[BUQUICK]

GTO fever started for me on Jan 31st, 1974, the day I was born. I rode home from the hospital in my parents' only car at that time...1966 GTO. They still have it today.

[Kerry H]

My brother brought home a 68 GTO in 1974 when I was around 7 years old. I thought it was the coolest thing around. Fast forward to 1983 when I got my license and I came across a 68 GTO for sale. Solid as hell, asking price $1500. That was more than I had to spend so I had to pass. But, I have always loved them. Now I have a 66 GTO clone. Looks cool, goes fast and scares the wife............LOVE IT !!!

[unclescratch]

1962. Family moves from Oak Park, MI to Royal Oak, right behind the Totem Pole Restaurant. (How cool is that !?) We ride our bicycles 1-1/2 blocks and park behind the wooden fence at the rear entrance on Lafayette, and watch the waaay cool cars come and go. '57 chevy's and ford's w/blister hood scoops, baby moons, etc., etc., Get serenaded to sleep all summer long to the sound of power shifts and squeeling tires. (Early brainwashing scenario) Fall 1963. Around the corner a new car is parked at the curb still wearing window sticker. (1964 GTO) I often stop to reread the sticker on the way to school. Right across the street from school is parked a maroon '64 LeMans, 4-speed car w/aftermarked triple gauges under dash, dog dishes, hardtop, white interior. Hormones and other things coming online, I'm not shy, I knock on the door to inquire if the car is for sale. Real swell guy invites me in, introduces his wife, He is way cool but car is not for sale. Actually see the car (and dude going to work ((Ace Wilson,s Royal ???)) one day. Love that car. 1967 Have driver,s license now. Lady at work (with gorgeous , triple black, '65 LeMans) has her son's car with her and it's for sale. White '64 tri-power GTO, light blue interior, power windows and buckets, column shifted automatic, ((son has prosthetic device for right hand)) optional wheel covers w/spinners. She offers car to me to take for test drive/check-out. Heartrate begins to increase to dangerous levels. I head straight for home to show to Mom for her appraisal/approval (emphasis on power seats and windows and column shifted automatic) but mostly to see who else is home who wants to go for a ride. Older brother agrees and I head straight for Woodward Avenue. Put that sucker in drive and mashed the loud pedal. Holy**** did that car go! All my brother could say was " you'd better slow this thing down!!!". My dad wouldn't have anything to do with co-signing for a hot rod. #$%&*#$@ Next fall, walk (less than a mile) to Ace Wilson,s fall festival/new car intro/Bobcat stuff on display/promotion. Eventually meet and deal w/George DeLorean @ Leader Automotive. Do I have it for GTO's?? You bet! '65 in garage, 4-speed, V-8 (BIG ****EATIN GRIN!!!) 12-bolt posi, no ps, nopb, radio delete, big and littles, no power but HP, .................................................. ............

[gto4evr]

