General Motors
C L I C K T O E N L A R G E
No longer the nameplate on an economy car the GTO set a sales record for Pontiac in 1966 because you could get one of the best looking muscle cars for under three thousand dollars. On most cars the hood scoop was strictly for looks but an Air Scoop package made it for real and you could breath a few more British horse power into your 389 cubic inch V-8.
Picture: 1600 x 1200 - Coches
Along with a variety of powerplants Pontiac gave you a choice of rear axle ratios to deliver the torque right for you. If you're nursing the peddle you've got the wrong car but you can get an economizing 3.08 : 1 gear ratio. If, on the other hand, every red to green light means a stopwatch zero to sixty test then you want the 4.33 : 1 choke in my smoke rear axle ratio.
Picture: 575 x 431 - Creative Crash
Picture: 1600 x 1200 - High Performance Pontiac
RAM-AIR V-8
- Overhead Valve
- Cast-iron block
- Bore and Stroke: 4.06 x 3.75
- Displacement: 389 cid
- Compression ratio: 10.75 : 1
- Brake hp: 360 @ 5200 rpm
- Taxable hp: 52.80
- Torque: 424 @ 3600 rpm
- Five main bearings
- Hydraulic valve lifters
- Carburetion: 3 Rochester two-barrel carburetors
Coil springs front and rear gave the GTO a smoother ride than many of its competitors. You'd probably want a three speed automatic so you can hold your latte while driving. Back up - this is wrong. You bought the car because it has three hundred and sixty horses and you chose the Muncie M21 four speed manual on the floor. Top speed is 125 and it does zero to sixty in 6.2 seconds. If you had a drink somewhere, it's spilled.
Picture: 640 x 480 - Popular Hot Rodding
There was no Super Bowl in 1966. The only women doing local news then was the Weather Girl giving the temperatures in a miniskirt. The number of troops in Vietnam had reached 500,000. Cigarettes were now required to place warning labels on their packages saying smoking may be harmful to your health. Cars were required to furnish seat belts. Ronald Reagan was just elected governor of California.
Picture: 1920 x 1080 - Deviant Art
1966
- NFL Champion Green Bay Packers
- World Series Baltimore Orioles
- Best Picture A Man for All Seasons
- Best Actor Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons
- Best Actress Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
- Top Rated TV Show Bonanza
- Number One Song Ballad of the Green Berets - SSgt Barry Sadler
- Number One Album Whipped Cream - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
- Best Selling Book Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
- Average Income 6,900
- Average Home 14,200
- Gas 0.32 cents / gallon
- Car 2,650
The GTO wasn't a rough and tumble type muscle car. You could be a dentist removing your clubs from the trunk for a game of golf with friends. It had power with manners. But put a couple of dents in a quarter panel, touch it up with primer paint, a few cigarette burns in the carpet and you're ready to rock and roll. Just remember to grow a tattoo on that hairy forearm.
Picture: 2048 x 1536 - Auto Galeria
Wow - this is GREAT! You ought to be writing for Car & Driver! :-D
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