They were lined up in a row, four bright red examples of GM motor madness. I love seeing cars lined up like this, great cars that aren’t overplayed at car shows.
On the surface, most people don’t think of Pontiac when they think of high performance American cars. For many, the Pontiac was a family car, something that dad brought home and pulled in the driveway to embarrass you when you were young. At least that’s what happened when I was young.
My dad went car shopping, much to the consternation of my mom who didn’t think we needed a new car. Still, he went out on a Saturday morning bright and early and showed up several hours later in a brand new Pontiac Tempest. My fondest memory of that car was the odd transmission lever that was mounted, not on the floor or the steering column but rather on the dash board.
The Tempest, though, gave birth to two sportier Pontiac lines, the Lemans and the GTO. In 1961 the Le Mans was basically a sporty trim package for the Tempest that eventually grew into its own mid-sized line. In 1964, a performance package for the Le Mans was introduced called the GTO.
Chief Pontiac designer John De Lorean (yeah, him) borrowed the name from Ferrari’s infamous 250 GTO or Gran Turismo Omologata. The name basically translates to grand touring homologated which means that the manufacturer had rolled enough “consumer” cars off the line to qualify for various levels of racing competition.
Still, what the Tempest had wrought, were a couple of absolutely classic examples of muscle car that on this bright autumn day shown as brightly as any car sitting in the show field. Hope you enjoy these pictures.
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