Pontiac Muscled Its Way to the Hill

 

While many people will point to the 1949 Oldsmobile 88 with its 303 cubic inch (5 L) Rocket V8 engine as being technically the first true muscle car, it was Olds' sister General Motors division, Pontiac, that did more to lead the way for muscle in the early 1960s. During those halcyon days of the early '60s, Ford and the MoPar rides of Chrysler were battling it out for drag racing supremacy. While General Motors discouraged their divisions from racing, the young, upstart president of Pontiac, John DeLorean (yeah, the same guy who would go on to create that time machine car) and engineer Bill Collins came up with a performance package for their mid-sized Tempest. Introduced in 1964, it was called the GTO. Named after Ferrari's stellar 250 GTO (GTO meaning Gran Torismo Omologato which is Italian for Grand Touring Homologated), the Pontiac was powered by a 398 cubic inch (6.4L) V8 that pumped out 325 horsepower. The car was a huge success. It was a street legal race car and people loved it. This made Pontiac the king of performance cars during the 1960s. This era Pontiac continues to be popular and you can see a number of them at most every open car show. That sure was true at this past year's Headin' for the Hill event in North College Hill. Among the beauties on hand was a 1968 GTO as well as a LeMans, a couple of Trans Ams, a full-sized Catalina, and a 1968 Goat.