Tim Cooper: The Goat Man

            With the number of “Goats” Tim Cooper has owned over the years you might think he was a shepherd or a goat herder. But the goats Tim has owned over the years are very different animals than the four legged kind. Tim is a fan of the Pontiac GTO.

            Currently Tim’s pride and joy is a red 1968 GTO that he purchased in 1999. “The ’68 goat has a sentimental value,” Tim said.

            It all started when he got out of the Army following a stint in Viet Nam. “I used the money I’d saved while I was in the army to buy a brand new ’68,” he explained.

            He related the story of when he first drove the car to his parent’s house. “My dad said, ‘what’s that’ and I told him I’d used the money I’d saved in the Army to buy it. He said, ‘You made it through a war and now you’re gonna kill yourself in a car,’” Tim said with a laugh.

            Obviously that car didn’t cost him his life but unfortunately he didn’t own if for very long. His wife at the time couldn’t drive a stick shift and so he sold it. But that didn’t stop him from pursuing another GTO.

            “Around ’73 or ’74 I bought a 1970 GTO,” he said of his second goat.

            Still, it was always a ’68 that intrigued him and so when he found one available he jumped at the opportunity to own it.

            The car his wife refers to as, “the other woman” went through a frame off restoration in 2008. According to Tim, the year-long restoration went so well that the car won a gold at the 2009 GTO Association of America nationals.

            “It is factory stock,” said Tim, speaking of the car since the restoration, “except for the gauges.”

            While a 1968 GTO has sentimental value to Tim for obvious reasons, his current model isn’t exactly like his original. “The original color was what they called Mayfair maize,” he explained, a color that in retrospect he wasn’t all that fond. When it came time to choose a color for this one he chose a favorite, red.

            Red is a perfect color for an American muscle classic that sports a 400 cubic inch engine pushing 350 horse power. While he drives the car pretty often, about every weekend, Tim admits that he doesn’t take his goat out and let it run wild. “I don’t take it very fast,” he said. “I’ve got too much money it in.” Besides, he wouldn’t want his father’s words all those years ago to come true.