['ol Pinion head]

Gave up going to the local yokel car shows many moons ago. Too much Idiot Exposure! Want a bunch of idiots wanting to run their hands over and offer to buy one of your rare Pontiacs: live on a busy cut through street in a subdivision, have one of your Pontiacs out on the driveway, boxed in, with a cover on it early on a Sat morning when unbeknownst to you, there is an estate sale about to begin somewhere down the road. Every wannabee "picker/flipper" will show up while you're in the garage, next to none of them have ever owned a high performance musclecar, but they will want to tell you a story. Will also try and lift the cover on your car(s), if you don't run them off. Just another reason don't live in town anymore.

Much more satisfaction spending time working on my own Pontiacs, or spending time boneyarding in the country's last monster old salvage yards.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

i try to blend in the crowd
Pretend to be one of those guys that - has one almost like that.
They dont even believe or hardly listen to that much of it .

Imagine what they'd think if instead i said = got one like that but its Faktry Blk on Blk.
Kick your cars AZZ , MoFo.
lol

If you look under 60 , most guys wont believe you own anything worth a shet.

Thats the flip side of the coin to playing down ownership of a GTO

[wheelspin]

Originally Posted by 02Hawk

Last weekend I was backing my Judge out of the garage after completing all my guy (joe jobs) projects. My neighbour was having a garage sale and a hipster trying to impress his lady loudly told me my car was the nicest Road Runner he had ever seen....I smiled and said thanks. Driving away, I could hear the neighbour's 18 year old kid correcting the guy.....

A couple of years ago I was sitting in the staging lanes in my 70 GTO, it was the final in Pro after already going 7 rounds. My opponent was a real good racer so I was getting my crap ready to run and was checking everything in the car. Got the wave to head for the burnout box and an old trucker I knew guided me into the box. I did the burnout and rolled up to poke the first bulb. As I was checking gauges before moving, the old trucker, grabbed the passenger door opened it and yelled " I got my first piece of tail in the back seat of a Goat". He slammed my door, I staged and had a 1.70 light and lost the race. While on the return road, he and a bunch of track rats were laughing like hell at me driving past. I now lock that door.

Great story, John .

[#1965GTO]

I've had a couple of guys tell me about the GTOs they had as youngsters back in their day, which was much later than mine. What a fun and great car they are and loved the 4 doors and to bad mine was only a 2 door????? Yep genuine hot rodders. I usually tell 'em that I wish I had one of the rare GTO station wagons….: confused:

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

...
If you look under 60 , most guys wont believe you own anything worth a shet.

they won't believe you own, or believe that you know anything.

I have had my car, multiple times called a GTO;
Of late, I don't often correct them.

I will admit that on occasion when looking up engine/maintenance parts for my Formula I have had the parts guy look up parts for a GTO - since I get less questions that way.
(they actually have the same 'base' drivetrain anyway.

One time I had mentioned that my car is a 1970 with a 1972 transmission, and the guy said my car was "bastardized" then he said some other crap that got me fuming mad...
Since that point, I give as little information as possible - and have found that sometimes in this age of completely ignorant parts counter people, that it's easiest if you give a vehicle application that yields the least number of question.

I can't wait to get my "GTO" back on the road... I've been really itching to drive it again...

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

I give as little information as possible - and have found that sometimes in this age of completely ignorant parts counter people, that it's easiest if you give a vehicle application that yields the least number of question.

I do exactly the same thing..especially if it's for something like brake pads/shoes, alternator or something like that. You're gonna blow their minds if you tell them that you need an internally regulated alternator or an HEI module for a '66 GTO or something like that.

[GEARDRIVEN]

I purchased a fully restored '69 GTO Judge back in the mid 90s. Car was code 52 Matador Red with red interior built in March of '69.
I did the local car shows with some fellow GTO owners.
I am unsure how many times I answered the question........"I thought these cars only came in orange".......and the usual response told about the first ones being Carousel Red (not Orange) followed by GM release later of all the other exterior colors......
The best however, was the "internet" & "magazine" experts who explained to me that I had a clone and that "Orange" was the only color the '69s came in.....
I would love asking them if the knew what a PHS document was and I would typically get the "deer in the headlights" look.
I also use to love asking the know-it-all what color his Judge was.......

[#1965GTO]

Back in 86 we had a new Buick GN. Can't count the times guys said nice Monte Carlo. I'd just nod my head and say yeah we like it.

[U47]

Originally Posted by GEARDRIVEN

I purchased a fully restored '69 GTO Judge back in the mid 90s. Car was code 52 Matador Red with red interior built in March of '69.
I did the local car shows with some fellow GTO owners.
I am unsure how many times I answered the question........"I thought these cars only came in orange".......and the usual response told about the first ones being Carousel Red (not Orange) followed by GM release later of all the other exterior colors......
The best however, was the "internet" & "magazine" experts who explained to me that I had a clone and that "Orange" was the only color the '69s came in.....
I would love asking them if the knew what a PHS document was and I would typically get the "deer in the headlights" look.
I also use to love asking the know-it-all what color his Judge was.......

Standing at the front of my 69 H-O LeMans, right next to the LeMans badge and a guy ask what year GTO it is!

[Tom Vaught]

I went to college in a college town where the cops were major ticket writers. They see a GTO badged vehicle and they immediately start looking for a way to write a ticket. Pretty easy for them really as a Sargent in the Detroit Police Dept told me one time that if you drove 1/4 mile down the street he could find something that you did wrong that he could write a ticket for.

So I took all of the emblems off of my GTO, after the first ticket, and never got another one.
There were several college people, I knew, with tickets and they all had 6 to 10 points on their licenses.

That city made a lot of cash off of the college community between speed traps and the bs mentioned above.

Sometimes better to own a Tempest vs a GTO or a plain 283 chevelle vs a SS-396 vehicle.

Tom V.

[ck67goat]

My dad owned a full service gas station and repair shop when there was such a thing. I worked there as a kid from the mid 80s thru early 90s. My GTO sat there and attracted attention - buyers & sellers and usual talkers. Next thing you know we acquired more Goats, other GM A bodies along with other 60's and 70's vintage cars. People would see these cars and stop in. I heard so many stories that I could categorize the person from 50 feet away before even talking to them. The ones that were full of the most BS were former owners that never even turned a wrench and the guys who claimed to have had something that never existed. There were some guys that stopped in while my 67 was completely disassembled with just its frame and shell and said I would never be able to finish that car - they only served to give me more determination. There were also the few and far in between guys that saw what I was trying to do and stopped in simply to offer same sage advice - thanks to those few folks - we need more like them in this world.

[1965gp]

A friend owns a shop that does most of the work on my cars when I can’t do it.

He was on a Main Street, had a sign and would park a muscle car (usually SS Chevelle or GTO) out front. He literally had to change locations because of all the people that wanted to stop by and ‘talk’. He said it would be much different if they ever bought anything or had work done (or even referred work) but they never did. Just wanted to hang out and tell stories of cars that probably never existed. He said he never got anything done in that building!

[Chris65LeMans]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

So I took all of the emblems off of my GTO, after the first ticket, and never got another one.
There were several college people, I knew, with tickets and they all had 6 to 10 points on their licenses.

V.

The next time I hear “too bad it’s not a GTO,”. I’m going to claim that history for my car. (Only poseurs say that. “Real” car guys say “I can’t remember the last time I saw a LeMans.”)

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I do exactly the same thing..especially if it's for something like brake pads/shoes, alternator or something like that. You're gonna blow their minds if you tell them that you need an internally regulated alternator or an HEI module for a '66 GTO or something like that.

I have to pretend my '66 Tempest Custom wagon is a 1975 Grand Prix at the parts counter. HEI, disc brakes, dual master cylinder, Pontiac 455, TH400. All factory parts, but not for 1966. I can't just tell them I want a distributor cap for a GM HEI, or D52 brake pads, they have to know the car year, make and model. Sometimes even saying "'75 Grand Prix" throws them for a loop lol.

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

they won't believe you own, or believe that you know anything.

I have had my car, multiple times called a GTO;
Of late, I don't often correct them.

I will admit that on occasion when looking up engine/maintenance parts for my Formula I have had the parts guy look up parts for a GTO - since I get less questions that way.
(they actually have the same 'base' drivetrain anyway.

One time I had mentioned that my car is a 1970 with a 1972 transmission, and the guy said my car was "bastardized" then he said some other crap that got me fuming mad...
Since that point, I give as little information as possible - and have found that sometimes in this age of completely ignorant parts counter people, that it's easiest if you give a vehicle application that yields the least number of question.

I can't wait to get my "GTO" back on the road... I've been really itching to drive it again...

OH NO!!! You put a 1972 date coded transmission into a 1970 car???? How dare you LOL! People are ridiculous with these sort of comments. Like when they find out you have bolts instead of rivets holding on the upper ball joints....

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by GT182

I still love the ones that walk up and say they like the "Big Block" Pontiac engines and asked if mine is one. I told one guy "Yep, it's a big block 389" just to shut him up.

Another guy asked why I didn't have a big block in my GTO. I said I don't like Chevy engines in a Pontiac. He said "No, a Pontiac big block." I explained the Pontiac never built a big block engine. He says "Oh yeah they did, The 421, 428, and 455s were all big blocks." No matter what I said he couldn't get it thru his ears to his head that they never did. I just walked away. I see him every once in awhile and just turn and walk the other way.

I need to buy a '55 Pontiac, just so I can tell everyone it has the "Big Block 287" in it.