What does gto

A homologated grand tourer was simply a car that had enough production models built to qualify for racing in that category. Ferrari and Pontiac both built models bearing the GTO badge. Pontiac created their GTO in , named such to ride the wave of European-sounding allure and performance the Ferrari and other grand tourers had generated.

GM in had banned the company and all subsidiaries from competing in motorsports , hoping to avoid antitrust regulation from the relatively anti-corporate Kennedy administration. The original GTO, built by slamming a cubic inch V8 into the relatively lightweight Lemans coupe, absolutely demolished this rule. After seeing the sales numbers, the GTO was officially approved, and in , it was made into its own model, rather than being an option package for the Lemans. The name continued in various forms until , when the oil crisis drove Pontiac to introduce the GTO name as an option package for the rebadged Chevy Nova.

A word meaning official approval from a certifying organization. Where were you in ? Meanwhile, Car and Driver was exploding off its One Park Avenue launching pad with the most rabble-rousing diatribe ever to blister the pages of a car magazine. Twenty years ago was a golden age. Muscle cars were born. Pontiac discovered the Hurst shifter. Car and Driver invented the comparison test.

Car and Driver's March cover depicted a hypothetical racetrack upset: a red Ferrari coupe led a green Pontiac by one car length through a downhill, right-hand kink.

The headline read, "Tempest GTO: 0-to in The Ferrari was mentioned briefly but neither tested nor shown in a photograph. Acceleration runs were conducted at the Daytona speedway, where the pair of Pontiacs were also flogged around the steeply banked tri-oval and the infield road course. Could this be true? What better time to find out? The contenders face off for real this time as we see whether a golden moment of history can withstand the harsh reality of modern test procedures.

Dan Gurney will serve as referee. The man has but two racetrack speeds: off and flat out. Carl was in high school in , and he spent his spare time tooling around the bay-area suburbs in the shotgun seat of the same silver GTO convertible you see here. In your mind's eye, you may draw a smug look on the young Huboi's face.

The local Pontiac dealer who owned the car had optioned it out as closely as possible to its namesake Ferrari—no power steering or brakes, most powerful engine available, four-speed transmission—then sent it to school with his son to troll for potential customers. Ferrari built only 39 GTOs, plus two prototypes, so the elimination process for the other half of the card was a breeze. For the Ferraristi in the audience—we know you're out there—that's serial number GT.

Both GTOs were originally conceived for competition. In , Pontiac's third-place rank in U. The muscle car—a huge engine in the smallest-possible body—was born. How wrong they were. No such machinations were necessary at Ferrari. Enzo could have christened his car "the ultimate," and we wouldn't quibble. Its Testa Rossa engine has been called one of the greatest powerplants of all time. The coachwork makes the Mona Lisa look like a Cinderella who missed her appointment with the fairy godmother.

GTOs are highly concentrated doses of the Ferrari essence, the most coveted road machines ever to wear the prancing horse. Alongside the kill-for-me-red Ferrari, the pewter Pontiac looks like the box it came in. Its windshield is brusquely upright. Its fenders are sharply creased. But the greater glory today will go to the GTO with the more remarkable lap times and the better test results. The green flag drops here.

Gurney takes the Ferrari out first to dust the track. It's happy in that environment, particularly the engine.

It will rev to eight [ rpm] with ease. It feels smooth as the dickens most of the time, but occasionally the carburetors aren't really giving it what it wants. Dan is notorious for his eagerness to fiddle with the machinery, and, true to form, he's ready to tune the Ferrari for quicker lap times. John Z. DeLorean's greatest creation next to the DeLorean. Built beginning in as an option package for the Pontiac Tempest LeMans , it was immediately successful.

It envolved taking a relatively small Tempest body, removing the 4-cylinder engine, and dropping in a much larger cu.

V-8 found in the Pontiac Bonneville. The result was an absolute thrill to drive. To date it is regarded by any true sports car authority as one of the greatest sports cars ever made. To this day, they can be seen beating Domestics and Imports alike.