The Pontiac GTO was the featured nameplate for the 2024 Goodguys Summit Racing Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. And as you’d suspect, we have been handled to a jaw-dropping mixture of Goats, Judges, Royal Bobcats, and even a Holden Monaro or two.
However our favourite Poncho of the occasion was the tremendous fascinating, but usually ignored 1973 GTO.
The third-generation GTO is an interesting, albeit quick, chapter within the Goat historical past books.
That’s as a result of, for 1973, the entire GM A-bodies (together with the GTO) shifted onto an up to date chassis and sheetmetal, also known as the “Colonnade” styling period.
However then in 1974, whereas the opposite midsize automobiles within the Pontiac portfolio (e.g. the Grand Am, Grand Prix and Le Mans) carried on as A-body automobiles, the GTO package deal moved over to the GM X-body platform—now primarily a trim degree on the Ventura (Nova) coupe.
All instructed, that meant the “third-gen.” GTO solely lasted one yr, 1973. And that’s a darn disgrace, as a result of there’s an terrible lot to love in regards to the 1973 Goat.
For starters, to most people its Colonnade styling has aged like advantageous wine (NACA hood ducts and window louvers FTW!) and, so far as efficiency goes, you continue to received a scorching 400ci Pontiac V8 beneath the hood mated to an non-compulsory four-speed guide.
Enjoyable Truth: Pontiac initially wished to equip the 1973 GTO with the legendary Tremendous Responsibility 455 powerplant (and even just a few press automobiles have been constructed). However these plans we shelved, opting to stuff the SD 455 into the Trans Am as an alternative.
Sadly, the 1973 GTO wasn’t the recent vendor Pontiac hoped for, and fewer than 5,000 have been constructed.
Suffice it to say, plenty of these automobiles have been run arduous and put away moist, which meant not many 1973 Goats survived into the twenty first century. However these coupes that did have turn into bona fide collector automobiles and clear examples are few and much between these days.
So after we noticed this one in Columbus, Ohio on the current Goodguys Summit Racing Nationals, we needed to observe down the proprietor and listen to about it firsthand.
Watch the video beneath for a more in-depth look:
