27 Facts About Pontiac GTO

Pontiac GTO is an automobile that was manufactured by American automaker Pontiac from 1963 to 1974 for the 1964 to 1974 model years, and by GM's subsidiary Holden in Australia for the 2004 to 2006 model years.

The Pontiac GTO is considered by some to have started the trend with all four domestic automakers offering a variety of competing models.

For 1974, the Pontiac GTO was an optional trim package on the compact-sized Ventura.

Pontiac GTO was selected as the Motor Trend Car of the Year in 1968.

Name, Pontiac GTO, was DeLorean's idea, inspired by the iconic Ferrari 250 Pontiac GTO.

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The Pontiac GTO was available as a pillared coupe, a hardtop, and a convertible.

The Pontiac GTO emblems located on the rear part of the fenders were moved to the chrome rocker panels.

Pontiac GTO abandoned the familiar vertically stacked headlights in favor of a horizontal layout, but made hidden headlights available at extra cost.

Pontiac GTO touted this feature heavily in advertising, showing hammering at the bumper to no discernible effect.

Hot Rod tested a four-speed Pontiac GTO equipped with the standard engine and obtained a quarter mile reading of 14.

Testers were split about handling, with Hot Rod calling it "the best-balanced car [Pontiac GTO] ever built, " but Car Life chided its excessive nose heaviness, understeer, and inadequate damping.

The package was US$332 more expensive than a standard Pontiac GTO, and included the Ram Air 400 engine, Rally II wheels without trim rings, Hurst shifter, wider tires, various decals, and a rear spoiler.

Pontiac GTO claimed that the spoiler had some functional effect at higher speeds, producing a small but measurable downforce, but it was of little value at legal speeds.

Pontiac GTO was surpassed in sales both by the Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 and the Plymouth Road Runner, but 72,287 were sold during the 1969 model year, with 6,833 of them having the Judge package.

The Pontiac GTO brochure indicated the same 455 installed in the Grand Prix model was rated at 370 horsepower.

Pontiac management was ordered to cancel the VOE option by GM's upper management following a TV commercial for the GTO that aired during Super Bowl IV on CBS January 11,1970.

The 1971 Pontiac GTO brochure declared that this engine produced more NET horsepower than any other engine in its history.

On February 11,1971 Pontiac GTO announced that no new orders for The Judge would be accepted after March 1,1971.

Pontiac GTO was an option package for the LeMans and featured a reskinned A-body with "Colonnade" hardtop styling, which eliminated the true hardtop design because of the addition of a roof pillar, but retained the frameless door windows.

Again, the 1973 Pontiac GTO option was offered on two models including the base LeMans coupe or the LeMans Sport Coupe.

Pontiac GTO option was available in both the base Ventura and the Ventura Custom lines.

In 2003, the Pontiac GTO was relaunched in the US market in the form of a rebadged, third-generation Holden Monaro.

Pontiac GTO was assembled by GM's Holden subsidiary at Elizabeth, South Australia.

The effort was made to make the new Pontiac GTO invoke the same sound as the original while still meeting the noise threshold required by some states.

The 2004 Pontiac GTO exhaust was a true dual system that followed the original Monaro exhaust routing, thus both tailpipes exited on the driver side of the vehicle.

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The final production numbers of the 2006 Pontiac GTO amounted to 13,948 cars, an increase from 11,069 cars from the previous model year.

The fifth generation of the Pontiac GTO was only intended as a limited production car for those 3 years from the beginning of the program.