Hmmm... the fever was a delayed reaction. I was 3 yrs old when Gramma brought home a 71 Lemans. I used to sleep on the rear package tray and mess with grampa by turning up the AM radio to full blast before he would start the car up. In 1975 Gramps slid the car in some gravel and kissed the front right into a car. Not too bad, fiberglass nose cracked, and punched the fender in a little. They couldn't get squat on the trade in so it went into the garage to be my first car. When 1984 rolled around, I was a spoiled kid who instead of appreciating the car, wished that it was a 70 SS chevelle because the peer group was CHEVY and no one had ever heard of a Lemans. After hearing the story from Gramps that the only reason it was a 71 Lemans instead of a 71 GTO was because Gramma HATED the hood scoops I started learning a little bit about GTO's. Fame started to grow as my 350 2BBL with the powerglide lunched on my friends 78 camaro, the other guys 72 chevelle, and the 3rd guys 75 monte carlo. Now comes 1986. My carless friend will not let up trying to buy my Lemans. He thinks it's the coolest car out there. I refuse to sell it (and still have it), but I agree to aid him in his quest to find one. On the way to work after school one day, we drive past this orange Lemansish looking car. We stop by after work and see the GTO letters on the fenders. Car looks stupid being orange, but it's got a cool wing on the back. (remember, this is 1986, NO cars had wings back then). Anyways, we look inside the interior and see that it's a 4 speed car. We both laugh about "The Judge" thing on the dashboard. Neither of us had ever heard of one and thought it was just some more bad taste on the owners part besides painting the car orange. (there were no stripes on the car). My friend had never driven a stick before, but I'd driven my mom's Dodge Omni manual so my friend talks me into taking the car for a test drive for him. The owner hands me the keys and my friend and I get in. The guy just says: "take it easy, it's quick". I start the car up and we're deafened by the open manifolds -- there's NO exhaust system on the car. Clutch is WAY stiff compared to that Omni.....So my first attempt at leaving spins the tires. I see the guy shaking his head. A few streets over, I go through the gears in the car and my friend and me are crapping our pants -- NEVER been in a car that moved out like that! We come back and he drops the deposit on it without even haggling. Pick up the car the next day and take it back to his house. Next day at school, he trys to sell me the car. His mom is PISSED about that rattle-trap POS with no exhaust on it for $1400. That night he brings the car by and I'm considering a trade for my 71. Problem is, my 71 is solid, new cragars, new paint and that GTO definitely needs work, no exhaust, bondo trap, shredded interior. No way I'll go even swap even if it was a GTO. We start discussing possible addition of money to the deal, then out of the blue my Mom suggests I just buy the car outright and she'll loan me the money. (This is my mom we're talking about -- she HATES cars as anything other than a necessity). I got the car, and unfortunately the resto never happened -- it's still sitting in my garage, completely stripped into boxes in my cellar. 20 yrs gone by, NEXT year for sure! There's always some other project in front of it for some reason. So far I've escaped the temptation of selling it as the ebay numbers keep climbing. I went from plain jane Lemans to The Judge in one step. I didn't even know what a Judge WAS when we got it. I still remember the guy "Proving it was a Judge because the last "7" in the vin code of 24237!! (I did a PHS back when it was free and it really is a Judge (w/ THM400 option -- no stick from the factory) I only drove that car a week back in 1986. It got stripped for paint, and the paint shop wouldn't hang the repro quarters on it because of how bad the quality was. They threw it back in primer and gave the car back to me. At that point, every year it got taken apart a little more, until now it's ALL in boxes. So was this catching the fever or a slow viral infection that completely converted the host body into a Pontiac cyborg?

[gtokid68]

I have loved anything with wheels my whole life. It became only pontiac in about the 8 th grade. An older kid in the neighborhood had a freshly painted two tone green 69 gto bench seat column shift. It was his older brother's car left for him, it just happen to have an offical fraternal order of police sticker in the middle of the back window. So we just never got into trouble, and I don't remenber EVER getting beat. I was, I think a very lucky kid I had knowledge and tool's but no car. So I worked on many of my freinds car's in the afternoons and hang out at Johnson's blue top evernight and went street racing very often. I was voted most likly to be called the gto kid for the rest of my life by my high school class. It took me a long time to get my own gto and it was very much worth the wait. The first time my old freinds from the neighborhood saw my car they were speachless.and very happy for me even more so when it ran at the track all day without ANY problems. I could go on for ever about pontiac's I just LOVE em THE GTO KID 68

[Philo]

I got it one night (in 1964) during a street race between a 1960 Ford and a 1958 Ford, both with the 352 Intercepter engine. I was a passenger, my car at the time was a '63 Cat. Just as we took off, a 'small' car came out of a side road and fell in behind us. At about 65, he pulled up beside us, paused, then zoomed up to the '58 that was ahead at that time, paused again, then really took off. It turned out to be a light blue '64 GTO. It took me two more years to get one, but I got a white '66 3x2 four speed. It had steel wheels, full caps, red line tires, radio, ps, pb and little else. And, fuel was expensive, at about $0.32/gal.

[24237]

