[Terry M. Hunt]

I bought my '71 GTO on 8-28-71 and still have it. I had it at a car show last Sunday and ran into a friend, Dennis, that I often see when showing various cars. He said that he recalled that I had bought my '71 GTO from Plaza Pontiac in Tucker, Ga. I confirmed this, and Dennis asked me if I still had any of the original paper work. I told him I had it all and motioned to the front of my car where I had copies of various pieces of the paperwork displayed in a frame on an easel. He walked to the front of the car and bent down to study these items closely. I heard him say "That's what I thought" to himself, and then he came back over to me to explain. He was studying the new car delivery checklist, especially the employee's signature, which turned out to be Dennis' Dad's signature. Dennis explained the period of time when his Dad worked at Plaza, and that he did all the new car checklists before delivery to the customer. He took a close up of the form with his phone, and said he would be getting a big kick out of sharing it with his family. I'm not sure if his Dad is still living. How amazing that he and I had never made this connection in all the years I've known him. I guess it also shows how seldom I get this particular car out to shows. Shame on me for that.

[NEW64OWNER]

Cool story. I'm curious, how old were you when you bought it?

[cuz68]

That is a good story, I got my 68 in 1974.

[Progolfer]

Originally Posted by Terry M. Hunt

I bought my '71 GTO on 8-28-71 and still have it. I had it at a car show last Sunday and ran into a friend, Dennis, that I often see when showing various cars. He said that he recalled that I had bought my '71 GTO from Plaza Pontiac in Tucker, Ga. I confirmed this, and Dennis asked me if I still had any of the original paper work. I told him I had it all and motioned to the front of my car where I had copies of various pieces of the paperwork displayed in a frame on an easel. He walked to the front of the car and bent down to study these items closely. I heard him say "That's what I thought" to himself, and then he came back over to me to explain. He was studying the new car delivery checklist, especially the employee's signature, which turned out to be Dennis' Dad's signature. Dennis explained the period of time when his Dad worked at Plaza, and that he did all the new car checklists before delivery to the customer. He took a close up of the form with his phone, and said he would be getting a big kick out of sharing it with his family. I'm not sure if his Dad is still living. How amazing that he and I had never made this connection in all the years I've known him. I guess it also shows how seldom I get this particular car out to shows. Shame on me for that.

This is awesome. I recently reach out to someone on this board to ask a question and found out thru various conversations, that the car I purchased in High School in another part of the US (48 years ago) was purchased new by his grandfather and driven by his dad. It really shows how small this world is and the connections we have to our cars.


1967 GTO 4 Speed Sedan owned since high school and being resurrected :-)
Love Golf and GTO's
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Terry M. Hunt]

I was 23 when I bought the car. It was the first and last new car I ever bought in my life. I took meticulous care of it as I relocated during my career from Atlanta, Ga to Albany, Ga, then to Richmond, Va., then to Dallas, Tx., and eventually back to Atlanta in 1986. Really amazing to me that Dennis and I were orbiting around in our own little cosmic paths completely unknown to each other and with no real connection during most of this time only to "converge" at this Eureka moment at a local car show 46 years later.

[muscle_collector]

pictures please.

[tigergto]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

pictures please.

X2. As the owner of a 71 I would love to see pics of yours.

[64CatalinaVentura]

That is awesome!

[Terry M. Hunt]

I searched around in the lobby and found some pics of some of my cars I had posted previously. Sorry some of them can't be opened to a larger size. My computer literate friend tried various things but couldn't make this happen

[gtohurstjudge]

Terry didn't mention it , but his car is totally original inside and out...
original interior and original paint......looks like a new car......simply amazing.
Terry........I noticed in the pic that the lower chrome trim on the seat bolster
is absent on your car. Did it come that way from the factory?

[Terry M. Hunt]

69Hurstjudge, yes that is the way the seat(both of them, actually) was when I bought the car new. I always wondered about the rounded ridge molded into the top of this piece.
The ridge ends in a small bullet shape that makes it appear there should be a trim piece snapped onto the ridge. Of course, I owned the car for about 7 years before I discovered that it never had a choke coil mounted on top of the intake crossover on the passenger side. Just got left off at the assembly plant. I think of things like this when I read about people obsessing over what shade of yellow paint was used to date stamp the back side of a voltage regulator. I'm a big fan of originality and correctness, but sometimes we at just kidding ourselves, since there were many small( and some big) random variations in how these cars were built as demonstrated by my '71.

[Greg Reid]

I knew a guy that bought a brand new Trans Am back in '78. He told me that it had the '6.6 Liter' decal on one side and '6.6 T/A' on the other side from the factory.

[OVERULD]

Terry, post the photo of you standing beside the car rocking that big wide tie!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Held for Ransom]

[Terry M. Hunt]

HFR, thanks for making the pics easier to view.

[Terry M. Hunt]

Overuld, I'll see if I can dig up that pic. I remember the tie. There was enough fabric in that thing to upholster a sofa.

[Judge273]

I never realized that a 71 400 4 speed car was rare. Is yours a 4 speed posi too?

Also, what made you fall in love with it?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Terry M. Hunt]

No, no posi rear. I didn't think to specify that. If I had, I probably would have never found a car to buy. The production numbers I'm familiar with show 2011 400/4 speeds for '71. I bought the car 8-28-71. I didn't realize until years later when I started paying attention to production numbers why it was so hard to find the car I wanted at the time I was looking for it. There could not have been many '71's left at all at the end of August, to say nothing of 4 speed cars. The dealer pushed hard to get me to wait and buy a '72, but I had been waiting since 1964 to buy a GTO, and I wasn't going to wait any longer. I seem to recall the dealer was looking through a print out of cars available within the Atlanta Zone to find what I wanted, but they only came up with 3 as I recall. Two of them had vinyl tops and I was totally opposed to having a vinyl top. I was like many of us who grew up during the height of the muscle car movement and who had our idea of what the "dream car" would be for us. For me, it was the '64 GTO, but there was no way I could afford to buy one working part time for $1.10/Hour as a high school sophomore. I studied the GTO as the various models were introduced over the next few years and figured they would be produced forever. Once I graduated from college and got my first real job, the first thing I did was save up $1200 for a down payment on a new '71 GTO. The sticker price was about $4800, and I managed to get them to sell it for $4200. So I forked over my down payment and got a 3 year loan for $3000. Sometime around 1977, I started buying/restoring older GTO's. I still have all the older ones, but this '71 is definitely my sentimental favorite.

[tigergto]

Originally Posted by Judge273

I never realized that a 71 400 4 speed car was rare. Is yours a 4 speed posi too?

Also, what made you fall in love with it?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thats one awesome 71. I do wish mine was a 4 speed.

[Judge273]

Probably the last built 4 speed in 71..2011 out of 8432...