top and black interior sitting at the curb. The drivers door swung open and out hopped our own part time employee John. He had managed to get permission from his dad to drive the car down to the store for us to see. John opened the hood with a distinct click from the latch and there underneath was a monster 389 engine with tri-power carbs! This was a true musclecar if I ever saw one. Inside was a Hurst 4 speed shifter with factory console. The car looked absolutely fabulous and I remember this was the first time I really got to see a GTO up close and personal.

We had to have a ride of course so Dan and I took turns riding shotgun as John took us out on Hwy 81 and ran through the gears. The car was impressive and had tons of power. The tri-power carbs howled every time they were opened up and I admit to giving the dash mounted grab bar a workout. That red ’65 sparked an interest in Pontiacs that I still have today. Dan liked the car so much that he found a blue ’66 GTO hardtop that he bought from the second owner. The blue GTO was a real sharp car although the paint was faded badly. It was a 4 speed car with no console and had nice blue interior. Those two part-timers would come to work driving the GTOs and parked side by side in the lot making a mini car show right there. I decided that I needed to find a GTO of my own.

Several weeks later found a red ’67 GTO hardtop with red interior near my home. It was a 4 speed and I did not know how to drive a stick shift at that time. The seller drove it on the test drive, and drove it to my house after I paid the $500 asking price. I drove him back to his work and came home to check out my new toy. The GTO sat in the street outside my house and I didn’t have a clue how to drive it. I decided it would be wise to put the car in the driveway rather than leave it on the street since years earlier a drunk driver plowed into the back of my older brother’s super nice ’65 Buick GS and totaled the car. The GTO fired up and ran a bit rough but I liked the sound of the horsepower through the worn out headers and glasspack mufflers. I tried to back the car into the driveway up and incline but kept stalling the car until my dad finally came outside and asked if I needed help. I turned the car over to him as he effortlessly backed the car into the driveway where I wanted it. Unimpressed, my dad said “good luck” and walked back into the house.

It took a few days and many hours of begging and pleading from my younger brother to finally get the courage up to drive the GTO on the street. I had to teach myself how to drive a stick if I wanted to keep the car so off we went. I killed it on the first 1-2 shift one house down the road, but after that I kept it running and learned to drive a manual transmission on the fly. We had a fun summer cruising the lakes around Minneapolis with my first GTO.