1975 i was 8yrs old liiving in north Jersey and my father was racing a 62 Catalina Super Duty, his daily driver was a 62 G/P , and my mother was driving a 69Judge, and they had a 66SS as an extra/back up , (all 4 cars where 4spd's) well, one late summer night my parents took me to my 1st street race in Newark on Avenue P, and we meet up with my aunt, uncle , and a bunch of other family members and thier friends, and i remember my father doing a burnout with his G/P and getting ready to race a White 69 GTO, and the Police snuck up on us without lights on and all of sudden they threw the cherries an headlights on and everyone scrambled, pops had just left the line, the Goat took off, my aunt stuffed me threw the passenger side window of my uncles factory SS 4spd nova and we were out of there! We all met up at the house and i thought it was the koolist thing in the world! well, 5 years later at the age of 13 i was joking around with my mother and said the Judge needed to be moved and i would be happy to move it for her, well, she had handed me the keys and said, "Here you go!" well, pops had already taught me the basics on how to drive an automatic, but not a stick, so after watching my parents drive sticks i always watched and observed an just applied, needless to say i did stall it the first time, but i learned quickly, we lived on a dead-end street in Lyndhurst NJ, so mom let me go back and forth with it untill i got the hang of it. Well moms left leg was taking a beating from the 3000lb clutch's pops had in the goat and mom went to a Cadillac, i kept begging mom not to sell it and give it to me when i turn 17, so the judge sat for a year and on my 14th birthday it was my birthday gift, i was the luckiest kid on the planet! i would learn how to do burn-outs with it in the driveway and pops use to take me out in it on nice weekends and he would take me to a big empty lot to drive it. I drove it every day of my junior and senior years of high school, I had the judge for 10 years and drove it every where, i did some street racing with it, hung out down the shore with it, left more rubber on the roads of Bergen County and pi**ed off more neighbors with the sound of me side steppin the clutch of the RAIII with shorty cherry bombs and puttin the hood tach into the red and then grabbing second gear just to jump on the brakes for the stop sign at the end of the block! HA HA!!!! MAN, INSTANT FLASH BACK . well thats what got my gear lube flowing!

[dracowizard]

I was a sophmore in HS and hanging out with a friend just blocks from home. As me and Gary were walking to his house,he spoke and said here comes another friend of his driving down the hill. Then i saw for the first time...a car which i can still remember commercials about. Garys friend John was driving his fathers 64 Tri-Pwr GTO. After a brief talk with John and him allowing us some good looks at the heart of this icon,he had to go,barking the tires too of course!From that moment on,i never really felt the same desire for any other car other than the 64 Tri-Power.Oh i admire many other machines,but to me the 64 will always be my fav.I've been fortunate to have owned 2 - 64's,one a 4Barrel& the other a TriPwr. I never had the wisdom to do what i needed so as to keep the cars. Maybe someday once i do the 65 clone i'll try again to deal myself into another 64. But meantime i do as so many of us and keep the memories alive.....

[GT182]

Old Blue, you hang on to that 66 Tempest. She might not be a Goat but I know they were a good car and fun to drive too. I sure miss that 326 Tempest I had, 24 mpg back then for a midsized car was grrrreat. Besides, you can do like I did, put GTO grills and emblem on her, and a GTO hood too. Makes ya feel like it's the part GTO for a bit, and looks kinda good too.

[wbob69]

When I was around 13 me and my buddies used to hang out at nights behind a shopping mall and every so often there was a guy who would drive by a 1969 Judge Carousel Red. I still remember the first time I saw that car and from that point on it was my absolute all time favorite.

My older brothers and there friends all had some pretty nice Muscle cars in the early 70's. Growing up in Detroit Gratiot and Woodward were the places that everyone cruised. I remember hearing so many stories from my brothers. One had a 390 1970 Javelin ram air and the other had a 1967 390 fast back Mustang. My dad worked for Fisher Body and always had some pretty nice rides. One in particular was a 1970 GTO 455. It was gold and on the front fenders was a white decal 455 with CID below it. My one brother totaled the Javelin and my other brother sold his Mustang for college. After the Mustang was gone my brother drove the GTO and wrecked it two times. When he smashed it the second time my dad immediately traded it in for a Vega. Just around that time I was turning 16.....thanks I get to drive a Vega.

Years have gone by and I am now fast approaching 48. I burnt myself out working to much and packed up the wife and Kid's and moved out to the country. I don't hardly make anything like I used to, but last year I bought a 69 GTO and painted it up like a Judge. I know alot of guy's frown on clones but if I waited for the real thing I don't know if it would ever have happened. I mean I can barely afford the clone. This car brings back alot of memories and keeps me alive and well. I really enjoy cruising around up here with the wife and kids. What is really amazing is that I live in a rural area population maybe 200, and there are a couple of muscle cars that other guy's have. 1969 firebird, 1967 chevelle, 1968 camaro and a 1969 Charger.

Guy's our cars are our heritage and represent the pride of our past and future. When I see these classics and read all of your stories I say to myself....I am proud to be an American living in the USA.

[WDCreech]

Although I was already impressed by Pontiacs, i didn't get my first one until 1963. I was a 61 Bonnevlle convertable. In 65 I got a 63 Lemans for a street/strip car, and in 1968, I bought a 67 goat for a family car, but traded it it in for a new 71, full size Buick station wagon. after the twins wer born. In 1989, after flipping the 63 at the strip, I bought the stripped out 64 goat, that I still have, and as you can see, I'm hooked.