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refining in the diet department should trim another 80 pounds easily. According to the printed material, the hardtop with small engine weighs 3462 and the coupe weighs 3443. The big engine adds 16 pounds to this total, due to the heavier manifold and two extra carbs. Another 10 pounds is added by the automatic trans. As tested, our car weighed 3660 on the strip scales, 1995 pounds of this being on the front end. The GTO is distinguished by a pin stripe along the side, following the general upper outline of the fender line. Wheelbase of all models is exactly 115 inches, overall length is 206.1 inches. Tread is 58 inches, in keeping with the wide-track theme, both front and rear. Overall width is 73.4 inches, height for the closed body is 53.5 inches. Height at the cowl is 37 inches and ground clearance is 61/4 inches at the lowest point with the Red Line tires installed. Here's where Pontiac really excels in the personal car field. They have gone all out during the past several years to make a car available for every buyer. Even the trailer folks are catered to ' with special towing and braking packages, etc. Suspension options for the GTO are rather limited, since the car is already well set up. However, heavy duty shocks may be purchased. Alunlinum front drums and metallic brakes have been mentioned. Special rally wheels are a new twist, made of stamped steel and vented for brake cooling. They're nutty. Powertrain options have been covered, as have engine goodies. |
Inside,
there are a number of things the average good guy would probably want.
The full instrument panel is a must.This consists of an excellent
electric tachometer with tattle-tale red line, speedo, ammeter, and
oil and temperature gages. All these are set in a wood dash insert.
A three-spoke dished steering wheel is optional, with a simulated
wood plastic rim. Incidentally, the spokes in this wheel have been
specifically designed so that all instruments can be read between
the spokes. Thoughtful. And necessary for a car used in extended competition
such as rallies. And there are added things like bucket seats with electric adjustment, center consoles, tonneau covers, electric antennae, etc. There's also a special Bobcat Kit for the engine from Royal Pontiac, which we'll recap next month. You can get special paint direct from the factory, too, if you order it. There are three basic special equipment forms that pertain to Pontiac colored red, blue and green. The red and blue ones apply to the GTO. Cheek with your dealer for these forms, and look through the GTO brochures, which also contain much of this information. Generally speaking, driving this car was a new experience for us. Some of the fellows had driven or owned Pontiacs, but none with all the special equipment this one had. The first time out to San Fernando drag strip, a good stiff headwind was blowing, and the best performances were in the very low 90's and high 15's. This was in strictly street condition, a condition we maintained throughout the test. Carb cleaners on, ignition normal, suspension untouched, etc. |
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A couple of pointers on this particular car/engine combination. The hydraulics tend to pump up at about 5500. If you come off the line at 5 grand, shift to 2nd at 5100 and the next two gears at 5200, you'll get best results. Of course, these figures can change from strip to strip and between individual cars. We point this out to show the car is getting its best performance below the apparent red line. If you pump the lifters, you can plan on losing at least 1/2 a second. Nearly everybody dug the handling of this car, even the super-boss brakes. We liked the firm ride, but would opine that things get cramped for us big guys in the back seat. We got about 13 mpg around town, which is good for a tripower set-up. On the single carb and with the 3.90's in the rear, the little bear would sing along at 92 mph. Then you mashed harder and stuff began happening. We tried lots of very high speed panic stops in rapid succession with not a sign of brake fade. But, man, those drums and wheels would blister your hand. The power steering was great after we got use to it, but most of the fellas would prefer the quick ratio manual steering. Everybody liked the styling, even the girls, who usually classify things as cute or awful. Personally, the only changes we'd make would be the addition of more traction at the rear, possibly street slicks (for dry weather, of course) and possibly a flat tappet cam to get more rev's. As a total driving impression, handling the GTO is best described as WILD!