My friends in high school were always into cars. We grew up in your typical middle class suburban community in the '60's when Sunoco 260 was about 30 cents per gallon. The rich kids dads always kept them in new Detroit muscle cars...all most of us could do is dream of the day when we could buy our own.

My best friend and I had done fairly well by the late '70's and we started looking at toys. For those of you that remember, the '70's were sort of a dismal decade for the US auto industry...most of our stuff, with a few exceptions...sucked!!

It was natural that we looked back to our roots and came accross a rare find. A good friend of ours in Atlanta had a serious GM muscle car collection that he was breaking up. We went to his warehouse and left with a '67 GTO. This car came from Royal Pontiac in Detroit and was a 400 cu in with a Muncie 220 4 speed and had a 3:23 12 bolt Positraction rear. What made it special was that it had Royal Pontiacs "Royal Bobcat Package". The package consisted of "skunk works" special parts and tuning and some Ram Air IV parts that found their way from Pontiac to Royal. Alot of this stuff got tested on Woodward Avenue in Detroit during the '60's late at night

Anyway...fast forward to Christmas 1987...Pompano Beach, Florida. I was living in 'Lauderdale and we would bring the "Goat" to Florida for the winter.
We were cruising on a balmy night when at a stoplight headed south on US 1....we were greeted by 2 young metal heads in a new Mustang GT on my left. They were laughing and having fun listinig to Van Halen or whoever when the passenger looked over at me and said "Hey Mister....where'd ya get those emblems??" I replied.."What emblems?" ...."you know..that GTO emblem on that car?" he asked. I replied "came with the car". Well the light turned green and that Mustang was GONE...sliding all over the street..******ing gears and screaming engine. We pulled up at the next light and I asked.."Hey kid...where'd you get those emblems?" he replied "what emblems?"..."that 5.0 GT...what's that all about?" He replied "It's about more than you can handle old man". About that time my buddy riding shotgun reached in his pocket and held up a picture of "Ben" and said "Can it handle one of these?" Well that was about all it took. I reached down and tightened my seat belt and said "How many lengths you want?" Suddenly...the light turned and I thought that Mustang was going to spin out in the street. I rolled out in first and caught him in about 100 feet and nosed over and said"You guys want to run...or what?" The passenger in the Mustang yelled out"Hit the bottle"...there was a sudden surge from the Mustang sooooo...I let the tiger out!! I hit second with a power shift at about 6000 rpm and jumped 2 feet sideways and 3 lengths on the Ford. Second gear was good for about 80 with that rear end. Power shift to third...3500... 4500 ...5500..6000..time for number 4....that Ram Air IV Pontiac sounded like a Skill saw cutting through 1/2" plywood at 6000 rpm!!
I ran through 4th for about a 1/2 mile then I slowed down to about 60 and pulled into a McDonalds and waited..and waited. About a minute later..here they come."What kind of Nitrous you guys running?" they asked "I replied...No juice...just genetics" I opened the hood on the Goat and told the two kids"You've just been smoked by 400 cubic inches of big block Pontiac...remember this night." I think they did. I know I always will.

 

Nothing like a big block!

 

Perfect ending!

 

Great story, just curious, what RA IV parts were put on the engine. Pontiac did not produce a RAM AIR IV until 1970 and were there and mods to the valve train? Pontiac mill’s were only good for about 52-5300 RPM before the valves floated.

 

no replacement 4 displacement

 

Yes Sir klenbore...that was some of the Royal Pontiac special arrangement with the Pontiac front office. I later learned that the Ram Air V (which never officially existed ) and the famous SD 455 were moved through Royal before they were ever RPO's (Regular Production Options). By the way, the original owner also had a '65 2 dr Bonneville 421 with three twos and a 4 speed!!

That '67 GTO was fast for the day but a hard running E55 would give it fits. We ran up against a '70 Buick GS 455 Stage IV at Commerce/Atlanta dragway one night that was runninig loww 11's on gas w/slicks that cleaned our clock real good!! Somebody's always faster.

 

awesome story.....wish I coulda been around back then Domestics just haven't been the same since those days

 

That car would probably bring $500k + up at Barret Jackson now.Great story,talk about a education. :

 

.............and has more resources!!!!

Those truly were the days. I hate to date myself here, but I guess you can call me vintage. I’ve had my share of goats. IMHO I think the 70 was ahead of the pack for styling and the best looking of them all. Flared fenders, endura front end, quad exhaust tips exiting through a cut out rear bumper, Firestone Wide “O” Oval tires, chrome valve covers...................... and best of all, lots of cubes and lots of torque all this with a sticker price of $4,200.

HELP ME, ANYBODY...take my E500 and trade me your 70 goat!!!!!!!!

 

My dad used to drive to school with a friend who had a brand new GTO (65, 66, or 67, cant remember), He says his '05 E500 is faster. 0-60 in the upper 5's (from MBUSA) while the GTO with the 389 did 0-60 in ~6.5. Cars have become alot faster since those days. But still, nothing beats the feeling you get when you launch hard and hook up with a big block!

 

hey guys, I remember the days of the old Indians. Had couple myself- 63' catalina w/ tripower for the street; and one very potent 421 super duty, #11 Mckellar cam, aluminum high rise and various lite weight parts. Miss the old days. However just purchased a SLK55 w/ 030 package- must say technology has improved.

 

Back in the day..one of the biggest problems we had was traction. The first ('64 &'65) GTO's and others had bias ply tires with an aspect ratio of about 75 or 80. We got 70 series "wide ovals" in '66~'67. I had a '70 Hemi Challenger that came w/E60 x 15's. Radials didn't get popular until the '70's. My mother had a '67 Caprice with a 396 that would burn the right rear tire as long as you kept your right foot on the floor!! The traction issue was why many of the old road tests had low 0-60 times...but they still werent as fast as todays cars. My S500 would give a lot of the stock muscle cars of the '60's a fit....now put some decent rubber under them and things might be different.

 

my friend has a 1970 GTO. its fun, we went to the gun show in it. i felt like a 'merican



mark

 

Sprink49-

I think tire technology has been the most improved over the past 30 or so years( we have FI, vari cam, etc back then). I agree w/ you on traction issues with our old indians. I would like to have my ole 421 super duty back w/ today's tires.

Regards,
oldman55

 

Crapload of torque + small and low traction tires + no traction control + poor breaks + tall differential = win

I love the cars from the 60s.

 

Great story

 

For all you 70 GTO fans, take a look at this beautiful goat on ebay.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ponti...13601938QQrdZ1