In 1964, the idea of stuffing a big-block engine into a small body was unheard of. In fact, it was even thought to be forbidden by corporate management of General Motors. This is where John Delorean, then Chief Engineer, and eventually Pontiac's General Manager comes in. It seems that Delorean was dead set to not only produce, but promote what would soon be credited as a true muscle car legend.
Taking a big engine and stuffing it into a small, lightweight body was nothing new, but packaging it as an affordable performance machine available to the masses sure was. Enter Jim Wangers, a creative advertising executive for Pontiac's ad agency. It seems that Mr. Wangers had a real passion for horsepower, and saw this as an excellent opportunity to make his mark.
With a few calls to Car and Driver magazine editor David E. Davis, Wangers pitched the idea of pitting the all new Pontiac GTO against the Ferrari GTO in a heads-up competition. Davis immediately jumped at the opportunity, knowing it would surely sell some magazines. “As it turned out”, recalls Wangers in his memoirs, Glory Days, “even I didn't realize how timely an idea I had proposed, not only for Pontiac but also for the magazine.”
Lining up two new GTO's, Wangers and his crew set out for Daytona between Christmas and New Years in 1964. One of those cars was a Nocturne Blue pilot car and prepared for the handling portion of the test; the other was Grenadier Red, and built in Pontiac Engineering for the acceleration test. Before the test, the cars were turned over to Royal Pontiac in Royal Oak, Michigan. Known as the place for Pontiac super tuning and considered Pontiac's “back door” performance dealer, Wangers let Car and Driver know about most of the mods, but some would not be known until many years later.
Needless to say, the Car and Driver staffers were impressed. When they came up with zero to 60 times of 4.6 seconds and a quarter mile time of 13.1 at 115 mph, Car and Driver couldn't say enough about it. Since Ferrari had refused to send one of their GTO's, the damage had been done.
The March of 1964 issue featured a beautiful cover with a painting of the two GTO's doing battle on a winding road course with the headline “Zero to 100mph in 11.8 seconds!” For three decades, Wangers denied allegations that the red car was a ringer with a much massaged 421 under the hood. In his book, he came clean. So why did he do this? “Because of the GTO's mystique.” Wangers replied. “I liked the controversy that volleyed back and forth”. This deception worked better than anyone could have imagined.
Fast forward to 2005. Muscle car enthusiast Tenney Fairchild knew about this car and found it tucked away in a Corvette dealer’s shop where it had been stored since 1990. “My Dad and Jim Wangers were friends who worked together at Pontiac's advertising agency”, Fairchild stated. One day while spending some time with Dad at work, he had his first ride in the GTO, with Wangers behind the wheel. To this day, he has strong recollections of that experience. “It was my first impression of what a hot car was,” Fairchild stated.
Knowing the historical significance of this car, the decision was made to have noted restorer Scott Tiemann of Supercar Specialties do a “freshening up.” Initially not planning on a full restoration, with the encouragement of Wangers and the availability of Tiemann, the decision was made to tackle the restoration. Nearly a year later, the famous Royal Bobcat GTO was complete and looking as good as it did that day at Daytona, in December of 1963.
For many Pontiac lovers and musclecar fans, this is where it all started. We are proud to be able to present this incredible bit of muscle car history as part of the Nickey Chicago Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, November 21-22, 2009.
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