[nmoreilly]

Originally Posted by brians

Had one of the best conversations I’ve ever had yesterday.
Tracked down by pure accident thru Facebook, the original owner of my RA2 GTO.

I’ll summarizing and keep it short


Early 68, he ordered a Hemi Charger as a birthday present to himself as it was supposed to be the best out there. It came in in May 68, but when he went to take possession, the manager refused his 66 Tempest trade in as it had been modified. The gave him a short time to sell it but did not happen. So third week of May, he walked into a little Pontiac dealership in Alliance Ohio to talk to them about what Pontiac had to offer and would they take the trade in. The dealership owner sat him down and showed him literature about this new top HP package that just came available. Prior to that, he never heard of it. He sat down and checked off options on a GTO.

About 5 weeks later, he is driving down the road and sees a car transport with a single green 68 GTO. He turns around and follows it to the dealership. He grabs the dealership owner and says we are going for a ride. By third gear, the dealership owner said that is enough and tells him to go back and so they can prep it and install the RA system.

He took it back and drove it himself into the service center (it was just 2 bays). He stood there while they installed the system. One side note, he stated the 2nd set of scoops were in the trunk. They were open and already painted Verdoro Green. I asked if he was sure they were open and he said yes, he stood there when they opened the trunk, cut the hood and installed them.

And I also found out about the original engine. The RA2 engine broke a valve a few months later and it destroyed everything. They replaced the entire engine under warranty.

Originally Posted by brians

Yep - as soon as he said he ordered one from Orwig motors, I knew there could only be one so I sent him a message asking more about his car and when he listed the options he ordered I was convinced so asked for his number.

Great guy to talk to and he had some really good stories of that time and filled in a bunch of mysteries of the car. I told him that I plan on calling every month or so just to hear more and if he thought of any great stories, call me.

Sometimes the history of these cars are even better then the cars themselves.

Tremendous